The Community Roundtable

Empowering global community leaders with research-backed resources, training, and tools.

  • About Us
    • Our Values
    • Our Team
    • Our Clients
      • Client Success Stories
    • Community Leadership Awards
      • Community Leadership Awards 2024
      • Community Leadership Awards 2023
      • Community Leadership Awards 2022
      • Community Leadership Awards 2021
  • Services
    • Benchmarking and Audits
      • Community Performance Benchmark
      • Community Readiness Audits
      • Community ROI Calculator
      • The Community Score
    • Models and Frameworks
      • Community Maturity Model™
      • Community Engagement Framework™
      • Community Skills Framework™
      • Community Technology Framework™
      • The Social Executive
  • Research
    • The State of Community Management
      • SOCM 2024
      • SOCM 2023
      • SOCM 2022
      • SOCM 2021
      • SOCM 2020
    • Community Careers and Compensation
    • The Community Manager Handbook
      • 2022 Edition
      • 2015 Edition
    • The Social Executive
    • Special Reports
    • Case Studies
  • Events
    • Connect
      • Connect 2024
      • Connect 2023
      • Connect 2022
    • Community Technology Summit
    • Professional Development
    • Resource Bundles
    • Upcoming Events
    • Community Manager Appreciation Day
      • Community Manager Appreciation Day 2025
      • Community Manager Appreciation Day 2024
  • I’m looking for…
    • Community Engagement Resources
    • Executive Support Resources
    • Community Reporting Resources
    • Platform and Technology Resources
    • Community Strategy Resources
    • Community Programming Resources
    • Community Career Resources
    • Something Else
      • Vendor Resource Center
      • Community FAQs
      • Community Management Podcasts
        • Community Conversations
        • Lessons From The NEW Community Manager Handbook
      • Community 101
        • Community Management Glossary
        • Community Management FAQs
      • Case Studies
      • Community Webinars
  • Community
    • The Network
      • Member Login
      • Join The Network
      • Roundtable Call Library
    • The Library
      • Subscriber Login
      • Subscribe to The Library
  • Blog

Improving Community Sentiment: Taking a Community from Hostile to Happy

April 26, 2016 By Jim Storer

When community sentiment is good, it often gets taken for granted. When it’s bad, it’s clear that it is one of the biggest barriers to success and value.

What’s not always clear is this: you CAN create the community environment you want.

The Community Roundtable collaborated with a well-known brand to create a welcoming and supportive community that they are proud of – and that delivers real value for both the members and the business.

In this case study, Jillian Bejtlich, Community Architect here at TheCR, covers how they did this, focusing on the following community management practices:

  1. Developing policies and guidelines
  2. Creating moderation and escalation processes
  3. Modeling behavior and coaching advocates

What this case study shows is that by investing time in defining a long-term vision of the culture you want, you can shape the overall sentiment of your community. To do so, you must connect strategic goals to day-to-day tactics.

Take moderation for example – thinking tactically you might decide, “Let’s get rid of all negative posts” – and certainly that’s not a bad goal, but it’s not a strategic one. Put on your long-term vision goggles and rethink the goal and you might say, “Let’s make sure our community a safe place to ask questions.” By looking at the same activity strategically a fairly simple moderation task becomes a strategic one – the result of which may mean leaving some negative comments that are opinions while moderating out the offensive ones. That is more likely to achieve your strategic goal of making the community a safe place to ask legitimate questions – making it easier to achieve larger business goals and improve overall sentiment.

The success of this project was far from obvious at the start and it was no easy task – but by thinking about the project strategically, and reframing the challenge into a long-term goal Jillian not only helped turn the overall community sentiment around – but helped our client create a thriving and valuable community that exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Let us know if you would like to find out how we can help turn your thorny community challenges into strategies for success.

Download the case study directly here.

Mastering Moderation

About Jim Storer

Jim has always been interested in bringing people together and connecting them to one another, whether it’s for events, online communities or a food/craft beer tasting. Connect with Jim on Twitter or Linkedin.

comments powered by Disqus
Community best practices

Resources for the people who build online communities.

ABOUT US
Our Values
Our Team
Our Clients
Careers

RESOURCES
Vendor Resource Center
Podcasts 
Community 101
Case Studies
Webinars

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Benchmarking and Audits
Models and Frameworks
Research
Professional Development

QUICK LINKS
Blog
Newsletter
About The Network
About The Library
About The Academy

LOGIN
The Network
The Library
The Academy

Contact
Support
Partnership
Inquiries
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter