How many times have you wished you could respond, with data, to the following questions: What is the value of implementing a community strategy? What is the value of a community manager? How long does it take to achieve a critical mass of activity such that the community is … [Read more...]
A 2017 View of the Community Platform Market
The Community and ESN Market is in Flux The community platform market is in flux, leaving customers anxious and uneasy. The two most mature independent community platform providers - Lithium and Jive - have been acquired by private equity firms. Even more recently, Lithium turned around and … [Read more...]
A Community of Mustaches Changes the World
As sure as the leaves in New England turn into a technicolor display every Fall, so too can you expect the month of November to usher in a wave of mustaches. Some are robust and luxurious, some are...less so, but nonetheless the men (and women) of Movember raise money for prostate … [Read more...]
Announcing Our Strategic Community Workshop: Community Strategy, ROI, and Business Case
Put 100 community program leaders in a room and ask them what their stakeholders most want from them – and “proof of community value” will be at the top of the list. It’s a rare organization that just “gets” that community is strategically important without numbers to back it up. Communities need … [Read more...]
Announcing the State of Community Management Toolkit
By Shannon DiGregorio, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable The State of Community Management (SOCM) has been one of our core research platforms and we are excited to announce the availability of The State of Community Management Toolkit, which includes both newly released research … [Read more...]
Appreciating Community Managers – Happy CMAD!
When Jeremiah Owyang started Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD) we were one of the first to jump on the bandwagon because community managers often work behind the scenes which means that they sometimes don't get the appreciation they deserve for often very challenging work. In the best of … [Read more...]
Building a Social Business: Start with Email Changes
Social business is all great in theory and recent studies show that executives now think it is a key strategic initiative for them... but that doesn't help those tasked with figuring it all out know where to start. I often say that people come to communities for content and stay for relationships. … [Read more...]
Building Value: Articulating the Power of Community Management
Over and over we hear from members and peers that articulating the value of a thoughtful and well-executed community program is one of the hardest parts of their job. Sure - wrangling tough community members isn't a walk in the park, and no one likes a troll, but condensing the power of community … [Read more...]
Calculating Community ROI: Measuring the Networked Value of Engagement
Few teams know their community ROI Our State of Community Management research revealed that despite the high returns we calculated, only 41% of those surveyed say that they are able to calculate value in any way themselves, and only 23% have taken the next step to calculating ROI for their … [Read more...]
Call for Research Participants: 2013 State of Community Management
Many of TheCR Network members and the organizations we work with struggle with some of the following questions: What is the benefit of a community strategy? When should I expect to see those benefits at a meaningful scale? What difference does community management make? What are the … [Read more...]
Call for Research Participants: 2013 State of Community Management
Many of TheCR Network members and the organizations we work with struggle with some of the following questions: What is the benefit of a community strategy? When should I expect to see those benefits at a meaningful scale? What difference does community management make? What are the standard … [Read more...]
Communities and the Value of Answering Unarticulated Needs
We had an excellent member call late last year with John Stepper of Deustche Bank who is working on a training course to help employees manage their reputation inside the organization. This conversation about influence and reputation is very active on the social web but taking that inside the … [Read more...]
Developing The Social Executive
One of the hardest things that community leaders do is to help executives within their organization understand the value of communities and how to effectively participate themselves. It's not that executives can't learn but they are faced with unique challenges: Booked Solid: Executives have very … [Read more...]
Digital Culture Run Amok: The Case for Community Management
By Rachel Happe, Co-Founder and Principal of The Community Roundtable The complexity of the world is at our fingertips. It's in our faces and on our screens. We are deluged daily with information we don't have time to process. Anxiety drugs and self-medication are rampant. The political climate … [Read more...]
Focus on the relationship, not the transaction
By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable Rachel Happe wrote a post for CMSWire last week that has resonated with a surprising number of readers. In it, she noted that social media has reversed the traditional sales and marketing paradigm. Once upon a time, a transaction was the trigger for … [Read more...]
Fulfilling Our Mission: Announcing Training Scholarship Recipients
There are a number of reasons we started The Community Roundtable, but chief among them is that we care about helping people. That sentiment is directed toward our customers, but it is also directed to others – potential employees, vendors, partners and people we don’t even know. We have … [Read more...]
Inside TheCR Network: Metrics and Measuring
We are very lucky at The Community Roundtable to have Jillian Bejtlich on our team. She has a strong background in enterprise communities from her time with Autodesk and great knowledge on metrics and analytics. Her superpower however is helping people understand that metrics aren't scary. She's … [Read more...]
Interesting New Report – Social Business: Shifting Out of First Gear
This post by Rachel Happe was originally published in our monthly newsletter. To get TheCR News delivered to your inbox each month, subscribe today. Deloitte University Press Released a report earlier this month that echoes much of what we are seeing in the marketplace and is consistent with our … [Read more...]
Is Your Community Approach a Hollow Bunny?
By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable Yesterday was Easter and for many kids, that means lots of candy. But when I was a kid, I remember the disappointment of certain candy too. The biggest one? That big, delicious looking chocolate bunny in the basket wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. … [Read more...]
Now Open: 2015 State of Community Management Survey
Yes, it's that time of year again - time to take stock of where our community programs are and what's next. For The Community Roundtable, this is our biggest and most important initiative every year because our shared value with you is to demonstrate the value of community management. We … [Read more...]
Online Communities and Getting Social Buy In
If you haven't had a chance to see the podcast series Socious is doing around online communities with business results, you should definitely check it out. There is some really good information there including this video with our own Rachel Happe: In this session they covered: Business … [Read more...]
Selling the Value of Community Management to the C-Suite
Far from being a discipline thrust on the most junior member of the marketing team, community management is the future of all management. The ability to inspire and generate value from networks is what will enable organizations to truly take advantage of a digitally connected, global population. … [Read more...]
Six Risks of Not Having Community Management
Community management is one of those things that, when working well, often goes unnoticed and unappreciated. It's a bit like that hostess that always has fantastic parties but no one really understands the hard work that went into the party itself. However, when community management is bad or … [Read more...]
So Much Community Data, So Little Insight
Everyone wants engagement, but few know how to measure it. Organizations are realizing that in the age of options, engagement is a key indicator of attention, commitment, and ultimately, success. Executives see the level of engagement on platforms like Facebook, SnapChat, and Twitter and they … [Read more...]
Social Media is Broken…Communities Can Help
Social media is broken - you need only look at political discussions on Twitter, gamer gate, or online bullying. In 2015, organic reach on Facebook page posts was 2.6%. Social media is, at its heart, a media model that thrives off of more; more content, more clicks, more attention. … [Read more...]
SOCM 2014 Community Fact #1 – The Power of Advocacy
By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable. Earlier this week we released the 5th annual State of Community Management report. While the research led to many interesting findings, this year's report provided more interesting data points than ever before. This is … [Read more...]
The Key to Community Success: Behavior Change
by Rachel Happe, Co-founder of The Community Roundtable I often get asked whether a specific use case is a good candidate for a community approach but to me, I think about it a bit differently. A community approach is a strategic operational choice for achieving almost any organizational goal. … [Read more...]
The Value of Community Management by the Numbers (Infographic)
One of the best parts of this year’s State of Community Management: The Value of Community Management report was that for the first time we were able to pull together quantitative data from community managers. It’s a great way to understand what is happening in the discipline of community … [Read more...]
The Value Of Social Business – Infographic
As we continue the conversation on the value of community management I think it's helpful to take a step back and think about social business as whole. This weeks infographic, originally published on MindJet is a great look at how companies think about social as a business tool. Not surprisingly, … [Read more...]
Throwback Thursday: Community ROI & Benefits
By Amy Turner, The Community Roundtable After seeing so many wonderful pics of summer vacations from the 70s and 80s, and the weird and wacky hair styles they contain we just couldn't help ourselves. We are fully embracing the #ThrowbackThursday nostalgia here at The Community Roundtable with a … [Read more...]
Untangling the Community ROI Issue
By Rachel Happe, Co-Founder of The Community Roundtable. While the ROI conversation around social business and community initiatives seems to have died down a bit as more practitioners have figured out how to measure value and share their approach, it still remains a barrier in setting … [Read more...]
What’s Changed in Community Management? TheCR Network Members Weigh In
As The Community Roundtable reached our 3-year anniversary, we reflected on how much had changed in 3 years. It was a time: • Before the phrase Social Business was coined • When your Twitter stream was manageable and you were able to really connect with others there • When social networking was … [Read more...]
Why Community Management Is Not a Fad Diet
Community management and social business is a discipline, not a discrete set of tasks and boxes to be completed and checked off before you move on to something else. We've written about this before and I was reminded of it yesterday from a tweet from IBM's Vice President of Social Business … [Read more...]
