The 2012 State of Community Management report has a lot of information in it and at 57 pages it is beefy. To those of you who have digested the entire document, thank you and nicely done! But we also know it is a lot to wade through so we will be doing a series of blog posts to better show you the … [Read more...]
A Day In the Life of This Community Manager
It's Community Manager Appreciation Day and we sure have a funny way of showing our appreciation for ours...by having her write a blog post. But we thought detailing what a community manager does day in and day out may help those who work with them to appreciate them all the more. And she makes it … [Read more...]
Announcing the 2012 State of Community Management Report
We are very pleased to announce our third annual State of Community Management report. We started our annual report as a means to achieve our mission of advancing the business of community - making what we know collectively about community building more visible and accessible to everyone. The … [Read more...]
Announcing The 2013 State of Community Management Research
For the last few years, TheCR has been publishing an annual State of Community Management report, compiling and organizing the best of what we learn from our work with over 90 companies. This year we felt the time was right to extend that research into quantitative data that community teams could … [Read more...]
Brainyard’s Community Manager Webinar: Your Questions Answered
Wow! What a great webinar we were part of yesterday. I presented alongside Sandy Carter of IBM and we had a great conversation about community management and community managers. Thank you to the many great people from a wide variety of companies on the call, some of whom are just starting out on … [Read more...]
Check Out Our New Look
We are very excited to introduce our new and improved website! While putting on a little make up and freshening up content is always a good idea, we wanted to rethink everything. Our goal with the new web site is to help visitors: Understand where they are on their journey to adopt social … [Read more...]
Community 101
One of the primary jobs of a community manager is to help coach, train, educate, convince, and prod others in the organization to understand what this online communications environment is all about and why it should matter to them. A large part of that training covers the different tools and online … [Read more...]
Community Management 101 Webinar – Key Take-Aways
Talk of community management is all the rage these days and last week I sat in on the Focus Roundtable Webinar: Community Management 101: The Start-Up Edition. Four experienced community managers — Evan Hamilton (UserVoice), Thomas Knoll (Launch Rock), Alison Hillman (BranchOut), and Sarah-Jane … [Read more...]
Community Managers on Why Training Makes a Difference
It's wonderful to see the growth and evolution in the community management space. So many companies are seeing the value of community and the value in services that support community managers. We are humbled by it and as we pass our four year mark supporting community managers we are very excited … [Read more...]
Community Managers Talk Resources, Analytics, and More at #TheCRLiveCHI
Today's guest post comes to us from Jenny Weigle, organizer of TheCR Live in Chicago and the community and social media manager at CareerBuilder and Jordan Sanders, the president of Social Media Solutions and head of community for KnowYourBank. During the October gathering of TheCRLive Chicago, … [Read more...]
Community Maturity Case Study: Rebtel
As a thank you to those who participated in the 2013 State of Community Management quantitative study we selected 3 participants to receive an in-depth custom community assessment including performance benchmarks and next steps. Today we have one of those company’s, Rebtel’s, perspective on why … [Read more...]
Community Types and Terms Defined
I have now officially been working in the online community space for just over one year and there still seems to be a lot of confusion and disconnects when people are talking about their community or talking with The Community Roundtable about how being a member of TheCR Network can help them. And … [Read more...]
Connection, Friend, Member – Who’s In Your Company’s Online Ecosystem?
We came across this article last week about defining your online community to higher ups, and it resonated because people mean a lot of different things when they use the word community. As the article so aptly states, it is hard sometimes to understand if you are "referring to the online community … [Read more...]
Coverage of The 2011 State of Community Management
We have been pleased that initial reaction to our annual report on The State of Community Management has been so positive and that so many people we respect have taken the time to cover the report and provide their perspective. One of the things I love is to see is what resonates with different … [Read more...]
Do Organizations Need to Be Transparent…or Just Human?
I was discussing the troubles at the Susan G. Komen Foundation recently with a few peers. We wondered if their recent challenges were a direct result of the way they treated their community vs. other operational issues. A quick recap: In January 2013 they pulled funding for Breast Cancer … [Read more...]
Happy Belated Groundhog Day or Why Community Managers Are Gods
This article was originally published in last week's TheCR News: When we think of the day to day and the year to year of what community management is, we think of Groundhog Day. Not the actual event, where a furry creature tells us if winter will last or not...no we mean the movie starring Bill … [Read more...]
Help Your Community Team to Hit the Ground Running This Fall
It may not seem like summer is very productive, especially since community engagement can drop off quite a bit. But it often is a period where we have the space to think more strategically about what's needed to 'level up' and increase productivity or quality when the fall schedule bears down on … [Read more...]
Holiday Tips for Internal Community Engagement
We have become regular participants in a great weekly twitter chat for Internal communities also often known as Enterprise Social Networks or ESNs called #ESNchat. Last week's talk centered on behavior in those communities around the holidays. For the complete conversation from the chat go here. … [Read more...]
How Do You Build A Thriving Community?
By Rachel Happe, Principal and Co-Founder of TheCR No matter what stage your online community is in, there are basics of community management to be followed. It is helpful to go back over them again and again to be sure that you are staying on track. This is probably the reason our slideshare … [Read more...]
How To Build A Community From The Ground Up
We learn so much from our network and enjoy sharing that information. It is what we do, after all, advance the business of community for everyone in our circle. Many have come to us asking how to get started, or do we think their community might work, or what they might do better. Here are some of … [Read more...]
If you run a community, don’t think like a website on metrics
By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable As we continue to slice and dice the data from more than 200 communities for the State of Community Management 2015, we know that one of the most viewed pieces of the report will be the engagement profiles - the percentage of members who are lurking, … [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...]
Inside TheCR Network: Summer Slowdown for Online Communities
It was the last week of June and a discussion started inside TheCR Network on dips in community engagement. The member who started the discussion had a newer community (under 1 year), was seeing a continuing decrease in participation and starting to feel panicky. It's something that is not uncommon, … [Read more...]
Introducing TheCR Focus: Your Guide to The Business of Community
When Rachel and I started building The Community Roundtable in 2009, we had a decision to make. Who to serve? We agreed it was hard to build a truly customer-focused business if you tried to serve too many constituents. In the end, we agreed to focus on the people we thought really needed help... … [Read more...]
Investing In Community: 2013 State of Community Management
Thanks to TheCR Network member and State of Community Management Advisory Board member Maria Ogneva for today's post. Every year The Community Roundtable releases the State of Community Report, which aims to educate businesses about the business of community management, as well as to give … [Read more...]
Is Community Management Strategic?
If you have been doing community management for a few years chances are you think that it is or should be strategic. If you are a CEO chances are you haven't even heard of community management let alone prioritized it as strategically imperative. And there is the rub. The role of community manager … [Read more...]
Lessons From My Grandfather for Social Business
While community can feel like the "new shiny" catch phrase I like to remember that everything we know about community has already been learned. Our biggest challenge is translating what we already know on building, growing and sustaining thriving and healthy communities to reach our … [Read more...]
Lessons on Community Management From an Elementary School
For the past few years I have felt fortunate that my daughter's school is a vibrant community. An especially hard task as we live in an urban setting where kids don't typically go to schools in their neighborhood so the feeling of community that comes naturally from going to school near where you … [Read more...]
Looking to Start or Build a Community? There’s a Map for That!
Nearly everyone involved in community building quickly discovers that facilitating the growth of a community is less of a deliverable and more of a journey. That journey can feel a lot like exploring a rain forest without a map, despite all the information out there about building community. The … [Read more...]
Lost in Translation: The Business of Community
We love our new tag line. We think it epitomizes what we do. But we also realize you may not get it. Thus our 2nd installment of Lost in Translation. When The Community Roundtable was started we had a theory that humanizing a business and making real relationships with people was a better way to … [Read more...]
Lost in Translation: The Term “Social Business”
There has been a lot of talk lately both internally among TheCR team and in the social world about the use of the words Social vs. Networked vs. Collaborative vs Enterprise 2.0. There is even an article titled "Social Business" is Bullshit. And we agree...sort of. Yes, the concept of change … [Read more...]
Lost in Translation: You work in community? What’s that?
I don't know about you but every time there is a family gathering I try to explain what I do. Some of it is easy. Marketing - most everyone basically understands what that is. Where it all comes apart is when I try to explain what The Community Roundtable does to a multi-generational audience … [Read more...]
Lost in Translation: From Social Media to Social Business
At The Community Roundtable we've been talking about social media and online communities for a long time. So long that sometimes we forget how fast business is moving and how many different stages of understanding this still emergent industry is in. I was reminded of this while watching the live … [Read more...]
Ode to the Boston Community
For anyone who has spent time in Boston, last week's bombings were surreal. I grew up in Cambridge and have friends and family that permeate the area where the events of last week played out although I no longer live in the city. It felt weird to watch from what seemed to be so far away. Last night … [Read more...]
Perspectives on The Value of Community Management
This is the fourth year we have published our State of Community Management Report and we are continually humbled by the response, from contributions, shares and the creation of derivative work. This year we made some significant changes to the way we do the research and what it covers because … [Read more...]
Recurrent hits: 8 community management basics from the Community Roundtable blog
By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable Back when I worked in radio - which is now long enough ago that new songs I played are now featured on oldies stations - I was introduced to the concept of recurrents. Recurrent songs sort of fall between "new" and "old". They are the hits just past - and … [Read more...]
Review: Online Community Management for Dummies
I was lucky enough to read and review Deborah’s Ng’s book Online Community Management for Dummies. This book is a great go-to resource for both aspiring and practicing community managers and it’s earned a spot on my office bookshelf. Deborah nails it and I recommend this book for a few … [Read more...]
School or Practical Training for Community Managers?
There is no doubt that demand for skills in social and community management are on the rise. What exactly do companies want for their community teams? The honest answer is that many are not sure. But some more experienced in online communities, like those in TheCR Network, have more of an idea as … [Read more...]
Sir Robin: Hero of Community Managers Everywhere
Our logo confuses a lot of people - what do knights and horses have to do with community management? When we originally conceived of The Community Roundtable and the community managers we wanted to serve, the resemblance to Sir Robin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail was striking: To us the … [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...]
