By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable
February is (almost) over, but we managed to pack a lot into the shortest month of the year. Our main theme of the month has been the State of Community Management 2015 survey, which officially closes today. We are setting new records for responses, which is a great situation, but we want more if we can get them. On Monday, I published a post on how your data is used to make it clear that we get that you are sharing important data and we won’t be sharing it with anyone else.
We also shared a little glimpse behind some of the early numbers on the CMX Hub blog, where we looked at some early results from the survey about advocacy and community leadership programs, and found that while a significant number of companies and organizations are recognizing and rewarding advocates, there is a lot of missed opportunity. See for yourself, and please if you haven’t, take the survey, because there can be a lot more valuable information where that came from.
Meanwhile, we also launched a new eBook this week that community managers and those who hire them may find of value. Defining Community Management Roles uses data from our Community Manager Salary Survey research to shape and clarify expectations and data for three community management roles: Community Manager, Community Strategist and Director of Community. Thanks to Jive for sponsoring this product, and we hope you’ll dig into it on Slideshare.
And if that wasn’t enough, Rachel published a new thought piece on diginomica – the first in a series she has composed. “Enterprise Communities: The New Management Imperative” traces the clear path toward community approach as the only option to succeed in a world of abundance and change, where structures that emphasize control actually cripple organizations.
Or to put it another way, if you haven’t seen our new t-shirts, control is for amateurs.
Interesting readings for the week
Enterprise Communities: The New Management Imperative – I founded The Community Roundtable in 2009 to pursue my belief in the power of communities. Fundamentally, I believe a couple of things that drive my interest in communities. I believe structure drives behavior, and I believe that if you give people access, responsibility, accountability and commensurate rewards, their potential is unlimited. I believe communities and networks are the most effective structures by which to establish this dynamic, and by employing communities, organizations can more efficiently generate value that is shared by everyone who contributes to it, in equal measure.
Making Wirearchy Operable: Questions and Suggestions -Making Wirearchy operable is hard work. Hierarchy .. clear lines and boxes showing who reports to how, with job titles that say clearly what someone is responsible for, is much easier to see, understand, figure out. But it doesn’t respond very well to constantly-changing information-saturated markets and challenges .. every-which-way flows of information about products, services, problems, capabilities and the myriad other activities that make up living in a society
Bosch: When Use Cases Support Connections – “We started in autumn 2012 with the pilot phase. From month to month, we allowed the user base to grow while implementing the use cases that early adopters were discovering when interacting on the platform.” Use cases are anecdotes that show users the steps for achieving a specific goal through the platform. In that sense they are highly educational and can help employees to get up to speed with the tool.
Joining the Customer Journey Using Online Communities – Every marketer from Boston to Bejing seems to be focused on something called the “customer journey.” A Google search on this two-word phrase returns over 627,000 results. It’s one of those “Eureka!” moments – organizations realize buyers start researching a firm’s products and services long before they reach the point of purchase. These firms are now scrambling to find and engage with those customers while they are still on the move and before they arrive at a sales destination decision. But I gotta tell you, this is not news to those of us in the online community world.
Ecosystem, Network or Community: It is the Future of Work – In my book SHIFT I spend a lot of time talking about disruption. The book traces disruptive forces as one old form of economy, dominated by companies, gives way to another, dominated by platforms and ecosystems. This, I believe is the key shift in the economy. It is a disruption with broad consequences for how we work. Also for the opportunity, or life chances, that lie ahead of us. This last point though is the most important. We think of this shift with different terms in mind – ecosystems, networks, community. Regardless of your choice, each speaks to the same future work experience.
New Community and Social Media Jobs
Advertise Your Opening on TheCR Job Board!
Enterprise Community Manager – Akamai, Cambridge, MA
Director, Social Media Strategy – Manulife Financial, Toronto, ON
Director of Global Communications – Social Media – TripAdvisor, Newton, MA
Community Manager – Women Who Code, San Francisco, CA
Social Media Community Specialist – MCP: Faith, Pompano Beach, FL
Communications and Community Manager – New York Univ. – Entrepreneurial Institute, New York, NY
Repository Community Manager – Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL
Community Manager, EA Mobile – EA Sports, Salt Lake City, UT
Social Media Executive Director – JPMorgan, Columbus, OH
Digital Coordinator – Tribeca Film Institute, New York, NY
Community Manager – Bit9 + Carbon Black, Waltham, MA
Community Manager – ThredUp, San Francisco, CA
Knowledge Communities Manager – HP Enterprise Services, Plano, TX
Community Manager, Social Media – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Community Manager – Williams-Sonoma, San Francisco, CA
Magneto Community Manager – Magneto, Los Angeles, CA
Community Manager – Cyanogen, Seattle, WA or Palo Alto, CA
Community Manager – Houzz, Palo Alto, CA
Community Strategist – Context Partners, Washington, DC
