Check these three easy community management to-dos off your list and set yourself up for community success.
You don’t need the luck of the Irish to get some wins this month! Take luck into your own hands and get the outcomes you want through action. Our quick wins for March focus on community elements you CAN control.
1. Evaluate your Platform
It’s easy to blame outside factors for your lack of engagement or other metrics you want to improve. But the truth is, there are things you can do to make your technology the best for YOUR community, and see results. The Community Roundtable’s Community Technology Framework is made up of three layers: Engagement, Management, and Administration. Each layer is equally important for a mature engagement platform. You may be thinking, “I know there are things that need to be changed, but I don’t have time to change them!” This step isn’t about rebuilding your interface, it’s about identifying the potential fallbacks of your current setup. Knowledge is power, and once you have named what needs to be improved, you can create a plan of action.
2. Try out Generative AI
You’ve heard the hype, but have you tried it yet? Now’s the time to check it off your list. At our Connect event in October, Hans Scharler spoke on the future of AI and community — and the future looks bright! Yes, it can be intimidating, and even scary (…can AI become self-aware? Am I going to lose my job to a robot? Will AI take over the world?!) but it does not have to be!
Start with these:
- What is Generative AI and Why Does it Matter to Community Managers
- Beyond ChatGPT: Four Generative AI Tools for Community Managers
- Four Ways Generative AI Can Help Community Managers
- Five Tips for Community Managers Getting Started with ChatGPT
3. Make a Community Ecosystem Map
Bri Leever shared her framework for planning effective content and programs – the Community Ecosystem Map. Her advice: “This framework is just the starting point to help you think about your community content and programs through a new light…Don’t let perfect get in the way of creating something really good in your community and focus on making more tweaks over time than launching something perfectly from the get-go.”
The map process starts by writing three call-to-action items at the top. Bri uses 1) get started, 2) get help, and 3) get inspired, but they’re customizable. She does recommend using “get started” as “it will help prompt you to focus on onboarding as a key step in any member’s activation in your community.”
Filling in experiences is the fun part: you get to categorize the size by color, so get creative with it! Bri’s map above has 3 size categories: big group experiences, small group experiences, and 1:1 interactions. She says “Like all good ecosystems, the strength of your community ecosystem will come from the diversification of experiences offered. That does NOT mean more is better. It means thoughtfully crafting a range of programs that cater to different types of experiences and activate your members in different ways will result in a more robust and dynamic community.”
This mapping process is helpful for all communities — even those that don’t exist yet! Read more about Bri’s process and reasoning here.
