By Rachel Happe, Co-Founder & Principal of The Community Roundtable
Communities sit at the intersection of a number of trends; social media, digital transformation, a generational shift to prioritize purposeful work, change management, leadership and social learning. They are both complex mechanisms that can promote behavior change and simple social constructs that individuals can grasp.
Online communities reduce the cost of communication, content development, content management, learning and relationship building – and have the potential to dramatically change the value chain of organizations. Many organizations are starting to understand this and are investing in community management at a strategic level.
When I peer into the future, I see ten trends emerging:
- Community management will become more tangible, concrete & understood
- Community operations expertise will emerge
- Community value will be quantifiable
- Communities will be the primary way to teach and impart cultural norms & truth
- Community management will be like teaching – everyone will do it, successful people will do it well and some will do it professionally
- The influence of communities on economics and business models will be understood
- Community architects will design networks for maximum efficiency
- Organizations will be governance docks for communities
- Tension between traditional and emerging business structures will be a major risk
- Community management is the future of ALL management
Over the coming months, I’ll be discussing these trends in more detail – Here are a couple of opportunities for you to join those conversations:
- A CMAD panel on The Future of Communities on January 25th, facilitated by Harold Kip
- TheCR Connect, a workshop for TheCR Network members, in Santa Clara on January 28th (want to be included? Contact us about membership)
What do you think? Is the future of communities bright from where you sit or are you still fighting to get the attention of executives or to demonstrate the value of your community?
