The State of Community Management 2018 is here and we could not be happier to share it with you. This ninth State of Community Management report includes data from 383 companies that represent a variety of industries as well as both internal and external communities.
This year’s research documents the success community programs are having and identifies a critical disconnect between that success and securing needed resources to realize the potential of community approaches.
Communities are key mechanisms that accelerate organizational transformation.
The impact of communities is broad and deep, addressing strategic, functional, and individual performance by making knowledge transparent and easy to access. Our research confirmed things we have seen anecdotally but have never been able to measure, namely:
- Communities are change agents: Community programs impact multiple business objectives, functions, and individuals in organizations. They have immense potential to be agents of change by efficiently dispersing knowledge and information across organizations and their markets.
- Communities create transformational value: Community programs show an average ROI that exceeds 2,000%. They enable behavior changes that directly impact profitability and revenue generation, while also having an overwhelmingly positive impact on brand and cultural sentiment.
- Community teams are underfunded: Community professionals are burned out due to increasing success and responsibilities without the accompanying increase in resources and support. This has created strategic risk and limits the potential impact of communities.
Download the full report here.
