By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable
We’ve said many times in this space that having a community strategy is a critical part of getting your community to succeed. Strategy is critical, but it’s just the first step in the process of building a successful community. It needs to be coupled with a roadmap and the resources to execute on that roadmap for your community to succeed.
Seems logical, right? Your strategy is like your map laid out before you that shows you where you want to go. Your roadmap more specifically plots the route you will take to get there, and the resources provide the fuel to move the community ahead.
So why is it so rare to have all three? 65% of the communities in The State of Community Management 2015 say they have an approved community strategy. But of those, barely a third have a resourced roadmap to get them there. Best-in-class communities take a different approach – but they aren’t perfect. All of our best-in-class communities have approved community strategies, however, more than 4 in 10 of them lack the resourced roadmap they need to deliver on that strategic plan.
So if you’re thinking about your community strategy – great! Don’t stop. But don’t forget to give yourself (or ask for) what you need to turn that strategic vision into a strategic reality.
The Community Roundtable has produced a number of resources, including an eBook, Building a Community Roadmap, devoted to roadmap development. Learn more about it and all of our other research at communityroundtable.com/research.
