The Community Roundtable

Empowering global community leaders with research-backed resources, training, and tools.

Community Managers Matter

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

If 2014 had a theme at TheCR it might have been “Community Managers are important.” I know – it seems obvious, and if you are reading here then chances are you too think that community managers are important, but time and time again this year we’ve uncovered research, or heard a case study that once again proves the value of community management and good community managers.

​Despite progress in understanding the discipline of community management over the years, far too many communities are still without any dedicated community management resources. However, the truth is, community managers matter – they impact the engagement, ability to measure value and the maturity of the community. For anyone hoping to get business value from a community, appropriately resourcing community management staff should be a priority.

SOCM FACT #09 - Measuring Community Value

Do you work in a community that prioritizes the importance of dedicated community management? Have you found that dedicated community managers make it easier to measure the value of your organization’s community? We’d love to hear from you!

You can review more findings related to community management in the State of Community Management 2014. This post is part of a series highlighting some of the most thought-provoking data from the SOCM 2014 – brought to you via a fun poster – perfect for sharing on Twitter, hanging at your desk, or printing out and waving around your next community strategy meeting.

Want even more community facts? Check out the full SOCM 2014 here:

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Looking to take your career in community management to the next level? 92% of members agree that TheCR Network supports and advances their personal and professional goals. Learn how our research, access to peers and experts, targeted content and exclusive concierge service can help you achieve your goals.

2014: A Year of Community Advancement

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on 2015 – the past year flew by, and we wanted to take a minute to pause and reflect on the past 12 months before we dive into planning the next 12! We kicked 2014 off by launching several new initiatives aimed at connecting community managers with each other, and showcasing just how different the average profile of community practitioners can be. Our Faces of Community Management profile series shared a glimpse into the background of a wide array of community managers, and our monthly Community Manager Spotlight webinar series provided an in-depth look at what leading community professional are working on and best practices for furthering your career in community. SOCM_JW14_Landing

We shared our annual State of Community Management 2014 research in April and released an accompanying infographic”Drive Success with Basic Executive Coaching” and eBook “Building a Community Roadmap” later in the year. You can check out all the related report materials including exclusive insights, expert advice and informative blog posts here.

Community Manager Salary SurveyIn October we released a brand new research platform – The Community Manager Salary Survey which aims to bring more awareness to the emerging career path in community management; detailing what community professionals can expect from different roles and what hiring managers should know to grow effective community programs.  In addition to the full report, which you can download here, we also released an informative infographic  “Careers in Community Management” that profiled three main community roles and provided exclusive job role, responsibility and salary information for each.

ChampionsThe Fall also saw us assume the stewardship of Jeff Ross’s extremely popular “#ESNchat” a weekly twitter chat where enterprise social network focused community professionals gather weekly to discuss hot ESN topics and share advice and best practices for creating thriving ESNs. The upcoming topic schedule, as well as archives of past chat can be found here.

Finally, we shared some news from inside the TheCR Network – the introduction of our first formal Champion program.This program serves to deepen conversations among special interest groups who share a common use case or characteristic, enhance our content and programming by having community leaders, who have deep expertise in their domain, lead conversations and connect our members more closely with similar peers and industry experts.

We are proud to have shared so much new research and content with you over the past twelve months. 2014 was a year of growth and expansion at TheCR – both in terms of new programming and research initiatives, but also in terms of our team, TheCR Network, and our connections with community professionals around the world. We hope you also enjoyed a fruitful and fulfilling 2014, we can’t wait to connect with you in 2015 and help advance the community work you do.

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Looking to take your career in community management to the next level in 2015? 92% of members agree that TheCR Network supports and advances their personal and professional goals. Learn how our research, access to peers and experts, targeted content and exclusive concierge service can help you achieve your goals in the new year and beyond.

 

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: June 2014 Wrap-Up

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By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

I was chatting with one of my teammates at TheCR last Friday and we could not believe we were at the end of June already. This month seemed to just disappear in the blink of an eye!

June inside TheCR Network marks the end of our formal spring programming calendar. If your community participation slows down a bit like ours does you may want to think about focusing on your more strategic projects during your community downtime. We’ll be revisiting our community strategy this summer as well as focusing on our road map. Enough about the future. Let’s look at the June highlights from inside TheCR Network!

  • Applying the Community Maturity Model for Internal Consulting (Roundtable). This was an absolute value packed call and such an exciting collaboration between us and our members. We love to see how our members adapt and build off of the Community Maturity Model. In this case one of our members shared his adaptation and how he is using it to consult across groups within his organization. He gave a live demo and member participants were grateful for the opportunity to discuss his approach with him and ask him questions in real time. You can see an excerpt here.
  • User-centered Design for Community Managers (Roundtable). We brought in guest expert Dr. David Travis to discuss user-centered design for community managers by member request. Dr. Travis gave us a high-level overview of the basic tenants of user-centered design and then we opened the conversation to the group. It was an engaging call with many applicable insights for community professionals.
  • Risk & Online Community (Roundtable). A community manager and an attorney walk into a bar … and you get the Blake & Ben Show. Think entertainment meets real world, plain language information on what an organization and a community manager needs to be thinking about in terms of risk and best practices for ensuring that your online community and community management practices are not putting your organization at risk.

If you want to get a full idea of what membership is like you can take a look at this extensive overview which shares our general programming opportunities and resources made available to members.

We’re planning some fun summertime programming for the network for July & August! If you are interested in joining us please let us know. Have a great summer!

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Did you know members of TheCR Network have unlimited access to our Library, which includes:

  • Research: TheCR’s State of Community Management and Social Executive research (including downloadable reports exclusive to members)
  • Resource bundles: Curated content from TheCR and beyond to help you with specific topics
  • Quick Cases: Short case studies from TheCR Network members on specific community projects
  • Conference Resources: Links to the network’s collaborative Community Conference Guide and a collection of Conference Trip Report Podcasts featuring TheCR Network members’ takeaways from community related conferences
  • Roundtable Reports: Over 200 summaries of our weekly Roundtable calls

Learn how you can access TheCR Network Library and more with a membership.

Announcing The State of Community Management 2014

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SOCM 2014 SponsorsBy Rachel Happe, Co-Founder of The Community Roundtable.

The fifth annual State of Community Management report is here!

A lot has changed in the five years we have been publishing this research and the State of Community Management 2014 continues to push the boundary of what we collectively know about community management. As the discipline has matured we have been able to translate much more of it into quantitative data. This year’s report is chock full of data, segmented and delivered in ways that will help you plan and act.

The report includes:

  • Key Findings
  • Findings by Community Maturity Model competency
  • Guidance on using the research, by competency
  • Best practices from TheCR Network, by competency
  • Additional resources

What you’ll see in the data is that community management is standardizing – but still not mature or completely integrated into core business processes. Most community initiatives now have approved community strategies, which is fantastic – and quite a change from the early days of shiny object syndrome. However, all to often those strategies are not mirrored by approved and resourced roadmaps, pointing to one of the biggest challenges in the space today – funding the resources and programs that will translate aspirations to reality.

Also encouraging is that the vast majority of best-in-class (most mature) communities can measure value, indicating an important shift in the market from something that was considered innovative and unproven to something that is understood and measurable.

This research was the result of a community effort that included TheCR Network members who guided our exploration, experts who helped tease out best practices, TheCR team who all contributed in ways large and small and finally our sponsors – DNN, Enterprise Hive, Jive, Lithium, and Sitrion – who made it all possible.

The collaboration across our community allowed us to bring this rich data to you. We hope you find it interesting but more importantly, we hope this data helps you succeed. If it does, we would love to hear about how you used it to plan your roadmap, educate stakeholders or justify your budget.

Happy reading!

 

 

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Did you know that 95% of TheCR Network members agree that the content and peer input improves the quality of their work? It’s true! Membership in TheCR Network saves community and social business leaders time and improves the quality of their work by connecting them quickly with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining TheCR Network can improve the work you do.

 

 

Podcast: Community Retrospective – Part Two

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Jim and Rachel at Hugh O'NeilsTo celebrate our 5th anniversary I spent an afternoon with our founders, Jim Storer and Rachel Happe discussing the history of The Community Roundtable, how community management has evolved in the last five years and what is in-store for the future.

In the second part of our discussion Rachel and Jim dig into how the community management space has changed in the last five years, the evangelization that continues to take place  and the idea of community management as both a role and discipline.

Missed part one? Check it out here.

 

 

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Did you know that 95% of TheCR Network members agree that the content and peer input improves the quality of their work? It’s true! Membership in TheCR Network saves community and social business leaders time and improves the quality of their work by connecting them quickly with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining TheCR Network can improve the work you do.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Infographic: 2014 SOCM Sneak Peek – April 1st

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

After sharing our sneak peek podcast yesterday I knew that I had to give you an early look at the numbers. Rachel mentioned some key findings in the podcast – I’m not going to share those, but I am excited to share a little more about what the 2014 research said about community managers.

2014 SOCM April 1st                          Download the infographic to share: 2014 SOCM Infographic- April 1st

Happy April 1st everyone! We’ll be releasing the actual State of Community Management research report later this month – stay tuned and have a great day!

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Looking to take your career in community management to the next level? 92% of members agree that TheCR Network supports and advances their personal and professional goals. Learn how our research, access to peers and experts, targeted content and exclusive concierge service can help you achieve your goals. 

 

Measuring the Value of Communities

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By Maggie Tunning, Learning and Culture Manager at The Community Roundtable.

It’s the last week to take the 2014 State of Community Management survey! Have you shared your community insights? If you work with an online community we would love to hear from you – you can take the survey here through this Friday, February 28th.

Last week we shared why the State of Community Management research is important to community managers. Today, we’ll give you a preview of how the data supports the importance of community managers.

value of a community manager

Preliminary results show that survey respondents who have at least one full-time community manager dedicated to their community are more likely to be able to measure that community’s value – only 6 percent of those with no dedicated full-time community manager feel they can measure the value of their community, but 51 percent of survey respondents with one or more dedicated community managers indicate that they can measure this. Dedicated staffing for communities is a sign of community maturity, and these communities with one or more community managers are more likely to have a defined strategy and cultural norms for participation.

Stay tuned for more 2014 State of Community Management results on the standards and strengths of online communities. Can’t wait for more community data? You can check out past State of Community Management results here.

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The Community Roundtable is committed to advancing the business of community. We are dedicated to the success of community and social business leaders and offer a range of information and training services. We facilitate TheCR Network – a trusted environment in which to discuss and share daily challenges and triumphs with proven leaders.  Our weekly programming, access to experts, curated content, and vibrant discussions make TheCR Network the network of the smartest social business leaders.  Join today.

What Can The SOCM Research Do for You?

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By Maggie Tunning, Learning and Culture Manager at The Community Roundtable.red old style alarm clock isolated on white

Time’s running out – the last day to take the 2014 State of Community Management survey is next Friday, February 28.

The Community Roundtable publishes The State of Community Management research each year to highlight advances and trends in the business of community management. This research is for – and prepared in collaboration with – community managers. Mike Pace sums up the reason to participate – Community Manager: Help Yourself (note: that post links to the 2013 survey – you can take the 2014 survey here).

We want the State of Community Management research to be a useful resource for community managers. How can it help you? Members of TheCR Network use it to:

1. Educate. As community managers, we are on average poorly resourced and largely haven’t yet broken through to having a seat at the executive table. While on one side there’s massive interest in using social to provide better experiences for the ecosystem, on the other side there’s still a broad lack of understanding of what that actually takes. Maria Ogneva

2. Benchmark. The past reports have been a great asset to community and social media managers as they offer insight into how other companies are doing community. It also allows individuals at these companies to take an honest look at their programs. Jeff Esposito

3.  Resource. Community Managers will continue to struggle for capacity, budgets, and recognition. But, this can change if we as Community Managers become comfortable challenging our leaders, consistently sharing results, and educating business areas on how to use the tools and successes. James LaCorte

Your participation is important to us and your community management peers, and we’re interested in responses from all types of communities at all stages of maturity. Take the survey here today or help spread the word to others you know. As a thank you for participating, you’ll receive a discount on new individual membership in TheCR Network ($500 off!)

 

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The Community Roundtable  is committed to advancing the business of community. We offer a membership based peer network, community management training programs and advisory services for corporations and individuals.

 

 

Preview of Preliminary 2014 State of Community Management Results

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By Maggie Tunning, Learning and Culture Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Fun fact: this is actually a picture of our team tabulating results. (No. Not it's not.)

Fun fact: this is actually a picture of our team tabulating results. (No. No, it’s not.)

 

We launched the 2014 State of Community Management survey a few weeks ago and can’t help ourselves to start sifting through the results. Last week we hosted a workshop for members of TheCR Network’s Community Maturity Assessment Working Group to talk about what’s interesting and/or surprising about the early data set, as well as how we want to approach segmenting and presenting it later.

A few highlights about what we’re learning and thinking about:

Community leader/advocate programs: About 34 percent of communities have formal advocate programs (with a defined application and renewal process), and 39 percent have informal programs. What can we learn from the more mature communities to strengthen the informal programs and build new ones?

Community culture: When looking at the traits of communities surveyed, they’re on average balanced between content and conversation, formal and user-generated content and being reactive and proactive to issues. Do these traits change when the data set is segmented by types of communities (the categories of internal and external communities profiled)?

Community management: About 75 percent of communities surveyed have at least one full-time community manager on staff. Almost 29 percent have more than one full-time community manager. Does the number of community management resources affect the development of other community maturity indicators – like community playbooks, editorial calendars, crisis plans?

Interested in being a part of this research? There’s still time to participate — take the survey here through the end of February. As a thank you, we’re offering a discount off a new individual membership in TheCR Network (that includes the opportunity to collaborate with our smart working group members) – so if you’re thinking about joining now is the time!

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The Community Roundtable is committed to advancing the business of community. We are dedicated to the success of community and social business leaders and offer a range of information and training services. We facilitate TheCR Network – a trusted environment in which to discuss and share daily challenges and triumphs with proven leaders. Our weekly programming, access to experts, curated content, and vibrant discussions make TheCR Network the network of the smartest social business leaders. Join today.

Connecting Through Community

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

connecting through communityOur great content experiment continues in February (read more about Janaury here) with a month-long focus on connecting through community. At first glance the idea of connecting through community is obvious – as a community manager one of your main goals might be to connect with members, connect members to each other or connect member to information or resources that they need. And indeed, each of those activities can be a full time job in its own right. Over the next four weeks we’ll take a look at each of those ways of connecting, but we’re going to dig deeper as well.

For many community managers there is more “connecting the dots” than an outsider would ever imagine. Many of you struggle to connect the value of community management to tangible ROI and business results. Others wish for a way to connect with like-minded peers who share their purpose.  So often a community manager is an island in an organization that might not believe in the power of good community management or worse yet, struggle against a divided executive team – one that wants a successful community or social program without understanding the real work that goes into making it thrive.

Over the next month we’ll share content focused on all aspects of “connecting”  in the community world from member case studies to best practices and resources. We’re focusing on connecting people, ideas, and  resources – with expert advice and some fun surprises thrown in. If you have any great resources that help you “connect,” please reach out – we’d love to hear from you!

Finally, in the spirit of connectedness, I want to share some of the online places you can catch up with us. Many people share with us that they are on the community journey, but don’t yet have the resources to be a member of the Network – and we understand. Here are a few places you can connect with us and our content:

Pinterest – We have several boards focused on different aspects of community, including a Reading List, Research, Infographics and our ever-growing list of TheCR Network Experts.

Slideshare – On our slideshare page you can find both full length and excerpts of popular presentations as well as selected research and related community documents.

Twitter – Twitter is definitely our most active channel online – we tweet all day, every (week) day and it’s the best place to follow along for news, information and commentary on what’s happening in the community world.

Facebook – Our Facebook page is a great place to connect with us if you’re looking for news, calls for participation in events and research and for more general stories at the intersection of community and human interest.

LinkedIn – Looking for great discussions, alerts about available community jobs and lots of like-minded community peers? You can connect with us – and other community leaders here.

Of course, this blog is a great way to stay connected to the happenings at TheCR. In the coming months we’ll continue to connect you to new research, news and even more content centered around community managers themselves, including new Faces of Community Management profiles and a monthly Community Manager Spotlight webinar. We’d love to connect with you – please find us at in the places above, or share the best way to connect in the comments below!