The Community Roundtable

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

Building Effective Content Programs for Your Online Community

By

Content and programs are the lifeblood of a successful online community program. They are often seen as one collective entity, but they serve two different roles for communities. Content gives people a reason to visit (and return to) an online community, while programs create opportunities for members to connect with one another.

In previous editions of our State of Community Management research, we’ve noted that aligning your content and programs with your online community strategy is critical to becoming a best-in-class online community. Content and programs need to reflect the shared value of community, and a program plan tied more closely to your online community strategy can generate the most valuable member engagement behaviors.

Here are three ways you can use content and programs to improve your online community:

Integrate content and programs into your strategic online community plan

Despite the importance of consistent content and programs in a community strategy, a staggering 60% of respondents report at best they have “an informal schedule” for content and programs in their community. In the four years since we last asked this question the needle has barely moved in this area when 59% of respondents reported the same level of content and program planning. While responsiveness to short-term member needs is important, we recommend being intentional about your content and program plan and connecting it to your community strategy and annual roadmap.

Don’t go it alone – deputize your members, advocates, and peers!

One of the most consistent responses in the State of Community Management 2021 is that community managers need more resources. While we don’t doubt that this is the case in general, we’re enthused by their response to the challenge. They’re enlisting others, both in and outside the organization, to help with their community programs. While we’d love to see this happening more broadly, leaning on members, advocates, and peers in your organization to assist in producing or facilitating community programs is a best practice that needs to become more widespread. The fact that nearly 25% of respondents report no activity in this area suggests we still have a long way to go before this is a standard approach for community practitioners.

The beginning is a very good place to start


For the last few years, we’ve talked about the importance of new member onboarding programs and it sounds like you’ve listened. Respondents report that this is their top community program, with nearly 60% including them in the mix. Newsletters, virtual discussions, and virtual workshops and training (not surprising based on the pandemic) are also relatively common in this year’s sample. It’s interesting to look back to the last time we asked this question (2017) and compare the results.

We see no real increase in the prevalence of these programs in the collected responses, which shouldn’t be surprising given content and program planning clearly isn’t a priority for the majority of respondents (see above). But it is surprising given community programs are the single best way to introduce members to one another, develop trust, and participate in high-value engagement behaviors. We recommend you review this list of common community programs and consider adding them to your plan if they’re aligned with your overall strategy.

Need more ideas on how to improve your online community using content and programs? Check out this webinar with community leader Kelly Schott.

Want more strategies for global community building? Download the State of Community Management 2021.

The Community Maturity Model™

By

The Community Roundtable is 10 years old this spring. One of the first things we did when we started was to create the Community Maturity Model as a way to frame our view of how communities approaches develop over time.

The Community Maturity Model™ serves several critical roles. It:

  • Creates shared expectations about how communities develop
  • Creates a taxonomy and consistency in The Community Roundtable’s content and research
  • Standardizes community discussions at a high-level so practices can be translated across use cases
  • Provides a measurement framework that allows benchmarking of effective community program practices
  • Gives community leaders a frame within which to innovate

We have not changed the Community Maturity Model™ in any significant way in those ten years. In the meantime, we’ve completed 10 annual research efforts and reports, hundreds of client engagements, and thousands of conversations with members of TheCR Network.

Things have changed a lot. We’ve learned a lot. It’s time for a change.

In updating the Community Maturity Model™ we were mindful that many organizations and individuals use the model and that The Community Score benchmarks against it. We do not want to upset the entire apple cart nor ruin a good thing. So we kept the fundamental structure the same – four stages and eight competencies.

The primary update, other than the look and feel, is to the descriptors that identify each competency, by stage. In the original model, these were inconsistent and informed by what was happening in the market in 2009. In studying communities and organizations for a decade, we now have a much better sense of what each of those milestones looks and feels like.

So, here it is – the updated Community Maturity framework!

Download a high-res version of the Community Maturity Model here.

Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing more thoughts about these definitions as well as updating existing resources. For now, we would like to thank the members of TheCR Network who helped us refine and think through these – changing many to better align with what they see on the ground.



Love it? Hate it? We would love to hear your feedback and discuss it with you in The Community Roundtable’s Facebook Group.

Introducing The Community Score: How mature is your community?

By

Communities need different management at different stages

Young communities can be pretty simple to manage. It can be as easy as inviting a few friends and asking questions.

As they grow and mature, however, communities need more mature and sophisticated management. When a community has thousands – or millions – of members, they are really more of a network of communities and that requires advanced strategy, governance, leadership, technology, and metrics.

Because community management evolves with the size and maturity of the community, understanding where you are on your community management journey is challenging and seeing opportunities to improve are even harder.

The Community Score

Over the years, The Community Roundtable has conducted a lot of research and by doing so, we’ve identified the most common markers of successful community management and can determine were on the maturity path those practices sit.

The Community Score assessment will generate the maturity of your community practices along the eight competencies of the Community Maturity Model: Strategy, Leadership, Culture, Community Management, Content & Programming, Policies & Governance, Tools, and Metrics & Measurement.

 

By understanding how mature each of these practices is, we can help you see how to best prioritize your focus going forward. This assessment is also an effective way to communicate your approach and plans to stakeholders.

Start your community score!

How can you use community guidelines to support your work?

By

Community guidelines For years, community thought leaders in TheCR Network have highlighted the importance of community guidelines and policies that promote healthy community behaviors. Make your community guidelines and policies a trellis, rather than a box, and create a frame for your community to flourish.

That is still true in 2017.

Our best-in-class communities are more likely to have policies and guidelines that define encouraged behaviors, and even the overall sample is becoming more likely to create positive guidelines and policies.

But there’s a second dimension to the trellis. In order for it to effectively support community behaviors, it needs to be built on a strong footing. In the case of communities, that footing comes in the form of policies, community guidelines, and procedures that ensure community professionals know how to handle the situations that are likely to arise in the life of the community, and do so fairly, quickly and consistently.

Community guidelines

That consistent and fair approach comes from properly training community managers, moderators and others with leadership roles in the community, and from developing playbook and procedures that give them a menu of best practices for helping and supporting members. In the State of Community Management 2017 survey, best-in-class communities were far more likely to provide professional development for community managers, give training for moderators and advocates, and develop playbooks for the operation of the community.

Together, these elements give best-in-class communities a strong base for a trellis that can support a strong community.

Ensuring Consistent Brand Voice through Community Governance

By

When we talk about the eight competencies of the Community Maturity Model people tend to get really excited about the work they do for culture, or content and programming. There are even those among us (Jillian, I’m looking at you!) that get super fired up about metrics and measurement. Policies and governance tends to get overlooked, which is crazy since our research shows that paying attention to the policies in place in your community has a big impact.

This case study from Aetna illustrates how having a comprehensive governance strategy for your community can ensure a consistent brand voice. You’ll learn how Aetna uses a community playbook, comprehensive social media training, and regular social media audits to achieve their community governance goals.

Download the free case study now. 

Using the Community Maturity Model for Internal Consulting at Microsoft

By

One of the perks of TheCR Network membership is the opportunity for community managers to collaborate and solve challenges in working groups. Last fall, TheCR Network members formed a Community Maturity Assessment Working Group, with the goal of building a tool to measure the maturity of communities. Members of the group worked on persona exercises to understand member behaviors in different types and maturity stages of communities, and then used this information to outline maturity markers based on the competencies in the Community Maturity Model.

Community Maturity Model

This work helped extend the Community Maturity Model in new ways — both for TheCR and other members. We’ve already shared a couple examples on the blog here:

Most recently, another working group leader, Alex Blanton of Microsoft, shared how he’s using the Community Maturity Model for internal community consulting as part of TheCR Network’s weekly programming. Internal community consulting has been a trending topic in the network – we’ve hosted two other Roundtable calls on the topic – because our members are being asked to extend their skill sets to the rest of their organizations, through training and advisory services. We were excited to have Alex share how he has used the Community Maturity Model as a framework for the advisory work he does with internal engineering communities at Microsoft.

Alex adapted the working group’s assessment tool to align with the needs of the teams with which he consults. One of the services Alex offers is a 90-minute consultation including a maturity self-assessment based on the Community Maturity Model. Alex follows this session with a comparison to industry norms, recommendations and additional resources.

Alex Community Maturity Model Microsfot

Alex demoed his maturity assessment tool on a Roundtable call for TheCR Network.

Some lessons from Alex for starting internal maturity assessment consultations:

–Do consultations on paper. Don’t focus on a “score.” Alex starts his consultations on paper by printing out the Excel-based assessment tool (that automatically generates maturity values), so that clients focus on discussing where they are instead of on trying to achieve a number.

–Use the Community Maturity Model to start a conversation. Alex observes that as clients review the model, they sometimes disagree with colleagues about where their community belongs in certain competencies. Coming to alignment on the maturity level sparks conversation about community activities and progress in a way that helps identify gaps or opportunities.

–Offer a variety of service offerings. Recognizing that not all communities need the same level of support, Alex offers a tiered service model for consulting. For example, he developed an “8-Step Community Jumpstart” for new communities that aren’t yet ready for a full assessment and instead need to prioritize getting started.

If you use the Community Maturity Model in your work, we’d love to hear from you.

Learn more about the Community Maturity Model and how other organizations are using it here.

—–

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. 

Is Having a Community Strategy Important?

By

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

This year’s State of Community Management research showed what we’re suspected for along time: ​the foundation of a successful community is a well-defined strategy that integrates social tools and methods with business goals and processes. It follows that a community’s strategy also aligns an organization’s goals with their member’s needs.

​Another prevalent idea that was confirmed by our research is that overall community strategies are maturing. Of course this makes sense – as more companies define and grow their practice of community management the industry becomes increasingly developed. This brings us to our community management fact of the week. We found that 72% of communities have an approved community strategy, signaling that organizations increasingly understand how to justify a community approach. That’s the good news! We also found that of that 72%, only 40% of those strategies are operational and measurable.

Fewer than 50% of communities with an approved strategy have an approved and resourced roadmap, suggesting a significant gap between community ambition and the ability to execute on it. This gap in understanding what is required to fully realize a community strategy is a barrier to community success. Best-in-class communities have a smaller gap between those with an approved strategy and those with a fully resourced roadmap – only about 25% of those with an approved strategy lack a roadmap.

SOCM Fact #4

 

Looking for more insights into community strategy? Download the State of Community Management 2014 report and check out the section on strategy – starting on page 26.

Does your community have an approved strategy? We’d love to hear more  in the comments!

This post is the fourth in a 10-part 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. You can see the first three posts here: Fact #01, Fact #02 and Fact #03 or downloadthe whole report today.

 

—–
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.

Announcing The State of Community Management 2014

By

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!

 

 

—–

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.

 

 

The Community Maturity Model

By

Community management is becoming a lot more common at all sorts of organizations – driven by adoption of people doing more and more online and the social media tools that allow for easy conversation and collaboration. As that happens, however, there is a lot of friction due to lack of standards – not just technical standards but also standard expectations and understanding of what community management is and what should be expected of it.

This lack of standards is causing a lot of friction and frustration – particularly for community managers themselves. Companies have bought intosocial media and online community to the extent that they think it’s important and have put some resources into funding community management positions and tools to enable community but there is still a lot of uncertainty about what to expect of both the roles and the tools. That lack of clear articulation can create a lot of pressure and/or missed expectations for community managers.

One of our missions at The Community Roundtable is to further the discipline of community management – not just in our own community but more broadly in the marketplace. Our first effort to define the discipline is our Community Maturity Model:

The Community Roundtable's Community Maturity Model 2019

This model does two things. First, it defines the eight competencies we think are required for successful community management. Second, it attempts – at a high level – to articulate how these competencies progress from organizations without community management that are still highly hierarchical to those that have embraced a networked business ecosystem approach to their entire organization. We use this model in a number of ways:

  • As a mental model for understanding all the areas and skill sets required for community management and hopefully, to remind community managers that it is about assembling a internal team to gather all the required skills – not to try and be the expert in all of them individually
  • As a tool for community managers to educate and set the expectations of colleagues and advocates within the organization
  • As a roadmap for community managers looking to understand what is important to do given their current state of evolution, and in what order
  • To organize content, programing, and conversations within The Community Roundtable
  • As a way to categorize and find best practices and case studies – we will be working with our members on both Quick Cases (techniques and methodologies) as well as full case studies and be matching those with the appropriate box on the matrix
  • As a good model over the long term to develop training

While the Community Maturity Model is something that is core to our services, we also want to ‘open source’ it for those that find it useful.  Feel free to use it either for internal or external presentations – we just ask that you attribute it back to The Community Roundtable.