collective Archives

Friday Roundup: Sitrion Roadtrip Edition

May 16, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

Today I’m settling back in after a week on the road. Rachel and I visited Orlando for Sitrion’s Collective 2014. I had a great time and met tons of people who really “get” community. It was wonderful to have conversations about the challenges a community manager faces and get to hear from some exciting brands.

Luke Sinclair emcee’d the event (full disclosure – Luke is also a member of TheCR Network) and he did an amazing job getting everyone involved. Each day he issued a challenge for attendees – and on Wednesday it was a #selfie challenge. I’ve never seen so many people in business attire happily plotting the most creative selfie! (That’s ours, above!)

I loved the twitter stream (and the selfies) so much that I created a Storify that I’ve included at the end of this post – now it’s like you were right there with us! Next week Jim, Hillary and Jillian are headed to San Francisco for Lithium’s LiNC. If you’re going to be in town for LiNC please let us know – we’d love to meet you!

Don’t worry – even with all my selfie excitement I didn’t forget the links:

Free Webinar: Community Manager Spotlight with Ian White – Implementing a community-based customer support model?This 30 minute live webinar on June 3rd at 2pm ET will focus on Ian’s innovative use of a community customer support model. His team recently was awarded a silver award for Best Use of Technology in Customer Service at the eighth annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Online Communities Reap Benefits From Volunteer, Executive Leadership – Strategy, governance, and executive leadership. In the most simple terms, these are a few of the keys to success for an online community. Sound familiar?

Webinar Recap: Community Manager Spotlight with Maggie McGary – Missed last month’s Community Manager Spotlight webinar? If you work in the association space this is a don’t miss conversation full of tips for driving and maintaining member engagement.

How Social Business Grew Up – The management concepts that have evolved as social media has transformed global communication are now resulting in meaningful changes in the enterprise. New Social Media and Community Jobs:

Director/Manager, Digital & Social Media Marketing – Mimi’s Cafe, Dallas, TX
Communications and Social Media Manager – American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, Arlington, VA
Social Media Marketing Manager, Global Brand – Linkedin, Sunnyvale, CA
Manager Social Media – New York City, NY
Global Director of Social Media – BlackRock, New York, NY
Senior Community Manager, Emerging Products & Services – Autodesk , San Francisco, CA
Product Manager, Enterprise Social – Nordstrom, Seattle, WA
Senior Community Manager – MRY, New York, NY
Global Community Engagement Manager – Apple, Santa Clara Valley, CA
Associate Community Manager, Global Marketing, Gap Brand – GAP Inc, New York, NY

Finally, as promised – here’s our Storify of Collective 2014. One last great big thank you to everyone at Sitrion for the awesome event!

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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.

TheCR on the Road: Sitrion Collective and Lithium LiNC

May 12, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

Today Rachel and I are heading to Orlando for Collective 2014, and next week Jim, Hillary and Jillian will trek to the West Coast and visit San Francisco for Lithium’s LiNC. It’s exciting to get some of our team out on the road to meet with members, connect with other community professionals and learn about how community is advancing.

I’m thrilled to be attending Collective – and not just to get back into the land of mouse ears and alligators! There are a lot of interesting sessions, including Tuesday’s keynote: Creating Cultures that Work. Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant, authors of Humanize, are presenting this session focused on better understanding how today’s pressures are demanding important changes in the way we lead and manage our associations – I can’t wait to listen in. There is also a hackathon! While I won’t personally be hacking anything I think the idea of connecting customers with product developers this way is very innovative. I’m excited to see what they come up with.

Rachel is presenting Wednesday’s keynote ” The Networked Organization – Organizing for Complexity and Emergence. She’ll dive into the very concept of an organization, and how it’s changing rapidly as trends like the collaborative economy start challenging more traditional ideas of a organization’s role in creating value.

I’ve never attended LiNC so I asked our resident Lithium expert, Jillian Bejtlich. She was nice enough to answer a few interview-style questions for me.

Jillian, what makes LiNC different than the typical customer conference?

Screen shot 2014-04-09 at 9.23.04 AM

LiNC is a unique conference in that there is truly something for everyone. You can be a brand new community manager, executive, or super techie – and still walk away with knowledge you can use immediately. And besides – the energy at LiNC is out of this world and seriously contagious.

That sounds great. So, what are you looking forward to most?

I love attending LiNC because it’s truly focused on communities that either use Lithium or are considering it. Everyone that attends is able to share and collaborate, so it’s a Lithium techie’s dream.

Are there any can’t miss sessions or events you’d recommend?

The sessions are broken up into some pretty specific tracks, and as usual – I’m torn on what to attend. It’s all going to be great, but I’m leaning towards the developer track which is promising some hands-on sessions. Other than that, be sure to attend the keynotes. They’re always mind blowing.

Well there you have it! Are you attending Collective 2014 or LiNC? Please let us know if you’re in town for either – we’d love to meet you.

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Did you know that TheCR Network members work with all kinds of communities? In fact, about 25% work in either internal or external communities and 50% work with both! No matter what kind of community you work with membership in TheCR Network will save you time and improve the quality of your work by connecting you with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining TheCR Network can improve the work you do.

TheCR on the Road – The J.Boye Web & Intranet Conference

May 7, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

After an exciting April in Boston we’re hitting the road in May – visiting three cities in three weeks to connect with members and clients around the country. This week Rachel will attend the J. Boye Philadelphia 14 Web & Intranet Conference in Philadelphia, next week Rachel and Shannon will visit Orlando for Collective 2014 and the week after Jim, Hillary and Jillian will trek to the West Coast and visit San Francisco for Lithium’s LiNC.

Will you be attending any of these events? Let us know – we’d love to catch up in person! Each of these events is exciting in its own way and we wanted to give you an insider perspective on what we’re looking forward to most. I spoke with Rachel about the J.Boye event this week, which they describe as being:

“…born out of the desire to let people share and learn in an open environment; stimulating and inspiring events with presentations, demos, intense discussions and ample opportunity to expand your network in a social, informal campus-style atmosphere.”

From Rachel:

“My friend Claire (Flanagan) told me several years ago that the J. Boye conference was a don’t miss event and it’s definitely not your typical conference. The team at J.Boye are very intentional about creating participant collisions and orchestrating the attendee experience so each participant walks away energized and inspired. Everything from the sessions to the networking to use of the physical space the event takes place in is thoughtful and intentional.

I’m also looking forward to seeing a number of our members speak – it is probably the largest concentration of TheCR Network members speaking in one place. Jeff Ross from Humana is presenting a session titled “Building a 30,000-User Enterprise Social Network” which will be an inside look at building and maintaining a successful enterprise social network.

Another exciting member session will be a case study from Chris Catania at Walgreens on “Using community management strategies to drive social intranet adoption, collaboration and employee engagement.” Chris will share how his team is using community management strategies to roll out their new social intranet/employee community, The Wall.

I’m also looking forward to James LaCorte’s presentation on “Selling Social Media to the C-Suite” – he’ll share his tips and tricks to leading the executive horse to the water – and making it drink! Between these member-led sessions and great networking opportunities I know this is going to be a special week in Philadelphia.”

Rachel failed to mention that she’ll be presenting a session on collaboration and social enterprise – “A vision for the networked organization.” We can’t wait to her about her trip – if you’re going to be in Philadelphia for the J.Boye event please find Rachel and say hello!

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