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  • Blog

A Community for Community Managers

June 22, 2016 By Rachel Happe

TheCR Network logoAt The Community Roundtable, we’ve been running a community for community managers for seven years – TheCR Network. Running TheCR Network allows us to learn together every day along with hundreds of the best community professionals in the business, from over 150 organizations.

Our shared purpose in starting TheCR Network was to demonstrate the value of community management. In 2009, very few people understood what community managers did, let alone their value.

Together, our shared value has been to develop and document the evolving disciple of community management, which we do through research, programing and lots of conversations. Together we have helped make  community management more well understood and, according to our research, a strategic enabler for the c-suite. That’s progress to be very proud of!

It’s been an amazing journey so far and as community management becomes the future of all management and as engagement becomes core to both the customer experience and the employee experience, we are learning together what it means to execute on that vision. We have learned that communities are a key enabler of addressing complex organizational goals – culture change, knowledge management, digital transformation, innovation, collaboration. Communities are what allow organizations to trigger, model and reward new behaviors – and create the supportive and encouraging environment individuals need to believe the change is worthwhile – all of which creates tremendous value for the organization.

So what makes TheCR Network so special?

First, our members are really what make TheCR Network special – individuals who sit in different types and sizes of organizations working on different complex problems all of whom want to solve those problems using a collaborative, community-based approach.

Together, we highlight when community management is done well and help organize and structure community management so it is easier to understand and easier to describe. We do that through our community programs that are designed to create member collisions in a variety of ways:

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Roundtable Calls

We host 3-4 roundtable calls each month on a wide variety of topics related to community management. Sometimes these calls are facilitated by an outside expert and sometimes they are a group of members sharing an approach. A library of over 200 roundtable call reports gives members a wealth of expertise to access as needed.

Community Manager Working Out Loud in TheCR Network

Weekly Work Out Loud

Every week, we ask members to share their weekly goals. This not only encourages our members to step back once a week to think through their tasks strategically, it also helps us understand how to proactively provide connections to people and content they may not know is out there. The biggest benefit, however, is it helps members connect and share with each other.

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Weekly Community Managers Newsletter

It can be challenging keeping up with all the conversations, programs and activity going on in the community. It’s our job to help curate so members can identify the topics and activity that will help them most. Our weekly newsletter is how we help our members sift through what matters the most each week.

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Community Management Training

Twice a year, we run more structured training courses for both internal and external community professionals. This Community Management Fundamentals training provides an opportunity to level set on the basics for newer community managers and an opportunity to step back and refocus for more experienced community managers. It’s comprised of a series of short videos, worksheets and facilitated discussions with other members.

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New Member Calls

New member calls are designed to acclimate new members to both the structure and the culture of TheCR Network so that they feel comfortable jumping in and joining conversations or Roundtable Calls. It’s also important that we get to know and understand them so that we can provide better support.

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Happy Hour Chats

Being a community manager can be isolating – not everyone has a team of colleagues to meet up with for a delicious drink after work and shoot the breeze. Our weekly Happy Hour Chats are a great way for members to kick back, unwind, and maybe even vent about what’s going on in their communities. These are a great way for members to ask informal questions, stay up-to-date on industry trends and share what they are working on.

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Ask Me Anything

Ask and you shall receive – literally. AMAs allow members to receive the answers to their most pressing community questions. Every month we put one community expert in the hot seat and they answer any questions that the Network throws their way. This is a great way to showcase member expertise and help people connect with the info they didn’t know they needed.

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Community Buzz

Life – and content in the Network – moves pretty fast sometimes. The Community Buzz is a weekly opt-in email that provides members with a summary of the top content in the Network – questions that might need answering, hot topics being debated and discussions that they shouldn’t miss.

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Live Networking Events

Our members are located all over the world, and while we believe in the power of connecting online there is something to be said to getting together over tasty food and drink and getting to know someone in person. We facilitate a number of live networking events exclusively for members. These events include lunches, dinners, happy hours and TheCR Connect workshops to bring together members and deepen the connections made inside the TheCR Network.

What does all of that look like on a monthly basis?

Here is an example of a month of events in TheCR Network. We find that different members like different things – like all communities we have listeners who read and absorb a lot but participate only occasionally. We have other members who are more socially motivated who tend to participate in the weekly Work Out Loud discussions and come to Happy Hour more often. We have Roundtable Call regulars who come to just about every discussion we have and others who really like the structured training.TheCRNetwork_April2016_ProgrammingCalendar

TheCR Network offers something for every community professional – and we hope you will consider joining!

Join TheCR Nework

 

 

 

 

 

TheCR Launches New Training Offerings for Community Managers, Community Program Owners and Executives

September 8, 2015 By Rachel Happe

StartingYourCommunityV3By Rachel Happe, Co-Founder of The Community Roundtable

When we started The Community Roundtable six years ago, community management was seen largely as an art – something that was not possible to teach in an explicit way. Because of that, our first service was TheCR Network – a community of practice where we connect community professionals to each other, host conversations about the hot topics emerging in the field and document what we learn together.

Over the years, we have invested a lot of our energy in documenting and researching the practice of community management – and more recently in developing formal training programs for community managers. In 2012, we collaborated with WOMMA to develop the first-of-its-kind community management training. We brought in leading practitioners to share their expertise and launched community management fundamentals, advanced community management and community strategists courses. Through the years, we’ve kept learning about what works and building on it to push the discipline of community management forward.

Today, we are thrilled to announce TheCR Academy: the next generation of community training courses.

On-demand. Self-paced. Cost-effective. Formatted for action.

Internal Community Management Fundamentals

Intended for newer employee-facing community managers this course outlines the scope of the internal community manager role. It provides prescriptive, practical approaches that will take participants through the major pieces of community strategy and planning.

Available Now!

External Community Management Fundamentals

Intended for newer market- and customer-facing community managers this course outlines the scope of the external community manager role. It provides prescriptive, practical approaches that will take participants through the major pieces of community strategy and planning.

Available Now!

Community Program Essentials

The Community Program Essentials course covers key topics in community program management – like building a business case, coaching executives and developing a playbook –  and is aimed at skilled professionals looking to grow their community program management skills.

Available Now!

Social Executive Shorts

The Social Executive Shorts course is a video series designed to help executives make the most of social tools and online communities. This course material is intended for use as part of an executive coaching program.

Internal Community Management Fundamentals, External Community Management Fundamentals and Community Program Essentials courses are currently available to individuals through TheCR Academy. Please contact us to purchase individual or corporate licenses for the Social Executives Shorts. All of our courses are available for enterprise licensing – if you have questions, or want to discuss an enterprise license please contact us.

We are excited to share this latest iteration of our training with you, and look forward to rolling out additional courses in the coming months.

Upcoming Events and Conferences

November 13, 2012 By Leanne Chase

Must Read Community Research

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More Signal, Less Noise – The State of Community Management 2024

Melissa Westervelt

Melissa Westervelt on Policies and Governance

Meaningful Change Management

Communities Drive Meaningful Change Management

Community Benchmarks

Foundations Of Community Success

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The Evolution of Customer Communities

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Community Centers of Excellence Enable Distributed Leadership

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Now Enrolling: Developing a Community Roadmap Workshop

The State of Community Management 2020 Webinar

The State of Community Management 2020 Webinar Archive

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Calculating Community Return on Investment (ROI)

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Understanding Community Roles and Responsibilities

Want to join a Roundtable Call as our guest? Email us to find a call that works for you!

Attend a Roundtable Call

Past Events

Events for Community Managers - AI and Community Management
Events for Community Managers - Community Platforms
Events for Community Managers - Internal Stakeholders
Events for Community Managers - Member Management
Events for Community Managers - Metrics Scorecard
Events for Community Managers - Community Strategy
Events for Community Managers - Google Analytics
Events for Community Managers - Customer Marketing
Events for Community Managers - Crisis Management
Events for Community Managers - Superusers
Events for Community Managers - Community Operations
Events for Community Managers - Migration
Events for Community Managers - Member Onboarding
Events for Community Managers - Launching a Community
Events for Community Managers - Community Data
Events for Community Managers - Building and Managing Community Teams
Events for Community Managers - Intention Setting
Events for Community Managers - Customer Satisfaction
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I like Big Fonts and I Cannot Lie with April Uzarski
Building a Thriving ERG Community: Strategies for Success
Leverage Small Wins For Your Growing Community w/Lou Branscomb
Why Choosing the Right Community Platform Matters
Why Choosing the Right Community Platform Matters
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Birds of a Feather - Internal Community Member Meetup
Happy Hour Chat - Every Thursday @4PM EST
Common Room and Community Data - The Heart of Business
Crisis in Communities: Prevention and Response Planning
Peer to Peer: Engagement Programs
Designing a Framework for a Super User Program

View more past events for community managers.

Browse upcoming events for community managers and community professionals.

The best way to learn about community management? From expert community managers who use proven, research-backed tactics you can trust.

The upcoming events for community managers and community professionals listed above include live online community events, online community management and intranet management workshops, virtual online community management and intranet management roundtables, networking and meet-ups for online community managers and intranet managers, online community management and intranet management conferences, and more.

Have an upcoming event for community managers, community professionals, or intranet managers? Let us know and we'll do our best to publicize it.

Many of the upcoming community events listed here are part of exclusive programming for members of The Network. The Network is a private, peer community of hundreds of active online community and intranet mangers and online community management and intranet professionals. Live programming includes expert-led roundtables, online training for community managers, live discussion groups, and more. Learn more about the community manager events in The Network here.

We have hit quite a busy season with events and conferences scheduled in the next few weeks.  While the list below are ones we will be directly involved  with, there are many more that we are listening in on using their twitter hashtags.  They include:

Enterprise 2.0 Conference = #e2conf

Womma Summit = #wommasummit

Sharepoint = #spc12

Techonomy = #techonomy12

Now here’s where you can find TheCR team and members of TheCR Network in person and online in the next few weeks:

Thursday, Nov 15

Defrag Conference Boulder, Co – Rachel Happe presents keynote:  “The Social World:  Working with Complex Adaptive Systems”

TheCR Live Austin – A breakfast gathering to meet and talk community and social business with peers in the industry

Wednesday, Nov. 28

Gilbane Conference Boston, Ma – Rachel Happe will appear on the panel “Collaboration From The Inside Out And The Outside In

Thursday, Nov. 29

TheCR Live Chicago – A lunch gathering where community managers and social business pros meet and discuss the industry and their challenges

Wednesday, Dec. 5

Social HR Camp Cambridge, Ma – Leanne Chase will lead and participate in sessions at this HR un-conference

Webinar (Online):  Talent Community Facts & Fundamentals – Leanne Chase co-presents this webinar on community and recruitment for HR professionals

Thursday, Dec. 6

The Center for Association Leadership Technology Conference Washington, DC – Jim Storer will be on a panel “8 Habits of Highly Effective Association Community Managers”

Friday, Dec. 7

TheCR Live Boston (Cambridge, Ma):  A dutch-treat lunch where we talk community, social business, the Red Sox and other fun topics

We hope to see you at one of these events.  What events are you heading to between now and the end of the year?

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TheCR Network is a membership network that provides strategic, tactical and professional development programming for community and social business leaders. The network enables members to connect and form lasting relationships with experts and peers as well as get access to vetted content.

TheCR Network is the place to learn from social business practitioners.  Join today

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