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Friday roundup: A peek inside internal communities and some great reads

March 6, 2015 By Ted McEnroe

By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable

Sometimes, the theme for the week is planned – other times, you see it emerge. Looking back at this week, we have been spending a lot of time thinking about internal communities, intranets and ESNs.

PeeringRachel shared some thoughts earlier this week on the J. Boye blog. In a post entitled “Want a Social Intranet? Have a Plan!” she noted the critical need for roadmaps to give structure and plans to expanding your internal community. The benefits of a social community, getting people to share, work out loud and communicate differently are huge, she notes, but getting people to change behavior needs more than just the opportunity to do so – it needs a plan to help them through the process.

On our own blog, we took a look at another busy month inside our own community, TheCR Network. Hillary shared some of the great roundtable calls of the past month – including member-inspired calls on employee advocacy, the future of the Intranet and platform migrations. Want full access to what was said? It all comes with membership in TheCR Network.

And as we continue to highlight the report, infographic and brand new eBook on our Community Manager Salary Survey research, Shannon looked at the best ways for community professionals  to network.

What we’re reading this week:

Want a Social Intranet? Have a Plan!: The benefits of getting people to work out loud, share what they know and ask questions publicly is huge – in cost savings to the organization and in the innovation that springs from that – but getting people to change behavior can be very challenging and it certainly won’t happen if you don’t create the programming, support and incentives for them to do so.

More Collaboration Equals More Value: Collaboration is hard. It’s messy. And it seems to be time consuming. Some believe that you get much more done when you don’t collaborate. But what is it you get done? One manager told me that he didn’t have time to collaborate. My reply was: “So, you don’t have time to do it right, but you do have time to do it wrong?”

How the Future of Work Leads to the Future of Organisations: The Möbius strip and the Klein bottle – its three-dimensional equivalent – have only one side. The inside is the outside. This metaphor is extraordinarily apt for organisations today, where the inside and the outside need to be one. The internal values and culture must be identical to those manifested outside, the social networks externally must be merged with the internal ones, it should become irrelevant where work is performed as the formal boundaries of organisations dissolve.

Designing Good Policy for Online Platforms and Communities: Designing good policy is hard work! And the ones you hear about — the ones that make the news — are just the tip of the iceberg. If you find yourself faced with that “we need a policy for this” moment, here’s a few best practices when it comes to designing policy for online communities and platforms.

Online Community and Culture Wars: What Do We Know?:  “As noble as we wish we are, we’re not — given the choice, people hang out with people like them,” says Koster. “Given a limited population, over time, not only will we [form] groups that are like us, but the larger group will exterminate the other one,” he says. “In simulations, that’s what happens: They literally commit genocide, they literally chase everyone else out of the room. It’s a distasteful fact about human nature, and if our definition about who we are is rigid, then you’re going to have that conflict.”

Why Branded Communities Wither Away, plus 5 Ways to Prevent Digital Death: You can find hundreds of press releases from delighted brands announcing the launch of their online community. Almost all of them vanished from the internet within 18 months. So why do we keep building them?

 

New community and social media jobs this week:

Global Community and Social Media Manager – EY, New York, NY

Community Manager, Cameo – Vimeo, New York, NY

Community Manager, Socialmedia.org – Gaspedal, Chicago, IL

Social Media Senior Manager – Taco Bell, Irvine, CA

Community Manager – Healthsparq, Portland, OR

Community Manager – RallyPoint, Watertown, MA

Multicultural Community Manager – Allstate, Northbrook, IL

Social Media Community Manager – Dropbox, San Francisco, CA

Content and Community Manager – Expa, San Francisco, CA

Director of Content and Communications – Lavastorm Analytics, Boston, MA

Community Manager – National Marketing – Kaplan Test Prep, New York, NY

Director of Global Media – Citi, Long Island City, NY

Content and Community Manager – Flatiron School, New York, NY

New Research: The Emerging Career Path for Community Professionals

November 21, 2014 By Rachel Happe

By Rachel Happe, Principal and Co-Founder, The Community Roundtable.

Community Management Skills Framework

It’s a great time to be a community manager. Companies big and small are starting to recognize that is a critical skill to help transform their organizations for a digitally connected world.

Our mission at The Community Roundtable is to advance the business of community and research has always played an integral part of that – helping people understand the dynamics and management approaches that build successful communities. We’ve made great strides at the macro level with our State of Community Management report and our Community Maturity Model framework – so much so that we can now benchmark the maturity of an organization’s community management approach.

It is time to take the same research approach to the role of the individual community professional and we are excited to announce the publication of our first Community Manager Salary Survey, made possible with support from Jive Software.

This research is becoming increasingly urgent due to a variety of trends we see:

  • Lack of recognition of how critical the community management discipline is to digital transformation and the future of work. We believe community management is the future of management and a critical component to enabling the future of work.
  • Community professionals are increasingly frustrated because of poorly defined roles and lack of advancement opportunities.
  • There is very little data about community management roles, making it challenging for hiring managers to define well constructed job opportunities.

So what did we find?

  • While there is still a lot of variability in skills and compensation levels in community management roles, there are distinct roles starting to emerge – specialist, manager, strategist and director. 36% of community professionals have been promoted within their role; an encouraging sign that organizations value the role and want to enable a career path.
  • At the executive level – community management is strategic – responsible for strategy, governance, program management and ensuring communities meet business objectives.
  • Performance measurements for community managers are still evolving – there is no one dominant measure being used to evaluate the performance of community professionals.
  • Organizations are still largely not supporting formal professional development resources for community managers like membership in professional development networks, training and coaching.

Along with this research, we also published the Community Management Skills Framework, designed to:

  • Provide a common framework for understanding the skills required for community management.
  • Give community managers a tool to evaluate and develop their own skills.
  • Support hiring managers and HR teams as they define formal community management roles within their organization.
  • Look at and compare the skills of community teams so gaps can be addressed and existing skills can be leveraged.

The full report contains specific data for internal (employee-facing) and external (customer and market-facing) community professionals – including average salaries, percent who get bonuses, profiles of skills and responsibilities by role, performance criteria and professional development resources.

Download the Report Now >>

We would love to hear from you about what surprised you, what you think is missing and how you will use this data to further your own development.

 

 

Community Management Career Profiles from The Community Manager Salary Survey

November 7, 2014 By Jim Storer

By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.


Two weeks ago we released our latest
infographic “Community Management Career Profiles” sponsored by Jive Software. This is the first research released from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014. Subtitled “The Career Path Of The Community Professional – Insights From The Community Roundtable’s Community Manager Salary Survey 2014” the infographic provides some great stats for community professionals, hiring managers and the community industry as a whole.

Without further ado, here are the initial findings from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014.  You can view the full infographic here.

THE ROLE, COMPENSATION AND CAREER PATH OF THE COMMUNITY PROFESSIONAL.

For the purposes of the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 infographic we focused on three of the most common community titles:

  • Community Manager
  • Community Strategist
  • Director of Community

View the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 infographic here.

AVERAGE SALARY

Key finding: Research from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 showed that community professionals who work with internal employee facing communities earn more than their externally facing peers.

  • Community Manager
    • Internal Community Manager Average Salary:$69,887
    • External Community Manager Average Salary: $74,939
  • Community Strategist
    • Internal Community Strategist Average Salary: $85,075
    • External Community Strategist Average Salary: $90,400
  • Director of Community
    • Internal Director of Community Average Salary: $106,356
    • External Director of Community Average Salary: $113,263

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Key Finding: In the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 we found that directors of community who work with external market facing communities have the most community management experience and the average level of work experience was over 10 years, countering the assumption that community managers are typically younger employees.

Percent of total work experience in community management:

  • Community Manager –
    • Internal Community Manager: 39%
    • External Community Manager: 30%
  • Community Strategist
    • Internal Community Strategist: 48%
    • External Community Strategist: 29%
  • Director of Community
    • Internal Director of Community: 45%
    • External Director of Community: 44%

Average years of community management experience:

  • Community Manager –
    • Internal Community Manager: 4.2 years
    • External Community Manager: 4.7 years
  • Community Strategist
    • Internal Community Strategist: 6.9 years
    • External Community Strategist:5 years
  • Director of Community
    • Internal Director of Community: 7.4 years
    • External Director of Community: 7.1 years

Average years of work experience:

  • Community Manager –
    • Internal Community Manager: 10.8 years
    • External Community Manager: 10.6 years
  • Community Strategist
    • Internal Community Strategist: 14.3 years
    • External Community Strategist: 14.3 years
  • Director of Community
    • Internal Director of Community: 16.4 years
    • External Director of Community: 16.2 years

TOP THREE PRIORITIES FOR COMMUNITY PROFESSIONALS

Key finding: Data in the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 clearly showed that business and strategic skills become more important in senior community roles.

Top Three Priorities For Community Managers

  • Monitoring activity and listening
  • Communication and editorial
  • Curating and sharing content

Top Three Priorities For Community Strategists

  • Monitoring activity and listening
  • Developing the community strategy
  • Measuring and reporting community performance

Top Three Priorities For Directors of Community

  • Developing the community strategy
  • Developing community policies and guidelines
  • Advocating for the community

COMMUNITY PROFESSIONALS WORKING REMOTELY

Key finding: working remotely does not hinder career progression for community professionals

  • 24% of community managers reported working remotely most of the time
  • 24% of community strategists reported working remotely most of the time
  • 41% of directors of community reported working remotely most of the time

Key finding: directors of community are 71% more likely to work remotely than managers and strategists, suggesting individuals with those skills are scarce and can negotiate for more flexibility.

WORK ENVIRONMENTS FOR COMMUNITY PROFESSIONALS

Key finding: through the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 we found that community strategists are three times more likely to work for agencies than community managers.

  • 80% of community managers work in corporate environments.
  • 6% of community managers are freelancers.
  • 8% of community managers work at agencies.
  • 6% of community managers work in a different environment.
  • 62% of community strategists work in corporate environments.
  • 24% of community strategists work at agencies.
  • 11% of community strategists are freelancers.
  • 3% of community strategists work in a different environment.
  • 79% of directors of community work in corporate environments.
  • 5% of directors of community work at agencies.
  • 7% of directors of community are freelancers.
  • 9% of directors of community work in a different environment.

COMMUNITY PROFESSIONAL: AN EMERGENT CAREER PATH

Although Community Manager is the most common job title among professionals surveyed, other roles are emerging.

Among the survey sample of the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014:

  • 55% had the title “Community Manager”
  • 13% had the title “Community Strategist”
  • 17% had the title “Director of Community”
  • 13% had the title “Community Specialist”
  • 7% reported they had another title

Key finding: 36% of professionals surveyed in the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 reported being promoted within community management.

LOOKING FOR A PROMOTION? WORK ON YOUR SKILLS.

In the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 we found that advanced community professionals, including community strategists and directors of community are more likely to have these key skills:

  • Program management
  • Building a community roadmap
  • Developing executive support and coaching executives
  • Creating, purchasing or delivering training
  • Hiring and managing community team members, contractors, agencies
  • Internal consulting

LOOKING FOR A COMMUNITY JOB? GET CREATIVE ABOUT FINDING YOUR NEXT ROLE!

Through the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 we found that the majority of community roles are not sourced through formal HR processes. In fact:

  • 39% of community professionals were approached by or introduced to the hiring manager/team
  • Only 27% of community professionals found their role through an external job posting
  • 20% of community professionals defined their own new role

View the infographic and find more community career resources at communityroundtable.com/cmss14

Brought to you by Jive Software.

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