The Community Roundtable

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

5 Reasons Using Internal Talent is Good for Community

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Community managers tend to reside at the intersection where creatives and strategics meet, and as a result, they can sometimes take on too much on their own. When that happens, burnout isn’t far behind, but it doesn’t need to be. Why? Most community managers have a huge untapped resource at their fingertips to help them avoid burning the candle at both ends, their internal talent (both in other employees and in community members)!

Why? Easy, they bring a variety of voices and expertise into your programming. 

This is powerful for a number of reasons.

A lightbulb lays on a black chalkboard. Three lines and idea bubbles lead off to the right from it.

1. Internal talent can help scale the workload

If running a program is a lot of work, then running every community program can be just plain overwhelming. Bring in your community members to help redistribute the workload from your plate. Turning to the internal talent you trust on your team — or in your community — to help with programming lets you tackle other things on your to-do list.

2. Using internal talent strengthens members’ commitment

What are your members more likely to pay greater attention to:

  • A community where someone else does all the work?
  • One where they’ve invested in the community’s success?

Spoon-feeding content and programming directly to your members and hoping for engagement might seem like the easiest path forward, but like with most things, just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s right. Your members will have more of a vested interest in the community if they contribute to its well-being. Providing opportunities for your community’s internal talent — those who feel up to the challenge — to create programming not only lets others step into the spotlight, but it also allows members to reinforce or share their knowledge with others.

3. Presenting provides valuable skills for members, and you

We’ve heard the saying that practice makes perfect, but this is an instance where it’s true! Being able to present effectively is a powerful skill. Practicing presenting in the community can help your internal talent grow not just as members, but as professionals. Added bonus? Managing the program strategy — instead of just the implementation — is a great skill for community managers interested in moving up in their own careers.

4. You don’t know everything

You may know your community better than anyone, but there’s so much your members are interested in learning and hearing about – you couldn’t possible be able to provide everything they need. Utilize the built-in experts in your community who know more about other relevant subjects to bring in new perspectives and areas of interest. This allows members to bring insights —and questions — to the table you might not think of.

5. Community skeptics be gone

Want someone to take a greater interest in the community? The easiest way to turn a naysayer into an advocate is to have them present to the community on a topic of interest. It’s a great way to get them connected with other members and see what the community is all about — from the safety of their comfort zone.

Long story short, utilizing internal community talent is a surefire way to engage your community. It’s better for you, better for your members, and better for your community at large. So, who are the untapped experts you’re going to reach out to?

Kelly Munro on Content and Programs

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Community Conversations is a long-running podcast highlighting community success stories from a wide variety of online community management professionals.

Episode #87 of Community Conversations features Kelly Munro, Community Team Lead, Xero.

On this special State of Community Management 2022 episode, Kelly Munro and host Anne Mbugua discuss the trends in community content and programs. Kelly shares tips for designing effective content and programming for your online community and discusses topics including:

  • How thinking about content and programs affects her community work.
  • The importance of onboarding for communities.
  • Advice for community professionals starting to dig into content and programs for their organization

Listen to Kelly Munro on Community Content and Programs

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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About Kelly Munro

Kelly Munro is the Community lead within the Customer Success team at Xero, managing their product development & discussion forums. She has an interest in using technology to solve user and business friction with a human-centric & adaptive lens.

About Xero

Xero is a New Zealand-based technology company that provides cloud-based accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses. Their online accounting software connects small business owners with their numbers, their bank, and advisors anytime. Founded in 2006, Xero now has 3.5 million subscribers and is a leader in cloud accounting across New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Their team of over 4,500+ talented thinkers, creators, and educators helps make life better for small businesses globally.

About The State of Community Management

Now in its 13th year, our annual State of Community Management report provides strategic ideas and tactical benchmarks for global community management professionals.

The State of Community Management 2022 explores the state of the community management industry through the lens of the eight competencies in the Community Maturity Model™.

Each section includes data, ideas, and expert practitioner perspectives to give you new insight into the community management industry. 

Kelly Munro on Content and Programs
Download your free copy of the State of Community Management 2022.

Building a Content Strategy in 5 Steps

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Building a Content Strategy

Content marketing sounds like a straightforward term, but a surprising number of marketers and community managers don’t get it. But no worries, because we love content marketing and are here to help in building a content strategy.

What is content marketing?

Glad you asked! Content marketing is so much more than just adding the right keywords to your copy. It’s looking at your content as a “living” (nonstatic) being, and focusing on the creation, aggregation, governance, and expiration of all your content — yes, all — and ensuring the best content is readily available when and where your audience needs it.

But how do you get started, and ensure you’re set up for success?

Step 1: Begin with buy-in

First, you need to promote content strategy — and its importance — within your org. This helps others understand what content strategy is, and why it should be funded as a part of their department. Remember: Good content strategy helps the entire organization work more efficiently, effectively, responsibly and most important, sustainably.

Sustainably?

As Erin Kissane wrote in “A Book Apart: The Elements of Content Strategy”: 

Sustainable content is content you can create — and maintain — without going broke, without lowering quality in ways that make the content suck, and without working employees into nervous breakdowns.

Don’t know about you, but tactics to help employees avoid nervous breakdowns sound like an easy win. 

After securing buy-in on the importance of creating and maintaining content strategy, it’s time to hammer out the strategy itself.

Step 2: Create your messaging architecture

Message architecture is vital to aligning communications efforts across an organization when building a content strategy. It also reflects the organization’s common vocabulary regardless of channel. 

So how do you build message architecture? 

  • Gather the key stakeholders involved in defining your communications initiatives
  • Organize the key terminology used to describe your brand
  • Think about your organization holistically
    • Who you are
    • Who you aren’t
    • How you would like to be perceived

Sounds easy enough, but let’s look at a brief example.

Moo.com case study

British company Moo.com likes to call themselves, “cheeky.” For those who don’t understand slang from our friends across the pond, it’s essentially a way of saying “naughty” but with a wink. Everyone within the organization — especially those who communicate on Moo.com’s behalf — understands what cheeky means in this instance, and how to convey that sentiment. Beyond that, Moo wants to be perceived as responsive, customer-oriented, approachable, helpful, and accessible. 

Both their cheekiness and their customer-centric approach are clear in everything they produce from their product collection to the lingo they use, their CTAs, photography, even their typeface. They take their “cheeky” image seriously — and project a fun and engaging brand identity as a result.

Additionally, Moo.com’s message architecture guides which comments to feature or respond to, the response’s tone, etc. As a result, their content and interactions remain unwaveringly on-brand and consistent with how the company wishes to be perceived.

Architecture works!

Step 3: Conduct a content audit

Before you can even begin to consider creating new content, you need to take inventory of what currently exists and assess whether it’s worth using (as-is, slightly revised, or completely overhauled) or if it’s better being archived. As you are building a content strategy ask yourself these questions:

Questions to ask about content sections

  • Who owns this portion of the site?
  • When was it last updated?
  • What is the purpose of this portion of the site?
  • What are the different types of content found there?
  • What templates are used for these content types or pages?
  • What taxonomy/tags are used in this section?
  • Is anything missing?

Questions to ask about the content

  • Is it current?
  • Is it relevant to its section?
  • Does it fit into the message architecture?
  • Is the quality worth keeping it in rotation?
  • How does it perform? (Analytics are your friend to determine if people like it!)
  • Does it need to be simplified?
  • What is the CTA?
  • Is it tagged appropriately (or at all)?

Some people consider content audits tedious, but they’re full of valuable information — especially when it comes to your overall content health. They can even be fun when you rediscover valuable content already in existence that could just use some slight updating. Hooray for easy lift wins!

Step 4: Implement a Content Curation Process

Once your audit is complete, you’ll have a better understanding of what high-quality content already exists. Now to fill in the gaps. The best way to do that is by establishing a content curation process.

Content curation processes help content marketers or community managers answer the following questions:

  • How can I engage with the audience?
  • What five things should be read first?
  • What gets me up to speed on the news?
  • What’s most important about this topic?
  • How can I improve the work I do?

Answering these questions can help you establish the tags needed for and the areas of the site in which the content actually makes the most sense.

Step 5: Own the strategy

It seems silly, but after completing the previous four steps, many organizations falter at the final step: Determining who actually owns the content strategy.

With no clearly identified owner, your content strategy becomes passive and ineffective. In short, it failed.

Like we said earlier, content strategy is a living thing — it should grow and change as your organization responds to industry influences, customer feedback, and matures. Even if your team doesn’t have a content strategist role, you need to choose your champion so your efforts aren’t wasted. 

Remember these tips when defining and conducting your organization’s content strategy, so you’re making the most of your content while communicating your brand’s message clearly and consistently. After all, a sustainable and well-defined content strategy not only steers the creation and development of new content but can strengthen your brand identity and help make connections in your community more meaningful and engaging.

Need more content strategy and content planning tips? Check out:

Building Effective Content Programs for Your Online Community
5 ways to plan effective content and programming for your online community
https://communityroundtable.com/best-practices/community-faq-how-can-i-build-effective-content-and-programs-for-my-online-community/
Archive: Five Tips for Planning Effective Content and Programming

Building Effective Content Programs for Your Online Community

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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.

October in TheCR Network: Community Leadership & Careers

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After a fantastic TheCR Connect conference, we’re looking forward to continuing all of the different conversations that we started as discussions in TheCR Network for the next several months. We joined and heard conversations around a variety of topics including tools & platforms, Centers of Excellence, executives & proving value, and leadership & careers.

To get to further explore some of these areas, we’ll be digging in and exploring a particular theme in October as we did in September.

For October, we’ll be looking more at Leadership and Careers:

One of the topics that I was most interested in hearing about at Connect was the definition of leadership and how we, as community professionals, understand, use, and leverage our leadership in our communities as well as in our own organizations.

Around the topic of leadership & careers, we’ll be hosting the following events for members of TheCR Network (with more to come!):

Rest assured, we won’t be only discussing leadership & careers this month. We’ll also be hosting a variety of calls meant to continue a diverse set of discussions in TheCR Network, also leaving room for spur of the moment conversation:

With members who are at all stages in their community leadership journey — from just starting out in community to owning director-level roles — we’re looking forward to getting to hear about how they furthered their careers, developed their skills, and led their own community programs.

If you’re looking at your own community career and skillsets, or if you’re looking for leadership opportunities, October is a fantastic time to join TheCR Network and take part in the conversation.

In online communities, new member programs matter – SOCM2016 Fact #9

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By Ted McEnroe, Director of Research and Training

You walk into a new place – maybe you have a new job, are a new member of a class, or a new volunteer somewhere. Everyone is gathered in groups, or rushing around and doing their thing. You stand there. Maybe after an uncomfortable amount of time someone comes up, shakes your hand and says, “Come on in, just get started,” and rushes away.

Help a newbie out?

Help a newbie out?

Where do you go? What do you do? And how do you find out?

It’s not a good feeling, and if you don’t have a welcome program for new members, it’s how those newbies feel when they log into your community.

You’re also not alone. The Community Roundtable’s State of Community Management 2016 finds barely half of communities have anything their managers consider a new member program, and of those, some percentage consist of an automated email and/or a technical guide. It’s a start, but it’s potentially a missed opportunity. Our best-in-class set of communities were far more likely to offer a program for new members, including personal or automated welcome emails and getting started guides, but also incorporating training, welcome calls and webinars, video tours and other elements.

SOCM2016_Fact_#9_NewMemberPrograms

New member programs don’t have to be hard.

Need an easy way to get folks connected and help them settle into the community culture? Try something as simple as a welcome thread. It can be a place where you encourage a first post, or a thread where you as the community manager and party host introduce new arrivals. Then members can say hello and offer guidance – or it can be something you nudge moderators and advocates to take on in a rotating basis, ensuring that new members feel welcome.

Developing new member materials isn’t hard – your chosen methods should make sense for the size, use case and goals for your community. But consider it – because communities with new member programs had a third more active members than those that didn’t. That’s the long-term power of a short-term investment in the people in the community at a time when they need you most.

We can’t wait to hear what you think – tag your thoughts with #SOCM2016 to join the conversation!

Are you a member of TheCR Network? Download the research inside the Network here.

Best Practices from TheCR Network: Hosting an Ask Me Anything (AMA)

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Recently we’ve caught the AMA (Ask Me Anything) bug. Maybe you’ve seen our AMA webinars with community managers? Our members are realizing the value of the AMA format for real-time community engagement, and have been sharing best practices for AMAs within their communities. I wanted to share a few of the best practices that TheCR Network members swear by when planning and executing a successful AMA.

Think big but start small.

The gold standard for AMAs are those found on Reddit (the site that popularized the format) which can attract thousands of engaged participants. Don’t be discouraged if your first few AMAs only attract a small fraction of that audience – every new programming event can take some time to get up and running smoothly.

AMA Ask Me Anything

The always delightful Bill Murray takes part in a Reddit AMA.

Set expectations. 

You’re on board with the “think big, start small” idea so now make sure you set that expectation with stakeholders and guests. You may have to host regular AMAs for a while before you will really see engagement pick-up (a month or more). It takes people awhile to get comfortable with something new like an AMA where they are expected to actively participate. Setting expectations is important for your guest, too. If you’re bringing in someone from outside your network, or even working with a community member, make sure they are comfortable, too. But don’t give up!

Be prepared to guide the conversation. 

Sometimes a new format can force people back into their shells.  Don’t be afraid to seed people to ask questions — a great tactic here is to see if your expert has colleagues within the community who might be able to direct questions toward him or her. Because of that existing relationship, those questions will feel very natural and comfortable and (hopefully) create a model for others.

Do you host AMAs or other alternative community programs to get people engaged in your community? You can find more Reddit specific tips here.  We’d love to hear your tips for hosting a successful AMA series.

Does your online community feel like Twitter pre-2009? (It should.)

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By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable

Earlier this month, we got an automated tweet reminding us that The Community Roundtable joined Twitter six years ago. It was a good reminder of how much has changed in social media in that time.

FailwhaleSix years ago, Twitter was a much more intimate place. In explaining it to people, I often used the “dinner party” analogy – “It’s like a dinner party – you go in and you may only know one person, but you talk to them and meet their friends, and your network begins to grow.” That was before Twitter changed its rules for seeing @ replies, before it became popular enough with brands and others that the noise ratio went up to the point of cacophony. Now, it can feel like a dinner party at a rock concert, only no one is actually watching the band and everyone is talking loudly in all directions. (Facebook, on the other hand, can feel like walking into a dinner party where you recognize everyone but only a few people have paid for the privilege of having vocal chords.)

That’s not to say that Twitter doesn’t have a purpose. But it’s different than it was six years ago. You know what is a lot closer to old Twitter when it comes to connecting with interesting people and making new connections? Communities.

When I look at communities that I am a part of, whether it’s TheCR Network, the nonprofit technology network NTEN, or others – there is still that dinner party feel. I don’t know everyone there, but we share interests, and I know people who know other people – and can build my network that way. It’s where interesting conversations can happen.

As a community manager or a community member, it’s important to understand the difference. And it’s where the balance between content and programming comes into play. Twitter has programming – thousands of tweetchats that bring people together to discuss almost anything – but it can be hard to carry on conversations and is mostly used to push out links and content. It’s best use is as a content network. Conversely, communities can be fine places to post content – but where they thrive is in their programming – creating spaces and events where people can come together and share and debate ideas that matter to them. This is more than content sharing – it’s relationship building. Whether you are working in an external capacity or an internal one, communities have a rare ability to build those intangible connections that bring people together. (And yes, some communities have been doing it brilliantly for years.)

Some ways to do it:

  • Play the host. Welcoming people into the community plays a huge role in getting them comfortable enough to engage. It’s the equivalent to taking their coat, welcoming them in and telling them where they can find a drink.
  • Create member collisions. Programming provides a specific time and place for people with common interests to gather – effectively acting as a prompt for members to collide, engage and get to know each other.
  • Do a little matchmaking. Know two members facing the same issues? Introduce them. Or at least find ways to make sure that when you are offering programming with an appeal to them that they know about it and know you’re paying attention to their needs.

Outreach like this can be heavy lifting. But it sets a tone for the community that you want to get adopted by your members. You also want to think about systems that make spotting and creating these connections easier – from tagging content and member profiles to setting up forums and capturing reports from past events that let new community members see who the experts and leaders are in a particular space.

That has one other impact that reminds me of 2007-2009 Twitter. Back then, conversations held on Twitter led to a driving need for in-person connections – the birth of the “tweetup.” Today, our TheCR Network members crave more of those opportunities. The NTEN crew descends upon the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference as practically a high school reunion. And communities like the Customer Experience Professionals Association have been able to use online community to scale the power of their in-person gatherings in an impressive way.

I still spend a lot of time on Twitter for content and information. I go to Facebook to catch up with friends as best I can. But more and more I am plugged into my Facebook Groups and my communities if I want and need more robust relationships. It’s an opportunity we as community professionals can’t afford to waste.

The Community Roundtable is transitioning its Facebook page to a Facebook Group to supplement TheCR Network and bring back the conversation about community strategy to a wider audience. Join the group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheCommunityRoundtable.