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Leveraging Data Analytics for Community Success

January 23, 2024 By Jim Storer

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

Episode #97 of Community Conversations features Chris Catania, Head of Community at Esri.

Hosts Jim Storer and Shannon Abram chat with Chris about Leveraging data analytics for community success, community building and education for executives, and his work building a community ROI model and its impact on organizational value at Esri.

Chris shares ideas for building out your own cost benefit model, and explores the positive impact of measuring community ROI.

Community Conversations – Episode #82: Chris Catania on Community Leadership

Listen to Chris Catania on Leveraging Data Analytics for Community Success

https://media.blubrry.com/608862/thecr-podcasts.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ChrisCatania-2023Final.mp3

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Storytelling with Metrics - A Quick Learn Course for Community Managers

About Chris Catania

Chris is an award-winning enterprise community building expert. For more than 20 years, he has helped leaders build community-driven organizations that leverage the power of community and collaboration to deepen trust, increase loyalty, build better products, drive engagement, save millions and grow top-line revenue. As a speaker, consultant and strategist, he has helped audiences transform disengaged customers into loyal and passionate brand advocates. He has led clients to create a digital workplace that connects and builds strong employee relationships and networks. Today he speaks and leads workshops to empower leaders to leverage community as a strategic asset in the workplace and a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

About Esri

Esri is the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping.

Since 1969, they have supported customers with geographic science and geospatial analytics, what they call The Science of Where.

They take a geographic approach to problem-solving, brought to life by modern GIS technology. They are committed to using science and technology to build a sustainable world.

About Esri Community

Esri Community is an award-winning global online community of Esri users where you can find solutions, share ideas, and collaborate to solve problems with GIS.

More Community Management Podcasts

  • User Engagement in Support Communities
  • Automation and AI in Online Communities
  • Authentic Engagement in Online Communities
  • Learning and Communities
    The Intersection of Learning and Communities
  • Catherine Hackney on Community Building for Associations
    Community Building for Associations
  • Melanie Binder on Community Technology Platforms
  • Community Conversations – Episode #82: Chris Catania on Community Leadership
    Leveraging Data Analytics for Community Success
  • Using MVPs to Power Effective Communities
  • Fostering a Productive Workplace Culture with Community
  • Community Conversations - Michelle Sneck Ph.D.
    Community Building at USAA

Keri Kersten on Change Management

February 19, 2019 By Jim Storer

Keri Kersten

Welcome to the latest episode in our community management podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.”

Join TheCR’s Jim Storer and Shannon Abram as they chat with community managers from a variety of industries about their community journey. They ask the community questions you want to know the answers to, including:

  1. What’s your best advice for someone just starting out in Community Management?
  2. What are your best practices for increasing community engagement?
  3. How to talk to people when data is their love language.

Episode #53 features Keri Kersten, Global Internal Communications and Change Management at Stepan Company.

Listen in as we chat with Keri about her 10-year in the making business plan, how she frames her community building as empowerment, talking data as a love language and more!

https://media.blubrry.com/608862/thecr-podcasts.s3.amazonaws.com/kerikersten_podcast.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Three engines of powerful communities

February 29, 2016 By Ted McEnroe

The State of Community Management 2016 survey is open until March 18. We need you, but we’re already seeing results that could fundamentally shift your community plans.

By Ted McEnroe, Director of Research and Training

SOCM2016 Draft Cover ShadowWe’re a little over halfway into the SOCM 2016 survey period, and have a little more than half of the survey total I really want to see for this year’s research. But even so, just going through the early data – there is so much here that I can’t wait to share.

So here’s a little taste – and a call to action. The data is awesome, but a bigger dataset will make a huge difference, and I guarantee, those who take the survey get 10x the value out of the report this spring.

So, who’s taken it so far?

About 40 percent of those who have taken the survey classify themselves as working in the high tech/telecom/software sector. That makes for a robust sector that we can really dig into in our results.

Everyone else – we need you. We need to double or triple the number of responses in the media/entertainment, nonprofit, business/legal/professional and health care sectors to get a big enough segment to dig into. And seeing into how these more “traditional” sectors handle communities is a fascinating window into how customer and worker relationships are changing.

And a note for community vendors. You have a great opportunity for a third-party view of communities on your platforms as a group. Don’t miss it. Right now, a hat tip to Jive for providing 25 percent of our respondents. Everyone else? Get the word out to your customers about the survey – and the opportunity for them to get their free community evaluation scores.

The divide among Top 10 community platform vendors at the moment is below.

Vendors

Now, on to the data!

Three emerging engines of powerful communitiesengine

1. The power of documenting value.

We asked this year if people had defined the value of the community for the organization, the member and the “shared value” of the community – what matters to both sides.

The statements themselves were a mixed bag, but the results are remarkable. Defining value helps focus your efforts, and communities that have done it are more mature across the board than those who have not.

2. The power of the feedback loop.

A new question this year, inspired by members of our State of Community Management working group in TheCR Network, has asked about the ways communities receive member feedback. The data is incomplete, but the trend is that communities that provide a formal feedback process score more highly across the board than their peers.

3. The power of programs.

We talk often that community content and community programs are two sides of the same coin. Good content brings people into community, but programs create opportunities for “member collisions,” where they can share and interact. So far, the proof is in the engagement numbers. Communities with robust, integrated programming calendars have far better engagement than their peers.

Oh, and for the fourth straight year, we can again say the 90–9–1 rule of community is dead. Very very dead.

SOCM2016_GetStarted_BadgeThe survey is open through March 18, and we need your data today.

If you aren’t taken it, please do. For you and for us.

If you have taken it, get a friend or two to take it.

Oh, and one more thing.

Community professionals are charitably-minded

We decided this year it would be a nice thing to offer a $5 coffee gift card to folks in exchange for their time. The nice thing? The majority of respondents would rather give food to those in need than grab a latte and scone. 56% of respondents so far have chosen donations to No Kid Hungry/Save Our Strength over a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts gift card.

Your data can make that check bigger, too!

take the survey button

The Evolution of Community Management: Preliminary Data from the CMSS 2014

August 19, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

CMSS Data 2014

Online community management is far from new – it’s been around since the beginning of the Internet, and in more formal capacities at media companies since the 90s. Our aggregate understanding of the role, however, is still evolving. What we know from our work over the last five years with clients is that the role varies pretty dramatically based on the strategic importance of the community, experience and responsibility level of the community manager, community use case and the maturity of the community program.

The Community Roundtable, has invested in a new research platform – our Community Manager Salary Survey – to look at community manager profiles across these variables in order to develop a skill, responsibility and compensation matrix. This data will help both community professionals and hiring community managers evaluate and assess the worth of different roles within community management.

Some preliminary findings that were interesting to me:

  • Of those respondents with ‘community’ in their title, 69% were Community Managers, 18% were Community Strategists and 13% were Directors of Community. We had no VPs of Community complete the survey (if you are one,please consider participating in the research).
  • Data on how community professionals are hired suggests HR is still absent in recruiting. 22% of community professionals defined their own role before moving into it and 27% were found by hiring managers directly.
  • External (customer and market-facing) community professionals still dominate. 63% of responses were from external community managers, 24% was from internal community managers and 13% worked in other types of community managers.
  • Almost half of all community professionals in the survey have been in their role for one year or less.
  • 37% of community professionals have been promoted – encouraging confirmation that there is a career path within the field of community management.
  • 52% are evaluated by their ability to deliver business outcomes suggesting that organizations are figuring out how to value communities and community management.

While this preliminary data is great, we want to make sure we are capturing the entire range of community management roles and experiences. We are still looking for participation, particularly if you fit into any of the following categories:

  • You own or manage an employee facing community
  • You manage a community but it’s not your sole responsibility or title (i.e. you are a Director of Marketing that owns a community)
  • You are a senior or experienced community professional
  • You work in a traditional industry like manufacturing, energy, financial services, health care and professional services

We are closing the survey soon – please consider contributing today. It takes approximately 10-15 minutes.

By participating, you will help us develop the most robust and accurate information we can so you have the data you need to prove your worth or align your hiring and job descriptions with industry realities.

We take your privacy very seriously and the only individuals who have access to raw data are two members of TheCR team. We do not share any raw (individual) data points with the rest of TheCR team, partners or clients.

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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. 

 

Friday Roundup – Let It Snow? Edition

December 6, 2013 By Jim Storer

By Shannon DiGregorio, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable

snowy boston

The weather people are predicting snow in Boston this weekend, which to me is a mixed blessing. I love the holidays, and growing up in New England a white December makes things a little more jolly. My commute is also from the kitchen to the living room of my house, so nasty traffic isn’t a concern. I do however have a 16 week old puppy who likes to take her sweet time outside – I think a cold snap and a little snow might speed her up – we’ll see!

I really enjoyed seeing so many #thankitforward tweets from so many different people. I’ve included a few below as part of the roundup in addition to my favorite links from this week. Have a wonderful weekend, whether you’re covered in snow or on a sunny southern beach!

  • Fascinating read from the Big Idea: Social BusinessBlog at MIT Sloan on the evolution of social business
  • Community manager Hillary Boucher shares the perfect analogy for the benefits of great communities in “Share Your Custard” 
  • Rachel Happe shares her #thankitforward picks and spreads a lot of social and community love
  • A data-based perspective on the “is social business dead” conversation – now with new charts & data to reveal the real evolution

Screen shot 2013-12-06 at 9.59.32 AM

Screen shot 2013-12-06 at 9.59.17 AM

Screen shot 2013-12-06 at 9.58.43 AM

 

Credit: Snowy Boston Photo by Arthur C. Mills

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