Hillary Boucher Archives

Throwback Thursday – Best Practices Webinars

February 9, 2017 By Jim Storer

One of the greatest perks of working at TheCR is access to all the big, beautiful brains on our team. Hillary Boucher has more community management knowledge than you can shake a stick at and even though she is kept pretty busy with her day job (running TheCR Network and our community teams) she took some time last year to sit down with me and share some of her best practices for specific community programming.

These webinars are short, to the point and contain the how-tos for quick wins in your community. Whether you are thinking about revamping your new member on-boarding process or undertaking a community platform migration, we’ve got the best practices to help you reach your community management goals.

Take a peek! Is there a community management topic you’d love to see Hillary take on in 2017? Send it to us and we’ll try to get it on the calendar!

Community Management Best Practices Webinars

Best Practices for Training a New Community Manager

Best Practices for New Member Welcome Programs

Best Practices for Community Platform Migration

Best Practices for Content Programming

Best Practices for New Member Leadership Program

Want more Community Management Best Practices?

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Drop us a line and we’ll do our best to help you find the community management info you need!

Best Practices for Content Programming

June 9, 2016 By Jim Storer

Intrigued by TheCR Network, but want to learn more about what membership entails before joining?

Watch Hillary Boucher share a special look inside TheCR Network. In June Hillary shared a look at the research, programming and professional development available exclusively to Network members and highlighted best practices for optimizing content programming in your community to maximize engagement. It’s a must-see for any community professionals that are tasked with planning, executing and managing content programs inside their internal or external community

Access the Best Practices for Content Programming webinar recording now!

Hillary Boucher on the Intricacies of Platform Migration

January 12, 2016 By Jim Storer

Welcome to the latest episode in our community 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

What’s your best advice for someone just starting out in Community Management?
What are your best practices for increasing community engagement?
How can you survive the zombie apocalypse? (Ok – they might not ALL be community questions…)

Episode #37 features Hillary Boucher, Director of Networks at The Community Roundtable. Join us as we chat about the intricacies of a platform migration, mentoring a community manager, and how to evolve your community superpower.

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About Conversations with Community Managers*
To better reflect the diverse conversations our podcast covers we’ve changed the name of our long-running series to Community Conversations.
Community Conversations highlights short conversations with some of the smartest minds in the online community and social business space, exploring what they’re working on, why they do what they do, and what advice they have for you.
These episodes are a great way to begin to understand the nuances of community strategy and management.
Each episode is short (usually less than 30 minutes) and focuses on one community management professional.

Three Different Kinds of Things to Be Thankful For – #thankitforward 2015

December 8, 2015 By Jim Storer

By Georgina Cannie, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Thank you to Shannon for highlighting the #thankitforward series again this year!

My three picks:

1.) A Discipline to be Thankful for: Community Management
Before coming to work with the Community Roundtable, I spent what felt like eons studying academic pursuits. I truly adored going to school and I am grateful for the degrees I earned. But there is a funny thing that happens to you when you spend 6+ years in Liberal Arts and Social Science programs – rather than discovering precisely where you want to build your career, you get even more wrapped around the axle. My academic passions did not seem to add up to a pre-defined work role. The part-time jobs that paid my tuition did not fulfill me. It was a very frustrating feeling. Then almost by accident, I happened to trip across the field of community management. Although I was still learning all that community management entailed, I was in awe of the discipline that would utilize my strengths, inspire my interests and make a tangible difference in my world. I was hooked. I remember feeling overwhelming fortune and gratitude for having stumbled across this growing world of work.

2.) A Person to be Thankful for: Hillary
I’ll be frank – I am obsessed with Hillary. If you have not met her already, make it your New Year’s resolution to do so. When I joined the Community Roundtable, it was as Hillary’s Community Management Fellow. From my first day, she began teaching me how to be the best community manager possible. Her strategy to onboard me into the space was thoughtful and flawless. Her teaching approach was constructive yet kind. Her member interactions were honed and tactful. As I watched and learned from her, she simultaneously created spaces for me to take ownership of projects, voice my opinion and test my strengths. Although she was my direct leader, she empowered me to work with her (and the rest of the Community Roundtable) as a member of a team, rather than simply as an employee of a company. I have never before understood what a mentor relationship entails, but I am grateful to know it now.

3.) A Technology to be Thankful for: Slack
Slack is our team’s virtual office. As we all work remotely, we use the Slack app to check in with each other each day and stay connected. ….And I love it. Ok, ok, so it is not just Slack that I love – I love the team attitude that it reflects and supports. TheCR Team’s internal work is completely open and transparent. This means we all work on things together, constantly seek feedback and troubleshoot issues collectively. Sure it was a bit nerve wracking for the first few weeks, but I quickly grew incredibly grateful for the benefits. Some perks? It is very common for team members, who work in very different capacities than me, to weigh in on my work and offer me a unique insight; My work output is consistently at a higher value than when I work alone; I never spend more than an hour working in the wrong direction – there is always someone there to help reorient me if I ver off the road…. And you should see how small my daily email inbox is! It’s magic!

Best Practices for New Member Leadership Programs

November 17, 2015 By Jim Storer

Every online community – internal (employee community) and external (custom community) – has a handful of dedicated members who contribute more than the rest. Whether you have a formal superuser, advocacy, or membership leadership program, or informally track and interact with these members, now is a great time to show them some love.

Different communities call these super users different things, including community advocates, community leaders, power users, and more.

5 Ways to Show Super Users Love in Your Online Community:

1- Swag. Everyone loves free stuff, and it doesn’t have to be an expensive investment. A hand-written note and some stickers go a long way with your superusers.

2- Shout-Outs. Highlight these members in the online community with a quick mention. Feeling seen and appreciated by online community managers makes super users feel valued.

3- Online Badges. If your online community uses badges, create a special badge to identify your superusers. This will also highlight your superusers as a resource to new members who may not understand how to engage when they join your online community.

4- Personally thank active contributors. It seems simple, but it helps increase member satisfaction.

5- Give them a sneak peek at an upcoming program, feature, or initiative. You’ll get valuable feedback and your superusers will love feeling like they got a behind-the-scenes look at something before everyone else does.

Want more ideas for launching superuser (aka leadership) programs in your community?

Check out this short video from Hillary Boucher.

This content has moved inside The Network.

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TheCR Network Sneak Peek: August 2015

August 26, 2015 By Hillary Boucher

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Hold onto your pumpkin spice lattes – according to the calendar it’s still summer until September 22. I’ll take it! We’ve had an incredible summer inside TheCR Network. Yes, someone always seems to be OOO, but that has not stopped members from collaborating or our team from forging ahead with exciting new projects (ahem, platform migration).

Here’s a sneak peek into what’s been going on inside TheCR Network

Small Move, Big Change (Book Club): Every summer we host a book club and this year we read Small Move, Big Change by Caroline Arnold. There was a lot of personal interest because the author focused on making micro-resolutions in your personal life to affect big change, but our goal was to discuss how this strategy can be applied to community building within an organization. A perfect topic for practitioners working on adoption and engagement.

Blueprints: Mapping Values to Community Success (Working Group): This working group led by TheCR Champion Jennifer Honig has continued to meet this summer and chose innovation has their use case for mapping business drivers to community success.

Ask the Experts (Forums): With the launch of our member superhero program we began inviting superheroes to host a week long “Ask me anything” in the forums. We are extremely pleased with the level of engagement, the great questions members are asking our superheroes, and the amazing knowledge coming out of these sessions! Happy to see a new program take off successfully!

If you are interested in learning more about what it’s like to be a member of TheCR Network check out this extensive overview which shares our general programming opportunities and resources made available to members.

Want to access our programming for the benefit of your community work? Reach out and ask us about membership.

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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.

#ThankItForward: Recognizing Champions

December 15, 2014 By Jim Storer

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

#thankitforward Last December our team took the month to reflect on who had impacted our lives and work that year and made aconscious effort share our gratitude with those community members, teammates, partners, and mentors. It was a great exercise and we were pleased to see some members even took it back to their own communities!

I posted my #thankitforward in TheCR Network this week, and wanted to share it here with you as well. This is extremely difficult because I have the unique vantage point of seeing how valuable all our members are to the network, but this year I am going to shout out our Champions because they are awesome.

Maddie Grant (Association & Non-profits Working Group)
Jennifer Honig (The Social Executive Working Group)
Renee Hopkins (Business Model Innovation Working Group)

These folks have stuck with me as we rolled our our pilot leadership program. I’ve so enjoyed working with them on programming for the network and the value they’ve added to network and programming is invaluable. I’m so grateful! Thank you, Maddie, Jennifer and Renee!

Who in your network or community made a difference for you this year?

Was there a member who responded with a helpful answer to a question you posted in the forums?
Did someone offer to connect offline on a topic you were working on?
Someone who makes your day a little brighter when you come into Happy Hour?
An expert or facilitator who impressed and inspired you?
Did you meet a fellow member at an event and find that connection valuable?
Was there a colleague or member who acted as a mentor in some capacity?

Give them a shout out here! Shout out one person or three. Doesn’t matter. Just keep thanking it forward!

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Looking for a way to connect with community peers around the world? Have some year-end budget to spend before December 31st? Join TheCR Network and become part of an expert network of community professionals.

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: October 2014 Wrap Up

October 28, 2014 By Hillary Boucher

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Oh, October, with your foliage, pumpkin spice lattes, and your community programming. It’s a great time to be a community practitioner and we’ve had a busy month inside the TheCR Network. Here are a few samplings of what’s been going on:

10 Content Curation Techniques for Your Online Community (Roundtable): TheCR Champion Maddie Grant invited Ed Barrett, VP of Members & Marketing at the Global Business Travel Association, to discuss the content strategies he uses at GBTA. This call was a big hit with participants and we appreciated Ed’s focus on metrics driven decision making and practical ideas for sourcing content for your community.

The Social Executive Series (Working Group): We have another TheCR Champion, Jennifer Honig, kicking off a new programming series for members that will focus on cracking the executive engagement nut in your online community. This month she posted a call for working group members, received buy-in from members, and then surveyed the group to find out the specific challenges they want to tackle together on the topic of executive engagement. I’m really looking forward to watching this group progress.

Intro to the Community Maturity Model (Pilot Training): We launched a pilot training program for new members of TheCR Network. This mini-training gives participants a crash course on the Community Maturity Model (CMM) and how we organize the network and our programming off the model. Participants are about to hear (today!) from two other members who have applied the CMM to their community work and the training wraps up with participants designing a project where they apply to the CMM to an aspect of their own work. We’re really excited to see how this pilot program is received. Our hope is that the better members understand the CMM, the more they are able to leverage our resources, making them more successful with their community efforts.

Want to access our fall programming for the benefit of your community work? Reach out and ask us about membership.

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TheCR Network Sneak Peek: September 2014 Wrap-Up

September 25, 2014 By Hillary Boucher

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

September is a big month inside TheCR Network, and as the community manager of this fine community I have been feeling the burn! We launch a robust programming schedule for the Network every September and members took full advantage of the live, interactive sessions offered to them as part of their membership. Here are a few samplings of what was discussed:

Undeniable Story: The Science & Intuition of Engagement (Roundtable/Skillbuilder): I considered this session the opening keynote of fall programming. Michael Margolis, CEO of Get Storied, and friend of TheCR came in to share his expertise of storytelling in business. Some folks came to learn how to better tell the story of their community and its value internally and others were focused on how to create great stories about their organization and its products and/or services to facilitate engagement in external customer facing communities. No matter the use case, Michael held us captivated and offered a number of strategies and exercises to help us become master storytellers. In the words on one community leader, “I felt like he was holding the missing puzzle piece I have been seeking for some time now :-).”

A Tale of Community, Intranet Integration & the Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow (Roundtable/Case Study): One of the things our members find consistently helpful is to hear the stories of community programs that are more mature and well established. It helps give perspective and they have a chance to ask important questions to fellow practitioners (How did you gain executive support for that? What were the triggers that preceded the need for that program? How did the team restructure as a result of this initiative?). On this call we learned first hand from an EMC practitioner what it took to undergo a community and intranet integration and the ROI it brought the company.

Introduction to The Community Performance Benchmark (Webinar): We’ve been putting the finishing touches on a new service offering. I can’t go into too much detail here, because it’s still in top secret mode, but membership has its perks and we like to make sure our members have first access. And since this new service is built upon the State of Community Management research we’ve worked on collaboratively with our members it was created with them in mind. On this webinar, Rachel shares with members and their special guests more about this new service and an offer for special member pricing.

If you want to get a full idea of what membership is like you can take a look at this extensive overview which shares our general programming opportunities and resources made available to members.

Want to access our fall programming for the benefit of your community work? Reach out and ask us about membership.

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TheCR Network Sneak Peek: August 2014 Wrap-Up

August 28, 2014 By Hillary Boucher

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

I spent a lot of time this month looking forward and planning member programming for Fall. And while summer can be a bit quieter around TheCR Network, it was great to take a look back and see the different ways members were connecting and receiving value from their membership. Here are a few of my favorite examples of member engagement inside the network over the past month:

Developing B2B Social Communities (Roundtable): Every summer we host a book club and this year we read a book, Developing B2B Social Communities: Keys to Growth, Innovation and Customer Loyalty, authored by two of our members, J.J. Lovett & Sam Creek, and edited by our co-founder, Rachel Happe. Being that I manage a B2B community myself, I was happy for the push to read it and found it to be well organized and a comprehensive and actionable handbook for implementing, sustaining and measuring the value of a community program. The real treat was the hour long Roundtable call with the authors. Members had a ton of great questions for J.J. and Sam and were grateful for the insight that was shared.

Sharepoint/Yammer Knowledge Share (Discussion & Roundtable): Earlier this month a member posted a request to connect with other members who have experience using Sharepoint & Yammer for their community initiatives. A handful of members offered to connect with him individually, but we suggested that we hop on an informal Roundtable call. This way all parties could benefit from the discussion and it was good to see members exchanging their best practices and lessons learned. The bonus? We’re able to archive their insights in the network in the form of a Roundtable Report for the benefit of all of our members.

Community ROI Case Studies (Discussion): We have a member building a community from scratch and she came in to request community ROI case studies. We were able to connect the right members to her request and they shared how they approached measuring the ROI of their own communities and offered to connect individually to discuss further. Community success!

If you want to get a full idea of what membership is like you can take a look at this extensive overview which shares our general programming opportunities and resources made available to members.

Want to access our fall programming for the benefit of your community work? Reach out and ask us about membership.

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Community Managers – Declare Your Value!
Have you taken the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 yet? Your insights into your role are invaluable as we document and define community manager best practices across industries. The survey is short (15 minutes) and we’d love to hear from you. Take the survey now.