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Online Communities Propel Engagement

June 17, 2019 By Jim Storer

Communities Propel Engagement
Key Finding #1 from The SOCM 2019 Report: Communities Propel Engagement

Communities are central to the human experience. Communities are all around each of us and whether we recognize them explicitly, they have immense influence on our reality, our happiness, and our success. The communities we engage in define norms with which we unconsciously comply, hardwired as we are to acclimate to the social environment around us.

Our communities can make life for some incredibly easy and for others toxic, often because we don’t explicitly see and understand their impact. How well communities are led and managed, whether by leaders assigned explicitly or by volunteers, impacts the success of both the entire community and every individual in it.

There is a tremendous opportunity for organizations to explicitly recognize the communities in their ecosystem and intentionally nurture them. This intentional leadership ensures behaviors and cultures are shaped in ways that accelerate success for everyone and limit bias and abuse. doing so creates cultures that self-regulate, propelling positive reinforcing growth while mitigating the need for moderation and policing.

Optimizing the value of communities – for both members and organizations – requires investment in developing trust, which is one of the core responsibilities of community leadership. Trust is the foundation for empowerment, learning, constructive disagreement, and change. The ability for communities to foster trust is what makes them effective governance structures for organizations that seek agility, speed, and innovation.

Note: This post contains content originally published in the State of Community Management 2019 report. Download your free copy here.

TheCR Network – 2018 Year in Review Infographic

December 17, 2018 By Hillary Boucher

As 2018 winds down, I love to look back at the last twelve months in TheCR Network. The great joy of my work is spending my days supporting, collaborating and learning with our amazing members. I was incredibly gratified by a recent survey of members, where many said the first word that came to mind when thinking about the Network was “friend”.

The infographic below is a just a snapshot of the year we’ve had. Please take a moment to pause with me and reflect on our successes, as we prepare for an even more amazing 2019!

 

I hope you had a meaningful and productive year, and that you too can take a moment to look back at your year. Best wishes!

TheCR Network Year In Review 2017 Infographic

December 14, 2017 By Hillary Boucher

It’s the most wonderful time of year. 

The candles, and the lights and the festive drinks and tasty food. And celebrating your traditions with loved ones. That is all very wonderful.

Also pretty wonderful? Getting to look back at the amazing year we had inside TheCR Network. Our members are incredibly engaged (no outdated 90-9-1 rule here!) and have collaborated on some pretty cool projects this year.

I’m excited to share our annual Year in Review infographic for 2017. I couldn’t be happier to be heading into 2018 with the dedicated community leaders in TheCR Network.

TheCRnetwork YearEnd Infographic 2017

 

Want to leverage the resources, tools and experts in TheCR Network in the new year? Join now!

Why Attend TheCR Connect 2017?

July 25, 2017 By Jim Storer

The theme of this year’s community workshop – TheCR Connect, is “Telling Your Community Story” and we believe that means many things. Some obvious: building a narrative, using metrics to paint a picture, and some not so obvious: defending investments, cultivating stakeholders.

Every community professional is tasked with telling the story of their community – to your members, your stakeholders, your executives and your team, and we want to help you be the best storyteller you can be. Join us for TheCR Connect and you’ll experience an intimate, engaging, results-focused event, unlike anything you’ve attended before.

A few spots for non-members remain. Learn more or register now!


TheCR Network 2016 Year in Review

December 13, 2016 By Hillary Boucher

As we close in on the end of 2016 we are always excited to take a minute and look back at the year. It’s easy to forget about all the things you’ve accomplished when your days fly by (anyone who works in community can probably commiserate!)

In 2016 we saw membership in TheCR Network grow, we expanded our live events series and we got to work with new community professionals all over the world. We are incredibly lucky to collaborate with and learn from some of the brightest minds in the community space. Here’s a quick look back at our 2016 – we’d love to hear what made your top ten list for the year?

thecrnetwork_infographic_2016_final

 

TheCR Connect 2016 – By The Numbers Recap

November 30, 2016 By Jim Storer

It’s no secret we’re sort of data nerds over here – I mean have you seen the SOCM lately? Here’s something you might not know though – numbers aren’t my favorite thing – but I’ve never met an infographic I didn’t like. (Longtime readers might remember our brief infatuation with #infographicthursday!). That’s why recapping our latest community manager event – TheCR Connect – through the lens of an infographic seemed perfect to me.

Here’s a little peek into our two day community workshop last month. If you were there I’d love to hear your favorite stat – maybe we’ll even update the infographic with the best ones!

TheCR Network Infographic 2015

December 29, 2015 By Jim Storer

By Shannon Abram, The Community Roundtable

With just a few days left in 2015 we wanted to share a look at the great year we had inside TheCR Network. I hope you’re enjoying the end of the year and we are excited to share even more community management resources in 2016!! Now onto TheCR Network infographic:

TheCR Network - Year End Infographic

 

Investing in professional development like TheCR Network is a powerful way to strengthen your community management skills. Make an investment in your community and your career with our community resource bundle – available for a limited time.

You’ll save 30% on full membership in TheCR Network, a community planning toolkit and get access the online community training class of your choice in TheCR Academy. A $2,299 value just $1,495 for a limited time. Use code “2015BUNDLE” at checkout to redeem this special offer.

Purchase the Resource Bundle

Friday Roundup: Salary Data in the Desert

October 24, 2014 By Jim Storer

By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable

Screen shot 2014-10-21 at 8.49.33 AMIn case you missed it (and therefore the title of this post makes no sense to you- yet!) we released the first data from the Community Manager Salary Survey this week, an infographic in conjunction with Jive Software, at JiveWorld14 in Las Vegas. You can check out the announcement here, or pop on over to the CMSS 2014 research page to download the full infographic – titled Careers in Community Management – and sign up to hear when the full research report is published in November.

As for JiveWorld itself, Rachel, Jim and Hillary are still decompressing, but it was a week of catching up with friends old and new, and putting human faces together with online connections. Rachel also had the opportunity to present on community benchmarking – a Storify of her talk is here and if you’re curious to learn more, head over to our Community Benchmark Service page or just reach out!

This week we introduced our first TheCR Champion, Maddie Grant, and took a look at how you can apply what you learned at a typical middle school dance to community management. I hope you had a great week – we’ll see you back here on Monday!

Our favorite news and links from around the web:

Exploring Engagement: The Dance Floor Theory – Since last week’s #ESNchat was focused on driving engagement in enterprise social networks I thought it would be fun to share some excerpts from a popular Roundtable call inside TheCR Network. We were lucky enough to host Kevin Prentiss, the CEO of Red Rover, as he gave an overview of his Dance Floor Theory and how it related to community management.

Why You Should Always Say “Hello” In The Elevator – I recently traveled to Europe to visit a few of our offices abroad and launch a new, exciting youth employment initiative for 2015. It was a phenomenal trip with a stellar agenda. But one of my favorite and most impactful experiences from the trip was completely unplanned–a result of what has become my new motto: Always say “hello” in the elevator.

Introducing the CMSS 2014 Infographic – If you’ve been reading our blog for the last year you know we love a good infographic, which makes todays post extra exciting. We are thrilled to share the first data from our newest research platform Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 via this new CMSS 2014 infographic: Careers in Community Management.

Why Haters Hate: Kierkegaard Explains the Psychology of Bullying and Online Trolling in 1847 – Celebrated as the first true existentialist philosopher, Danish writer and thinker Søren Kierkegaard (May 5, 1813–November 11, 1855) may have only lived a short life, but it was a deep one and its impact radiated widely outward, far across the centuries and disciplines and schools of thought.

Introducing TheCR Champions: Maddie Grant – This month we announced a new leadership program — TheCR Champions – for TheCR Network. Today I want to introduce you to one of our new Champions! Maddie Grant is a long time friend of TheCR and has facilitated Roundtable calls as a guest TheCR Expert a number of times over the past few years. We are thrilled to have her facilitating a working group and helping us to deepen our engagement, content and programming. Lucky us!

New community and social media jobs: 

  1.  Technical Community Manager –DigitalOcean – Ailey, GA
  2. Community Manager I – Carr Workplaces – Atlanta, GA
  3. Social Media Community Manager – HomeExchange.com – Los Angeles, CA
  4. Community Manager – RockYou – San Francisco, CA
  5. Community Manager – U.S. – Brainly – New York, NY
  6. Marketing Associate and Social Media Manager – AP Intego Insurance Group LLC – Sudbury, MA
  7. SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER – Sports Endeavors – North Carolina
  8. Social Media Manager – Vibram USA – Concord, MA
  9. Social Media Manager – Aqua Hotels & Resorts – O‘ahu, HI
  10. Social Media Manager – Capgemini  – Chicago, IL
  11. Manager, Content Marketing and Social Media – K12 – Herndon, VA
  12. Community Manager / Gestionnaire de communauté – Gameloft – Montréal, QC
  13. Marketing Manager – Stantec – Red Deer, AB
  14. Manager, Community Engagement – Good Shepherd Ministries – Toronto, ON
  15. Communications Manager – Communications and Education – Genome British Columbia – Vancouver, BC
  16. Social Media Coordinator – Events and Me – Burnaby, BC
  17. Director of Marketing and Sales – Waskesiu & Area Wilderness Region (WWR) – Prince Albert, SK
  18. Social Media Coordinator –Nanotips – Richmond, BC
  19. Marketing and Social Media Coordinator – Rev Publishing Inc. – Niagara Falls, ON
  20. Social Media Manager – DEEP Inc. – Toronto, ON

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Looking to further your career as a community professional? See how membership in TheCR Network gives you access to exclusive content, community experts and research to help you take the next step.

Guest Post: The Anatomy of an Enterprise Community Manager

October 7, 2014 By Jim Storer

luke sinclair, Enterprise Community ManagerNote: This is a guest post by community professional and TheCR Network member Luke Sinclair. 

Last week I hosted a Sitrion TALKS session with a panel of awesome community managers. The basis was one of my favorite infographics, Inside the Mind of a Community Manager. We had a great conversation on internal and external community management and some of the synergies and differences between the two.

Afterwards, I got thinking. Is there a graphic to represent the make-up of an Enterprise Community Manager? Not that I’m aware of. Since then, I’ve been busily whipping up my latest creation: “Anatomy of an Enterprise Community Manager.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and feedback! Does this sum up your role as an Enterprise Community Manager? Are you thinking about hiring one and now feel clearer about the role?

Enterprise Community Manager

 

 

Note this post originally appeared on the Sitrion blog, where Luke blogs regularly about community management challenges.

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Interested in how TheCR Network can connect you with like-minded community management professionals like Luke? Learn more or drop us a line.

Friday Roundup: Announcements, Infographics and More!

September 26, 2014 By Jim Storer

By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

This week we got to share some very exciting news – starting in October we’ll be taking over hosting duties for the popular #ESNchat from friend and community professional Jeff Ross. We are thrilled to be able to continue Jeff’s great work with ESN practitioners and are looking for input on upcoming topics. (Missed the news? View both our announcement and Jeff’s.)

Next week will be another big one at TheCR when we unveil our newest service – I can’t say much today, but watch for more info in our next newsletter on Tuesday to learn more! (Want to receive TheCR newsletter? Sign up here.)

Our favorite news and articles from around the web this week:

Infographic: Drive Success with Basic Executive Coaching – According to the State of Community Management 2014 report from The Community Roundtable, members are more engaged in communities with executive participation. In fact, communities with executive participation see 42% of members actively participate, while those without executive participation see only 37% active.

BIF10: Love as a Platform – Going to BIF10 was a treat for me. My life is full of demands – running a business, mothering a small child and attempting to keep dinner on the table can get in the way of investing in myself… yet it is mentally draining and I recognized that I had to feed myself in order to keep feeding others. BIF, I hoped, would be some sorely needed brain candy and it did not disappoint.

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: September 2014 Wrap-Up – 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…

Rising to the Human Challenge – All business has a human side. Part of it is the obvious one – human resources. Part of it is the fundamental one – customers. Part of it is what makes work satisfying rather than draining – acting like a human being.The human side of business isn’t easy. It can be difficult to get right and is sometimes emotionally gruelling. But those difficulties are a challenge that we have to rise to, and sometimes they’re what makes the human side worthwhile.

Do You Know Who Owns Analytics at Your Company? – At a corporate level, who has ultimate responsibility for analytics within your organization? The answers I most often get are “Nobody” or “I don’t know.” When I do get a name, it often differs depending on who I asked—a marketing executive points to one person, while finance identifies someone else. That isn’t good. How can analytics become a strategic, core component of an organization if there is no clear owner and leader for analytics at the corporate level?

How Sephora Discovered That Lurkers Are Also Its “Superfans”– That tech support or beauty advice web community you visit? There’s a marketing team behind it looking for big insights.

The Left Brain and Right Brain of Social Media Management – At Head Of Lettuce Media, people usually notice right off the bat that we are quite like an episode of Perfect Strangers, as a right brain and a left brain working together. But it is what makes us as a team work so well, we are good at what we do in our own fields of social media.

New Community and Social Media Jobs:

  1. Social Media Community Manager – Creative Circle – Boston, MA
  2. Community Manager – Favor – Boston, MA
  3. Community Manager – CustomMade – Cambridge, MA
  4. Community Manager – Massdrop – San Francisco, CA 
  5. Community Manager – Needle  – Bluffdale, UT 
  6. Community Manager – Hotlist – New York, NY
  7. Social Community Manager – First Tech Credit Union – Portland, OR
  8. Community Support – – United States
  9. Online Community Manager – DDC Advocacy  – Washington, DC
  10. Online Community Manager – American Sportfishing Association – Alexandria, VA
  11. Manager Community  – Sanofi – Bridgewater, NJ
  12. Communication Specialist II – KCP&L – Kansas City, MO
  13. Manager, Public Relations and Social Media – Futurpreneur Canada – Toronto, ON
  14. Community Manager – Desire2Learn Incorporated – Kitchener, ON
  15. Social Media Community Manager – Intern – Literally – Toronto, ON
  16. Communications Manager – Sega of America, Inc. & Relic Entertainment – Vancouver, BC
  17. Community Manager – 3 Degrees Creative Resourcing Inc – Toronto, ON
  18. Community Manager (Co-op) – RBC – Toronto, ON
  19. Content & Social Community Manager – WorldPay – Londo
  20. Social Media and Community Manager – Lebara Group – Londo
  21. Community Manager, Oxford Global Languages – Oxford University Press – Oxford
  22. Global Community and Pro Liaisons Manager – Gamesys – London

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Want to get involved with the community work at TheCR? Learn more about our training, advisory and networking services!

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