The Community Roundtable

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

Infographic: Drive Success with Basic Executive Coaching

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This is a guest post by Dennis Shiao, our partner at DNN Software. You can learn more about DNN here. 

executive-participation-requires-a-little-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.

EXECUTIVES ARE NATURAL COMMUNICATORS

Think about typical executives: they’re transparent, they’re strong communicators and they lead by example. Sounds like a killer combination for a community member, right? Yes. That being said, just like the CEO who needs some “101 training” before she joins Twitter, executives will need coaching on rules, conventions and guidelines for online community participation.

Have your community manager(s) sit down with executives to provide coaching around the following.

1) SHARE CONTENT AND PROVIDE FEEDBACK

Executives are used to commanding the ship and speaking to large audiences. Their first inclination may be to write lengthy posts, to share their thoughts with the community. While there’s certainly a time and place for that, the first step is to navigate through the various areas of the community and provide feedback.

The analogy is the President who walks through a neighborhood and shakes everyone’s hand. Executives should actively share content they find interesting. They should also provide feedback in the form of liking posts and up-voting ideas.

2) BLEND IN WITH THE CROWD

At an in-person gathering, it may be difficult for the company CEO to blend in with the crowd. It’s easier in an online community. Executive participation is more effective when executives are perceived to be “one of us” and engage naturally and organically with other members. By engaging naturally, executives will gain the respect of community members and they’ll encourage non-active members to become active.

3) PERFORM ACTIVE LISTENING

Some executives have an open door policy. Others hold “town hall meetings” to engage with employees. Executives value employee feedback. An online community brings together the best elements of an open door policy and a town hall meeting. But for it to work well, executives need to visit the community often and do a good job of active listening.

4) PROVIDE AN OFFICIAL COMMENT WHEN NEEDED

An executive has the authority to provide an official answer (from the organization) when needed. In an employee community, perhaps there’s angst over rumored layoffs. An executive can issue an official statement about that. In a customer community, member unrest may unfold over a pricing increase. An executive can publish a blog post to explain the company’s reasoning behind the pricing change.

AN INFOGRAPHIC ON COACHING EXECUTIVES FOR ENGAGEMENT

The Community Roundtable created an infographic. It includes interesting statistics on the benefits of executive participation. You’ll also find tips on how to coach executives around online community participation.

Infographic-Executives and Online Communities_Final

Infographic-Executives and Online Communities_Final

This post was originally published at https://www.dnnsoftware.com/blog/executive-participation-in-online-communities-drive-success-with-basic-coaching-infographic.

Infographic: Social Media Etiquette for Business

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable

Earlier this week we shared three best practices for budgeting community and social media programs that were culled from some interesting discussions between members inside TheCR Network (missed it? check out the post & best practices here.) 2015 might feel far away (and I don’t want to wish away my favorite season of falling leaves and pumpkin spice lattes!) but it’s really never too early to think defining goals for the upcoming year, determining your community and social media priorities and beginning to assign resources to help you achieve them.

For today’s Infographic Thursday I wanted to share a fun graphic that outlines the basics of social media etiquette that is relevant for both community managers and social media managers. This is a great primer if you’re looking to start incorporating basic social media channels into your community programs. Do you already use social media platforms like facebook, twitter or pinterest as part of a larger community initiative? Which platforms best help you connect more closely with your members? We’d love to hear your social media success stories!

social media Etiquette

This infographic was created by TollFreeForwarding.com.

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Need to increase executive engagement in your community, but not sure where to start? The Social Executive Toolkit is designed to help social and community teams understand executive adoption so that they can effectively coach executives. This Toolkit provides case studies, templates, worksheets and actionable insights to help you increase executive engagement! Get started today!

Infographic Thursday: Seven Criteria for Hiring Community Managers

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

We’ve already talked about the traits to look for when hiring a community manager this week – so you can imagine our delight when we saw this awesome infographic from our friends at DNN titled “Seven Criteria for Hiring Online Community Managers.” In addition to the top seven traits they suggest you look for when hiring for a community manager the accompanying post includes a great list of potential interview questions for community roles . Their top interview questions for community managers include:

Q1: Describe your most stressful moment as a community manager, along with your solution for reducing the stress.

Q2: How do you know what’s happening in your community and what do you do with that information?

Q3: Do you interact with some community members differently than others – and if so, how?

There are four more great interview questions in the original post over on the DNN blog. Check it out and let us know what your favorite interview question is for community manager roles – we might even feature it in a new post!

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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.

 

Infographic: The Community Roundtable’s 5th Anniversary

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

A BUTCHY SKYWRITING 25

When we started thinking about how to celebrate our five year anniversary we threw around a lot of ideas. Sky writing! Singing telegrams! Surprise visits with flowers and candy for every member of TheCR Network!

Ok, maybe grand gestures like that weren’t in the cards. But, we did want to find a way to share our excitement and highlight some of the coolest moments in our first five years. If you’ve been reading along you’ve seen our interviews with early community practitioners and our podcast series with Rachel and Jim about the history of the Community Roundtable. We’re even hosting a party on 4/15/14 in Boston that we’d love to see you at.

The truth is, you know we love a good infographic, and that seemed like a natural way to share some of our favorite moments. Without further ado, please enjoy our retrospective infographic – celebrating our most memorable milestones from 2008 until now.

anniversary infographic

Do you have a favorite moment that we missed? Add it in the comments! Who knows, maybe it will make our 10-year infographic!

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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. 

Infographic: 2014 SOCM Sneak Peek – April 1st

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

After sharing our sneak peek podcast yesterday I knew that I had to give you an early look at the numbers. Rachel mentioned some key findings in the podcast – I’m not going to share those, but I am excited to share a little more about what the 2014 research said about community managers.

2014 SOCM April 1st                          Download the infographic to share: 2014 SOCM Infographic- April 1st

Happy April 1st everyone! We’ll be releasing the actual State of Community Management research report later this month – stay tuned and have a great day!

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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. 

 

Community Managers Are the Superheroes of Their Companies (Infographic)

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable. 

In honor of #CMAD last week the great folks over at Get Satisfaction put together the infographic below -Community Managers Are the Superheroes of Their Companies.  Besides creating an infographic that is fun to look at they really hit the nail on the head. I often joke (and even state in my twitter bio) that punctuality is my superpower. I have the uncanny ability to be five minutes early for everything (is this because I leave myself an hour to travel 30 minutes? I’ll never tell…) Community managers make my superpower look like nothing. Many have the ability to soothe an angry member with a few kind words. Others can spark excitement and engagement with the flick of a mouse.

Enjoy the infographic and please let us know – what’s your community management superpower?

CMAD Superheros

This infographic originally appeared at Get Satisfaction.

Building Reputation: Your Reputation Lives Forever [Infographic]

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By Shannon DiGregorio, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

This week we’ve been thinking about building reputation as a trusted expert in social and community matters. Equally important is the reputation that your brand has online – and as an extension of that the online reputation of everyone that works to promote your brand. There’s no need to discuss the horror stories of a sassy PR person gone rogue with poor judgement on Twitter  – we’ve all seen the news. Today’s infographic is a quick look at how a company’s reputation can affect how consumers interact with them – and ultimately the business they do.

Review communities have become a staple of online researching. It’s no surprise that 90% of people trust recommendations from others – we are big fan of WOMMA and word-of-mouth marketing is powerful stuff. Digging deeper, a whooping 70% of people trust the recommendation of an unknown user! Clearly, nurturing your brand’s online reputation is critical.  Check out this great infographic from Digital Firefly Marketing and learn how you can protect your reputation online.

Reputation Management

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

 

How do you think about brand protect and reputation management? Have you ever had to deal with a reputation crisis at work?

The Value Of Social Business – Infographic

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As we continue the conversation on the value of community management I think it’s helpful to take a step back and think about social business as whole. This weeks infographic, originally published on MindJet is a great look at how companies think about social as a business tool.

Not surprisingly, the highest reported uses are for marketing and customer service. A whopping 77%  of respondents are not actively measuring the ROI of their social business programs – more support for the idea that measurement and metrics are huge topics in the social media and community world for 2014.

Social Business Infographic

 

Is tracking ROI high on your priority list for 2014? What metrics do you have in place to accurately assess the impact of your community or social initiatives?

 

 

Advisory:
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The Community Roundtable offers customized advisory workshops that are ideal for companies looking to start their journey, build out their community program or grow a community program that is not yet at its full potential. Sessions can be conducted in person or virtually and are designed to meet your needs.

Learn more.

Friday Roundup – A Team That Snow Angels Together…

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By Shannon DiGregorio, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

TheCR Team celebrating a great 2013 at our end of the year meeting.

TheCR Team celebrating a great 2013 at our end of the year meeting.

This was an exciting week for TheCR team. On Wednesday we had the whole team together for a day of reflection and planning – as well as a little fun! There are so many perks to being part of a company where working at home is the norm. My commute is pretty amazing, we have the flexibility to walk our dogs or meet up with peers for lunch and if I wanted, sweatpants could be my uniform. But with all the benefits there is still something invaluable about sitting around an actual round table with my co-workers. I can confidently speak for all of us when I say we are all energized and excited for everything that 2014 will bring, including a wealth of opportunities to build on and share what we know.

We want to extend our warmest wishes for the rest of 2013 and hoping you too come back energized and ready for what 2014 will bring – we cannot wait to see you then!