The Community Roundtable

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

Maximilian Ebnother on Managing Cultural Differences

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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

  1. What’s your best advice for someone just starting out in Community Management?
  2. What are your best practices for increasing community engagement?Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 3.52.15 PM
  3. How can you survive the zombie apocalypse? (Ok – they might not ALL be community questions…)

Episode #38 features Maximilian Ebnother, Enterprise Community Manager at a global technology company. Join us as we chat about the impact of executive engagement, best practices for managing cultural differences worldwide, and how Max got the nickname “The Connector”!

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available on itunes

 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.

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: November 2015

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By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable

Are you feeling grateful? I am feeling immensely grateful for the community superstars I get to work with every day inside TheCR Network.

Here’s a sneak peek into what’s been going on inside TheCR Network this past month:

  • NEW NETWORK LAUNCH! (Milestone) What did we do in November? We invited our members into our brand new, shiny platform with all the bells and whistles. We’ve been working on this for the better part of 2015 and it was so exciting to finally bring in our members. We’re very happy with how smooth the launch went and it’s fun to see our members take advantage of the new platform capabilities.
  • Letting Go of the Reins: Bringing a New Community Manager into Your Community (Member Call): You are a solo practitioner who has built your community with tears, sweat and blood. You’ve done such a great job that you have secured the the resources to hire a new community manager so you can work more strategically. That was the scenario for this member call and we had three teams on a panel to discuss best practices from the perspective of both the hiring manager and the new community manager. It was a stellar conversation and I look forward to archiving the reports in the member library.
  • Gamification Study Group (Concentrated learning experience): After working with Jeff Merrell from Northwestern’s Masters in Learning & Organizational Change Program we have been thinking about designing a learning experience for members to encourage an optimal learning experience on a specific topic. We know that gamification is a hot topic for practitioners and we knew folks were signing up for the Coursera course with Kevin Werbach so we designed a study group encouraging interested members to take the course with the support of  TheCR study group. We have active discussions around lessons and homework in the forums and an open office hours session in Slack every Friday afternoon. It’s been great and we’re just a few week’s in.

Those are my big highlights for the month, but there’s not enough room to tell you about our active work out loud threads, discussions and other programs. If you are interested I hope you’ll join us!

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

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Learn more about TheCR Network at our monthly webinar. In December Hillary will highlight new member welcome programs. Join us!

Time to #thankitforward – Looking Back and Giving Thanks

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

snoopygratefulWe’re on our third year championing the idea of #thankitforward here on TheCR blog and in TheCR Network. This is our official kick off to our third year of looking back and giving thanks to those that helped us work, grow and thrive in the past year!

In the spirit of reflection and gratitude we encourage you to look back at 2015 and identify three (or more!) people who made a difference in your work and life this past year and send them a thank you via email, snail mail, or Twitter, snapchat, vine, flashmob or whatever medium works best for you. 

Think about:

  • Who inspired you? Brought on a “aha moment”?
  • Who was unwavering in their support of your work?
  • Which exec made a difference with their sponsorship or participation?
  • Which community member or advocate showed up in a big way?
  • Who covered you so you could unplug for a vacation — whether a day or a week?
  • Who talked you through a tough situation?
  • Whose blog posts or Twitter handle kept you well informed? Or laughing!

You get the idea! We’d love if you tag any social thanks #thankitforward so we can see the gratitude spread. Of course – some thanks yous are private and we 100% encourage those as well. Our goal is to inspire reflection on your journey this past year, and help identify those that helped make it possible.

So tell us. Who will you be thanking it forward to this year? We’ll be sharing our #thankitforward posts over the next three weeks and we can’t wait to see yours!

 

Jeff Ross on Building a Community Playbook

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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

  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 can you survive the zombie apocalypse? (Ok – they might not ALL be comm
    unity questions…)

Episode #35 features Jeff Ross, Community Manager and Strategist at Humana. Join us as we chat about building a community playbook, how running a successful twitter chat has influenced his community management style and how he maintains a community demeanor half-way between chilled-out and cheerleader.

 

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Subscribe to “Conversations with Community Managers” on iTunes!

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: October 2015

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By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable

If you ever want time to fly by simply plan a community migration — you’ll be wondering what the heck happened to the last few weeks and months. While we prep behind the scenes to launch TheCR Network on a new, shiny community platform our members have been busy learning and working together inside the current community.

Here’s a sneak peek into what’s been going on inside TheCR Network this past month:

  • 10 Fundamentals That Transcend All Community Use Cases (Member Call): We had the talented and charming Lisa Bidder (Lithium) to share her take on fundamentals that are necessary and work in every community use case. It was a very popular call and one of the most popular take-aways was the importance of defining the shared value of the community for its members and the organization.
  • Peer to Peer Coaching Programs: How Social Learning Builds Thriving Workplace Communities (Member Call): Phil LeNir of Coaching Ourselves came in to share how peer to peer coaching models encourages learning and productivity in the company. He had some fascinating stats from a company that has implemented the peer to peer model and tracked the results.
  • Work Out Loud: Every week we host a “working out loud” thread for members to share their top priorities for the week and this past month our WOL threads were on fire! Members followed up with each other asking for shared resources based on what they shared and we were able to connect members with people and resources that support their work. Winning!

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

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Interested in TheCR Networkbut have a few questions?  Join Hillary for our first webinar focused on TheCR Network, where she’ll share an inside look at membership and highlight best practices for member leadership programs. https://the.cr/1LMb0d2

Clint Heath on Spearheading a Grassroots Community Effort

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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 clint heath, cloudera

  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 can you survive the zombie apocalypse? (Ok – they might not ALL be comm
    unity questions…)

Episode #34 features Clint Heath,  Community Manager at Cloudera. Join us as we chat about his move from engineering to community management, how he spearheaded a grassroots community effort at his organization and why friendliness is a super superpower.

 

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Subscribe to “Conversations with Community Managers” on iTunes!

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Ivonne Smith on Advice for New Community Managers

By

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 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 can you survive the zombie apocalypse? (Ok – they might not ALLIvonne Smith, Skillsoft be community questions…)

Episode #32 features Ivonne Smith, Global Manager, Client Engagement at Skillsoft. Join us as we  chat with Ivonne about her best advice for new community managers, how can organizations use their communities to enhance their learning programs and speed traps in Arizona…

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You can now access every episode of “Conversations with Community Managers” on iTunes!

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Nicole Fusz on the “Unicorn Metric”

By

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 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?nicoelfusz
  3. Who has the best recipe for cappuccino angel food cake? (Ok – they might not ALL be community questions…)

Episode #31 features Nicole Fusz, the Community Manager for Premier Farnell/element14. Join us as we chat with Nicole about what she’d change about her community if she had a time machine, how she’s hunting for the “unicorn metric” for her community, and her thoughts on the zombie apocalypse.

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Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Don’t miss the whole series of Conversations with Community Managers featuring community professionals from GM, Sony, Mastercard and more!

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.

Lori Harrison-Smith on the Challenges of Managing a Diverse and Dispersed Workforce

By

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 their community journey. They ask the community questions you want to know the answers to, including:

  1. Lori Harrison-Smith Project Leader & Enterprise Community Manager at SteelcaseWhat’s your best advice for someone just starting out in Community Management?
  2. What are your best practices for increasing community engagement?
  3. How would you survive the zombie apocalypse? (Ok – they might not ALL be community questions…)

Episode #30 features Lori Harrison-Smith, Project Leader & Enterprise Community Manager at Steelcase. Listen in as we chat about the challenges of managing a diverse and dispersed workforce, the power of empathy and a really great recipe for angel food cake!

 

 

Don’t miss the whole series of Conversations with Community Managers featuring community professionals from GM, Sony, Mastercard and more!

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Patrick Hellen, Part Two on His Community Superpower

By

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 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?Patrick Hellen
  3. How would you survive the zombie apocalypse? (Ok – they might not ALL be community questions…)

This is part two of Episode #29, featuring Patrick Hellen, Director of Community and Engagement at Deep Information Services. Listen in as we chat about his community superpower (hint: it’s not humility) and what he learned about community management by growing a sketchy moustache.

 

Don’t miss Part One of our conversation with Patrick.

 

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Join the community conversation in our facebook group!

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS