The Community Roundtable

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

5 Reasons Using Internal Talent is Good for Community

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Community managers tend to reside at the intersection where creatives and strategics meet, and as a result, they can sometimes take on too much on their own. When that happens, burnout isn’t far behind, but it doesn’t need to be. Why? Most community managers have a huge untapped resource at their fingertips to help them avoid burning the candle at both ends, their internal talent (both in other employees and in community members)!

Why? Easy, they bring a variety of voices and expertise into your programming. 

This is powerful for a number of reasons.

A lightbulb lays on a black chalkboard. Three lines and idea bubbles lead off to the right from it.

1. Internal talent can help scale the workload

If running a program is a lot of work, then running every community program can be just plain overwhelming. Bring in your community members to help redistribute the workload from your plate. Turning to the internal talent you trust on your team — or in your community — to help with programming lets you tackle other things on your to-do list.

2. Using internal talent strengthens members’ commitment

What are your members more likely to pay greater attention to:

  • A community where someone else does all the work?
  • One where they’ve invested in the community’s success?

Spoon-feeding content and programming directly to your members and hoping for engagement might seem like the easiest path forward, but like with most things, just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s right. Your members will have more of a vested interest in the community if they contribute to its well-being. Providing opportunities for your community’s internal talent — those who feel up to the challenge — to create programming not only lets others step into the spotlight, but it also allows members to reinforce or share their knowledge with others.

3. Presenting provides valuable skills for members, and you

We’ve heard the saying that practice makes perfect, but this is an instance where it’s true! Being able to present effectively is a powerful skill. Practicing presenting in the community can help your internal talent grow not just as members, but as professionals. Added bonus? Managing the program strategy — instead of just the implementation — is a great skill for community managers interested in moving up in their own careers.

4. You don’t know everything

You may know your community better than anyone, but there’s so much your members are interested in learning and hearing about – you couldn’t possible be able to provide everything they need. Utilize the built-in experts in your community who know more about other relevant subjects to bring in new perspectives and areas of interest. This allows members to bring insights —and questions — to the table you might not think of.

5. Community skeptics be gone

Want someone to take a greater interest in the community? The easiest way to turn a naysayer into an advocate is to have them present to the community on a topic of interest. It’s a great way to get them connected with other members and see what the community is all about — from the safety of their comfort zone.

Long story short, utilizing internal community talent is a surefire way to engage your community. It’s better for you, better for your members, and better for your community at large. So, who are the untapped experts you’re going to reach out to?

Leverage external sources for low-lift community programs

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The Content & Programs competency of the Community Maturity Model™  examines the resources and interactions a community offers its members, and is the lifeblood of a successful community program. Content gives people a reason to visit (and return to) a community, while programs create opportunities for members to connect, creating tighter bonds. Content & programs must reflect the shared value of the community and its members, while a program plan tied to the larger community strategy can lead to valuable engagement behaviors.

Savvy community teams leverage external sources to create content and facilitate programs for their members — whether SMEs, executives, or strategic partners.

Leverage external sources for low-lift community programs

Using external sources is a “work smarter, not harder” way to scale your community team. Two notable examples of external community contributors that jumped in 2022:

  • Peers from other areas of the organization (50% vs. 43% in 2021)
  • Vendors/partners (20% vs. 15% in 2021)

Member participation in content & programs dropped year over year, likely due to fatigue and burnout associated with COVID-19. While this would normally be seen as a negative, it’s actually a balanced approach to content & program development, and member participation remains at a healthy level.

Reminder: You won’t successfully attract (and retain) outside voices to your content & programs without a formal plan. This is the year to formalize a content & program plan.

The community budget for content & programs has more than doubled in the last three years (3% in 2020 vs. 7% in 2022). This is a win for a critical piece of the community-building puzzle. As your content & programs budget grows, ensure you’re moving toward a formal plan aligned with your community strategy – which might include paid programs for external contributors. This will allow you to show your content & program efforts are growing engagement and meeting (or exceeding!) your community’s goals.

Content Pro Tip from Kelly Munro, Lead Community Advisor, Xero, and member of TheCR Network

If you’re at an organization with an existing marketing team you might have a goldmine of content at your disposal.

"Don’t forget about all of the content support that you’ve got within your business. If you have a great content team already, they may already have a good structured understanding of user behavior. Make sure you aren’t creating conflicting content or programs, so just make sure that everything works harmoniously."

“Don’t forget about all of the content support that you’ve got within your business. If you have a great content team already, they may already have a good structured understanding of user behavior. Make sure you aren’t creating conflicting content or programs, so just make sure that everything works harmoniously.”

Get more community ideas and advice in 13th annual 2022 State of Community Management report:

(Roundtable) How To Scale Your ERGs

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How do you scale an Employee Resource Group (ERGs)? “ERGs are employee-led groups whose main goal is to support employees who share similar characteristics or backgrounds.” Sometimes ERGs seem to fall short on the impact it has on internal communities. ERGs provide opportunities for employees to learn, share, and be heard…they increase awareness and establish safe spaces for meaningful conversations and much more.

Who is this call for:

  • You’ve started an ERG or have multiple ERGs
  • You’re wondering what’s next for your ERGs
  • You’re thinking of starting an ERG
  • You’re curious what ERGs are about

October in TheCR Network: Community Leadership & Careers

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After a fantastic TheCR Connect conference, we’re looking forward to continuing all of the different conversations that we started as discussions in TheCR Network for the next several months. We joined and heard conversations around a variety of topics including tools & platforms, Centers of Excellence, executives & proving value, and leadership & careers.

To get to further explore some of these areas, we’ll be digging in and exploring a particular theme in October as we did in September.

For October, we’ll be looking more at Leadership and Careers:

One of the topics that I was most interested in hearing about at Connect was the definition of leadership and how we, as community professionals, understand, use, and leverage our leadership in our communities as well as in our own organizations.

Around the topic of leadership & careers, we’ll be hosting the following events for members of TheCR Network (with more to come!):

Rest assured, we won’t be only discussing leadership & careers this month. We’ll also be hosting a variety of calls meant to continue a diverse set of discussions in TheCR Network, also leaving room for spur of the moment conversation:

With members who are at all stages in their community leadership journey — from just starting out in community to owning director-level roles — we’re looking forward to getting to hear about how they furthered their careers, developed their skills, and led their own community programs.

If you’re looking at your own community career and skillsets, or if you’re looking for leadership opportunities, October is a fantastic time to join TheCR Network and take part in the conversation.

Peter Broadley on Effective Community Programs

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Conversations with Community Managers – Peter Broadley

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 start a running club wherever you go!

Episode #52 features Peter Broadley, Manager, Community Development and Engagement at CSA Group.

Podcast: Conversations with Community Managers – Peter Broadley
Podcast: Conversations with Community Managers – Peter Broadley
Peter + TheCR Connect Run Club

Listen in as we chat about how Peter uses in-person events to drive online participation, how joining a working group has impacted his community and the innate ability of community managers to create meaningful interactions wherever they go. Oh, and if you’re in the Toronto area drop Peter a line and join his co-working group!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

CMGT 101: The Power of Engaging Community Programming

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Note: This content appears in a slightly different form in our ebook: CMGT 101: 17 CommunityLeaders Share Their Secrets for Success.CMGT 101 is packed with engagement ideas, governance tips, career advice, and more from community leaders working at innovative organizations like CA Technologies, Aetna, Electronic Arts, SAP, Pearson, Akamai, and Atlassian. 

Download the ebook here for free.

Lori Harrison-Smith is a Community Strategist at Steelcase and has worked in community management for six years. Her community has ~8,000 members. She shared her best practices for creating engaging programming in CMGT 101.

We use a question of the week to successfully engage our members. Posting a weekly question in your community can help to spur some of your hesitant users to get engaged. It’s a simple, low-effort way for users to participate and get to know each other – around business or personal topics. And from there it will become a habit to interact.

DO KEEP THINGS SIMPLE

Questions shouldn’t require a novella to answer. This is important, especially in the beginning. One of the first questions asked in our campaign was “Where are you from?” It was super easy for people to jump into the conversation.

DO GET USERS INVOLVED

We reached out to some of our power users with some sample questions and had them start the conversations. That way it didn’t come across as a “planned” promotion, but instead seemed more organic.

DON’T LEAVE THE QUESTION ASKER HANGINGengaging programming

Some questions are easier to jump into than others. If we noticed a question was sitting without a response for a few hours, we would reach out to some of our users behind the scenes and ask if they would help generate some interest.

PRO TIP

Come up with a wide list of questions beforehand so you can carry out the campaign for a while. We then built a “calendar” with people who agreed to participate and had them post their questions each Monday.

Download the CMGT 101 ebook and learn more! 

 

TheCR Network Year In Review 2017 Infographic

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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!

Five Can’t Miss Community Programming Ideas

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Our State of Community Management research makes it clear: thoughtful content and programs increase engagement and drive the long-term success of communities.

Content and programs are often seen as one collective entity, but they serve two different roles for communities: content connects people into the community, while programs create opportunities for members to connect with each other. Both have value and both are needed.

In this new ebook we share five programs that drive long-term engagement and increase the ways your members connect. You’ll learn about:

  • member spotlights
  • ask me anythings
  • work out louds
  • photo sharing contests
  • questions of the week

and how to implement them in your community. Pro-tip – it might be easy to launch a new program, but don’t expect overnight success. This is definitely a case of “slow and steady wins the [engagement] race.” Get your members used to these new, regular programs and engagement will follow. Do not be discouraged if it takes awhile – stick with it.

https://www.slideshare.net/rhappe/five-cant-miss-community-programming-ideas

Download the free ebook. 

Best Practices for Building an Editorial Calendar

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Georgina Cannie shares best practices for building an editorial calendar for an online community program, as well as a look at the research, programming and professional development available exclusively to members of The Network.

Building an editorial calendar for your community program will increase overall engagement by setting a predictable schedule for programming, but still leaves room for experimenting, adjusting and adapting to the specific needs of your community.

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.

Best Practices for Content Programming

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Best Practices for Content Programming

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!