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Friday Roundup: The Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 is Here

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Community Manager Salary SurveyWe are so excited to finally be able to share the full results from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014. It’s a great time to be a community manager as companies big and small are starting to recognize that is a critical skill to help transform their organizations for a digitally connected world. Check out the full report and please let us know what you think!

Download the Report Now >>

Community News and Articles from Around the Web: 

Could IBM Watson Be an Online Community Manager? – Your typical community manager: two eyes, two ears, two hands. Between 5 and 6 feet high, 150 to 225 pounds. IBM Watson: 10 racks of IBM Power 750 servers, 2,880 processor cores, 15 terabytes of RAM, 4 terabytes of disk space and 200 million pages of stored content.

Social Media Manager or Community Manager? – I’ve led social media and community management for companies, hired, and worked with many social media managers and community managers. Let’s be honest – the two roles are often confused. The number of blog posts explaining the difference should be a tip-off. In Australia, for example, most Community Manager jobs advertised are actually Social Media Manager jobs.

New Research: The Emerging Career Path for Community Professionals – It’s a great time to be a community manager. Companies big and small are starting to recognize that is a critical skill to help transform their organizations for a digitally connected world. (Results from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014)

So You Want to Be an Online Community Manager? – Because I write a lot about online communities and online community management, I’ve had people ask me, “I’d like to make a career change into community management. Where do I start?” The first thing I tell them is that I’m not a community manager.

Why Community Manager Should Be Your Association’s Next Hire – It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about my favorite topic, association community management, right? I’m not currently working in the association world, but I still strongly believe in the importance of associations and can’t help but think “how does this apply to associations” when I read pretty much anything. This was especially true when I read this article about how startups are flocking to hire community managers, which quotes one of my idols, Rachel Happe.

Free Webinar Alert – Community Manager Spotlight: AMA with Becky Scott, Sr. Community Engagement Manager at iTalent – We had so much fun with out last community manager AMA we couldn’t wait to bring you another. Join us for this 30 minute webinar on Tuesday, December 2nd at 2pm ET for an AMA (ask me anything) chat with Becky Scott, Sr. Community Engagement Manager at iTalent.

Free Webinar Alert: Using Community Management to Drive Engagement in Higher Ed – Join Mike Mathews, CIO at Oral Roberts University and Rachel Happe, Founder and Principal at The Community Roundtable as they share best practices for implementing community programs in higher education and supporting research from the State of Community Management 2014.

New Community and Social Media Jobs: 

  1. Community Manager – Trusted Insight, Inc. – New York, NY
  2. Social Media Community Manager – St. John & Partners Advertising – Jacksonville, FL
  3. Community Manager, OpenIDEO – IDEO – San Francisco, CA
  4. Digital Writer/Community Manager – DrivingSales – Sandy, UT
  5. Community Manager – Smart Sparrow – San Francisco, CA
  6. Community Manager – Advanstar Communications Inc. – Iselin, NJ
  7. Community Manager – CustomMade Ventures – Boston, MA
  8. Jive Internal Community Manager – Firmenich – Princeton, New Jersey
  9. Community Manager Mobile Application – AC Lion  New York, NY
  10. Social Media Web Developer – Garmin – Olathe, KS
  11. Manager, Global Brand Management, ACUVUE® Brand, Social Media – Johnson & Johnson – Jacksonville, FL
  12. Social Media Assistant – re׃group inc. – Ann Arbor, MI
  13. Social Media Coordinator – Marsh Supermarkets – Indianapolis, IN
  14. Social Media Co-op – Keurig – Burlington, MA
  15. Social Associate – Starcom Mediavest Group – Chicago, IL

Building a Community Roadmap

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

building a community roadmapWe are excited to share with you a free eBook based on the findings in the State of Community Management 2014 report – Building a Community Roadmap. The State of Community Management 2014 research found that the best–in-class communities are more likely to be able to translate an approved strategy into realistic planning. As a result, 85 percent of them can measure their value, however building a roadmap can be a daunting task for any community manager. This new eBook answers the questions:

  1. Why are community roadmaps important? First, we take a look at what a community roadmap is and its place in your community program. We’ll review how a community roadmap sets your community up for success, along with actionable advice about aligning priorities, communicating value and organizing planning in your community programs.
  2. What is the Community Maturity Model?
    Next, we’ll review the Community Maturity Model as a framework for productive communities. We also consider the elements of a productive community in order to help you start, build and grow a productive online community
  3. How do I build a roadmap using the Community Maturity Model?
    Lastly, we’ll give you some examples, templates and instructions for building a roadmap for your community. You’ll be able to use these provided resources to get started on drafting your community’s roadmap today.

This eBook, Building a Community Roadmap, is sponsored by Enterprise Hive.  You can download the eBook for free today!

 
Building-Community-Roadmap-ebookDownload

Introducing the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 Infographic

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.Jive Webinar: Deep Dive on The Community Manager Role

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

We surveyed more than 350 internal and external community managers, strategists and directors for this first-ever survey, asking them to share information including their salary, their expertise and responsibilities, their experience, and their career path. The infographic was released Wednesday night during JiveWorld14. (Jive Software is sponsoring the infographic and upcoming publication of the survey data.)

The infographic represents the first research results from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014. It highlights the salary range for internal and external community professionals, and illustrates the demonstrable career path for those who want to use their skills and experience in more strategic roles. Rachel shared her perspective earlier today:

“The new research highlights a number of what were unproven truths in the community space and adds new insights. It makes clear that community management as a discipline has matured to the point where not only are there great, well-paying jobs to be had, but there is also a clear career path for career professionals.”

You can head over to the official CMSS 2014 Infographic page to download the entire high-res infographic and sign up to be notified when the full Community Manager Salary Survey is released later this year.

Careers in Community Management

Careers in Community Management

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Free Jive Webinar

Join The Community Roundtable and Jive as we dig into the community manager role.

Deep Dive into the Community Manager RoleEvent Date: Tuesday, November 18thEvent Time: 10am PT/1pm ET

The Community Manager Salary Salary research aims to bring more awareness to what community managers can expect in their career and what hiring managers should know to grow effective community programs. This new research from The Community Roundtable takes a comprehensive look at community manager roles.

Learn more >>

 Register Now

The Evolution of Community Management: Preliminary Data from the CMSS 2014

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By Rachel Happe, Co-Founder and Principal at The Community Roundtable.

CMSS Data 2014

Online community management is far from new – it’s been around since the beginning of the Internet, and in more formal capacities at media companies since the 90s. Our aggregate understanding of the role, however, is still evolving. What we know from our work over the last five years with clients is that the role varies pretty dramatically based on the strategic importance of the community, experience and responsibility level of the community manager, community use case and the maturity of the community program.

The Community Roundtable, has invested in a new research platform – our Community Manager Salary Survey – to look at community manager profiles across these variables in order to develop a skill, responsibility and compensation matrix. This data will help both community professionals and hiring community managers evaluate and assess the worth of different roles within community management.

Some preliminary findings that were interesting to me:

  • Of those respondents with ‘community’ in their title, 69% were Community Managers, 18% were Community Strategists and 13% were Directors of Community. We had no VPs of Community complete the survey (if you are one,please consider participating in the research).
  • Data on how community professionals are hired suggests HR is still absent in recruiting. 22% of community professionals defined their own role before moving into it and 27% were found by hiring managers directly.
  • External (customer and market-facing) community professionals still dominate. 63% of responses were from external community managers, 24% was from internal community managers and 13% worked in other types of community managers.
  • Almost half of all community professionals in the survey have been in their role for one year or less.
  • 37% of community professionals have been promoted – encouraging confirmation that there is a career path within the field of community management.
  • 52% are evaluated by their ability to deliver business outcomes suggesting that organizations are figuring out how to value communities and community management.

While this preliminary data is great, we want to make sure we are capturing the entire range of community management roles and experiences. We are still looking for participation, particularly if you fit into any of the following categories:

  • You own or manage an employee facing community
  • You manage a community but it’s not your sole responsibility or title (i.e. you are a Director of Marketing that owns a community)
  • You are a senior or experienced community professional
  • You work in a traditional industry like manufacturing, energy, financial services, health care and professional services

We are closing the survey soon – please consider contributing today. It takes approximately 10-15 minutes.

By participating, you will help us develop the most robust and accurate information we can so you have the data you need to prove your worth or align your hiring and job descriptions with industry realities.

We take your privacy very seriously and the only individuals who have access to raw data are two members of TheCR team. We do not share any raw (individual) data points with the rest of TheCR team, partners or clients.

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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. 

 

Industry Interview: Dennis Shiao, DNN

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

dennis-shiao-headshot-croppedWe were able to publish the State of Community Management 2014 through the generous support of our sponsors. We are lucky enough to work with a number of partners in the community space that are helping advance the business of community, including DNN. Today I’d like to share an interview with Dennis Shiao, DNN‘s Director of Content Marketing .

Dennis is a contributing author to the book 42 Rules of Product Marketing and is Editor of the DNN blog. Feel free to reach out to Dennis via email, dennis.shiao@dnnsoftware.com or find him on Twitter, @dshiao.

Hi Dennis, can you start us off by telling me a little about DNN. How do you fit in the overall community market space?

We’re a marketing solutions (software) company based in the Bay Area, California. Our products and technology are the foundation for 750,000+ websites worldwide. In the online community market, what makes us unique is the tight integration between our Content Management System (CMS) and our online community solution.

Evoq Content (our CMS) and Evoq Social (our online community solution) sit atop the DNN Platform. When customers run our “suite” (Evoq Content+Social), their online community doesn’t need to sit on a separate subdomain. Instead, the online community and the website are one and the same. One user experience, one login (for end users) and one integration point to your back-end systems, such as CRM and marketing automation.

As a sponsor of the State of Community Management 2014, you clearly care about community. How do your customers typically use DNN to support their community business?

Our customers typically use our online community solution to solve a problem or to meet a business need. The specific use cases are varied. To start with, we often see customer communities, support communities and product communities (e.g. a community for a product’s end users to ask questions, solve problems and recommend product enhancements). We also have customers using Evoq Social for member communications (e.g. associations) and employee communications (e.g. sales intranet or sales extranet).

That’s a lot of use cases! It sounds like you support both internal and external communities?

Correct!

The SOCM 2014 shares insights through the framework of the Community Maturity Model. Of the eight community maturity competencies, which resonates with you as being most crucial?

Community Maturity Model

I view the eight competencies much like a parent sees their children: you try not to play favorites (and thankfully, I have less than eight children). But if you’re going to make me pick, I’m going to put my content marketing hat back on and select Content & Programming.

Sometimes with online communities, it becomes all too convenient to think that “user-generated content” will fuel the flames (of engagement) over the long term. Well, sometimes those flames start to die out and a little bit of kindling is needed to resuscitate it. That’s the role of content, as organized by the community manager. I wrote about this topic in a CMSWire article, “Online Communities Need a Spark? Turn to Original Content.”

We’d love to hear your take on some of the findings from the SOCM 2014 – what research surprised you the most?

The fact that internal communities have 33% more full-time community managers (on average) than external communities. I’ve always thought of internal communities as those that “managed themselves,” or were shepherded by a set of internal champions.

I’ve thought of external communities, on the other hand, as growing children who need a fair amount of supervision, direction and hand holding. Your research seems to show that the exact opposite is true: that external communities may be more effective at “self-management” (by its members), whereas the internal communities are ones that need a bit more hands-on management.

You mentioned that DNN provides a platform, a CMS and a community solution. How would you say DNN specifically supports community and social business professionals and helps them achieve their goals?

I’m responsible for content marketing at DNN, so my first answer is going to be “content.” In the past nine months, we’ve created a lot of content for community managers, in the form of blog posts, SlideShares, webinars, e-books and playbooks. Last year, we collaborated with TOPO on an Online Community Playbook, which was a popular resource for community managers.

At the same time, our products and services are well suited to community managers and business professionals. In the latest release of our online community software, we created a “Community Manager Experience,” a set of analytics dashboards that were uniquely designed for the community manager.

Last (but not least), we partner with leading organizations (like The Community Roundtable!) to collaborate around community management topics and research. We participate in online and face-to-face events as attendees, speakers and sponsors.

We talk a lot about company culture – what is something about DNN that makes it a unique place to work?

It’s the way in which disparate groups work and socialize so naturally with one another here. During my first month at DNN, we were at a social outing. I glance across the room and see our CTO and Co-Founder (Shaun Walker) casually chatting with three sales execs. At many companies, inter-group conversations don’t happen as naturally as they do here.

Also, we’re distributed geographically. Our main offices are in the Bay Area (headquarters) and in Langley, British Columbia (Engineering and Customer Success). But that doesn’t stop us from keeping everyone informed, because we use an internal community. We call our internal community “Catalyst.” My colleague Clint Patterson wrote about how it improved our internal communication.

We’d love to hear a case study about a client that uses DNN.

Microdesk, a leading information technology and software consulting provider, runs an online customer support community using Evoq Social. In the community, Microdesk customers are able to help one another. When needed, a member of Microdesk’s consulting team will jump in to help. Microdesk sees the community as not only a customer support channel, but one that builds thought leadership for its expert consulting team. It also drives higher customer retention.

Visit our website for more details from Microdesk.

If you were’t working at DNN what would you be doing?

I’d be the starting center fielder for the New York Yankees. Short of that, I’d be the Yankees beat writer for a New York newspaper.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? It doesn’t need to be community related.

I had a third grade teacher (Mrs. Brannick) who encouraged us to go the extra mile. She did this by instituting an “Extra Credit Award,” which was given out a few times a year. Participation was optional. But I just HAD to win this award! So I worked hard and made sure to always do more extra credit than anyone else. Classmates started to ask me if I’d let them win just once. That early exposure (to working hard) helps drive me to go the extra mile, even today.

That’s such a great story! I bet Mrs. Brannick would be proud of you! One last question – we joke a lot that successful community professionals are like super heros. So, what’s your super power?

I have an unheralded sense of humor. You might spend an entire week with me and never see it, but then it’ll catch you during the moment you least expect it. Please laugh when it happens.

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We are also very excited to be co-hosting a webinar with Dennis and the DNN team focused on highlights from the State of Community Management 2014. Learn more:

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The Community Roundtable is pleased to work with some of the best names in community and social business. Interested in working with us? We’re always looking for unique partners across the community ecosystem. Drop us a line if you’d like to explore partnership opportunities.

Announcing The State of Community Management 2014

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SOCM 2014 SponsorsBy Rachel Happe, Co-Founder of The Community Roundtable.

The fifth annual State of Community Management report is here!

A lot has changed in the five years we have been publishing this research and the State of Community Management 2014 continues to push the boundary of what we collectively know about community management. As the discipline has matured we have been able to translate much more of it into quantitative data. This year’s report is chock full of data, segmented and delivered in ways that will help you plan and act.

The report includes:

  • Key Findings
  • Findings by Community Maturity Model competency
  • Guidance on using the research, by competency
  • Best practices from TheCR Network, by competency
  • Additional resources

What you’ll see in the data is that community management is standardizing – but still not mature or completely integrated into core business processes. Most community initiatives now have approved community strategies, which is fantastic – and quite a change from the early days of shiny object syndrome. However, all to often those strategies are not mirrored by approved and resourced roadmaps, pointing to one of the biggest challenges in the space today – funding the resources and programs that will translate aspirations to reality.

Also encouraging is that the vast majority of best-in-class (most mature) communities can measure value, indicating an important shift in the market from something that was considered innovative and unproven to something that is understood and measurable.

This research was the result of a community effort that included TheCR Network members who guided our exploration, experts who helped tease out best practices, TheCR team who all contributed in ways large and small and finally our sponsors – DNN, Enterprise Hive, Jive, Lithium, and Sitrion – who made it all possible.

The collaboration across our community allowed us to bring this rich data to you. We hope you find it interesting but more importantly, we hope this data helps you succeed. If it does, we would love to hear about how you used it to plan your roadmap, educate stakeholders or justify your budget.

Happy reading!

 

 

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Did you know that 95% of TheCR Network members agree that the content and peer input improves the quality of their work? It’s true! Membership in TheCR Network saves community and social business leaders time and improves the quality of their work by connecting them quickly with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining TheCR Network can improve the work you do.

 

 

Podcast: State of Community Management 2014 Sneak Peek

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

April marks not only the 5th anniversary of The Community Roundtable, but also our 5th year publishing the annual State of Community Management research reports.

Last week I caught up with Rachel Happe for a preview of the research and got to chat about how the State of Community Management research has evolved in the last five years, what’s new for 2014 and got a sneak peek at three key findings in this year’s research.

The complete 2014 State of Community Management report will be released in late April. In the meantime, you can check out past reports from 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 – or download our State of Community Management Toolkit to access reports, the Community Maturity model and a helpful reference guide.

Stay tuned for the full findings!

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Did you know that The 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.

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Friday Roundup: January is in the Books

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

Another January in the books! The first month of 2014 flew by (personal note: I did get married and honeymoon this month, which probably helped the time move fast for me!) and our first experiment with themed content was a great learning exeperience. I really enjoyed sharing ideas and content around the theme of “Building Community” – next month we’re tackling the idea of “Connect” and I can’t wait to see what the month will bring!

This week there were two pretty big events on our radar #CMAD (Community Management Advancement Day) and the IBM Connect event in Orlando, FL. Both provided a wealth of really great content we want to share so the link list is extra long today.

  1. A fun list of the top 100 Community Managers on Twitter
  2. The first in our new Faces of Community Management profile series
  3. A growing list of community manager books.
  4. Should you give thanks (or a bonus?) to your community manager?
  5. Community Manager: Key to the Future of Business
  6. How to Truly Show Your Online Community Manager Appreciation
  7. Redefining management in the Digital Age
  8. Social Technologies: A Catalyst to the Practice of Knowledge Management
  9. Social Media Salary Guide – Infographic
  10. Social Business Myth Busters from Sandy Carter!
  11. Really great advice on approaching people who are smarter, busier, and more important than you
  12. 24 Community Management Tips from the Experts
  13. Why All Community Managers are Improv Artists
  14. Online Community ROI, Redefined (In Pictures)

Wow that’s a lot of links! We also launched the survey for our 2014 State of Community Management Report this month. If you haven’t taken it yet we’d love your input – we’re looking for community folks from every size company in every stage of the community journey. You can take the survey here. Thank you in advance for your help.

Have a great Superbowl weekend – I’ve got big plans that involve some homemade kettle corn and watching the game (and the commercials!) with friends. I’ll see you in February!

Call for Research Participants: 2014 State of Community Management

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2014 State of Community Management SurveyIt’s that time of year again! Today we’re excited to kick off the 2014 State of Community Management research – our annual research initiative which focuses on community maturity assessment and will explore the questions:

  • How are communities performing?
  • What are the standards and strengths of online communities today?
  • What opportunities should community managers focus on to grow their programs?

This year’s research was developed in collaboration with TheCR Network’s Community Maturity Assessment Working Group, a set of experienced community managers and practitioners. Data will determine how communities are performing in the eight competencies in TheCR’s Community Maturity Model.

The 2014 SOCM is designed to help participants and Community Audit clients build roadmaps like the one below. Framing current and desired performance by competency enables constructive dialog with stakeholders about strategic, budget and resource decisions – and helps you gain the support and resources you need to be successful.

Community Roadmap

Want to participate? We’re looking for community managers, community strategists, community program leaders and volunteers who have community management responsibilities to tell us more about their communities in this online survey through February 28, 2014. The survey will take you 15-20 minutes to complete.

We are interested in learning more about communities at all levels of maturity, so your response is important to us even if your community is in the early stages of development.

As a thank you for participating, you will receive a promotion code for a discount of $500 that you can apply to a new individual membership in TheCR Network in 2014. We’re also launching a new Community Audit service and offering special pricing to the first five interested participants.

Click here to take the survey now!

Building Value: Articulating the Power of Community Management

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Over and over we hear from members and peers that articulating the value of a thoughtful and well-executed community program is one of the hardest parts of their job. Sure – wrangling tough community members isn’t a walk in the park, and no one likes a troll, but condensing the power of community management into a few sentences is often very tough – even for experienced community practitioners. If you’re building out a community program at your company, you’ve likely faced the same challenge.

In the document below – our 2013 State of Community Management report, we focus specifically on the value of community management. Highlights include discussion around what business communities look like – and the value of this type of program, as well as an in-depth look at the role of a community manager and the value they bring. Resources like this report can really provide the concrete research and case studies that non-believers are looking for.


2013 SOCM: The Value of Community Management from The Community Roundtable

Check out all of our State of Community Management research here – including the evolution of the social business industry and analysis of organizational patterns and lessons learned from industry leaders and practitioners, and see how you can leverage the insights within to better articulate the power of the work you do. We know the value of expert community management – help the rest of your company see it, too.

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The Community Roundtable Toolkits are designed to help individuals map out the next challenges in their community journey. The Toolkits provide actionable templates, guides and resources whether you are laying the foundation for a successful program to organizing, assessing and reporting on their community efforts to truly transforming your organization into a networked business to gaining the knowledge needed to effectively coach executives in social.

Learn more.