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The Community Roundtable

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

Announcing the State of Community Management Toolkit

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By Shannon DiGregorio, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable

The State of Community Management (SOCM) has been one of our core research platforms and we are excited to announce the availability of The State of Community Management Toolkit, which includes both newly released research from our 2013 SOCM as well as an archive of our past research that provides different lens on the leading practices required to create a successful community program. It also includes a document that adds more definition and details to the Community Maturity Model, allowing community program owners to better assess their progress across an enterprise.

The State of Community Management Toolkit includes:

  • The Community Maturity Model, TheCR’s framework for establishing a community program roadmap [Graphic]
  • The Community Maturity Model: Defining Enterprise Wide Maturity – a reference guide that defines how to use the CMM to assess and plan enterprise-wise social and community maturity [Reference Guide]
  • The 2013 State of Community Management: Moving Toward Maturity – newly published data and research about the value of community [Research]
  • The 2013 State of Community Management: Value of Community Management – research that looks at how community management contributes to the success of communities, including graphics to use in your presentations [Research]
  • The 2012 State of Community Management Report – research that profiles how organizations mature, the initiatives they typically go through at each stage and the milestones that signify a move to the next stage of maturity. [Research]
  • The 2011 State of Community Management Report – research that consolidates the best practices related to the competencies in the Community Maturity Model: Strategy, Leadership, Culture, Community Management, Content & Programming, Policies & Governance, Tools and Metrics & Measurement [Research]

The SOCM Toolkit is now available for $99

2013 State of Community Management: Proving the Value of Community

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How many times have you wished you could respond, with data, to the following questions:

  • What is the value of implementing a community strategy?
  • What is the value of a community manager?
  • How long does it take to achieve a critical mass of activity such that the community is self-generative?
  • What do enterprise community programs look like in my industry?

Up until now, there has been a relative dearth of hard data in this space. There have been community management salary surveys, a lot of high level social business research looking at which companies are doing things and why, and some selective research around governance structures and polices but few comprehensive data-driven initiatives that look at *how* business communities function and what benefits they return – and over what time-frame.  This is critical data for both the community and social business markets to move forward and to fully capture the attention of senior executives.

After four years of working with some of the leading practitioners and publishing a wealth of qualitative research, we now know enough to ask the right questions and believe the market will stall unless this data is collected – and we have an experienced research advisory board of TheCR Network members that are making sure we are working on what matters to them and their organizations – companies like CSC, Walgreens, UBM, Vistaprint, and SAP. This year, our annual State of Community Management will evolve into a longitudinal, comprehensive look at business communities covering the following types of data:

Community metrics, community performance, community ROI

2013 SOCM Metrics

We are actively soliciting both participants and sponsors – please let us know below if you are interested in getting involved:

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Now Seeking: Future of Business Research Fellow

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At The Community Roundtable we’re expanding our research on how organizations use social technologies and are looking for a Research Fellow with fundamental research skills who needs experience and mentorship to take the next step in their career. This opportunity will help the right candidate leap past the average entry-level analyst position and develop expertise in the emerging and critical social business space.

Are you a person who:

  • Loves observing people and trends and figuring out what it all means?
  • Can easily abstract what you see and hear to draw larger conclusions?
  • Is curious about how new technologies are affecting people, relationships and organizations?
  • Likes to parse, re-combine and analyze data?
  • Enjoys using data to tell a story that is meaningful in order to inspire action or to make people think?
  • Is detail oriented, likes to keep things on track and has a fine eye for anomalies?
  • Has the confidence to act independently, but the judgment to know what decisions need to be collectively discussed?
  • Understands that work comes with a lot of trivial responsibilities and it is up to you to take care of your fair share?
  • Likes to solve problems and is not afraid to try new things or ask questions?
  • Is friendly, enthusiastic and wants to work as part of a team, doing something that matters?

In this role, you will:

  • Interact with and get exposure to business leaders and executives from organizations like SAP, Aetna, CSC, Google, Fidelity, Autodesk, Walgreens, H&R Block and many others
  • Develop and execute industry leading research on the use of social technologies
  • Work with industry experts across the market in a variety of capacities

The Research Fellowship is a paid position intended to last 12-18 months and provide the Fellow with the experience and network to find a permanent position.

The fellowship program includes:

  • Strong mentorship in research, writing, analysis and presentation development
  • The opportunity to build leading expertise in the emerging field of community analytics
  • Access to social media, social business and community management leaders and executives
  • Direct access to potential employers
  • The opportunity to work with a variety of organizations and brands
  • A work environment rooted in shared success, respect, flexibility and personal responsibility
  • A monthly stipend

Skills and attributes needed in this role:

  • Communication skills, in particular strong long-form writing and presentation development skills
  • Project management and strong organizational abilities
  • Knowledge of and experience with social technologies
  • A general understanding of business principals and organizations
  • Research and data analysis experience
  • Excel and database experience
  • A sense of humor and the ability to not take yourself too seriously
  • Desire to make a difference

Why a fellowship and not a permanent hire? As a small organization there are large risks for someone in deciding to work with us and there are risks for us in making a permanent hire. By providing training, access to market leaders, and a stipend to a fellow, we can ensure that she or he is very well positioned to find a great analyst or research gig with a larger organization at the end of the fellowship. To us, this creates a win-win-win for potential candidates, employers, and for us. It also serves our mission by enabling us to develop trained, experienced professionals for the market. But we liked our last fellow so much we hired her into a permanent role, which is also a potential outcome of the fellowship.

Do you have what it takes? Are you excited by what we could do together? Please tell us more about you! While not a requirement for the right candidate, preference will be given to people within commuting distance from Boston.

Fill out my online form.

Community Manager Survey by Angela Connor

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Angela Connor – also known as @communitygirl on Twitter and the author of 18 Rules of Community Engagement – recently published a Community Manager Survey – available here for $39.99/$49.99 depending on format. In it, she covers questions about how the community management role is defined, how community management fits in to organizations, how community managers learn, and how community managers themselves feel about their role, including first person commentary which is really interesting to read.

Some of the results are not surprising given the current maturity of the role – for example only a 3rd of community managers have a clear job description with well defined goals and many are struggling with increasing engagement and finding an outlet for sharing and learning from peers (we need to do a better job reaching out to those community managers!).  Other results I found surprising – while a vast majority of community managers are authorized to speak on behalf of their organization (which is great), over half of community managers surveyed are seeking new positions indicating that they are likely not getting the support and/or fulfillment they would like in their current positions.  To me, this is a risk for organizations that are serious about their communities and infers they need to do a lot more to make sure community managers have reasonable and clear expectations, are given the support and resources to meet those expectations, and are able to enjoy and succeed in the work they do.

Overall, the report shines a light on some of the biggest issues community managers currently face and is a great resource for demonstrating to peers and executives the need for more training and resources in this area.  We would like to thank Angela for undertaking the study and for allowing us to review it.

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