The Community Roundtable

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

Throwback Thursday: The Ins and Outs of a Community Roadmap

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By Shannon Abram, The Community Roundtable

IStrategy and roadmapsf you don’t know where you’re going it can be a long journey to success in community management – which is why we’re highlighting best practices for community roadmaps in this week’s #throwbackthursday post! From the basics of why a community roadmap is important, to the best practices you need to build a community roadmap, right on to securing executive buy-in for your strategy and roadmap we’ve got you covered.

Don’t just take our word for it though. Our research has shown that there is a real gap between thinking about strategy in your community, and having a fully-resourced roadmap. 63% of communities with an approved strategy lack a resourced roadmap! Keep reading to learn how you can make the jump to a roadmap backed with resources!

This week’s #throwbackthursday focuses on the importance of a community roadmap.

  • Why is a Community Roadmap Important? – A community roadmap gives direction to your community
    Community Roadmap

    Building a community is not a linear path. A roadmap documents milestones to keep the community on the growth curve to success.

    program. Your community strategy describes your destination. The roadmap helps steer you there. Roadmaps often look like project plans, detailing specific activities and the resources required. Roadmaps mark milestones in a community’s journey, making tracking progress easier.

  • 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 eBook helps you get started building your own roadmap!

Want even more #throwbackthursday action? Check out all our throwback posts!

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Digging in to 2016 at TheCR

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2016 Community Management ResolutionsBy Rachel Happe, The Community Roundtable.

Wow. 2016. A fresh Moleskine for me and a blank canvas for all of us.

While I am not big on resolutions I do use the new year as an opportunity to take stock of the previous year and declare my intentions for the new year. In particular this year, I am thinking a lot about routines and how to ensure that how I spend my days aligns with the things I value. I’ve made a lot of progress on this in past years so this year it’s working to incorporate a few last pieces of the puzzle and create more stability in the routines that work, now that my daughter is in elementary school and her routines are more predictable.

The Community Roundtable is in a similar place – over the past six years we have developed a set of services and offerings that help our clients grow professionally and scale in way that works for their organizations – critical to an emerging space where budgets need to be justified and different organizations adopt new approaches in different ways.

Looking back at last year, TheCR team accomplished some amazing things:

Our portfolio now serves a range of roles with a variety of research, training and advisory solutions

TheCR Product Portfolio

More importantly, our biggest measure of success – the growth and success of clients’ programs – is telling us we are on to something. As in my personal life, we are poised to take what we’ve learned and make those services more routine – and scaling them to serve more clients.

I am fired up about 2016.

For TheCR, that will mean:

  • More listening to understand how we can help our clients where they need it most
  • More collaboration with partners to deliver unique services to different industry verticals and to support more specific community use cases
  • Larger client projects to help deliver comprehensive solutions that deliver community management maturity efficiently
  • Extending our solutions to more of the individuals involved in community programs

For the market, I think 2016 will bring the following, based on both our research and client work:

  • Bigger budgets – and with them more scrutiny of strategic metrics & objectives
  • Expansion and integration of community conversations into more business processes – this is happening already but typically in very specific areas
  • Some large organizations will begin to train all managers and leaders on the principals of community engagement and management
  • More research and experiments in applying community management in specific industries
  • Growing demand for training – but not necessarily traditional training

Most of these trends are not new but rather a deepening of impact within organizations. What is new, is the investment we are seeing from industry groups, foundations, and B2B service organizations in applying community approaches in their domains. For me, that is a big marker of progress and impact – we have moved beyond both the hype and the following ambivalence and are now seeing a commitment to execute.

Time to roll up our sleeves.

Here’s to a productive and engaged 2016!

Community Strategy Needs Resources

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By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable

We’ve said many times in this space that having a community strategy is a critical part of getting your community to succeed. Strategy is critical, but it’s just the first step in the process of building a successful community. It needs to be coupled with a roadmap and the resources to execute on that roadmap for your community to succeed.

Seems logical, right? Your strategy is like your map laid out before you that shows you where you want to go. Your roadmap more specifically plots the route you will take to get there, and the resources provide the fuel to move the community ahead.

So why is it so rare to have all three? 65% of the communities in The State of Community Management 2015 say they have an approved community strategy. But of those, barely a third have a resourced roadmap to get them there. Best-in-class communities take a different approach – but they aren’t perfect. All of our best-in-class communities have approved community strategies, however, more than 4 in 10 of them lack the resourced roadmap they need to deliver on that strategic plan.

So if you’re thinking about your community strategy – great! Don’t stop. But don’t forget to give yourself (or ask for) what you need to turn that strategic vision into a strategic reality.

The Community Roundtable has produced a number of resources, including an eBook, Building a Community Roadmap, devoted to roadmap development. Learn more about it and all of our other research at communityroundtable.com/research. 

Help! I don’t have budget to add new staff to my community team.

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Budgeting challenges are a big concern for a lot of community managers. One of the most common questions we get from community members is some variation on:

“Help! I don’t have budget to add new staff to my community team. Where should I prioritize my time to make sure my community continues to grow?”

The State of Community Management 2014 report showed  that communities with community managers are more likely to be able to measure the value of the community. It’s important to remember that the work you are doing is important, even if you feel stretched too thin. You are making a difference!

While every role at every organization has it’s own nuances, we’ve pulled together four best practices from the State of Community Management 2014 research that will help you prioritize your time and help ensure that your community is growing and thriving, even as you remain a team of one.

1. Evaluate your time.

​Track where you are spending your time for a week or two and then segment it into major categories – engagement, measurement, evangelism, etc. so you can see your current allocation.

2. Compare your priorities.

Look at how community managers in the most mature communities prioritize their responsibilities – and where that differs from average communities. These are a few of their priorities that differ from average communities:

– Advocating for the community internally

– Building a community roadmap

– Coaching executives

3. Create a schedule.

Reactive issue management can eat up all of your time if you let it. Make sure it doesn’t by blocking your calendar so you can dedicate time to what is important – and make sure to protect that time. Delegate what you can to community members and give the community space to take care of itself sometimes.

​4. Empower members to impact engagement.

​Community managers can scale themselves and improve engagement in their community by giving control to community members. Community leadership programs and working groups have high member participation rates that can signal a healthy, engaged community.

​Other common responsibilities community members take on include new member recruitment, welcoming new members and facilitating introductions and connections – more than 50% of communities reported members taking on these tasks.

Do you struggle with a lack of budget for additional community staffers? We’d love to hear how you stretch your resources to make sure your community is thriving.

Want more insights like these? Download the free State of Community Management 2014 report!

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Need help on a small budget? Learn how membership in TheCR Network can provide 24/7 365 training, professional development, and education.

What Can The SOCM Research Do for You?

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By Maggie Tunning, Learning and Culture Manager at The Community Roundtable.red old style alarm clock isolated on white

Time’s running out – the last day to take the 2014 State of Community Management survey is next Friday, February 28.

The Community Roundtable publishes The State of Community Management research each year to highlight advances and trends in the business of community management. This research is for – and prepared in collaboration with – community managers. Mike Pace sums up the reason to participate – Community Manager: Help Yourself (note: that post links to the 2013 survey – you can take the 2014 survey here).

We want the State of Community Management research to be a useful resource for community managers. How can it help you? Members of TheCR Network use it to:

1. Educate. As community managers, we are on average poorly resourced and largely haven’t yet broken through to having a seat at the executive table. While on one side there’s massive interest in using social to provide better experiences for the ecosystem, on the other side there’s still a broad lack of understanding of what that actually takes. Maria Ogneva

2. Benchmark. The past reports have been a great asset to community and social media managers as they offer insight into how other companies are doing community. It also allows individuals at these companies to take an honest look at their programs. Jeff Esposito

3.  Resource. Community Managers will continue to struggle for capacity, budgets, and recognition. But, this can change if we as Community Managers become comfortable challenging our leaders, consistently sharing results, and educating business areas on how to use the tools and successes. James LaCorte

Your participation is important to us and your community management peers, and we’re interested in responses from all types of communities at all stages of maturity. Take the survey here today or help spread the word to others you know. As a thank you for participating, you’ll receive a discount on new individual membership in TheCR Network ($500 off!)

 

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The Community Roundtable  is committed to advancing the business of community. We offer a membership based peer network, community management training programs and advisory services for corporations and individuals.

 

 

Mentor Match: The Good, Bad and the Ugly On Getting a Program Started

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Guest post by Laura Brook, Director of Community Development at OneFPA.org and member of TheCR Network.

Last year, I was at our annual conference catching up with a colleague who used to work with me at the Financial Planning Association (FPA).  I shared with her that we were about to launch a mentoring program where our members could mentor fellow financial planners.

Her response was a snorted “Good luck.”  My eyebrows went up in surprise.  She told me that she had tried to launch a similar program five years before without success.  I asked about her experience, saying that I hadn’t even realized that she had worked on this.  She explained that members responded positively to the program in theory, but when it came down to them actually signing up to take part in the program, not so much.  As a result, the initiative never got off the ground.

Oh boy.  This was a long-time staff person, very well networked with chapter leaders and very well liked.  Her story didn’t exactly boost my confidence in our chances.

Well, it’s now a year later and the program is serving our members well.  As the person in charge of community development, this was a natural extension for me to take on.  Our communities are often fertile ground for these types of connections.  Participants want to help each other succeed.  And from a community management standpoint, it can be a great point of engagement.  So in this regard, it can become a true win-win.

Let me outline the program and then give you the dirt on the good, the bad and the ugly for how things have gone.

How It Works

  • It is a six-month, coach-supported program.
  • Membership is required for both mentors and mentees, and there is no cost to participate.
  • Matching is done online through HigherLogic’s MentorMatch module (envision a simplified version of Match.com for those of us who have experienced the online dating scene).
  • Mentees are limited to one mentor at a time.
  • Mentees are expected to set the agenda and drive the relationship.  Mentors just need to be responsive to their requests.  Go here to read more about roles and responsibilities.
  • Each MentorMatch round includes an FPA-facilitated kick-off call, check-in call, and wrap-up call.  Kick-off and wrap-up calls are held jointly.  Check-ins are separate—one group call for mentees and one group call for mentors.
  • Mentees are required to fill out and share with their mentor five mentoring worksheets before their first call.  This is to help mentees get clarity on what they want/need out of their mentoring relationship.
  • In the first call, mentors follow an initial discovery call checklist to get the relationship started on the right foot.  From that point on, mentees are the ones to set the agenda.
  • Mentees and mentors generally meet once per month via phone or Skype, although some relationships are in-person.
  • Mentees complete an exit interview to rate their mentors and the program overall.

Ok, so that is the overview.  Now let’s talk about the negatives first so that we can end things on a positive note.

The Bad/The Ugly: What our challenges have been to date

  • Even with a good online program where people self-enroll, it is still a time-consuming program to manage.
  • People have a tendency to enroll as a mentee …  and then just sit there, even after being prompted to search for a mentor.  As a result, most matches have been facilitated by FPA, adding to the management burden.  The irony is that award-winning financial planners go unchosen because people are too intimidated to ask to be their mentees.
  • There are enough steps that people sometimes struggle with the process.  As an insider, it seems really simple—enroll, search for a mentor, choose the one you like, and send them an invitation to mentor you.  They then have to accept the invitation for mentors/mentees to be formally linked.  Most have been fine, but our technologically less-savvy members have been challenged at times.
  • Add in a chapter network of nearly 100 locations, some of which already have local mentoring programs, and things get really interesting.  We are currently strategizing around how best to blend our national and chapter efforts.
  • We have gotten some (thankfully pretty limited) feedback that mentees don’t always do their homework or prep for calls as well as they should.  We have had conversations on whether charging a nominal fee for the program would help to address this, but have elected to keep it free for now since the program is still young.  Ultimately, we want to make sure that our mentors’ time is respected and well used.

The Good: What has been going well

  • First and foremost, our members love it.  We have had a couple hundred people go through the program to date and 98 percent of the feedback has been glowing.
  • The limited-time horizon helps ease mentor commitment concerns.  Nine hours over six months (three hours on FPA calls and six with the mentee) helps define the program in a way that feels doable.
  • The facilitated calls and initial discovery checklist helps mentors feel supported.  (Even very experienced professionals can find it daunting to be a mentor!)
  • The mentoring worksheets help give the mentees direction and focus.
  • I have been surprised by how many of our mentors have said that they learn a lot from their mentees.  These young planners are often fresh out of school and possess skill sets that are very different than our seasoned planners’ competencies.
  • It engages tough-to-serve demographics—students, young professionals, and those who are mature members or already retired.
  • Our profession needs it.  Financial planning is young—it began only 45 years ago—and the career path for those who want to become planners can be challenging.

So far it’s been a fun ride.  The program is proving to be a quadruple win—good for our mentees, our mentors, the organization, and the profession, which makes dealing with a little bit of bad/ugly worth it in the end.

 

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The Community Roundtable  is committed to advancing the business of community. We offer a membership based peer network, community management training programs and advisory services for corporations and individuals.

Connecting Through Community

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

connecting through communityOur great content experiment continues in February (read more about Janaury here) with a month-long focus on connecting through community. At first glance the idea of connecting through community is obvious – as a community manager one of your main goals might be to connect with members, connect members to each other or connect member to information or resources that they need. And indeed, each of those activities can be a full time job in its own right. Over the next four weeks we’ll take a look at each of those ways of connecting, but we’re going to dig deeper as well.

For many community managers there is more “connecting the dots” than an outsider would ever imagine. Many of you struggle to connect the value of community management to tangible ROI and business results. Others wish for a way to connect with like-minded peers who share their purpose.  So often a community manager is an island in an organization that might not believe in the power of good community management or worse yet, struggle against a divided executive team – one that wants a successful community or social program without understanding the real work that goes into making it thrive.

Over the next month we’ll share content focused on all aspects of “connecting”  in the community world from member case studies to best practices and resources. We’re focusing on connecting people, ideas, and  resources – with expert advice and some fun surprises thrown in. If you have any great resources that help you “connect,” please reach out – we’d love to hear from you!

Finally, in the spirit of connectedness, I want to share some of the online places you can catch up with us. Many people share with us that they are on the community journey, but don’t yet have the resources to be a member of the Network – and we understand. Here are a few places you can connect with us and our content:

Pinterest – We have several boards focused on different aspects of community, including a Reading List, Research, Infographics and our ever-growing list of TheCR Network Experts.

Slideshare – On our slideshare page you can find both full length and excerpts of popular presentations as well as selected research and related community documents.

Twitter – Twitter is definitely our most active channel online – we tweet all day, every (week) day and it’s the best place to follow along for news, information and commentary on what’s happening in the community world.

Facebook – Our Facebook page is a great place to connect with us if you’re looking for news, calls for participation in events and research and for more general stories at the intersection of community and human interest.

LinkedIn – Looking for great discussions, alerts about available community jobs and lots of like-minded community peers? You can connect with us – and other community leaders here.

Of course, this blog is a great way to stay connected to the happenings at TheCR. In the coming months we’ll continue to connect you to new research, news and even more content centered around community managers themselves, including new Faces of Community Management profiles and a monthly Community Manager Spotlight webinar. We’d love to connect with you – please find us at in the places above, or share the best way to connect in the comments below!

Building your Community Approach

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By Shannon DiGregorio, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Here on The Community Roundtable blog we’ve decided to try something new for 2014. Each month we’ll pick an aspect of community management and tackle it from many angles, providing commentary, resources and expert opinions. Planning and building seem like  natural themes for January – as we all look ahead to the next 12 months it’s especially important to make sure a solid foundation is in place for your community plans and how you build your community approach.

“Build” is also one of the three main maturity transitions we’ve identified as part of the community maturity model. This is a great tool to assess where you are on your journey – go ahead, we’ll wait while you check it out. In short, Build is the transition where you start to formalize and incorporate what you have learned in phase one when a lot of time is spent experimenting. During the build process governance, resources and metrics to benchmark your work are developed. This short Build checklist should help you decide if you’re in this phase:

Screen shot 2013-12-31 at 12.22.06 PM

If you’re approaching the Build stage of your journey these existing resources will help you accelerate your planning for 2014: 

Over the next month we’ll share content focused on all aspects of building community that can help if you in the Build stage or if you are going back to re-asses your governance, staffing or metrics approaches. We’re focusing on building value, building reputation, building connections and building programs – with expert advice and some fun surprises thrown in. If you have any great resources that have helped you build your approach please reach out – we’d love to hear from you!

 
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If you’re looking to build your community program there is no better resource than the TheCR Network. TheCR Network is a membership network that provides exclusive strategic, tactical and professional development programming for community and social business leaders. The network enables members to connect and form lasting relationships with experts and peers as well as get access to vetted content.

TheCR Network is the place to learn from social business practitioners. Join today.

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