The Community Roundtable

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

Lauren Vargas on Vertical-Focused Communities

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The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management. Our series continues with episode #24, featuring Lauren Vargas, Director of Community at social media monitoring software company Radian 6.

Podcast highlights include:

  • Building vertical-focused communities to better serve the customer community
  • Can community operate without a dedicated, “gated” platform?
  • The importance of organizational commitment to community, right up to the C-Suite
  • Content as the starting point to create engagement, with blogs as the focal point
  • Finding your “influencers;” why and how, and finding them outside your direct community
  • A discussion of tools for finding influencers (not just Klout)

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MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove

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.

Shannon Paul on Protected Health Information and Privacy in Communities

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The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management.
 
Our series continues with episode #23, featuring Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
 

Podcast highlights include:

  • Dealing with “Protected Health information” (PHI) due to regulations such as HIPAA, including the names of members, and how to balance the need for community and the privacy of members.
  • Creating resources such as www.ahealthiermichigan.org to present wellness resources.
  • Coordination and sharing among associated but separated organizations, as with the Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans in different states.
  • When “I can’t answer you” is an answer.

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MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove

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.

Thomas Meyer on Online Community as an “Earned Media” Strategy

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The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management.
 
Our series continues with episode #22, featuring Thomas Meyer, Senior Manager of Global Public Relations at Sonos Inc., maker of a premium multi-room music systems (disclosure: both podcast hosts are Sonos owners).
 

Highlights include:

  • Online community as an “earned media” strategy
  • Does a premium price point affect the size and activity of the community?
  • The relationship between customer satisfaction and evangelism
  • Not to focus on tools, but the value of the iPhone and email to community

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove

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.

Leigh Mutert on Merging Offline Community with Online

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The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management.
 
Our series continues with episode #21, featuring Leight Mutert, Community Manager with H&R Block* (just in time for tax season). Find H&R Block’s online community at https://getitright.hrblock.com.
 

Highlights include:

  • Merging offline community with online- in particular, harnessing the experts at brick-and-mortar H&R Block franchises for the online community, and overcoming obstacles to secure their buy-in
  • Working within a tightly regulated industry while still growing community
  • Managing seasonality, in a business focused on the three months leading up until the April 15 tax deadline
  • How H&R Block tracks and measures their efforts
 

MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove

*Please note: Since we recorded this interview, Leigh has moved on to become a Community Manager at Archer Technologies, if you have any questions about H&R Block’s community please follow up with Zena Weist.

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

Jeff Esposito on Shaping Social Media Efforts with Community

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The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management. Our series continues with episode #20, featuring Jeff Esposito, PR Manager with Vistaprint. Highlights include:
  • Birth of a program– getting hit (literally) with a magazine and being asked to “figure this Twitter thing out”
  • Getting the community to help shape social media efforts rather than dictating the strategy to the audience
  • Backing up the “No Customer Left Behind” philosophy through personal interaction over mass messaging
  • Weighing short term fixes (marketing gimmicks) vs a long-term strategy
  • Creating customer service expectations; when you are online, from posting duty hours to managing the lack of presence around a weather emergency

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove

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.

University of New Mexico on Content Creation and Moderation

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The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management. Our series continues with episode #19, featuring Benson Hendrix, PR Specialist and Nora Heinemean-Fleck, Social Network Liaison, from the University of New Mexico. Highlights include:
  • The importance of Flickr and photos to the UNM online community
  • When both staff (Benson) and students (like Nora) manage the community
  • Content creation: making subject matter experts comfortable in an interview setting
  • Dealing with negative content and low morale among students
  • Preventing chaos and panic through misunderstanding (listen for the “duck pond” story)

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MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove

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.

Janet Aronica on Twitter and the Evolution of a Startup

By

The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a new podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management. Our podcast series, Conversations with Community Managers continues with episode #18, featuring Janet Aronica, Community Manager for oneforty.
Highlights include:
  • Letting community members create and use “toolkits” as a way to encourage interaction
  • Managing community identity when its image is attached naturally to a larger existing community (in this case, Twitter)
  • How to encourage members to complete profiles
  • Bridging the divide between two distinct communities within the larger community to mutual benefit (social media users and developers)
  • The evolution of a startup; where the intital focus is on the consumer (free apps), getting the business-oriented (enterprise applications) members integrated into the community
  • Three Twitter tools Janet can’t live without

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove

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.

Jeff Rubenstein on Working with Product-Knowledgable Communities

By

The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a new podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management. Our podcast series, Conversations with Community Managers (a co-production with The Community Roundtable), continues with episode #17, featuring Jeff Rubenstein, Social Media Manager for Sony Playstation. Highlights include:
  • Working with a community that is not only passionate, but extremely knowledgeable about the company, its products and its industry
  • Idea generation from the community– how PlayStation Share works
  • The seasonality (or lack of it) for communities based on retail products
  • The merging of personal and professional personae online, and the challenges that presents to the Sony PlayStation team

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove

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.

Christopher Barger on the “Immerse and Disperse” Method

By

The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a new podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management. Our podcast series, Conversations with Community Managers (a co-production with The Community Roundtable), continues with episode #16, featuring Christopher Barger, Global Director of Social Media at General Motors. Highlights include:
  • The “immerse and disperse” method of cross-training social media staff; immersing them via a consistent training program, then dispersing them to represent different divisions of the company
  • Using internal communities to identify creative thinkers who might not otherwise surface
  • Why a Fortune 500 company would bother sponsoring small events
  • Measuring results, both long- and short-term, using GM’s participation in SXSW as an example

MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove.

PHOTO CREDIT: Becky Johns

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

Megan Murray on Managing Multiple Internal Communities

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The Community Roundtable has partnered with Voce Communications to produce a new podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers.” In this series, TheCR’s Jim Storer joins forces with Voce’s Doug Haslam to speak with people from a variety of industries about their efforts with community and social media management. Our podcast series, Conversations with Community Managers (a co-production with The Community Roundtable), continues with episode #15, featuring Megan Murray, community Manager and Project Coordinator for Booz Allen Hamilton. Highlights include:
  • Managing internal communities within a large company, and managing to culture towards adoption
  • The challenge of overseeing a total of 535 communities
  • Integrating community participation into employee workflows
  • Privacy, confidentiality, and other HR issues as they apply to community
  • Build vs. buy, in terms of tools

MUSIC CREDIT: “Bleuacide” by graphiqsgroove.

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