The Community Roundtable

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

What’s the best way to spend your content and programming budget?

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The Community Maturity Model’s™ Content & Programs competency concerns the twin foundational pillars of any thriving community program: content and programs. These are the essential components that attract and retain members. High-quality content is critical to create interest and engagement among members. Programs facilitate connections and foster deeper relationships between members. Together, they are the driving force that keeps a community active and successful.

Experienced community managers know that creating and curating compelling content is critical to the success of any community. Likewise, creating opportunities via programs for members to come together to share and learn together is an essential part of their work.

Our 2023 State of Community Management respondents reported an increase in their budget allocated to content and programs, more than tripling since 2020 (from 3% to 10%) – which is a great sign that the efficacy of community programming is being more widely recognized.

But, with so many options, what’s the best way to spend your content and programming budget?

What's the best way to spend your content and programming budget? Percentage of budget allocated to content and programs.

Understanding the importance of content and programs and allocating your budget appropriately is a positive step, but where you allocate that money is where it’s interesting to compare our survey average against the best-in- class segment. Not surprisingly, both segments report “virtual discussions” are the leading program with 77% of the survey average and 90% of the best-in-class segment leveraging them. “New member welcome/onboarding” programs are also widely employed (62% vs 77%), as well as “member spotlights” (48% vs 57%). “Conference and events” also sneak onto the list, reinforcing that getting your community members together in person remains a focus in this post-COVID era.

Best-in-class programs, with their formal leadership programs, remind us to look outside your community team to create compelling programs. While the 2023 survey average generally tracks with previous years, the best-in- class segment draws in contributors from both in and outside the organization. It’s most striking with “peers from other areas of the organization,” where 76% of the best-in-class segment is pulling from (vs just 46% of the survey average). It’s worthwhile to audit how diverse your community program plan is and add in new voices on a regular basis to keep it from getting stale.

Finally, last year we (strongly) suggested that if you don’t currently have programs focused on new members it should be on your short list. To the 36% of respondents in this year’s survey that still don’t do this or don’t know if you do, please find out. If you’re not welcoming new members with information on how they can get the most out of the community, make it a priority. We may sound like a broken record, but it’s essential to your success.

It’s also of note that we saw a general maturation of content and program planning in this year’s sample, with 21% of respondents indicating that they have a formal plan that aligns with community strategy and is integrated with other functional plans, up from 13% in 2022. This is a big jump and given the importance of content and programs in overall community engagement, a welcome one.

Download the State of Community Management 2023 to learn more about how you can leverage communities as effective behavior change-makers at your orgs.

State of Community Management 2023

Three Tips for Effective Community Management

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The Community Maturity Model’s™ Community Management competency is an all-encompassing discipline that plays a vital role in ensuring the productivity and success of communities. Regardless of their unique backgrounds and individual approaches, community managers share a fundamental goal: to establish thriving and engaged communities in which members can effectively learn from each other and collaborate on ideas, issues, and challenges.

As experts in their field, community managers possess the necessary skills and knowledge to build and maintain these communities, while leveraging their expertise to promote a culture of growth and innovation. Often we see community managers struggle with imposter syndrome, and we’re here to remind you YOU KNOW YOUR COMMUNITY BEST.

It can be a struggle to keep up with everything your community needs to thrive – especially when you can easily get bogged down in the day-to-day rush of content/programs/reporting, etc.

Our 2023 State of Community Management research shared three tips for effective community management – making sure you are maintaining the overall health of your community program.

Three Tips for Effective Community Management

Define community roles. Focus on the “who-what-why” on your community team to better justify the team you need. WHO do you need? WHAT are they going to do? WHY is this role essential? The closer the roles on your team are aligned to your community strategy and roadmap, the more likely that they’ll become a funded resource. The Community Careers and Compensation Report is a good companion/resource to help you build this out.

Never stop evangelizing. Look for (and take) any opportunity to get out from behind your computer and talk with people inside your organization about the community program. This can be hard with the rise of remote work, but be creative and tell your story far and wide. You can never have enough allies who can speak your language and share how the community helps them do their job more efficiently and effectively.

Expand community training. Leverage third parties to scale community training and offer it to anyone that needs it. We recommend a baseline community training program as part of an effective community request process, ensuring you build and launch communities for constituents who have a plan and are fully resourced to launch and successfully grow the community.

We hope you can use these tips for effective community management to help ensure the health of your community and secure the resources you need to succeed.

State of Community Management 2023 Webinar

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June 29, 2023 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Don’t miss highlights from the 14th annual State of Community Management research!

Join Jim Storer, The Community Roundtable, Kelly Stoker, Senior Community Strategist at Khoros, and Michael Puhala, as they discuss the State of Community Management 2023 report. 

They’ll explore key findings, community trends, and ideas for improving your online community.

A recorded archive will be sent to all registrants within 24 hours of the event

Register

Community Ecosystem Map: My framework for mapping content and programs

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Community Ecosystem Map - Guest Post by Bri Leever
Community Ecosystem Map - By Bri Leever

Bri Leever, Community Builder and Contributor to the 2023 State of Community Management Report shared her framework for planning effective content and programs – the Community Ecosystem Map.

Call to Action

At the top is where we put the three calls to action. I like to start with 1) get started, 2) get help, and 3) get inspired. You can customize these headings with whatever three actions you think fit your community, but I advise that you leave “get started” because it will help prompt you to focus on onboarding as a key step in any member’s activation in your community. 

Size of Experience

Finally, we indicate the size of an experience using color. In any community you are facilitating big group experiences (open to everyone), small group experiences (open so a subset or segment of your community) and then 1:1 interactions. One-on-one interactions are much harder to offer programming for (beyond a matchup program), but I like to use the map to point out where we will prompt 1:1 interactions to happen. (For example, prompt members to find one person they have something in common with after they post their intro. This would sit in the “get started” and “conversation” box.)

Like all good ecosystems, the strength of your community ecosystem will come from the diversification of experiences offered. That does NOT mean more is better. It means thoughtfully crafting a range of programs that cater to different types of experiences and activate your members in different ways will result in a more robust and dynamic community.

Using the Community Ecosystem Map for a New community

I use this framework as the very first step in my process to build a new community with clients. If you are using it for a community that has yet to be born, be careful to not get caught up in how and where you will facilitate the experiences. This is a brainstorming session. Your dream girl in a dream world. Your first iteration will not include everything you have on this map (nor should it), but unleashing your brilliant ideas in this exercise will help create a vision for how your community could evolve in the future.

Using the Community Ecosystem Map for an Existing Community

If, on the other hand, you already have an established community, use this framework to map your existing experiences today and then work with your team to notice where gaps exist. Brainstorm how you can adjust existing programs or make additions that add diversity into your ecosystem. Maybe you notice the “get started” column is conspicuously empty – can you introduce a welcome happy hour event or create a welcome post (content). Maybe you notice you never prompt members to make 1:1 connections – how can you sow seeds to prompt them to make 1:1 connections at your existing events?

This framework is just the starting point to help you think about your community content and programs through a new light. Once you’ve completed the brainstorming, work backward to assess what are the elements of this map that need to be prioritized now (the next two weeks), what can happen in the next month, and what can go on the backlog to be reassessed at a later time. Don’t let perfect get in the way of creating something really good in your community and focus on making more tweaks over time than launching something perfectly from the get-go. 

Bri Leever is a Community Builder and contribued her perspective to the 2023 State of Community Management Report. Learn more and download your copy here.

Catherine Hackney on Community Tools

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Community Conversations is a long-running podcast series highlighting community success stories from a wide variety of online community management professionals.

Episode #91 of Community Conversations features Catherine Hackney, Principal at Confident Communities Consulting.

On this special State of Community Management 2022 episode, Catherine and host Anne Mbugua explore:

  • How does thinking about tools affect community work?
  • What does the SOCM 2022 report tell us about community tools?
  • How you can better understand your audience’s needs and expectations.
Catherine Hackney on Community Tools

Listen to Catherine Hackney on Community Tools

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Catherine Hackney on Community Tools

About Catherine Hackney

Catherine Hackney is the Principal at Confident Communities Consulting, LLC, a Higher Logic Certified Partner. She is a reliable online community management consultant with nine years of experience. Cathering demonstrates expertise in increasing member engagement and of the Tradewing and Higher Logic platforms. Catherine was the recipient of the Higher Logic MVP award in 2016-2022. Learn more about Catherine.

About The State of Community Management

Now in its 13th year, our annual State of Community Management report provides strategic ideas and tactical benchmarks for global community management professionals.

The State of Community Management 2022 explores the state of the community management industry through the lens of the eight competencies in the Community Maturity Model™.

Each section includes data, ideas, and expert practitioner perspectives to give you new insight into the community management industry. 

Kelly Munro on Content and Programs
Download your free copy of the State of Community Management 2022.

Melissa Westervelt on Policies and Governance

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Community Conversations is a long-running podcast highlighting community success stories from a wide variety of online community management professionals.

Episode #89 of Community Conversations features Melissa Westervelt, Product Manager, Digital Engagement at Cambridge Associates.

On this special State of Community Management 2022 episode, Melissa Westervelt and host Anne Mbugua discuss the trends in community policies and guidelines. Melissa explains the difference between community policies and community guidelines, and shares tips for designing effective policies and guidelines for your online community.

Melissa Westervelt

Melissa Westervelt on Policies and Governance

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About Melissa Westervelt

Melissa is an experienced Product Manager with a demonstrated proficiency in SaaS management for digital engagement. Her specializations include enterprise-level community management, community building, and employee engagement strategy. She possesses strong skills in stakeholder alignment, platform search and implementation, IT change management, and managing vendor relationships. What does all of that mean? She loves helping people collaborate by giving them digital tools to ensure their projects succeed.

About Cambridge Associates

They are a global investment firm and aim to help endowments & foundations, pension plans, and high net worth private clients implement and manage custom investment portfolios that generate outperformance and enable them to maximize their impact on the world. Working alongside its early clients, Cambridge Associates pioneered the strategy of high-equity orientation and broad diversification, which since its inception in the 1980s has been a primary driver of performance for institutional investors. Today, they deliver a range of portfolio management services, including outsourced CIO, non-discretionary portfolio management, investment staff extension, and asset class mandates. Cambridge Associates maintains offices in major financial centers across the globe, with headquarters in Boston, MA.

About The State of Community Management

Now in its 13th year, our annual State of Community Management report provides strategic ideas and tactical benchmarks for global community management professionals.

The State of Community Management 2022 explores the state of the community management industry through the lens of the eight competencies in the Community Maturity Model™.

Each section includes data, ideas, and expert practitioner perspectives to give you new insight into the community management industry. 

Kelly Munro on Content and Programs
Download your free copy of the State of Community Management 2022.

Interested in Growing Your Community? Become an Enabler!

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Community managers are often connectors by default – it takes a certain type of person to excel at the role. People with high EQ tend to thrive.

Our research has shown that community leaders with a network of communities are more likely to provide enabling resources to their organization than those with a single community. Comparing the data from respondents who reported “one community” vs. “a network of communities” at their organization, we found a dramatic increase in CoEs once a network exists (i.e., once they’re past the initial use case).

Also interesting, 17% of respondents (8% in a network of communities) reported only ad hoc/informal governance. (Question: Who’s in charge of the communities there? If this is you, please contact us. We want to feature you in a case study.)

State of Community Management 2022 - What Resources to community teams provide?
©2022 The Community Roundtable – The State of Community Management 2022


It’s interesting to note that 30% of community managers who represent a single community provide none of the resources mentioned in the survey, which likely results in a less strategic initiative. For those who want to grow beyond a single community, get out there and coach/evangelize!

Some common use cases to extend the reach and the benefit in your organization include:

  • General employee communities for knowledge sharing and collaboration
  • Customer support communities for providing fast, inexpensive, always-on access to answers to product and service questions.
  • Membership communities for groups like students, patients, alumni, or association audiences

Tips on Getting Started

  • Start a monthly “community jam” for those who want to learn more about community and how it might help them with a specific business use case.
  • Coach executives on how they can best support your work — try to get them to an “aha moment” on how community approaches could help another area of the business.
  • Document what has or hasn’t worked in your community, and begin compiling templates, and (ultimately) a community playbook for your organization.

It may feel overwhelming when you consider it, but by taking an iterative approach you’ll get where you want to be faster.

Help Community Programs Scale

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The Policies & Governance competency of the Community Maturity Model™  details operational guidelines for successful online community programs. Policies refer to how a community interacts and can be divided into two areas: Terms of service – How a community is managed in legal terms and Guidelines – Articulate what behaviors are expected and why, plainly. Governance is how the community team is structured, operates within an organization, and supports community-related activities across the organization.

Most organizations could support multiple communities with myriad use cases. The most common include:

  • General employee communities for knowledge sharing and collaboration
  • Customer support communities for providing fast, inexpensive, always-on access to answers to product and service questions.
  • Membership communities for groups like students, patients, alumni, or association audiences

In 2021, we saw the emergence of the “Center of Excellence’’ (CoE) approach, where community work is decentralized, but supported with a host of resources. While responses from this year’s data suggest CoEs are falling out of favor, digging deeper shows a different perspective.

Help Community Programs Scale

Comparing the data from respondents who reported “one community” vs. “a network of communities” at their organization, we found a dramatic increase in CoEs once a network exists (i.e., once they’re past the initial use case). Also interesting, 17% of respondents (8% in networked communities) reported only ad hoc/informal governance. Question: Who’s in charge of the communities there? If this is you, please contact us. We want to feature you in a case study.

Interested in Growing Your Community? Become an Enabler!

On a related note, those with a network of communities are more likely to help communities programs scale by providing enabling resources to their organization than those with a single community. When comparing total data on community resources from 2021 to 2022 there isn’t much to report. Comparing responses from individual communities vs. a network of communities tells a different story (see pg. 45 of the 2022 SOCM or the image above).

It’s interesting to note: 30% of community managers representing a single community provide none of the resources mentioned in the survey, which likely results in a less strategic initiative. For those who want to grow beyond a single community, get out there and coach/evangelize.

Want to help community programs scale? Start a center of excellence?

Check out this short interview with Claudia Teixeira, Senior Knowledge and Learning Consultant at the World Bank Group.

Claudia and Anne Mbugua discuss what a center of excellence entails, the path to centers of excellence at the World Bank Group, and advice for implementing a center of excellence at your organization. Listen now.

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

Help Community Programs Scale

Kelly Munro on Content and Programs

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Community Conversations is a long-running podcast highlighting community success stories from a wide variety of online community management professionals.

Episode #87 of Community Conversations features Kelly Munro, Community Team Lead, Xero.

On this special State of Community Management 2022 episode, Kelly Munro and host Anne Mbugua discuss the trends in community content and programs. Kelly shares tips for designing effective content and programming for your online community and discusses topics including:

  • How thinking about content and programs affects her community work.
  • The importance of onboarding for communities.
  • Advice for community professionals starting to dig into content and programs for their organization

Listen to Kelly Munro on Community Content and Programs

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About Kelly Munro

Kelly Munro is the Community lead within the Customer Success team at Xero, managing their product development & discussion forums. She has an interest in using technology to solve user and business friction with a human-centric & adaptive lens.

About Xero

Xero is a New Zealand-based technology company that provides cloud-based accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses. Their online accounting software connects small business owners with their numbers, their bank, and advisors anytime. Founded in 2006, Xero now has 3.5 million subscribers and is a leader in cloud accounting across New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Their team of over 4,500+ talented thinkers, creators, and educators helps make life better for small businesses globally.

About The State of Community Management

Now in its 13th year, our annual State of Community Management report provides strategic ideas and tactical benchmarks for global community management professionals.

The State of Community Management 2022 explores the state of the community management industry through the lens of the eight competencies in the Community Maturity Model™.

Each section includes data, ideas, and expert practitioner perspectives to give you new insight into the community management industry. 

Kelly Munro on Content and Programs
Download your free copy of the State of Community Management 2022.

Communities Drive Meaningful Change Management

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From improving customer satisfaction to providing fast and easy support and empowering members, online communities drive increased revenue, boost customer satisfaction, and make connecting easier than ever before.

This eBook contains new, unreleased data from the 2022 State of Community Management report, explores trends in online communities, and showcases what success looks like in communities at the forefront of this innovation, like Spotify, Flexera, and Zoom.

Meaningful Change Management - Zoom
Power remote collaboration
Meaningful Change Management - Budgets
Drive business outcomes
Meaningful Change Management - Advocates
Turn customers into advocates

You’ll learn about how online communities add business value to the organizations and get tactical ideas on how you can implement similar community-based programs at your organization.

Communities Drive Meaningful Change Management

Download your copy of Meaningful Change Management here.

We partnered with community platform company, Khoros, to dive into what customer support communities look like today. Through unpublished data from the 2022 State of Community Management research and in-depth looks at real community programs, this ebook provides a practical guide for anyone looking to increase the impact of their online community program. Don’t have an online community yet? You’ll learn what success looks like – and get ideas for starting your own.