Communities are complex and ever- changing. In the real world, they are challenging to see in aggregate and, therefore, almost impossible to measure. Online, however, we can see how communities form, change, fragment, divide, and dissipate. That allows us to communicate community dynamics, value, and impact.

Some community value is still easier to see because it is direct. Getting support, advice, and answers offsets more cumbersome and resource-intensive methods because communities are quite efficient at matching and exchanging value between those who need it and those who have excess capacity. That value is what we can measure most easily and translate into financial results because it has a direct impact on the cycle time of a workflow. While other community outcomes, like the value of having empowered employees, cannot be translated into financial terms, we must recognize that it exists and contributes to overall organizational performance.

An example of direct value comes from a global manufacturing company where 70% of the staff – mostly sales and support professionals that are on-site with customers – work remotely. Because of their isolation, it can take years to develop an efficient internal network that they can use to resolve the issues they see on a daily basis. by providing an internal community focused on products or solution areas, they no longer need to know who to ask – or spend hours getting introductions from those they do know. The community has a direct and significant financial impact for the organization and its clients, who can quickly get issues resolved and continue their work.

The Community roundtable’s Community ROI Calculator focuses on this direct value, and looks specifically at answers because they are the most valuable engagement output we can easily measure. This model yields a highly credible view of a community’s value.

Community programs generate the kind of value you might expect for the high levels of engagement they engender, in the process demonstrating how the transference of trust supports engagement at scale. While internal community programs show a lower ROI, they are on average smaller in size and their business objectives are typically more indirect, making a bigger percentage of their overall impact harder to measure in financial terms.

Note: This post contains content originally published in the State of Community Management 2019 report. Download your free copy here.

The famous Alexandre Dumas quote “Nothing succeeds like success” illustrates a critical aspect of successful communities. In particular, because individuals do not always know what to expect from communities, success shows people what is possible and, in turn, tends to change their expectations and mindsets.

This is true of any initiative, but especially true with communities where success is transparent. This is a critical approach in efficiently building communities. If you start as you mean to continue, showing success as you go, communities build momentum as they grow and avoid some of the biggest community pitfalls, including toxic cultures and abusive behaviors.

Looking at the rates of growth across a number of success factors, communities with advanced strategies saw more significant increases across every category. Impressively, the rate of significant increase in value was twice as high as average communities, suggesting faster acceleration for communities with advanced strategies.

Success also shows up in a community’s impact on culture and brand sentiment. All communities have a net positive impact on culture or brand sentiment. Communities with advanced strategies have no negative or neutral impact on culture and brand sentiment. This demonstrates that active, ongoing community management can mitigate all negative engagement risks.

Active, ongoing community management can mitigate ALL negative engagement risks.

That positive impact is also seen in increased interest, support, and activity. 66% of community professionals report that interest from around their organizations has increased or increased significantly over the past year.

For 70% of them, their credibility has also increased and they believe the biggest factor for this increase is that communities are more integrated into their organization. This also translates to support from a majority of all executives. 63% of all executives are supportive of community approaches, although many don’t yet understand exactly what is required for success and how they can better support community programs. That lack of understanding is reflected in how executive support is expressed. 75%
of the time that is verbal support, but only 54% of the time is it reflected in budget.

For community programs with advanced strategies – those that are measurable – the difference is significant. While they get only slightly more verbal support (77% of the time), they get support reflected as budget 62% of the time.

Note: This post contains content originally published in the State of Community Management 2019 report. Download your free copy here.

Behaviors are the repeating patterns, or fractals, that makeup culture. Ultimately, culture determines what is possible economically. by looking at language and the engagement behavior it prompts, culture can be seen and measured. does no one respond after an executive speaks? That may suggest a closed, anxious culture. do they respond, but with defensiveness, blame, or anger? You may have a toxic culture on your hands. do people ask a lot of questions? That suggests a supportive culture. do people debate openly? That suggests a high trust culture, with room to challenge each other.

Organizations that understand behavior and how to influence it have a significant competitive advantage over those that don’t. Organizations that understand behavior, know how to impact it, AND are trusted have even more of an advantage. Building that foundation of trust starts with empowering individuals.

63% of communities empower members frequently or all of the time. That empowerment comes in a range of forms – feeling seen, being heard, providing solutions, and taking leadership initiative. It’s easy to see these numbers, nod, and move on, but empowering people to feel seen and heard is no small achievement.

It is the access point for individuals to feel like they matter, are accepted for who they are, and feel like what they have to offer is meaningful. That empowerment directly impacts whether and how often they share their expertise and is the foundation for innovation because it impacts motivation, engagement, productivity, and creativity.

When individuals are inspired, engaged, and empowered they fuel a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop. Success breeds success because people see engagement rewarded, increasing their comfort in engaging themselves. People live up or down to the expectations set by those around them – and their imaginations and ambitions are limited or expanded based on what they can see in their communities. The culture of a community has the power to limit or empower its members. Our research shows that, in intentionally-managed communities, members feel a high rate of empowerment – and engage at equally high rates.

Download the State of Community Management 2019 to read case studies, access more data and read the full report.

Note: This post contains content originally published in the State of Community Management 2019 report. Download your free copy here.