SOCM Archives

Community Conversations – Episode #91 – Catherine Hackney on Community Tools

April 11, 2023 By Shannon Abram

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.

Listen to Catherine Hackney on Community Tools

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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.

Community Conversations – Episode #89 – Melissa Westervelt on Policies and Governance

February 6, 2023 By Shannon Abram

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 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.

Interested in Growing Your Community? Become an Enabler!

January 30, 2023 By Shannon Abram

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

December 12, 2022 By Shannon Abram

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.

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:

Community Conversations – Episode #87: Kelly Munro on Content and Programs

December 5, 2022 By Shannon Abram

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.

Communities Drive Meaningful Change Management

December 1, 2022 By Shannon Abram

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 — Power remote collaboration

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.

Leverage external sources for low-lift community programs

November 28, 2022 By Shannon Abram

The Content & Programs competency of the Community Maturity Model™ examines the resources and interactions a community offers its members, and is the lifeblood of a successful community program. Content gives people a reason to visit (and return to) a community, while programs create opportunities for members to connect, creating tighter bonds. Content & programs must reflect the shared value of the community and its members, while a program plan tied to the larger community strategy can lead to valuable engagement behaviors.

Savvy community teams leverage external sources to create content and facilitate programs for their members — whether SMEs, executives, or strategic partners.

Leverage external sources for low-lift community programs

Using external sources is a “work smarter, not harder” way to scale your community team. Two notable examples of external community contributors that jumped in 2022:

Peers from other areas of the organization (50% vs. 43% in 2021)
Vendors/partners (20% vs. 15% in 2021)

Member participation in content & programs dropped year over year, likely due to fatigue and burnout associated with COVID-19. While this would normally be seen as a negative, it’s actually a balanced approach to content & program development, and member participation remains at a healthy level.

Reminder: You won’t successfully attract (and retain) outside voices to your content & programs without a formal plan. This is the year to formalize a content & program plan.

The community budget for content & programs has more than doubled in the last three years (3% in 2020 vs. 7% in 2022). This is a win for a critical piece of the community-building puzzle. As your content & programs budget grows, ensure you’re moving toward a formal plan aligned with your community strategy – which might include paid programs for external contributors. This will allow you to show your content & program efforts are growing engagement and meeting (or exceeding!) your community’s goals.

Content Pro Tip from Kelly Munro, Lead Community Advisor, Xero, and member of TheCR Network

If you’re at an organization with an existing marketing team you might have a goldmine of content at your disposal.

“Don’t forget about all of the content support that you’ve got within your business. If you have a great content team already, they may already have a good structured understanding of user behavior. Make sure you aren’t creating conflicting content or programs, so just make sure that everything works harmoniously.”

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

Community Teams are Growing

September 12, 2022 By Shannon Abram

The Community Management competency of the Community Maturity Model™ involves everything that ensures communities are productive. While community managers come from all walks of life and approach their role differently, they have the same goal: Build healthy, engaged communities where members learn from one another and collaborate on ideas, issues, or challenges.

After seeing a dip in the size of community management teams in 2021, they’re growing dramatically in 2022! This can likely be attributed to organizations in 2021 dealing with the uncertainty of COVID-19 and increased mobility. 2022’s increase is an effort to rebalance. There will likely be a modest rise in the coming year as community teams continue to grow with their programs.

With this growth, defining community roles is critical.

Linking community programs to operations should top every community team’s to-do list. While defining community roles and responsibilities — and getting them approved by human resources — is critical when developing community programs, 65% of respondents indicated they don’t have defined and HR-approved community roles. This is a huge gap to be addressed as an industry and individually by community teams.

In 2014, we documented the skills necessary for community building, which resulted in the Community Skills Framework™. Built around five skill “families” — each with ten unique skills — and providing a comprehensive look at the role, the Community Skills Framework™ is perfect for anyone who works in the community space and wants to understand the depth and breadth of skills needed on their team.

Recommendation: Definitions are your friend.

Develop defined roles and responsibilities for your community team and review with HR for alignment. Use the Community, Careers, and Compensation research to jump-start this effort.

Get more community ideas and advice in our 2022 State of Community Management report:

Community Conversations – Episode #83: Anne Larsen on Community Culture

August 22, 2022 By Shannon Abram

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

Episode #83 of Community Conversations features Anne Larsen, Applications Consultant at Grundfos.

On this special State of Community Management 2022 episode, Anne Larsen and host Anne Mbugua discuss the importance of culture in online communities. Anne shares her experiences with the effect of culture on organizations and their online community, best practices for thoughtful consideration of global cultures, and explores the most surprising findings from the 2022 report.

Listen to Anne Larsen on Community Culture

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About Grundfos

Pumps are our business. Every day, our energy efficient pumps provide comfort, deliver drinking water, remove wastewater, or help farmers water their crops all over the world. Just to mention some of our expertise. We set the standard within our work areas and keep raising the bar when it comes to energy efficiency and protecting the environment. Since 1945 we’ve honed our skills in order to produce the perfect pumps. Pumps which can move liquid to where it should be – using as little energy as possible, making a real difference for the people and the world we live in.

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. Download your free copy of the State of Community Management 2022.

Get Subject Matter Experts Involved

July 25, 2022 By Shannon Abram

The Community Maturity Model™’s Leadership competency includes executive sponsorship, participation in a community program, emergent community leadership, and ties into broader organizational ecosystems.

Leadership programs (a.k.a., advocacy, MVP, and superuser programs) are key to successful communities — they directly correlate with higher engagement, greater ability to measure value, and robust executive participation.

Where are your SMEs?

Our 2022 State of Community Management research shows that while most community leadership programs include customers (73% in 2022), not enough use internal subject matter experts (SMEs): Only 45%. This is a missed opportunity; you have SMEs in your organization, you should leverage their expertise and talents.

Involving SMEs in the community allows them to meaningfully contribute, showcase their knowledge, and create connections. Creating connections was the top goal of community leadership programs per this year’s survey, with 77% of participants citing this as a goal. SMEs also contribute to the other community leadership program goals, including advocacy (71%) and moderation support and capacity (54%).

Start a community leadership program!

If you don’t have a superuser program that leverages subject matter experts in place, get started. Our research shows when a member of a community shifts from a passive recipient of information to an active participant, their activity increases by more than 10x. Their ROI — the return they get for the time invested — increases by over 200%.

Quick Subject Matter Expert Wins

The easiest way to get subject matter experts involved in your community program is to highlight content they have already created. Leveraging existing content and sharing it with a wider audience is the lightest lift – and quick path to approval.

Did someone lead a webinar? Post the recording in full and then edit it into clips that you can feature as standalone videos, blog post content, and in newsletters or on social. Turn a podcast episode into a tactical how-to blog post or infographic. Even re-printing relevant articles or case studies from subject matter experts provides a mutual benefit for your community members, and the expert themself.

The final step is to tie the subject matter expert back to their content. Ask them to share their perspective in the comments, to provide an additional benefit for members.