strategy resources Archives

Building a Strong Foundation: The Importance of Policies and Governance in Community Management

April 8, 2025 By Jim Storer

Policies and Governance are crucial to ensuring stability and long-term success. The Community Maturity Model’s™ focus on this competency highlights that while engaging content and programs are essential, the underlying framework that governs community interactions is just as important.

Understanding Policies and Governance

Policies outline the “how” and “why” of community member interactions. They delineate acceptable behaviors, set terms of service, and ensure that operations remain within ethical and legal boundaries. Governance encompasses the community team’s structure and alignment with the organization’s mission, providing essential leadership and direction. Despite these being fundamental components of successful online communities, recent surveys reveal room for improvement for many programs.

The State of Community Management 2024 revealed that only 64% of community programs reported having robust policies and guidelines, down from 69% the previous year. This drop underscores the need for communities to prioritize these frameworks, especially for the 36% without them. It’s clear: establishing clear policies and governance should be at the forefront of community management strategies in 2025.

A Shift Toward Decentralized Governance

Interestingly, while many organizations typically implement a centralized structure for community governance, there is a noticeable shift toward a decentralized approach, especially in medium to large organizations. This allows various business units to take ownership of their community use cases while benefitting from centralized resources and best practices. The decentralized model promotes scaling community initiatives without compromising quality.

Implementing Approval Processes

An effective way to maintain a vibrant community ecosystem is to establish an approval process for new community initiatives. This ensures that every project is thoughtfully planned, prevents redundancy, and ultimately conserves resources. In 2024, data showed that a majority of community programs have adopted such processes, with nearly three-quarters of the best-in-class cohort doing the same.

The Value of Regular Audits

Conducting regular audits of your community program can be a game-changer. It involves reviewing the various competencies of the Community Maturity Model™ to measure progress and define future goals. Best-in-class communities recognize the importance of these evaluations, allowing them to refine their strategies continuously.

Key Recommendations for Success

Embrace Decentralized Enablement: Equip different departments with the resources they need to manage community initiatives effectively. Consider using a Center of Excellence approach to share best practices across the organization.
Develop a Formal Approval Process: Implement a structured approach for new community proposals to ensure alignment and resource efficiency.
Establish Clear Policies and Guidelines: Create comprehensive policies that are easily accessible and understandable for all community members. Templates for standard policies and guidelines are available in resource centers like The Network – there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Prioritizing policies and governance is essential for fostering healthy community interactions and sustainable growth. As we move into 2025, focus on setting clear frameworks that not only guide member behavior but also enhance the overall community experience. By doing so, you’ll position yourself for success in the dynamic world of community management.

Driving Engagement and Innovation in the UKG Community: A Strategic Success Story

January 13, 2025 By Jim Storer

Meet Allison Brotman:

Name: Allison Brotman
Title: VP, Learning and Community
Organization: UKG

As the VP, Learning and Community, Allison Brotman leads the charge in fostering customer learning and engagement at UKG. Her mission? To ensure customers not only adopt but actively engage with the UKG Community, experiencing its continuous improvements.

A Strategic Initiative to Enhance the UKG Community

In the first year post-launch, the primary goal was clear: boost customer adoption and engagement within the UKG Community. The initiative focused on showcasing ongoing investments to enhance the community experience. Specific objectives included:

UKG Community: A Strategic Success Story Allison Brotman

Increase Engagement: Grow the percentage of customer accounts engaging in the UKG Community to 80%.
Reduce Unanswered Questions: Decrease unanswered questions to 19%.
Optimize Search Experience: Achieve an 85% visitor click-through rate and decrease the content gap to 2%.
Collaborate Across Teams: Work with IT and other business partners to deliver on 90 requests and projects aimed at improving the UKG Community.

Outstanding Outcomes

The results of this initiative were remarkable:

Engagement Milestones: Starting the year with 69% engagement, the UKG Community ended with impressive numbers:
- 98% engagement for UKG Pro Suite customers.
- 82% engagement for UKG Ready Suite customers.
Unanswered Questions Reduced: The unanswered question rate dropped from 22% to 17% by:
- Optimizing automation to route customer questions to the appropriate feeds.
- Recognizing and empowering “Most Valuable Neighbors” (MVNs)—super users who share their expertise with the community.
- Expanding the CommunityMaker program, enabling UKG SMEs to scale their knowledge to benefit the broader customer base.
Improved Search Metrics: Visitor click-through rates increased from 81% to 84%, nearing the 85% target. The content gap metric improved from 3% to 2%, demonstrating enhanced search efficiency.
Collaboration Success: Surpassing expectations, the team collaborated on over 441 requests and projects, significantly enhancing the community experience.

A Thriving Community = A Strategic Success Story

Today, the UKG Community boasts over 250,000 members, including customers, partners, and UKG employees (affectionately called U Krewers). It has become the go-to destination for users to learn, connect, and share ideas.

Lessons Learned and Advice for Your Strategic Community Initiatives

Allison shares this invaluable advice for launching a similar program:

Define Clear Goals: Know what you want to achieve and how you’ll measure success.
Set Measurable Objectives: Align team and individual goals with the overall mission, ensuring everyone understands their role and impact.
Monitor and Communicate: Regularly track progress and celebrate wins to keep momentum. Adapt as needed if initial strategies fall short.

“Don’t be afraid to try something new to achieve your goals. You got this!”

The UKG Community’s success story illustrates the power of strategic planning, cross-functional collaboration, and a relentless focus on customer engagement. With a clear roadmap and commitment to innovation, any organization can achieve similar milestones.

Building Strategic Maturity and Securing Budgets

January 8, 2025 By Jim Storer

Community programs are evolving rapidly (as always!), with organizations increasingly recognizing the importance of having an approved, operational, and measurable strategy (spoiler alert – an approved strategy is one of the criteria for our best-in-class community segment). This shift is evident in the significant growth of strategic maturity, with nearly half of respondents in 2024 confirming they have a defined community strategy—a leap from just 28% in 2020. This trend underscores the critical role of strategic planning in transforming communities from niche initiatives into full-fledged enterprise programs, complete with diverse use cases and dedicated budgets.

Community Programs Securing Budgets

The rise in community programs with dedicated budgets highlights their growing legitimacy within enterprise structures. In 2020, only 38% of survey respondents reported having a dedicated budget for their community programs. Fast forward to 2024 – dedicated budgets surged to 61%. This steady increase signals a bright future for community programs as essential business units.

However, despite this progress, overall community budget growth has slowed compared to 2023. More programs report budget decreases than increases, reflecting broader economic challenges such as rising interest rates and political uncertainty. These financial headwinds are prompting organizations to scrutinize budgets and headcounts across the board. Still, communities remain valuable assets, delivering compelling returns on investment, and optimism for budget recovery in 2025 is warranted.

Building Strategic Maturity and Securing Budgets

Best-in-Class Programs Lead the Way

The best-in-class segment continues to shine. In 2024, 89% of best-in-class programs reported they control their budgets, up from 73% the previous year. Additionally, executive perceptions of communities remain overwhelmingly positive, especially within this segment, where 92% report executives view their programs positively or very positively. While there has been a slight decline in “positive” perceptions since 2022, this shift largely reflects neutral rather than negative sentiment.

The Role of Roadmaps in Strategic Growth

Formal, approved roadmaps are an essential tool for community development, with only 8% of respondents in 2024 indicating they lack a community roadmap—a dramatic improvement from 32% just five years ago. Roadmaps are instrumental in guiding communities toward best-in-class performance, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, and securing necessary resources.

What’s in a name? Best-in-Class Communities

November 25, 2024 By Jim Storer

Over the years, we’ve highlight “Best-in-Class” communities in our State of Community Management Research.

The Best-in-Class defines a segment of respondents to the State of Community Management 2024 survey that represent a mature, effective online community program. Our reporting directly reflects feedback from readers suggesting this is a critical piece in understanding how communities evolve.

2024 Best-in-Class Elements

To create the 2024 best-in-class segment, we included the communities with ALL of the following elements:

An approved community strategy
An approved community roadmap
A formal community leadership program exists
Most community roles are defined
Policies and guidelines both exist

The resulting Best-in-Class Communities segment in the 2024 report is 13% of the overall sample (up from 12% last year) and we continued to find evidence that they are leading the way throughout this year’s research.

Who are these Best-in-Class organizations?

While they represent a wide range of industries, “high tech/telecom/software” remains the largest segment at 54% of the total. Best-in-class community programs are likely to reside in larger organizations, with 57% of the total coming from organizations with 5,000+ employees.

Best-in-Class communities in 2024 also skew older – 70% of the best-in- class community programs have existed for 10+ years (up from 57% in 2023). The majority are a “network of communities” (62%) vs. a single community (38%). 81% are external/customer communities, 14% are internal/employee communities, and the balance cater to both audiences.

You can download the State of Community Management 2024 to learn more about how Best-in-Class communities are performing, and get ideas and advice for moving your community program closer to Best-in-Class status. You may already be there – you can use this free assessment to benchmark your community program and identify strengths and opportunities for grown.

Community Ecosystem Map: My framework for mapping content and programs

June 12, 2023 By Jim Storer

Community Ecosystem Map - Guest Post 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.

Moderation vs. Censorship in Online Communities

May 15, 2023 By Jim Storer

Have you seen this community management/moderation game Moderator Mayhem that is making the rounds? It is a little too close to home for us to truly be a game! It did get us thinking about moderation, and how the wider world looks at the way community managers use moderation vs. censorship their online communities.

Moderation vs. Censorship

Content moderation and censorship are two terms could be used interchangeably, but they have significant differences when it comes to the use of moderation vs. censorship in online communities. Both are methods used by platforms and website administrators to monitor and manage the content that users post on their platforms. However, content moderation and censorship have different goals, methods of implementation, and effects on an online community.

What is content moderation?

Content moderation is the process of reviewing and filtering user-generated content to ensure that it meets the community guidelines, terms of service, and legal requirements. The goal of content moderation is to maintain a safe, respectful, and effective online environment by removing content that is harmful, offensive, or inappropriate. Examples of content that may be moderated include hate speech, pornography, violent or graphic images, and spam.

Content moderation is usually carried out by teams of human moderators or through the use of automated tools such as machine learning algorithms that can identify problematic content. Moderators may use different criteria when evaluating content, including its relevance, accuracy, quality, and safety. Moderators may also apply different levels of moderation depending on the severity of the content, such as removing it, flagging it, or providing warnings to the user who posted it.

What is censorship?

Censorship, on the other hand, involves the deliberate suppression of information or ideas that are considered controversial, offensive, or threatening. Censorship aims to control or manipulate the narrative, suppress dissent, or protect the interests of those in power. Examples of content that may be censored include political dissent, criticism of the government or religion, and certain types of artistic expression.

Censorship is often carried out by governments or other authorities who have the power to control access to information. Censorship can take many forms, including internet shutdowns, blocking access to websites or social media platforms, and the imprisonment of journalists or bloggers who express dissenting views.

So what’s the difference?

The key difference between content moderation and censorship is the underlying motivation and intent behind each approach. Content moderation aims to protect the online community and its members by removing content that violates community guidelines or legal requirements. Censorship, on the other hand, aims to control information and restrict access to certain types of content for political or ideological reasons.

Content moderation is a necessary and beneficial practice that helps maintain a safe and respectful online environment. A safe and respectful community is the baseline environment for an productive online space, and since people love to push boundaries (and sometimes, just be jerks) thoughtful moderation is a critical component of online community management. While in some cases, content moderation decisions may be subjective, and there is a risk of moderators applying their own biases or interpretations when evaluating content it is overwhemlingly a needed process.

Censorship, on the other hand, is widely viewed as a violation of free speech and an infringement of individual rights. Censorship can limit access to information and suppress important debates and discussions. Governments and authorities that engage in censorship often face criticism and opposition from civil society and international organizations that advocate for free speech and human rights.

In conclusion, content moderation and censorship are two distinct approaches to managing content in online communities – and only one has a place in creating a safe and effective environment for members. Content moderation protects an online community and its members, staff, and organization, while allowing for healthy conflict and free speech.

Read more about effective community moderation.

Best Practices for Community Posting Guidelines

April 26, 2023 By Jim Storer

One of the hardest aspects of community management is the negative energy that can be directed your way when a member is unhappy. It’s common to grow weary and frustrated with the unwelcome behavior of many users, and it can feel like there is nothing you can do about it.

Luckily, there are proven tools and approaches that allowed you to proactively create a constructive environment. Community posting guidelines help you proactively create a constructive environment.

Your first order of business is to write (or revise) your community posting guidelines. Guidelines are often viewed as a secondary task in a community, but research and practice show that well-formulated guidelines are the difference between mayhem and harmony.

Below is a list of four prompts for positive community participation, along with a list of behaviors that will not be tolerated. Use these are a starting place for drafting community posting guidelines that work for your specific use case.

Getting the most out of your community experience:

Read and learn! More than anything, this community exists to be an interactive and ever-growing resource.
Ask questions! It can be to satisfy your own needs for knowledge or to propel a conversation further.
Answer questions! Think you know the answer to a peer’s question? Give it a shot and share your experience.
Encourage others! Be free with ‘thank you’, ‘good job’, and kudos.

The following behaviors are not acceptable and may result in content removal or being banned from the community:

Posting messages that are inflammatory, unconstructive or at odds with the aims of the community.
Posting messages that contain offensive language or references or personal attacks against other forum participants, including staff and moderators.
Posting messages that advocate illegal actions.
Posting the same message in multiple threads or forums.
Posting unconstructive messages about the company and/or other products and services.
Promoting or soliciting for your own business
Posting unsolicited messages (including “spam”).
Posting irrelevant or off-topic subject matter.
Posting to 3^rd party websites outside of official sources.

Want even more advice for using policies and guidelines to build a thriving community? Check out this podcast featuring community expert Melissa Westervelt.

The power of an award-winning dashboard

April 10, 2023 By Lindsey Leesmann

Each year, we celebrate excellence in community through our Community Leadership Awards. These awards are The Community Roundtable’s way of recognizing the dedicated individuals and organizations who are doing innovative, mission-critical work in our industry.

Nichol Goldstein, Senior Community Engagement Specialist, weighs in on her work in community at Progress and her advice for others in the industry.

Progress: Outstanding Community Dashboard
"If you're new to community, talk to others. Connections in our network are some of the greatest resources you can leverage." Nichol Goldstein, Senior Community Engagement Specialist

Nichol weighs in on …

The impact of winning the award

It’s been amazing to see my company support me by sharing my win on Twitter and LinkedIn. But, the best part was when someone from my Community saw those posts and added a new thread to our forums congratulating me!

Beyond that, I’ve been having conversations with my stakeholders about what they want to see additionally for metrics, and our dashboards being award-winning is really impressing them. Knowing that the industry appreciates what I’m producing helps give them perspective when it comes to their additional asks.

How being part of TheCR Network has helped

I’m newer to community management. So, I attend events all the time and love hearing other’s ideas, feedback, and searching the archives for information.

I know we discuss the “lurker” a lot, and I’m of the complete belief that I’m getting value, even as I just prowl around TheCR Network Community site.

The future of her community at Progress

I’m working with my stakeholders to get a clearer picture of what they like and what they want to improve. There are minor webpage tweaks — easy fixes! — as well as additional content to get out.

That’s what I really love to hear; other areas of the business raising their hands and wanting to be a part of our Community.

Advice for someone new to community

Talk to others. There is a big chasm [in community] where “you don’t know what you don’t know.” So, it’s hard to ask the right questions or find the right materials.

Listening to your peers on The CR calls can tickle your ear and make you say, “I want to try that,” or “I never thought of it that way.” Connections to our network is one of the greatest resources there is.

Outstanding Community Dashboard

If you’ve been in community management, you know how important a tool a dashboard is. It’s a one-stop-shop to monitor and report on your community’s health. Whether using one directly out of the box or having one custom-built, no two organizations’ dashboards are exactly the same. That’s why we ask our members — representing some of the best and the brightest in community — to show off their work when they nominate orgs for Outstanding Community Dashboard.

The 2022 winner, Progress, checked all the boxes:

Engaging design
Easy-to-understand metrics
Data showing the community’s impact and value

Learn more about the Community Leadership Awards.

Community Conversations – Episode #90 – Margaret Hedderman on Scaling Community Impact

February 28, 2023 By Jim Storer

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

Episode #90 of Community Conversations features Margaret Hedderman, Communications & Editorial Director at Startup Colorado.

Margaret shares a look at the community journey at Start Up Colorado – the home for resources for entrepreneurs, startups, and small business owners in rural Colorado.

We discuss how they approached choosing a technology partner, must-haves for their online community and their path from ideation to launch.

Margaret also shares how Start Up Colorado uses thoughtful onboarding processes to boost long-term community engagement and what’s next for the network.

This episode of Community Conversations is sponsored by Hivebrite.

Listen to Margaret Hedderman on Scaling Community Impact

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About Margaret Hedderman

Margaret is a nonfiction (and fiction) writer, podcast producer, copywriter and editor.

You can find her work in BBC Travel, on Apple Podcasts, and in support of rural entrepreneurs and small business owners. Since 2011, I’ve worked as a freelance writer and content marketer across industries. I believe that everything boils down to a good story. If you need help telling yours, hit me up.

About Start Up Colorado

Startup Colorado was founded in 2011 by Phil Weiser and Brad Feld at the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado Law School. The initiative initially focused on supporting startups on the Front Range, and the effort to support entrepreneurship across the entire state is the latest evolution of Startup Colorado. Since 2017, Startup Colorado shifted its mission to focus solely on the foundation and success of the State’s rural-based entrepreneurs.

Colorado’s rural entrepreneurs are building some of the most exciting business opportunities across the state, from geographically isolated small towns to growing rural hubs. Whether they live inside populations of 60 or 60,000, they are dedicated to diversifying economies, creating new jobs, and fostering local talent. Their goals are mighty and their challenges many. While some business resources are scarce, others are disconnected or hard to find, making it difficult for any entrepreneur to navigate.

Startup Colorado solves for this challenge with tactics that drive greater awareness and cohesion on the playing field for entrepreneurs and the business support organizations who serve them. Through strategic networking, partnership development, and collaboration, we eliminate barriers, mitigate support gaps, and dismantle silos.

Check out more episodes of Community Conversations

Melissa Westervelt on Policies and Governance

February 6, 2023 By Jim Storer

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.