The Community Roundtable

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

Want Insights? The State of Community Management 2018 Survey is Open!

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Update: The SOCM 2018 survey is now closed, and the report is available for download.

This year, our research working group had some big questions on their minds as we developed The State of Community Management 2018 survey, including:

  • Community programs seem to be getting more influence in their organizations – how can I replicate that in mine?
  • How can I prove that more investment and resources would lead to better results?
  • I have a business case but how can I get the right people to pay attention?
  • I love my community management job, but what’s next?

It’s time: the SOCM survey is open!

The great news? We no longer need to define what community management is. While everyone may not understand it yet, the past eight years of SOCM research provides plenty of data to describe and justify the discipline. What’s more interesting now is how much visibility, support, and influence communities have.

That’s huge progress in a few short years and it means we’ve restructured our SOCM research to reflect those needs – and in the process simplified the survey, making it easier and faster to take. (Hooray!)

This year, we are exploring three key themes:

  1. Communities Get Down to Business
  2. Communities as Change Agents
  3. Community Roles Evolve

We think there is more potential than ever for community approaches – and more attention – but also some significant challenges as the vendor environment evolves and the scope of community programs increase. This year we are targeting our research to explore those opportunities and challenges – but we need your help to do so!

So what? What’s in it for you?

Well, you could participate because it helps the entire industry mature…but let’s be honest, you have a lot of other things to do today. You should participate in the SOCM 2018 research because it provides insightful prompts to help you reflect on your priorities, how you spend your time, and what really matters to your community program. That reflection helps you improve your work, your insights, and your value. THAT is ROI you can take to the bank.

It takes 25 minutes to make a difference.

This years’ survey is easier and quicker to take – with less data to collect. And, to thank you for your for your time, we want to buy you a coffee – one of those fancy ones, even – with a $5 Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts gift card. Or, you can also donate your $5 to No Kid Hungry and make a difference in another way. When the survey is complete we’ll also pick one participant to with an AMEX gift card worth $1 for every completed survey we receive! Not bad for a few minutes work.

We take your privacy, and your data, seriously.

There’s a lot of important data in this survey, that’s why each year we reiterate our pledge. We will not sell, use or otherwise share your individual survey response with anyone. Period. We won’t report on groups that are too small to guarantee anonymity. The only time you’ll hear from us is if there is a question about your data, or to let you know the research report is available. Our business is built on the strength of and trust in our research.

Learn more about the SOCM 2018.

Community Management Limericks

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I’m just going to say it: The State of Community Management 2017 survey closes this Friday. By the time you read this there will be less than 72 hours to contribute to the industry’s leading community research. If you sleep eight hours a night, that’s only 56 hours! Subtract time for eating, hitting the gym, working, tweeting, being stuck in traffic, and feeding your cat/dog/fish/iguana and there are really only a few hours left! To say ‘thank you’, our team has written these very serious community management poems for your enjoyment:

Five reasons to take The State of Community Management 2017 survey right now

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Eight years. That’s like a century in community management, but that is how many years we have been pouring hundreds of hours of our time into creating The State of Community Management. This is my third year at the helm, and I’m excited. With new questions, new data analysis tools, and another year of comparative data, I can say without hyperbole that this will be the best, most informative State of Community Management ever.*

Why the asterisk? That’s you.

You see, our research – the carefully crafted questions, intensive data preparation and analysis, writing, graphics, design, and thought leadership – is only as valuable as you make it by taking part. Last year,  339 community professionals invested their time and entrusted their data to us. This year, we want even more participation, and so do you.

By filling out the survey – you are making the results more valuable for you.

Why? Well, because in data – more is better. The greater data set last year allowed us to compare communities across industries, use cases and sizes without fears of having a small sample size. That meant being able to share items in the report and blog posts that dug in on the issues facing subgroups of communities. Those subgroups? They’re customer support (or innovation) communities like yours. They’re in the nonprofit (or health care) space like you. They have a lone wolf community manager (or a team of community managers) like you. A big sample means we don’t just spot the big trends in community management – but the little ones as well.

In 30 minutes (or less), you’ll get a scorecard of where your community management stands, and maybe some things you haven’t thought about.

The survey data isn’t just for us, it’s a way for us to report back to you on where your community management strategies, practices and engagement patterns put you in our Community Maturity Model. We won’t publicly rank you – don’t worry – this is material for you to use to celebrate your successes, and maybe target some areas for improvement. We’ll also push your thinking about your community, your community engagement, and your community value.

In the past three years, we’ve built powerful cases on the need for community managers, the fallacy of the 90-9-1 rule, and the ROI of community. Knowledge is power.

It’s a survey developed with community professionals, for community professionals.

The State of Community Management is unlike any other survey, in that it’s both tech-neutral and developed in partnership with a team of experienced community managers from TheCR Network. Our working group spends hours discussing and reviewing questions to make them relevant to community practices across industries and use cases. We, too, live by the findings – we use what we learn in our own community for community professionals, TheCR Network.

We have a history of treating your data responsibly.

There’s a lot of important data in the survey. Budgets, staffing levels, other competitive information. That’s why each year we reiterate our pledge. We will not sell, use or otherwise share your individual survey response with anyone. Period. We won’t even report on groups that are too small to guarantee anonymity. The only time you’ll hear from us is if there is a question about your data, or to let you know the research report is available. Our business is built on the strength of our research.

Coffee. And a chance for much more.

OK – there’s one other reason we get in touch. In exchange for your time, we want to buy you a coffee – one of those fancy ones, even – with a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts gift card. (You can also donate your $5 to Save Our Strength and feed the hungry.) And when all is said and done, one person will win a gift card worth $1 for every completed survey.

So – what are you waiting for? If you have any questions, shoot me a DM on Twitter.

Take the survey (and share the link!) athttps://the.cr/socm2017survey

Three Reasons to Take the SOCM Today

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By Shannon Abram, The Community Roundtable

The 7th annual State of Community Management survey closes this Friday, March 18th – time is running out to contribute!

We know your time is valuable, so here are important three reasons to take the SOCM today:

Get Great Ideasbrain_icon

“Taking @TheCR surveys brings up many new ideas…or ideas I forgot about!”

A survey-taker shared this on twitter – and she’s right! Taking the SOCM can help you get new ideas for community initiatives, or help you dust off your old to-do list!

Learn Your Maturity Scorematurity_icon

Everyone that completes the SOCM 2016 will receive your community maturity scores for the eight competencies in the Community Maturity Model – for free!

These scores give you a gap analysis to better understand an prioritize your resources.

icon_coffeeDrink Free Coffee

We know your time is valuable – that’s why in addition giving you the full SOCM report for free – we’re buying your next coffee!

Every completed survey earns a $5 Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts gift card – plus an entry into our grand prize – an AMEX card worth $1 for every completed survey we receive!

take the survey button

Thank you in advance for your contribution to this ground-breaking community research! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. Have you already taken the survey? Wow, you’re wonderful! Please tell your community friends and colleagues, your neighbors, the guy behind you at Starbucks… you get the idea!

Community Manager Salary Survey Sneak Preview, Part Two

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By Maggie Tunning, Learning and Culture Manager at The Community Roundtable.

We’re collecting Community Manager Salary Survey responses until the end of the month, and we’re excited about all of the results we’ve already received. We can’t help but start looking into the data and wanted to share some early findings with you here.CMSS - Directors of Community

Over half of all participants identify their job title as “Community Manager,” but we’ve received responses from community specialists, community strategists, marketing managers and more. We’re looking for more data from “Directors of Community”- who may also identify with titles like “Head of Community,” “Director of Community Engagement, “Director of Member Engagement” and “Community Management Director” – and appreciate if you can share the survey with them (and any other community professionals!) you know: https://www.tinyurl.com/CMSS2014

Quick preview of early results:

  • Almost 40 percent of directors of community were approached directly by the hiring manager/team about their role. Another 20 percent defined and moved into this role.
  • Over half of directors of community have been promoted in their community management role in their organization.
  • Although engagement and people skills rank highest in the skill set of the average of respondents, strategic and business skills rank highest among the community director participants.

This preview represents early data, and we are looking for more responses to explore trends in the upcoming report. We would appreciate if you can share the survey with any community professionals you know: https://www.tinyurl.com/CMSS2014

 

Take the Survey

 

 

 

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Looking to take your career in community management to the next level? 92% of members agree that TheCR Network supports and advances their personal and professional goals. Learn how our research, access to peers and experts, targeted content and exclusive concierge service can help you achieve your goals. 

Community Manager Salary Survey Sneak Preview – Part One

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By Maggie Tunning, Learning and Culture Manager at The Community Roundtable.

We’re collecting Community Manager Salary Survey responses until the end of the month, and we’re excited about the results we’ve already received. We can’t help but start looking into the data and wanted to share some early findings with you here:

Who is participating in the CMSS 2014?Salary Survey: Calling all internal community managers!

  • About 75 percent of respondents are corporate staff (vs. agency staff or independent consultants).
  • About one third of respondents work remotely most of the time, and about another quarter have the option to work remotely some of the time.
  • Community managers from all types of communities – communities of practice, product innovation communities, customer support communities, communities for staff collaboration – are participating, but at this time we have almost three times as many responses from external community managers than internal community managers.

We’re looking for more data from internal community managers and appreciate if you can share the survey with them (and any other community professionals!) you know: https://www.tinyurl.com/CMSS2014

Early Research Distinctions: 

  • Internal community managers have on average more professional and community management experience than external community managers.
  • A higher percentage of internal community managers reported defining and moving into their current role than the average of responses.
  • About 40 percent of all respondents have been promoted within their community management role, and a higher percentage of internal community managers have been promoted than external community managers.

We can’t wait to share the full results from the Survey this Fall – and we’ll be back with another sneak preview of results next week!

In the meantime if you haven’t yet taken the Survey please consider sharing your insights. If you have taken the Survey we cannot thank you enough! If you have any friends or colleagues who work in community management in any capacity please share the survey with them: https://www.tinyurl.com/CMSS2014

Take the Survey

 

 

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Looking to take your career in community management to the next level? 92% of members agree that TheCR Network supports and advances their personal and professional goals. Learn how our research, access to peers and experts, targeted content and exclusive concierge service can help you achieve your goals. 

Friday Roundup – News for Community Managers

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Welcome to August! This summer is flying by and we are hard at work on some exciting community management programs for the Fall – most notably the first Community Manager Salary Report, slated for a Fall 2014 release! The research is currently open and we’d love to here from you. The survey is short (about 15 minutes) and we are looking for community professionals representing all community job titles and types of communities.

There were so many great articles this week – enjoy this news roundup:

9 Problems Keeping Your Online Community from Being Great – I’m not one for lengthy introductions, the title of the post brought you here, so let’s dive in. Below are the aforementioned 5 problems, and I’ve attempted to provide a solution to help you remedy the problems. Would love to hear more from you in the comments or on Twitter.

The New Visionaries: Richard Martin on the Peloton – Richard Martin wrote a series of posts in which he characterized people working together productively as being like the bicycle racing phenomenon of the peloton: the main group of riders that conserve energy by riding close together. The final in his series — Peloton formations distilled — has links to the other, earlier posts.

It’s complicated: Why we need a new etiquette for handling what’s private and what’s public – It’s tempting to see private vs. public as something binary or black and white, but there is a whole universe of human behavior expressed through services like Twitter and Facebook that falls somewhere between those two extremes, and we need to figure out how to handle it properly.

Sharing isn’t caring: stop being fooled by collaborative consumption – Labeling companies such as AirBnB, Uber and TaskRabbit as “the sharing economy” is one of the finest and most deceptive bits of branding of the past few years.

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: July 2014 Wrap Up – Summer is just flying by inside TheCR Network. I exercised some work-life balance and took a fully unplugged vacation this month thanks to my supportive team who held down the fort while I was out of the office. And while we decrease the number of virtual live events we host due to vacation season the network has been quite busy in the forums. Here are a few samples of discussions, collaboration, and knowledge sharing that occurred inside TheCR Network this month.

The Innovation Turbo-Charge: How To Train The Brain To Be More Creative – The data is overwhelming: creativity is far and away the most important skill needed to “thrive” (and this word is being used in opposition to “survive” here) in today’s world.

5 Ways That Systems of Engagement Bring Out Our Full Social Selves – Technology has a way of sucking the humanity right out of us. Consider how we describe, design and deploy ‘enterprise 2.0′ and work system technologies in our organizations: When we talk about technology systems, we talk about machines, platforms, inputs and outputs. We forget about values, emotion, flourishing, meaning and purpose.

A Day In The Life Of A B2B Community Manager – Somewhere, in the stillness of the night, an online community manager rolls over in bed, reaches for his iPad, and checks to see if anyone in his online community needs help, if there are messages that need attention and to make sure the site is running fine.

Bringing Community Management to the Boardroom – Community management has been around for at least 20 years – ever since the first AOL chat rooms and newspaper forum message boards made their debut in the 1990s. Fan sites and gaming rooms were also early incarnations of online communities. Back then the community manager moderated posts by the thousands on a daily basis.

 New Community and Social Media Jobs: 

  1. Social Media Manager for 3 month contract job! – The Creative Group 2,120 reviews – Norcross, GA 30092
  2. Business Systems Lead – Community Manager – Firmenich – Princeton, NJ
  3. Communications Specialist – Federal Aviation Administration – Washington, DC
  4. Community Manager – SIR Corp – Greater Toronto Area, ON
  5. Stakeholder & Community Relations Advisor – Progress Energy – Calgary, AB
  6. Senior Social Collaboration Analyst – Aon – Chicago, IL
  7. Knowledge Manager – KCM Solutions – San Bruno, CA
  8. Junior Social Media Manager (Internship) (Montreal, Quebec) – Groupe Hashtag Média – Montréal, QC
  9. Selections Editor & Community Manager / New York – Bookspan – New York, NY
  10. Community Manager – go2gether – Vancouver, BC
  11. Customer Care Online Community Manager – Aquent Staffing – San Francisco, CA
  12. Customer Support & Community Manager – DODOcase – San Francisco, CA
  13. Community Manager – Online – 125th Street Business Improvement District – New York, NY
  14. Senior Manager, Organized Play Promotions – Wizards Of The Coast – Renton, WA
  15. Senior Manager, Organized Play Promotions Job – Hasbro – Renton, WA
  16. Community & Social Media Manager – PumpUp Inc. – Toronto, ON

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Community Managers – Declare Your Value!

Have you taken the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 yet? Your insights into your role are invaluable as we document and define community manager best practices across industries. The survey is short (15 minutes) and we’d love to hear from you. Take the survey now.

Friday Roundup: Survey’s Open!

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

This week we were excited to launch our newest research initiative – the Community Manager Salary Survey! The name is a wee bit specific – we are looking to report on the (many) various community manager roles that exist – and define and categorize based on responsibilities and compensation by experience level, size of company, functional goals of the community, geography and more. This annual research will:

  • Justify investment in community management staff
  • Document the responsibilities of community mangers, by seniority and context (functional use case, company size, geography, experience)
  • Create a skill framework that can be used to hire, assess, demonstrate or grow skill sets
  • Understand what community managers are worth financially, by context, and how compensation is structured

If you or someone you know performs community management activities – regardless of their title – please take a minute to share your insights. This might include VPs of Community, Marketing Managers, Social Business Strategists, Directors of Social media – or many titles we haven’t even heard yet!

Of course, we didn’t forget the links and the new community jobs this week!

SOCM 2014 Community Fact #04 – Do I Need a Community Strategy? – You’ve heard that practice makes perfect, but what about planning? In our State of Community Management 2014 research we found that the foundation of a successful community really is the presence of a well-defined strategy- one that integrates social tools and methods with business goals and processes. A good community strategy also aligns an organization’s goals with member needs setting you up to succeed in both keep engagement high and provide ROI.

Online Community Onboarding – Onboarding has typically been used to describe the process of helping new employees at a company to pick up the skills and information they need to become solid contributors to an organization. Even though members aren’t your employees – far from it – the Wikipedia page for onboarding is a really interesting place to start.

SHOULD YOU QUIT YOUR COMMUNITY JOB? – We often talk about how employers can determine if a community needs to be built or how to evaluate CMs, but it’s not so often that we talk about community managers evaluating our employers.

Transforming engagement with customers and partners – a customer success webinar

Social Media Requires Being Human – While on a trip to California to speak at an event last month, I took the opportunity to see how hospitality and travel companies respond (or don’t respond) using Twitter. I hope you enjoy the lessons I learned from my interaction with the various companies. If you have not already figured it out, Twitter is another channel your clients and partners can use to communicate with you.

When online communities go to work – While the debate continues on about whether consumer social networking is an effective model for how we should run our organizations in the future, one under-appreciated online phenomenon is quietly and steadily remaking the very notion of business itself.The world of online communities has evolved with social computing to become one of the most powerful new models for getting work done. Read my exploration of “When online communities go to work.”

New social media and community jobs:

  1. Community Manager – Rapid7 – Boston, MA
  2. eHealth Community Manager – MetroWest, Southcoast, Cape Commonwealth of Massachusetts – Boston, MA
  3. Senior Manager, Community and Knowledge Base Architect -Blackbaud – Austin, TX
  4. Community Support Manager (CSM) -Kuester Management Group – Fort Mill, SC
  5. Social Community Manager – Doner – Southfield, MI
  6. Community Manager – Ascent Consulting – Lexington, MA 02420
  7. Community Manager – American Student Assistance – Boston, MA
  8. Community Manager – Wargaming America – Emeryville, CA
  9. HUD/Tax Credit Assistant Community Manager – Eureka Multifamily Group – San Antonio, TX
  10. Community Manager – Canary – New York, NY

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Have you taken the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 yet? Your insights into your role are invaluable as we document and define community manager best practices across industries. The survey is short (15 minutes) and we’d love to hear from you. Take the survey now.

Friday Roundup: TheCR and You

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

The first official week of Summer comes to a close, and we’re slowing down at TheCR. Summer is a great time to step back, try out new ideas, assess how things are working and plan ahead for the busier Fall months. For us that means three things:

1.) Testing out different programming formats – in the Network we’re hosting book clubs, testing Champion programs and sending Flat Hillary out for another round of Summer adventures, on the blog we’ll be devoting much of July and August to a look at community management as a career – sharing hiring best practices, showcasing interesting community manager journeys and setting the stage for our newest research initiatives.

Which leads me to 2.) the community management salary survey! Later this July we’re launching the industry’s first comprehensive research platform is designed to help both community managers and those hiring community managers better understand the nuances of this discipline and provide a framework for assessing expertise and developing skills, as well as report on how community managers are compensated. Look for the survey, opening soon!

And finally 3.), if you’re just itching to take a survey today we also are soliciting responses to our mini-survery TheCR and You designed to help us learn which resources you find the most valuable so we can make sure we are best serving the needs of the greater community management population. The mini survey should only take five minutes and you can win a $20 gift card! Take the survey now.

And now, onto our favorite articles from the week and new social media and community manager jobs:

Using the Community Maturity Model for Internal Consulting at Microsoft – Alex Blanton of Microsoft, shares how he’s using the Community Maturity Model for internal community consulting as part of TheCR Network’s weekly programming. Internal community consulting has been a trending topic in the network – we’ve hosted two other Roundtable calls on the topic – because our members are being asked to extend their skill sets to the rest of their organizations, through training and advisory services.

Building SMART Online Communities – A year ago, The Community Roundtable invited Thomas Vander Wal to present about the links between community management and urban planning. Instantly intrigued, I took copious notes and read the recommended book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.

summer Rebecca Braglio, Community Manager Pets360

Faces of Community Management: Rebecca Braglio, Pet360 – This month’s Face of Community Management is TheCR Network member Rebecca Braglio. Rebecca is the Community Engagement Manager at Pet360 and has one of the most interesting paths to community management that I’ve ever heard.

Transforming Connections in an Age of Digital Change – The goal of marketing still revolves around accelerating new and repeat sales. But the means to that end has shifted over the past few years.

The Language of Engagement – Having a well crafted community strategy and roadmap is critical to enabling effective outcomes, but translating that strategy into your engagement approach is equally critical and often overlooked. People tend to communicate in online communities they way they do elsewhere and that can often be the wrong approach.

How To Build Organizational Culture – Recently, I was moderating a design thinking workshop and talking about how it is critical to foster a culture of innovation within the organization and that it is responsibility of the leaders to build & nurture this culture. Some one stopped me and asked the following question: “As a leader, what can i do to build the culture that i want for my team or organization”.

The Disruption Machine – What the gospel of innovation gets wrong.

Social technology and the changing context of leadership – Most companies are painfully aware that over the last two decades the context of leadership has changed dramatically, putting tremendous pressure on traditional models of management and organization.

New community manager jobs and social media jobs:

  1. Community Manager at Houzz – Palo Alto, CA
  2. Senior Manager, Online Community Management Consulting at Socious – Mesa, AZ
  3. Director of Social Media Strategy – Pharma client at Entech Network Solutions – NYC
  4. Director Social Media at AT&T – Dallas, TX
  5. Director Social Media Marketing – at Numeric Recruiting and Staffing – Mclean, VA
  6. Social Media Community Manager at Rebecca Taylor – NYC
  7. Senior Community Manager, Aviation and Aerospace Industries at World Economic Forum – New York, NY
  8. Social Media Community Manager (Technology Focus) at Uptown Treehouse – Los Angeles, CA
  9. Online Community Manager at the Center for Science in the Public Interest – Washington, DC
  10. Senior Community Manager, Automotive Industry at World Economic Forum – New York, NY
  11. Esports Associate Manager of Player Relations at Riot Games – Santa Monica, CA
  12. Community Manager/Dir of Community Mktg at Smarterer – Boston, MA
  13. Digital Community Manager- San Francisco, CA at Sierra Club – San Francisco, CA
  14. Digital Community Manager at 270 Strategies – Washington, DC
  15. Community & Content Manager at Mullen – Boston, MA
  16. Community Manager at American Student Assistance – Boston, MA
  17. Social Solutions Consultant at Lithium Technologies – San Francisco, CA
  18. Community Manager at Fareportal Inc. – New York
  19. Community Manager at Havas Media – New York, NY
  20. Community Manager at Hailo – New York

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Join TheCR Network In June and Save 20%June Promo - save 20%

If you’ve thought about membership in TheCR Network now is the time to join. We’re offering a limited number of half-year memberships, valid from July 1st through December 31st only available through June 30th.

Enjoy six months of full access to TheCR Network, including all programs, access to our extensive library and exclusive concierge services through 2014 and only pay $600 (a 20% savings off a standard membership).

Why Join TheCR Network?

  1. Save time – With access to exclusive research, reports, templates and worksheets you’ll be able take your community projects to the next level quickly.
  2. Save money – Don’t reinvent the wheel – unlimited access to the resources in TheCR Network helps scale your efforts at a fraction of the cost of adding staff or 3rd party consultants.
  3. Connect with Community Peers and Experts – With over 200 members representing companies like Nike, Aetna, CA Technologies, Rackspace, Google, Walgreens and more you’ll learn from and with some of the best community managers in the world.

Membership in TheCR Network will help you be the best community manager you can be – join today.

 

 

Friday Roundup – One Week Left Edition

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Our annual research initiative – the State of Community Management survey closes next Friday, February 28th. If you have already taken this short survey (only 15 minutes!) – thank you! If you haven’t taken it, and are a community manager, community strategist, community program leader or volunteer who has community management responsibilities we would love to hear from you – you can take the survey here.

On a programming note, we’re offering a free, public webinar next Wednesday at 1pm ET focused on best practices for managing community platform changes. Register now! Now, on to the links:

Have a great weekend – see you on Monday!

 

 

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The Community Roundtable  is committed to advancing the business of community. We offer a membership based peer network, community management training programs and advisory services for corporations and individuals.