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The Community Roundtable

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

Friday Roundup: Expert Advice, Ask Me Anything and a Peek in TheCR Network

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

AMA - Get Expert Advice!This week we had a common theme – getting great advice from expert community practitioners. Fresh off a lively AMA with Minecraft Forum’s community manager, we shared best practices for hosting your own AMA. We also took a moment to recognize the amazing community practitioners that take the time to share their expert advice with TheCR Network members every week – you can check out a few of our most recent guests here. Finally, Hillary Boucher shared her monthly recap of what’s happening inside the Network. It was a busy month as members focused on measurement, benchmarking and engagement. What were you working on this week?

Things We Are Reading This Week

Best Practices from TheCR Network: Hosting an Ask Me Anything (AMA) – Recently we’ve caught the AMA (Ask Me Anything) bug. Maybe you’ve seen our AMA webinars with community managers? Our members are realizing the value of the AMA format for real-time community engagement, and have been sharing best practices for AMAs within their communities.

Why you should stop giving your customers to Facebook – Guest Would you turn over your family to some third party to act as an intermediary if you really cared for them? How about renting them back to get to know them better?

Looking for Expert Community Advice? A Thank You to TheCR Network Guest Speakers – One of the most exciting and valuable aspects of TheCR Network is the regular Roundtable calls we organize for members. These calls are most often lead by distinguished industry experts and experienced community practitioners.

The Strategic Role of Digital Networks in Corporate Leadership Today – Enterprise Irregulars – While there are a number of key factors that help organizations create important new types of business results using enterprise social networks or online communities, leadership is almost always at the top of the list.

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: April 2015 – Measurement, Benchmarking and Engagement – It’s May! The flowers are blooming (finally!) and members are collaborating. Yes, TheCR Network has spring fever. A fellow community manager and member recently said to me: “I can’t believe how much you have going on inside the Network.”

The great equalizer | Working Out Loud – “You’re not angry enough!!” I was in the Apple store in Soho and my friend was giving me feedback about an early draft of the book. She handed me a package with her comments all over the printout. Her tone was insistent.

5 reasons to recognize the superheroes in your online community – Starting this month, we are recognizing members of the network as TheCR Network Superheroes, complete with badges on their network profiles…

New Social Media and Community Jobs

  1. Social Media Community Manager – Data Systems Analysts, Inc. – Aberdeen, MD
  2. Online Community and Volunteer Manager  – WunderLand Group – Chicago, IL
  3. Community Manager – Rubi Tools USA – Miami, FL
  4. Community Manager – iCrossing – New York, NY
  5. Resident Concierge – Resource Residential –Little Rock, AR
  6. Assistant Community Manager – FirstService Residential  – Wanaque, NJ
  7. Community Manager – FirstService Residential – San Francisco, CA
  8. Community Manager – Premier Farnell Group – Chicago, IL
  9. Social Media & Community Manager – Redpoint Ventures – Menlo Park, CA
  10. Community Manager – McKinley – Ann Arbor, MI
  11. Community Manager – Huge – Washington, DC
  12. Community Manager – Associa – Brentwood, TN
  13. Community Manager  – KOG GAMES Inc. – Irvine, CA
  14. Community Manager – Munch Ado – New York, NY
  15. Community Manager – Tealium, Inc. – San Diego, CA
  16. Community Manager – Interface – New York, NY
  17. Community Manager – Lithium – San Francisco, CA
  18. Community Manager – ROCeteer – Las Vegas, NV
  19. Community Manager – Skyword – Boston, MA
  20. Community Manager – Carbon Media Group – Bingham Farms, MI

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Looking for community peers to chat with, vent to and learn from? Check out our Facebook group and make some new community friends!

Looking for Expert Community Advice? A Thank You to TheCR Network Guest Speakers

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By Georgina Cannie, Community Fellow at The Community Roundtable.

One of the most exciting and valuable aspects of TheCR Network is the regular Roundtable calls we organize for members. These calls are most often lead by distinguished industry experts and experienced community practitioners. It goes without saying that we love to boast about the amazing roster of guest speakers we host. Most recently, we have had the honor of partnering with Jane McConnell, Michael Sampson, and Peter Gloor.

 

Jane McConnell is a thought-leader, researcher and adviser to global organizations on digital workplace strategies. She led a call for TheCR members about helping workplaces evolve via digital work solutions. Jane is the force behind the renowned Digital Workplace research report, which has been published annually since 2006. Her extensive research knowledge makes her an utmost authority on organizational intranets and digital strategies. She has worked with corporations, government bodies and international agencies. Jane writes a magnificent blog and leads thought-provoking conversations at public conferences and private briefings. TheCR Network Guest Speaker: Jane McConnell
Michael Sampson is a consultant who provides organizations with assurance of their strategy regarding the effective use of collaboration tools and approaches. Michael joined us in TheCR Network to share his insights on building a culture of collaboration and to explain his ROADMAP acronym, which he uses to approach collaboration technology as a business initiative. Michael works with financial, professional and legal firms, academic institutions, and public sector clients. Michael has a monthly newsletter, two subscription-based publications and also gives presentations across the globe. He has written five books. Most recently, Collaboration Roadmap and User Adoption Strategies. Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 10.25.40 AM
Peter Gloor stopped by TheCR Network in January to discuss his theory of Six Honest Signals that drive innovation and collaboration. Peter is currently a research scientist at the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He leads a project called COIN that explores Collaborative Innovation Networks. He is also the founder of galaxyadvisors– A company that helps clients analyze social networking patterns to their advantage. In addition to being a guest lecturer and honorary professor at a handful of Universities, Peter has written seven books (Yes, you read that correctly). Most recently, Swarm Creativity, Coolhunting and Coolfarming. TheCR Network Guest Speaker: Peter Gloor

Are we bragging a bit? Maybe. It’s hard not to talk about the accomplishments of our distinguished guest speakers and the extraordinary value they bring to our members.

To see a full list of experts who have shared their insights and experience with TheCR Network members, click over to TheCR Network Expert Pinterest page.

Interested in experiencing the magic of TheCR Network first-hand? Join now! 

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: February 2015 Wrap-Up

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By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at the Community Roundtable

For such a short month February was full of programming inside TheCR Network. I’ve highlighted just three of six member virtual sessions we hosted. What is particularly notable about the three programs below is that all of them were directly in response to projects that members are currently working on, and the agendas were developed in collaboration with members to ensure the outputs were aligned with their needs. These are great examples of the way we co-create with members of TheCR Network.

  • Building an Employee Advocacy Program (Roundtable): We discovered a number of our members were rolling out an employee advocacy program in 2015 and collaborated with them to develop an agenda for a virtual panel discussion with other members and guests who had experience launching and running similar programs at other organizations.
  • Navigating a Platform Migration (Roundtable): Thanks to a few generous members we had a very informative call on the topic of platform migration from a practitioner perspective. A number of participants had recently finished or were in the middle of a platform migration and the lessons learned where fresh and relevant. The feedback we heard was that the advice shared was invaluable for those about to embark on a migration effort.
  • The Future of the Intranet (Roundtable): One of our members is currently digging in to what the future of the intranet looks like for his large, financial company. He facilitated a big thinking meeting of the minds for members to discuss questions like:
    • Is the Future Intranet 100% community focused?  Why or why not?
    • Who will reign in the future? Big behemoth technologies that do a lot of things or more focused solutions that are not as robust but do everything that they do well?
    • How does mobile play into the Future Intranet?

If you are interested in learning more about what it’s like to be a member of TheCR Network check out this extensive overview which shares our general programming opportunities and resources made available to members.

Want to access our programming for the benefit of your community work? Reach out and ask us about membership.

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Did you know that TheCR Network members work with all kinds of communities? In fact, about 25% work in either internal or external communities and 50% work with both! No matter what kind of community you work with membership in TheCR Network will save you time and improve the quality of your work by connecting you with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining TheCR Network can improve the work you do.

 

CMSS Stats You Can Use: What’s the Best Way to Network?

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable. 

Community professionals have no shortage of resources to help them grow in their careers.

It’s an exciting time to work in the community management world. Given the rise in community management, blogs, books and other publications are in abundance for those looking to read up on good practices and trends in the field. (You can check out our recommended reading list here.)

Conferences and other networking opportunities that connect community professionals with their industry peers help them stay current with trends in a field that is growing as technology advances. We’ve found that vendor conferences can be particularly helpful when connecting you with people that are struggling with the same challenges that you face – and provide a great way to expand your understanding of the platform you use.

Through our Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 research we found that 51% of survey participants belong to a professional development group – these groups (like TheCR Network) provide an instant network of like-minded community practitioners and a 24/7 support system for often-siloed community professionals. Many cities also host community-focused meet-ups (like OcTribe in San Francisco and the Community Manager Breakfast series in Austin)- check out what is available near you or start your own group!

network

 

Community managers may want to take a look at our newest eBook, as well. Defining Community Management Roles provides you with information on salaries, experience, skills and responsibilities for three key community management roles – community manager, community strategist and director of community. Check it out now!

Friday Roundup: Fast Start, Big Thoughts in Community to open 2015

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StartingGunBy Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable

2015 is off to a rip-roaring start at The Community Roundtable. In TheCR Network, the first Roundtable call of the year is in the books, the Working Out Loud threads are buzzing and interaction is everywhere.

For TheCR as a whole, the New Year has meant some thought-provoking writing from Rachel, who’s sees great opportunity for community in 2015 – “The Year Community Management Goes Mainstream.” We also kicked off what will be a series of blog posts highlighting important data from the Community Manager Salary Survey, with a look at the Director of Community role, and we continued development of our plans for Community Manager Appreciation Day 2015.

Atlanta is joining Boston, New York, Washington, Milwaukee and San Francisco as a site for our local CMAD gatherings – each site is a little different but all six promise to be interesting and fun. Learn more about the plans as they continue to evolve at bit.ly/cmad2015

And of course, we are continuing our search for THREE paid fellows – take a look in the job listings, and refer people who might be looking to break into the community space in a paid position.

Some Other Interesting Readings This Week

Why You Need to Make Community a Core Part of Your Business Philosophy – After advising, studying and working with hundreds of companies and their community strategies throughout my career, I’ve noticed one huge commonality in why many of them fail. Companies fail at community when they look at it as a tactic instead of making it a core part of their business philosophy.

Content & Community Management: The Perfect Pair – As community managers, our job is to make sure that the community dedicated to the brand or product that we represent feels satisfied, proud, and willing to spread the word. Having a suite of content specifically dedicated to community management efforts can be more useful in this area than you may imagine. I talked to a few top community managers to explore how they have integrated a content strategy with their community strategy and what they had to say was quite interesting.

Benefits of Owned Community vs. Social Networks – In recent years the realisation by later adopters that social media isn’t free, or easy, combined with rising cost barriers and noise in our most trafficked channels, has seen a renewed interest in owned community. So what are the advantages in doing it for yourself?

Customer Community Is the New Marketing: Are You Ready? – How would your company look differently if you added 150 passionate advocates to your informal sales team? That is the size of Salesforce’s MVP Program today. This subset of the 1.4 million members of their online customer community may be tiny, but it’s mighty. Erica Kuhl, Salesforce’s Senior Director of Community, has adroitly managed an increase in nearly 1 million community members since January 2014. Overall, Salesforce community members spend twice as much on products than non-members.

New Community and Social Media Jobs

Community Management Fellow (Paid) – The Community Roundtable, remote

Research Fellow (Paid) – The Community Roundtable, remote

Sales/Marketing Fellow (Paid) – The Community Roundtable, remote

Collaboration Program Manager (Sr. Business Analyst) – Advent Software, San Francisco, CA

Jive Internal Community Manager – Firmenich, Princeton, NJ

Director of Social Media – Pegasystems, Cambridge, MA

Social Media Manager – RH Children’s – Penguin Random House, New York City

Director, Social Operations – McDonalds, Oak Brook, IL

Social Media Marketing Manager – Vevo, New York City

Community Manager – Brandworkers, Long Island City, NY

Director of Customer Experience – Product Madness, San Francisco, CA

Council Manager – socialmedia.org, Chicago, IL

Community Manager – Instructor, Salt lake City, UT

Digital Community Manager – ClientWise, Mount Kisco, NY

Communuty Manager – Fixya, San Mateo, CA

DMA Friends Community Manager – Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX

Lead Community Manager, FMCG – eModeration, Paris

Community Manager, APAC – Hootsuite, Singapore

Digital Content Producer – Wonder Workshop, San Mateo, CA

Community Manager – DuckDuckGo, Philadelphia, PA or remote

Given how the year has started, it’s going to be a great year to be a community professional – are you ready?

Introducing TheCR Champions: Jennifer Honig

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By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager The Community Roundtable.

Earlier this summer I told you about the Champion Program we’ve been working on and I introduced you to our first Champion, Maddie Grant, who has done an awesome job of adding programming to the network with an association/non-profit lens. I’d now like to introduce you to another Champion. Meet Jennifer Honig, executive director at Techstra Solutions.

Jennifer Honig

Jennifer, tell us a little bit about your background.

I began my post-MBA career as a management consultant focused on reengineering/change management. This led me to Young & Rubicam where I ran the Key Corporate Account Group (multiple lines of business/geographies).  At Y&R, we faced the challenge of connecting our global network to service clients. We leveraged technology to create a global intranet; one of the first in the industry. We were excited to share best practices especially around creative work. I was captivated by what was happening in technology and went to work for several tech start-ups. I led Marketing and Public Relations, building global brands and positioning executives as industry leaders. 

Fast forward to the advent of social communities and internal/external social media. “Social” brings engagement to an entirely new level – it builds brands (corporate and personal), communities, and networks that disrupt the status quo and change the game.  Technology is the tool and I am the conduit, enabling companies to harness its power.

Tell us about your current work. 

I started Techstra Solutions to help companies address the opportunities that social collaboration brings to their organizations. Our offerings continue to expand as social networks and communities add business value to drive innovation, improve productivity, and company transformation.

Many executives feel challenged by how to utilize social networks(internal/external) in a leadership capacity. However, they acknowledge the need to do so. In my discussions with community managers and corporate leaders, I realized that executive engagement is a challenge for many and an essential element that must be addressed for initiatives to thrive. This is why I was excited to become a Champion in TheCR Network on the topic of executive leadership.

What working group you will be facilitating here at TheCR?

The Social Executive

What are your goals or what is your vision for the group?

Executive engagement is the “Holy Grail” of community initiatives; highly sought and rarely achieved. If achieved, it is with just a few executives, not en masse.

Coaching an executive is challenging and time consuming, taxing limited resources. My goal is to bring together this group to help “Crack the Code”  of executive engagement. Together we can create best practices and a knowledge base that will pave the way for others.

What is your proudest moment as a community builder?

An executive that I work with 1:1 moved beyond posting/engaging with the national team that he leads and started to engage globally. Creating a personal communication strategy for executives works! When you help someone realize the benefits of utilizing these systems to accomplish their business goals, they get it. It just takes time, continuous reinforcement, and for some, a leap of  faith.

And for good measure, tell us about a ‘community on the side’ that you are passionate about. Something you are passionate about outside of work. 

I am excited that winter is coming! I am an avid skier and my daughters (Samantha and Grayson) are racers on the ski team at 7 Springs. I am taking an active role in building a community around the ski team and its member families. It is great to be able to apply what I know to an organization that is so important to our family.

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Want to collaborate with community champions like Jennifer Honig? Join TheCR Network!

2014: A Year of Community Advancement

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on 2015 – the past year flew by, and we wanted to take a minute to pause and reflect on the past 12 months before we dive into planning the next 12! We kicked 2014 off by launching several new initiatives aimed at connecting community managers with each other, and showcasing just how different the average profile of community practitioners can be. Our Faces of Community Management profile series shared a glimpse into the background of a wide array of community managers, and our monthly Community Manager Spotlight webinar series provided an in-depth look at what leading community professional are working on and best practices for furthering your career in community. SOCM_JW14_Landing

We shared our annual State of Community Management 2014 research in April and released an accompanying infographic”Drive Success with Basic Executive Coaching” and eBook “Building a Community Roadmap” later in the year. You can check out all the related report materials including exclusive insights, expert advice and informative blog posts here.

Community Manager Salary SurveyIn October we released a brand new research platform – The Community Manager Salary Survey which aims to bring more awareness to the emerging career path in community management; detailing what community professionals can expect from different roles and what hiring managers should know to grow effective community programs.  In addition to the full report, which you can download here, we also released an informative infographic  “Careers in Community Management” that profiled three main community roles and provided exclusive job role, responsibility and salary information for each.

ChampionsThe Fall also saw us assume the stewardship of Jeff Ross’s extremely popular “#ESNchat” a weekly twitter chat where enterprise social network focused community professionals gather weekly to discuss hot ESN topics and share advice and best practices for creating thriving ESNs. The upcoming topic schedule, as well as archives of past chat can be found here.

Finally, we shared some news from inside the TheCR Network – the introduction of our first formal Champion program.This program serves to deepen conversations among special interest groups who share a common use case or characteristic, enhance our content and programming by having community leaders, who have deep expertise in their domain, lead conversations and connect our members more closely with similar peers and industry experts.

We are proud to have shared so much new research and content with you over the past twelve months. 2014 was a year of growth and expansion at TheCR – both in terms of new programming and research initiatives, but also in terms of our team, TheCR Network, and our connections with community professionals around the world. We hope you also enjoyed a fruitful and fulfilling 2014, we can’t wait to connect with you in 2015 and help advance the community work you do.

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Looking to take your career in community management to the next level in 2015? 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 in the new year and beyond.

 

#ThankItForward: Recognizing Champions

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By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

#thankitforwardLast December our team took the month to reflect on who had impacted our lives and work that year and made aconscious effort share our gratitude with those community members, teammates, partners, and mentors. It was a great exercise and we were pleased to see some members even took it back to their own communities!

I posted my #thankitforward in TheCR Network this week, and wanted to share it here with you as well. This is extremely difficult because I have the unique vantage point of seeing how valuable all our members are to the network, but this year I am going to shout out our Champions because they are awesome.

These folks have stuck with me as we rolled our our pilot leadership program. I’ve so enjoyed working with them on programming for the network and the value they’ve added to network and programming is invaluable. I’m so grateful! Thank you, Maddie, Jennifer and Renee!

Who in your network or community made a difference for you this year? 

  • Was there a member who responded with a helpful answer to a question you posted in the forums?
  • Did someone offer to connect offline on a topic you were working on?
  • Someone who makes your day a little brighter when you come into Happy Hour?
  • An expert or facilitator who impressed and inspired you?
  • Did you meet a fellow member at an event and find that connection valuable?
  • Was there a colleague or member who acted as a mentor in some capacity?

Give them a shout out here! Shout out one person or three. Doesn’t matter. Just keep thanking it forward!

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Looking for a way to connect with community peers around the world? Have some year-end budget to spend before December 31st? Join TheCR Network and become part of an expert network of community professionals.

 

#thankitforward – Present, past and forever

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By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable.

New jobs bring with them some adjustments – to new roles, new responsibilities and new cultures. One of the many parts of the culture at The Community Roundtable I value greatly is the understanding that people are the heart and soul of everything we do. So when it came time for me to consider taking a part in a new (for me) tradition – thanking it forward (#thankitforward), I didn’t hesitate. Well, except for the part where I had to narrow it down to three people. I went with three groups, instead.

Thanks, friends.

Current colleagues: Thanks to my new colleagues – I’m fortunate to be married to one of them (more on her later) but for the rest of the team – Jillian, Shannon, Hillary, Maggie and Jim, I am a newbie, a rookie, and they have welcomed me with open arms and support. Thanks for your patience, your guidance, and for being a stunningly smart group of coworkers.

And thanks to the members of TheCR – whom I have always known from an outside perspective but now have gotten to engage on a more direct level. Rachel likes to talk about superpowers, and you each have them and in greater quantities than you realize. I’ve been working on a project for release at CMAD – and have already learned so much by listening that the biggest fear I have is that I can’t capture those learnings in the time and space allotted.

Past colleagues: I came to TheCR this fall from a different type of community environment – the staff of the Boston Foundation, one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations. To them, thanks for all the hard work you do on a daily basis to support groups across the city and region who are working to create a better Boston. If you don’t know your local community foundation – you should. They are remarkable, complex entities with the overarching purpose of supporting good causes. There is a lot business communities could learn from nonprofit communities – and vice versa.

Forever colleagues: As some things come and go, there are those that stay – I hinted at thanking Rachel Happe above, but my appreciation for her reaches far beyond TheCR. People ask how we could possibly work together, and the answer is because we know going in that no matter how contentious or challenging the work can be, we both know it’s an important but ultimately small part of our world. And if we forget – there is a 4-year-old with a head full of curls, a heart made of gold and a body full of attitude to remind us.

It feels good to say thanks – and it feels good to be thanked. That’s not just in your head – a Harvard study showed as much. Take a little time to #thankitforward. There are few phrases as powerful in any relationship – or community – as a simple “Thank you.”

Community Manager Spotlight Recap: AMA with Becky Scott, iTalent

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Last week we hosted our third community manager AMA to great success! In case you missed it we’ve archived the entire Community Manager Spotlight AMA webinar here – and it’s definitely a don’t miss listen for community professionals. Becky Scott, Senior Community Engagement Manager at iTalent.

This content has moved inside The Network.

About Becky:

Becky could be called a social media addict since she lives and breathes social media and community.In reality she’s quite passionate about bringing brands and their customers together —whether it’s on sites like Facebook and Twitter or company-owned properties like blogs or forums. Becky has a varied background that includes technical project management, marketing, editing, and writing. She also fancies herself a photographer at times, busily filling her hard drive with photos. She doesn’t really like piña coladas or getting caught in the rain, but does sing a mean karaoke song.

Becky has managed online communities for 15 years and social properties since Live Journal was a “thing” and Facebook required university emails. She honed her writing and editing skills on sites like AOL’s Aisle Dash, Ask Patty, Tree.com, and ucsd.edu. Two of her previous brand communities have won awards from Forrester, ComBlu, and Lithium Technologies.

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