@TheCR Archives

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: October 2014 Wrap Up

October 28, 2014 By Hillary Boucher

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Oh, October, with your foliage, pumpkin spice lattes, and your community programming. It’s a great time to be a community practitioner and we’ve had a busy month inside the TheCR Network. Here are a few samplings of what’s been going on:

10 Content Curation Techniques for Your Online Community (Roundtable): TheCR Champion Maddie Grant invited Ed Barrett, VP of Members & Marketing at the Global Business Travel Association, to discuss the content strategies he uses at GBTA. This call was a big hit with participants and we appreciated Ed’s focus on metrics driven decision making and practical ideas for sourcing content for your community.

The Social Executive Series (Working Group): We have another TheCR Champion, Jennifer Honig, kicking off a new programming series for members that will focus on cracking the executive engagement nut in your online community. This month she posted a call for working group members, received buy-in from members, and then surveyed the group to find out the specific challenges they want to tackle together on the topic of executive engagement. I’m really looking forward to watching this group progress.

Intro to the Community Maturity Model (Pilot Training): We launched a pilot training program for new members of TheCR Network. This mini-training gives participants a crash course on the Community Maturity Model (CMM) and how we organize the network and our programming off the model. Participants are about to hear (today!) from two other members who have applied the CMM to their community work and the training wraps up with participants designing a project where they apply to the CMM to an aspect of their own work. We’re really excited to see how this pilot program is received. Our hope is that the better members understand the CMM, the more they are able to leverage our resources, making them more successful with their community efforts.

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 fall 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.

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: September 2014 Wrap-Up

September 25, 2014 By Hillary Boucher

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

September is a big month inside TheCR Network, and as the community manager of this fine community I have been feeling the burn! We launch a robust programming schedule for the Network every September and members took full advantage of the live, interactive sessions offered to them as part of their membership. Here are a few samplings of what was discussed:

Undeniable Story: The Science & Intuition of Engagement (Roundtable/Skillbuilder): I considered this session the opening keynote of fall programming. Michael Margolis, CEO of Get Storied, and friend of TheCR came in to share his expertise of storytelling in business. Some folks came to learn how to better tell the story of their community and its value internally and others were focused on how to create great stories about their organization and its products and/or services to facilitate engagement in external customer facing communities. No matter the use case, Michael held us captivated and offered a number of strategies and exercises to help us become master storytellers. In the words on one community leader, “I felt like he was holding the missing puzzle piece I have been seeking for some time now :-).”

A Tale of Community, Intranet Integration & the Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow (Roundtable/Case Study): One of the things our members find consistently helpful is to hear the stories of community programs that are more mature and well established. It helps give perspective and they have a chance to ask important questions to fellow practitioners (How did you gain executive support for that? What were the triggers that preceded the need for that program? How did the team restructure as a result of this initiative?). On this call we learned first hand from an EMC practitioner what it took to undergo a community and intranet integration and the ROI it brought the company.

Introduction to The Community Performance Benchmark (Webinar): We’ve been putting the finishing touches on a new service offering. I can’t go into too much detail here, because it’s still in top secret mode, but membership has its perks and we like to make sure our members have first access. And since this new service is built upon the State of Community Management research we’ve worked on collaboratively with our members it was created with them in mind. On this webinar, Rachel shares with members and their special guests more about this new service and an offer for special member pricing.

If you want to get a full idea of what membership is like you can take a look at this extensive overview which shares our general programming opportunities and resources made available to members.

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

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Meet TheCR Team: Jillian Bejtlich, Community Strategist

September 18, 2014 By Jim Storer

By Jillian Bejtlich,Community Strategist at The Community Roundtable.

Like many community managers out there, I never actually set out to work in this field. By education and the first few rungs of my career ladder, I’m an engineer with a focus on architectural and civil technology. I lived and breathed physics. But after a variety of welcome twists and turns, I ended up in community.

As I started my career in community, I remember various folks pointing me towards all sorts of resources ranging from marketing to social media to help me get my bearings. What I remember the most was being overwhelmed by how few resources there really were and how so many of them were entirely built on theory instead of tried and true practice. My engineering brain couldn’t grasp it.

I come from a world of formulas, causes and subsequent effects, and a place where gravity and forces reign. Words like B2B and B2C irritated me (and they still do), and I was suddenly overwhelmed by questions of ROI, NPS, and other terms; terms that in any other field would be accompanied by a set formula proven over and over again. But no. Instead these were words and acronyms that carried great weight – and only theory.

I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to be a philosopher alongside masterminds such as Galileo and Da Vinci. In many ways, community lets me have the tiniest taste of what it feels like to be on the cusp of proving a great and enormous theory that will influence all generations to come. We know that community is an unbelievably powerful tool – but now to prove it and figure out how it can be used to its greatest potential.

When I was growing up, all I ever wanted to be was a scientist. My focus changed frequently ranging from things like marine biology to virology, but the reason was always the same. I’m infatuated with problems and research. While others believe that communities fall within the established realm of marketing and communications, I believe community is a new realm of its own. And it is for this reason, I’ve never longingly looked back to my engineering days.

Community is a seemingly chaotic collision of technology, information, and the human psychology – and it might just be the greatest unsolved physics problem I’ve ever encountered. Somewhere in the mess of metrics, interactions, coding, and graphics, there is logic. Behind that logic are theories. And these theories can be proved – once and for all. In the same way that proven physics theories have shaped the world we know, imagine the potential of understanding the inner workings of human networks. The untapped potential is enormous, and we – the community professionals – are in the thick of it.

Excited? I am.

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On the lookout for more community manager resources like Jillian was? Join TheCR Network and access exclusive resources, research, templates, case studies and more – all designed to help community managers excel.

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: May 2014 Wrap-Up

May 29, 2014 By Hillary Boucher

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

TheCR team up to no good at LiNC 14 in San Francisco.

May was another great month inside TheCR Network! As Shannon mentioned earlier this month, our team was busy traveling and had the opportunity to meet up with many of our members face-to-face at various industry events. I work virtually with all of our members and it was so nice to meet folks, share a real (vs virtual) happy hour, and learn more about the challenges they face so we can better provide programming and resources to address them.

Even with all of our travel there was still plenty going on in the Network. Here are a few highlights from this month inside TheCR Network:

Building community by addressing behavior change (Roundtable). We were fascinated by the presentation Nir Eyal gave inside TheCR earlier this month on building habit forming communities. What made this call a winner? The content was stellar, but members were able to take advantage of casual format of a Roundtable call and interact directly with Nir. We had some great questions and conversation. Tons of applicable insights for community managers (and here I was worrying it would be too product focused). I have already been adapting some of his insights and applying them to my own community work.

Building a community from scratch (Roundtable). We have a number of veteran members who have recently taken on the challenge of building community from scratch. We heard two case studies: one from the B2C side (Sidecar) and another from the B2B perspective (Limelight Networks) and took a deep dive into how the practitioners approached and managed the three months it took them to get from zero to pilot. Best part of this call? We’ll be checking back in at the six month and the one year mark to learn about their progress. I’m very excited to capture this info for our members in our archives.

Adventures in coaching the C-suite (Roundtable). Always a popular topic because it’s so very integral to the success of community initiatives. On this call we had two members share their experiences of coaching executives. This call was facilitated by Maggie, one of my teammates who works here at TheCR and worked closely on The Social Executive research we released last year.

If you want to get a full idea of what membership is like you can take a look at this extensive overview which shares our general programming opportunities and resources made available to members.

I hope you had a great month, too! I’m looking forward to all the great conversations we have planned for June including metrics, enterprise collaboration, and user design for community managers. I hope you will join us!

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Did you know members of TheCR Network have unlimited access to our Library, which includes:

Research: TheCR’s State of Community Management and Social Executive research (including downloadable reports exclusive to members)
Resource bundles: Curated content from TheCR and beyond to help you with specific topics
Quick Cases: Short case studies from TheCR Network members on specific community projects
Conference Resources: Links to the network’s collaborative Community Conference Guide and a collection of Conference Trip Report Podcasts featuring TheCR Network members’ takeaways from community related conferences
Roundtable Reports: Over 200 summaries of our weekly Roundtable calls

Learn how you can access TheCR Network Library and more with a membership.

Faces of Community Management: Luke Sinclair, Sitrion

May 27, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

Another month in the books and another chance to share with you a new Faces of Community Management profile. This month we’re highlighting Luke Sinclair, Director of Community Management at Sitrion and member of TheCR Network. I was lucky enough to meet Luke this month at Sitrion’s annual conference – Collective 2014. In addition to being the emcee of the event, Luke delighted in emulating Oprah and giving away free books at every turn. Collective was easily the most engaging event I’ve been to personally and a large part of that was Luke’s infectious personality (the Australian accent doesn’t hurt either). Luke even managed to get a room full of pretty serious looking people snapping selfies left and right. He is a true delight to work with and best of all he really, really loves his job in community management.

Without further ado: Luke Sinclair!

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Webinar Recap: Community Manager Spotlight with Maggie McGary

May 14, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

Last month we were lucky enough to sit down with Maggie McGary, Web & Social Media Administrator at AOTA. Maggie is a community veteran – and has been an active member of The Community Roundtable since our inception in 2009. Maggie is a writer and digital strategist with over five years of hands-on experience managing websites, online communities and social media for associations. She has deep experience in all facets of content marketing including blogging, social media marketing, community management and web content development. A well-respected subject matter expert, Maggie presents frequently at ASAE and other industry events, and blogs about social media both on her blog, Mizz Information, and Socialfish.

In addition to over 10 years experience in the association world, Maggie is a blogger whose guest posts have been featured on numerous blogs including The Washington Post, SocialFishing and Social Media Today. Maggie blogs about social media at https://MaggieMcGary.com, and you can find her on Twitter @maggielmcg.

Below you’ll find the complete Community Manager Spotlight webinar featuring Maggie. She provides a fantastic framework for supporting and encouraging engagement and provide great advice to any community professional – not just those in the association space.

This content has moved inside The Network.

Don’t miss our next Community Manager Spotlight webinar featuring Ian White from Rackspace. Ian will be sharing best practices for community-based customer support. Register now!

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Did you know that 95% of The Network members agree that the content and peer input improves the quality of their work? It’s true! Membership in The Network saves community and social business leaders time and improves the quality of their work by connecting them quickly with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining The Network can improve the work you do.

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TheCR on the Road: Sitrion Collective and Lithium LiNC

May 12, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

Today Rachel and I are heading to Orlando for Collective 2014, and next week Jim, Hillary and Jillian will trek to the West Coast and visit San Francisco for Lithium’s LiNC. It’s exciting to get some of our team out on the road to meet with members, connect with other community professionals and learn about how community is advancing.

I’m thrilled to be attending Collective – and not just to get back into the land of mouse ears and alligators! There are a lot of interesting sessions, including Tuesday’s keynote: Creating Cultures that Work. Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant, authors of Humanize, are presenting this session focused on better understanding how today’s pressures are demanding important changes in the way we lead and manage our associations – I can’t wait to listen in. There is also a hackathon! While I won’t personally be hacking anything I think the idea of connecting customers with product developers this way is very innovative. I’m excited to see what they come up with.

Rachel is presenting Wednesday’s keynote ” The Networked Organization – Organizing for Complexity and Emergence. She’ll dive into the very concept of an organization, and how it’s changing rapidly as trends like the collaborative economy start challenging more traditional ideas of a organization’s role in creating value.

I’ve never attended LiNC so I asked our resident Lithium expert, Jillian Bejtlich. She was nice enough to answer a few interview-style questions for me.

Jillian, what makes LiNC different than the typical customer conference?

Screen shot 2014-04-09 at 9.23.04 AM

LiNC is a unique conference in that there is truly something for everyone. You can be a brand new community manager, executive, or super techie – and still walk away with knowledge you can use immediately. And besides – the energy at LiNC is out of this world and seriously contagious.

That sounds great. So, what are you looking forward to most?

I love attending LiNC because it’s truly focused on communities that either use Lithium or are considering it. Everyone that attends is able to share and collaborate, so it’s a Lithium techie’s dream.

Are there any can’t miss sessions or events you’d recommend?

The sessions are broken up into some pretty specific tracks, and as usual – I’m torn on what to attend. It’s all going to be great, but I’m leaning towards the developer track which is promising some hands-on sessions. Other than that, be sure to attend the keynotes. They’re always mind blowing.

Well there you have it! Are you attending Collective 2014 or LiNC? Please let us know if you’re in town for either – we’d love to meet you.

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Friday Roundup: J.Boye Recap Edition

May 9, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

Photo Credit: @jedpc

We kicked off an exciting May of travel by tagging along with Rachel as she attended the J.Boye Web & Intranet Conference in Philadelphia. Rachel, along with three TheCR Network members, presented at the conference, and if our twitter stream is any indication, a great time was had by all.

Next week Rachel and Shannon will visit Orlando for Collective 2014, and the week after Jim, Hillary and Jillian will trek to the West Coast and visit San Francisco for Lithium’s LiNC. Will you be attending any of these events? Let us know – we’d love to catch up in person!

Didn’t get to attend J.Boye? We’ve pulled together all our favorite moments from the three day event in our very first Storify and included it at the end of this post.

Don’t worry – we didn’t forget the links (or the jobs!) this week:

Framework: Collaborative Economy Honeycomb – “The Collaborative Economy enables people to efficiently get what they need from each other. They use powerful technologies that enable Crowdfunding, Peer-to-Peer lending, the Maker Movement, and the Sharing Economy. If you look closely, the crowd is becoming like a company: self funding, designing, producing, and sharing what they already have.”

To Be Heard, Turn Down The Volume – “What is it about the Internet that has made everybody so sure of themselves? You’d think the level of disruption during the past 20 years would have had the opposite effect. Instead, the number of people stepping onto their virtual soapboxes and telling the rest of us what to do and think has exploded. They opine with such surety, such clarity, such force.”

New Webinar: Community Manager Spotlight with Ian White – This 30 minute live webinar on June 3rd at 2pm ET will focus on Ian’s community journey and his team’s innovative use of a community customer support model. His team recently won a silver award for Best Use of Technology in Customer Service at the eighth annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. This webinar will include a Q&A – have your questions ready.

Want to Succeed in Social Business? Invest in It .- “The good news is that 76 percent of communities have approved strategies. This is a great indication that organizations and executives can now envision the value communities will contribute to their business and suggests a maturing market. The bad news? Only 35 percent communities have approved and resourced roadmaps.”

Community and Social Media Jobs:

Community Executive at 1000heads – Greater New York City Area
Senior Community Manager at Reputation.com – Redwood City, CA
Global Director of Social Media BlackRock USA – NY
Social Media Copywriter at Thrillist Media Group – NY
Director Social Media Marketing at Capital One – Mclean,VA
Associate Director, Social Media at Fuel Freedom Foundation – Irvine, CA
Pro Sports – Social Media Associate at Workinsports – Minneapolis, MN
Online Community Manager at TechSoup Global – San Francisco, Remote Work Possible
Community Manager at HERE, a Nokia business – Boston, MA
Social Media Community Manager at MDG Advertising – West Palm Beach, FL
Community Manager at Carolina Herrera – New York, NY
Social Media Strategist at Mason Zimbler – Austin, TX
Community Manager at CyberCoders, Newton, MA
Community Manager – Unreal Engine at Epic Games – Cary, NC
Director of Social Media at Bentley Channel Group – Washington, DC
Social Media & Community Manager at Zoosk – San Francisco, CA
Content & Community Manager at The News Hub – London, England
Community Manager at NPR – Washington, DC

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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.

TheCR Network Sneak Peek: April 2014 Wrap-Up

April 30, 2014 By Hillary Boucher

By Hillary Boucher, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable.

I’m really not ready for April to be over. Can I get an extension on this month? Ha! I guess I better just keep moving forward. Part of the reason that April flew by was because we launched State of Community Management 2014 this month and celebrated our fifth anniversary. And somewhere in between we facilitated five Roundtable sessions, added four reports to our directory and supported dozens of discussions and introductions within the network. Phew!

I wanted to catch my breath for a moment and share a few highlights from inside the TheCR Network this past month:

State of Community Management 2014 Supplement (Resource Bundle). You may have noticed the “Lessons from TheCR” section for each competency within the State of Community Management 2014 report. Those were excerpts from full reports that live inside the ever growing TheCR Library within the network. We bundled all the reports mentioned in SOCM this year so members could have easy access to continue their research.

How to Scale Community Management Efforts (Roundtable Sessions). We had two calls that approached how to scale your community management efforts from different angles. One was facilitated by the very insightful Richard Binhammer who taught members how to use a talent assessment model to identify skill gaps and find community and social talent to supplement and support their strategy. The other call was a member-led discussion on how to hire for your community team. Experienced members swapped hiring approaches, favorite interview questions, and identifiers to help you spot a natural community manager.

Design Thinking for Complex Community Program Challenges (Roundtable). Complex challenges are those that don’t have a black and white answer. Sound familiar? TheCR member Erin Liman generously shared her expertise on using design thinking to approach the complex issues that many community managers face. Challenges like: “Our executives say they support our community initiative, but their actions tell a different story,” or “We bring our advocates to the table, involve them in decision-making, but they never seem to happy.”

I shared a more extensive overview of what goes on every month if you are curious and you can also check out last month’s sneak peek. Would love to hear what was going on in your world this past month in the comments, too.

Until next month!

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Podcast: Community Retrospective – Part Three

April 21, 2014 By Jim Storer

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

Jim and Rachel Anniversary Podcast

The first few weeks of April have flown by and we’ve been so excited to share a trip down memory lane with you.

In case you missed the first two parts of this community retrospective with Rachel Happe and Jim Storer you can find them here: Part One and Part Two.

In this final installment hear Rachel and Jim discuss what draws them to community management, some of the most profound moments for them over the last five years, final reflections on building a company and why exactly we’re obsessed with lists of three things at TheCR.

Thank you so much for joining us on this month-long dive into the history of The Community Roundtable, we’ve loved chatting with experts and early community practitioners and hoped you’ve learned something along the way.

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