By Shannon Abram, The Community Roundtable
We hear from too many community pros that they work tirelessly on programs, spend countless hours interacting and engaging with their community members, and even working to define and strategize around community strategy and roadmaps – only to be met with blank stares, or worse – road blocks as they present their achievements to executives. We believe community initiatives have a place at every level of the organization – which is why we’re highlighting best practices for executive engagement in this week’s #throwbackthursday post.
This cartoon from Grundfos pretty much sums it up for too many community managers…
This week’s #throwbackthursday focuses on the social executive – ways to get your executive stakeholders on board with community.
-
The Social Executive: The Imperative to Succeed in Social Business – When I was at IDC and newly researching the social media space, I reported on a world of possibility that was opening up to us and radically changing the way we communicated and the way we organized ourselves for collaboration. But connecting dots in a theoretical way and actually working in a new and different way are two entirely different things.
-
Executive Engagement in Three Venn Diagrams – I admit it, I’m a bit wonky. I really love Venn Diagrams, in part because I think most of the interesting things in life happen at intersections. When I was asked to speak to a group of women about my online presence last week, I found myself using three Venn Diagrams to explain how I thought about it.
-
Selling the Value of Community Management to the C-Suite – Far from being a discipline thrust on the most junior member of the marketing team, community management is the future of all management. The ability to inspire and generate value from networks is what will enable organizations to truly take advantage of a digitally connected, global population. More than anything, community management transforms our organizations from entities primary constructed to control and limit risk to ones constructed to inspire and realize potential. It is THE work of the 21st century.
-
The Social Executive: A Basis for ReThinking Business – Today everyone has a technology tool or solution. You are either the recipient of a social business strategic imperative or you are driving the so called “change.” No one knows yet how they will measure the success – is it clicks, likes or some secret ROI model? And it is one of the most interesting times in business as there are more conversations taking place about tools and technologies than people and adoption. There is confusion around business value.
- For TheCR Network Eyes Only: Executive Engagement Template – Are you a member of TheCR Network? Check out this exclusive discussion thread inside the Network on ways to engage your executive audience, including great advice on how to make your community stakeholders have their “ah-ha” moments around community.
Want even more #throwbackthursday action? Check out all our throwback posts!
f you don’t know where you’re going it can be a long journey to success in community management – which is why we’re highlighting best practices for community roadmaps in this week’s 
The one of the most frequent questions we get from community managers is “How can I increase engagement in my community?” It’s a great question – and one that has no single answer. Of course the variables that define every community – size, scope, audience, purpose, all directly influence the way you need to interact with and engage your members. But – there is good news! We have identified some community engagement drivers that can help you increase activity and loyalty in your community.