The Community Roundtable

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

Best Practices for New Member Welcome Programs

By

Best Practices for New Member Welcome Programs

 

Intrigued by TheCR Network, but want to learn more about what membership entails before joining?

Watch Hillary Boucher share a special look inside TheCR Network.  In this exclusive webinar, Hillary highlighted best practices for new member welcome programs – and why a formal new member welcome program can make an immediate positive impact on the tone, and long-term engagement in your community program. She also shares a look at the research, programming and professional development available exclusively to the members of TheCR Network, including resources for starting your own new member welcome program.

Watch the Best Practices for New Member Welcome Programs Webinar Now:

 

The Benefits of Community Benchmarking

By

Do you ask these questions as you do community planning?

  • What’s next for my community?
  • How do I provide community insights to my organization and executive stakeholders?
  • Where is my community budget best spent?
  • How do I help my stakeholders understand what goes into community management?
  • How do I make the case for community at my organization?
  • Is my management approach is aligned with my community approach?
The Benefits of Community Benchmarking

If you’ve asked yourself even one of the above questions then a community benchmark can help.

Learn how the community benchmarking process provides a valuable assessment of where your community actually stands. This is the information that gives you the ability to set priorities, make decisions, and manage budgets with confidence.

Courtney R. Zentz, Sr. Manager, Collaboration & Solution Center at Ricoh shares why Ricoh undertook a community benchmark, what they hoped to learn, and the results of their benchmark.

Watch The Benefits of Community Benchmarking

Download the Benefits of Community Benchmarking deck.

Ready to Complete a Community Benchmark for Your Community Program?

The Community Performance Benchmark evaluates a community’s management maturity on each of the eight competencies of the Community Maturity Model, compares the community with the communities that took part in our State of Community Management surveys, and makes recommendations for how you can strengthen your community performance. The Community Performance Benchmark compares your community with average and best-in-class communities – giving you a multi-dimensional plot of how you are doing, relative to other communities.

The Community Performance BenchmarkSM provides a valuable assessment of where your community actually stands – benchmarking your management processes and providing you with recommendations. It’s information that gives you the ability to set priorities, make decisions and manage budgets with confidence.

Best Practices for New Member Leadership Programs

By

Every online community – internal (employee community) and external (custom community) – has a handful of dedicated members who contribute more than the rest. Whether you have a formal superuser, advocacy, or membership leadership program, or informally track and interact with these members, now is a great time to show them some love.

Different communities call these super users different things, including community advocates, community leaders, power users, and more.

5 Ways to Show Super Users Love in Your Online Community:

1- Swag. Everyone loves free stuff, and it doesn’t have to be an expensive investment. A hand-written note and some stickers go a long way with your superusers.

2- Shout-Outs. Highlight these members in the online community with a quick mention. Feeling seen and appreciated by online community managers makes super users feel valued.

3- Online Badges. If your online community uses badges, create a special badge to identify your superusers. This will also highlight your superusers as a resource to new members who may not understand how to engage when they join your online community.

4- Personally thank active contributors. It seems simple, but it helps increase member satisfaction.

5- Give them a sneak peek at an upcoming program, feature, or initiative. You’ll get valuable feedback and your superusers will love feeling like they got a behind-the-scenes look at something before everyone else does.

Want more ideas for launching superuser (aka leadership) programs in your community?

Check out this short video from Hillary Boucher.

This content has moved inside The Network.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

The State of Community Management 2015 – What’s Next?

By

By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable

SOCM 2015It’s been a busy three weeks since we released The State of Community Management 2015. We are pleased with the reaction we’ve gotten to the research – already thousands of people have shared and downloaded it. (If you aren’t one of them, you can fix that by downloading it here.) But while we see this report as an annual milestone, we also see it as a stepping off point for much more. For us, it helps shape the activities we plan for the next 12 months by highlighting the areas of growth and opportunity for the field of community management. Members of TheCR Network tell us that they highlight, dog-ear and re-read it because it is a critical piece of research for them, too. They use this research to:

  • Gain strategic perspective on their work
  • Prioritize their time and resources
  • Identify tactical gaps
  • Plan for and make the case to invest in more strategic initiatives
  • Validate their progress and plans with stakeholders

Today, we held the first in a series of programs we are planning inside TheCR Network – on topics ranging from building stronger welcome processes to advocacy program development to exploring how to define the shared value of community not just in individual communities but across them in an organization. We’d love to have you join TheCR Network and get access to those conversations. But it’s just one of the ways you can continue using the research.

In addition to reading the report, these additional resources will help you distill the research and see what others have found interesting:

There is more to come – you’re already seeing what will be three months of Monday Facts from the report to highlight some key findings, and there will be other posts as well. And get ready – the next iteration of the Community Manager Salary Survey is right around the corner!

Haven’t taken the State of Community Management 2015 survey? it’s not too late! If you would like to compare yourself to the research, you can get get your scores for the eight competencies by taking the survey here. It should take you about 20 minutes.

How to Build a Community-Based Support Model: A Webinar with Ian White

By

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

Last week we were lucky enough to have Ian White, manager of support at Rackspace join us for our monthly Community Manager Spotlight webinar. Ian and his team have down amazing things with their support community – you can read more about their recent Stevie Award win here. In the webinar Ian provided a fascinating look at the culture at Rackspace, shared the guiding principles for their community and lessons learned from their early days, and even gave us a sneak-peek at a new launch.

We’ve archived the webinar here for you – it’s definitely a don’t miss if you are tasked with customer service or support using a community model, or if you are interested in how to engage internal users.

We can’t thank Ian enough for sharing his experience with us!

This content has moved inside The Network.

—

Did you know that The 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 The Network will save you time and improve the quality of your work by connecting you with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining The Network can improve the work you do.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Friday Roundup: Goodbye May

By

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

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

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

If April comes in like a lion, and out like a lamb, what does May do? It’s beautiful here in Boston today, but I hear rain is on the way. Either way, we’re still looking forward to a weekend of yard work, BBQing and relaxing. This week we shared a new Faces of Community Management post and a sneak peek into TheCR Network for any interested non-members out there. Rachel also took part in a great webinar with our friends at DNN – you can find the archived version here.

This week we have lots of great links for you, an invitation to a don’t miss webinar with Ian White from Rackspace, and of course new community and social media jobs from around the web.

  • Webinar: Community Manager Spotlight with Ian – If you’re considering, implementing or managing a community-based support model this is a don’t miss webinar. Join Ian White, Manager of Support at Rackspace, as he discusses his award-winning customer support tactics.
  • 56 Lessons From 20 Years of Online Community Building – Ever wonder what it takes to succeed with online community strategy and operations? Here are 56 lessons learned culled from 20 years of online community building experience.
  • Mary Meeker’s Big Deck On Key Internet Trends – Mary Meeker, a partner at VC firm KPCB and one of the legendary observers of the Internet industry, is presenting her annual outlook on the industry this week at Code Conference put on by Re/code.
  • The Evolution of Online Communities – Do you remember VHS tapes from the ‘80s and ‘90s? Home video was a game-changer back then, giving movies a second life and another chance at turning a profit. Then came DVDs, high-definition Blu-ray discs, and now we have on-demand Internet streaming from cable and over-the-top providers. With each step in the evolution, quality and accessibility improved.
  • Disciplined Clarity About Culture – Jack Dorsey, one of the Twitter Founders and now CEO at Square, sent a quick memo to his employees (that he also posted publicly on Medium) about something that may sound somewhat unimportant: using other people’s names to push ideas.
  • Digital collaboration goes deeper, gets lightweight and intelligent – Two tracks seem to be emerging with today’s enterprise collaboration tools. Either they’re becoming full-sized suites with the kitchen sink, or they’re focusing making a few core features work better than anyone else.
  • Building Customer Communities Is the Key to Creating Value – What are your customers telling their friends and colleagues about your business?
  • Who Manages The Community Manager That Manages Your Community? – Community management is among the fastest-growing job areas in recent years. The increasing popularity of the social networks means that companies are ever-mindful of the need to have a presence in an environment where being absent means the conversation is taking place without you, and so have cast their nets in a bid to hire community managers with a wide range of profiles.

Community and Social Media Jobs

  1. Senior Manager, Online Community Management Consulting at Socious – Mesa, Arizona
  2. Russian Community Coordinator at Playstation – London
  3. Communications Officer, Community Manager Generalist/Digital Strategist Job at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Seattle, WA
  4. Community Manager at Purina – St. Louis, MO
  5. Senior Community Manager at GREE – San Francisco, CA
  6. Associate Director, Social Media at iCrossing – New York, NY
  7. Senior Community Manager, Emerging Products & Services at Autodesk – San Francisco, CA
  8. Digital Community Manager at WGBH Educational Foundation – Boston, MA
  9. Community Manager at Beats By Dr. Dre – Los Angeles, CA
  10. Community Manager at digitalundivided – New York, NY
  11. Community Manager Intern at Disqus – San Francisco, CA
  12. Senior Community Manager – Agriculture, Food and Beverage at World Economic Forum – New York, NY
  13. Content and Social Media Manager at Luxury Link Travel Group – Playa Vista, CA
  14. Social Media Community Manager at mzl – Austin, TX
  15. Cloud Evangelist / Community Manager at Netuitive, Inc. – Reston, VA
  16. Community Impact Manager at Google – Phoenix, AZ
  17. Assistant Community Manager – Weekend Specialist at GameStop Texas Ltd. – San Francisco, CA
  18. Social Media Community Manager at OtterBase 2 reviews – El Segundo, CA
  19. Community Manager at Needle – Bluffdale, UT
  20. Manager, Corporate Communications at LinkedIn – Mountain View, CA
  21. Social Media Strategist at Pearson Education – Lakeland, FL

Have a wonderful weekend – we’ll see you in June!

—–

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: The Roadtrip is Over

By

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

Happy Friday, everyone! If you’re in the US you might already be out taking advantage of a long weekend and celebrating the Memorial Day holiday! Our month-long roadtrip came to an end today with the conclusion of the LiNC event in San Francisco, and our whole team is ready to re-charge after a busy May.

This week we have some great links for you, a new Community Fact poster, and of course – social media and community jobs!

The links:

  • Webinar: Community Manager Spotlight with Ian – If you’re considering, implementing or managing a community-based support model this is a don’t miss webinar. Join Ian White, Manager of Support at Rackspace, as he discusses his award-winning customer support tactics.
  • SOCM Community Fact #03 – Executive Engagement Matters – We’ve heard a lot of talk in the last few weeks about the link between executive support and community success It seems like executive adoption is on the mind of many community practitioners, and with good reason.
  • The Flip Side Of Employee Engagement – “In a world where Gallup pollsters say 71% of American workers are “disengaged” from their work, “employee engagement“ is clearly an issue needing to be addressed.”
  • Social ROI = Return on Insanity – “There’s no way to put this delicately, so I’ll be blunt: quantifying the financial benefits of an enterprise social network is turning your company — and the entire social technology industry — into a three ring circus.”
  • Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast – “I used to think corporate culture didn’t matter. Discussion of vision, mission and values was for people who couldn’t build product or sell it! We had work to do and this MBA BS was getting in the way! And then my first company failed.”
  • Webinar: How Real-World Community Managers Build Successful & Thriving Online Communities – Does your branded customer community have what it takes to be best-in-class? Find out May 29 when DNN hosts The Community Roundtable for a discussion on how top-performing online communities deliver quantifiable business value.
  • How to Design Your Enterprise Social Network for Maximum Impact – Check out this four-part series which highlights the Fogg Behavior Model and strategies to drive member engagement.
  • Beyond Adoption to Value Creation – “A great deal of attention in enterprise social networking has gone into ‘driving adoption’. A focus on adoption can distract organisations from the real challenge of any business activity, creating value in fulfilment of the organisation’s strategy.”
  • Ask Me Anything (or how to steal the best ideas for making work better) – Great overview on the popular “Ask Me Anything” open discussions from John Stepper. We think AMAs are a great content and engagement tool in networks.

Social Media and Community Jobs:

  1. Senior Manager, Online Community Management Consulting at Socious – Mesa, AZ
  2. Community Manager at Moementum – Bend, OR
  3. Blackbaud Net Community and Social Media Administrator at Clark University – Worcester, MA
  4. Director, Global Marketing, Digital and Social Media at Global Specialty Retail Company – New York, NY, USA
  5. Community Manager at Synergis – San Francisco, CA
  6. Coordinator Athletics Social Media at College Sports – Murfreesboro, TN
  7. Sr. Associate Social Media Community Management at Capital One – McLean, VA
  8. Community Manager/Social Content Strategist, Multicultural at Marina Maher Communications – New York, NY
  9. Associate Manager, Online Communications at ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership – Washington, DC
  10. Associate Director of Communications at SeriousFun Children’s Network – New York, NY
  11. Leader, Social Media & Digital Communications at MasterCard – Miami, FL
  12. Digital Client Engagement Strategist at Fleishman-Hillard – Dallas, TX
  13. Senior Community Manager at Townsquared – San Francisco, CA

Have a wonderful weekend wherever you are! I hope the weather is lovely and you have excellent company. We’ll see you back here on Tuesday with a new Faces of Community Management profile!

—–

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.

Webinar Recap: Community Manager Spotlight with Maggie McGary

By

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!

—–

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Friday Roundup: Happy Anniversary to Us

By

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

2/3 of TheCR Team

2/3 of TheCR Team at The Anniversary Happy Hour

This week we were lucky enough to celebrate our fifth anniversary! We gathered with good friends and members at the Summer Shack in Cambridge, MA (the site of some of the very first TheCR Lives!) and shared cupcakes, beer and memories. You can check out pictures from the party on our facebook page.

All month we’ve been looking back at the last five years in the community world and honestly, it’s ok to get a little teary. We’re so proud of the friends we’ve made, the companies we’ve collaborated with and the community managers we support every day. Ok, enough mushy stuff.

This week the links are heavy on community jobs – 20 in fact!  There are so many cool opportunities out there for community and social business professionals right now – it’s definitely an exciting time to be in the space. Have an awesome job not listed here? Add a link in the comments, or tweet it to us and we’ll be sure to share it!

    1. Director of Community Operations at Meetup
    2. Social Media Communications Specialist at BCBSNC
    4. Global Community Manager at UBM
    5. Instagram is looking for a #CMGR
    6. Social media community manager job at @Shutterstock
    7. Internal/Yammer Community Manager role at Macquarie Group
    8. Specialist, Community (Small & Medium Business) at Facebook
    9. Social Media Community Manager/Analyst at GYK Antler
    10. Senior Community Manager at Reputation.com
    11. Community Manager, Boston at HERE, a division of Nokia
    12. Community Manager at Mirrorball
    13. Community Manager — Social Media at Lumentus 
    14. Social Community Manager at DigitalOcean 
    15. Social Media Community Manager at Verizon 
    16. Community Manager – Unreal Engine at Epic Games
    17. Community Manager (Social Media Manager) at POSSIBLE
    18. Community Manager at Passenger 
    19. Social Community Manager at HTC
    20. Community (On-Line) Manager Job at Thomson Reuters
    21. Social Business Community Manager at VCE, the Virtual Computing Environment Company
    22. Global Director of Social Media at BlackRock USA

Have a wonderful weekend! We’ll be back on Monday with the final installment of the Retrospective podcast series with Rachel Happe and Jim Storer and we’ll be releasing the State of Community Management 2014 on Tuesday!

 

—-
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. 

Friday Roundup – Spring is Here Edition

By

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

Spring

Photo credit: 3rd House Pary

Spring has finally sprung in Boston! Today there are crocuses blooming, marathoners training in shorts and the Red Sox open their season at Fenway Park – so many things to celebrate! I hope you’re enjoying spring whereever you are – even if it’s been warm for longer than three days!

This week we celebrated April 1st and kicked our month-long anniversary celebration, leading up to the release of our 5th annual State of Community Management report on 4/22/14. We are so excited to share a look back at the last five years in the community management space, and doubly excited to share the results of our 2014 research. In the meantime, you’ll have to wait it out with this week’s links. We’ve got a few new community jobs, an interview with long-time TheCR Network member Heather Strout, a recap of our March Community Manager spotlight webinar, an interesting look at community-driven game development and more!

Thanks for reading! We’ll be back on Monday with the first in a three-part community retrospective with Rachel Happe and Jim Storer. Have a great weekend.

 

—–

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.