Growing our community has been a lot of fun. One thing that we are learning is that people in online community management have diverse backgrounds – no two career paths look similar. Some people come from marketing communications and PR, some from product marketing/management, some from IT, and others from hiking the Alps or other off-corporate grid backgrounds. All of our members are energized by the new opportunities brought on by the community management role to better serve their audiences. Many are finding it incredibly refreshing. That brings a palpable energy to the group that is hard to articulate but can be felt in a lot of our conversations.
We invited our first members into the community just about two months ago and while not yet a big group we are very pleased with the collection of early members who have taken a leap of faith with us that The Community Roundtable will grow to become a rich source of information, connection, and support.
So far, our community looks like this:
It is a diverse group – Large B2B, large and mid-size B2C, education, non-profit, small consumer brands, information services – which we think serves members very well. We are very early in understanding how to manage online communities and the different perspectives brought by the diverse set of companies represented will help us collectively articulate what practices work best in different environments.
We want to recognize and acknowledge the support of a number of specific individuals who have willingly helped promote our work in a meaningful way – our ‘cheeseheads’ if you will: Michael Chin, Adam Cohen, Diane Hessan, Dawn Lacallade, Robert Collins, Jeff Cutler, Rachel Makool, Venessa Rhinesmith, Eugene Lee, Michael Idinopulos, Chris Brogan, Mark Yolton, David Alston, Mike Walsh, and Amber Rae Lambke – among many others who have been encouraging and supportive. Some of our most enthusiastic supporters are customers, some are vendor executives, and some are in affiliated fields and simply want to help because they like the idea. It’s been wonderful to have so many people whom we respect reach out and lend a hand, or a few tweets, to the cause. We also couldn’t do what we do without the support of our Facilitators – people at the top of the game in the social web who are sharing their expertise with our members in exchange for the opportunity to interact and get a ‘feet on the street’ perspective of the challenges being faced by our members on a day-to-day basis. As I wrote in a post recently on my personal blog – it takes a village and we hope everyone that we interact with feels like they take more away from the experience than they invest in it.
Interested in learning more about becoming a member of The Community Roundtable? Send us a note or ping us on Twitter.
