The State of Community Management 2020 is the 11th edition of The State of Community Management research, the longest-running, and most comprehensive industry report for online community professionals.
In 2020, online communities and digital engagement took on dramatic new relevance. We have made considerable progress in translating the generative business model of communities into financial benchmarks, which are critical for organizations as they consider using community approaches to transform their organizations. We can now communicate the generative creation of value in financial terms.
2020’s three key findings:
- Advanced Communities Create Generative Value
- External Communities Elevate the Customer Experience
- Internal Communities Reveal Untapped Potential
In 2020, we added more comparison segments, which revealed new insights and allow us to report how external, customer community programs are differentiating themselves and maturing more quickly than internal, employee community programs.
The State of Community Management 2019
The State of Community Management is our annual research platform that tracks the performance of communities and community management across the eight competencies of the Community Maturity Model.
Now in its tenth year, The State of Community Management report is the most referenced and trusted resource in the community industry.
The State of Community Management 2019 explores the question: why aren’t all organizations racing to adopt community approaches? Building and operating successful, productive communities requires a radically different mindset – one that does not put the organization at the center. It also requires community builders who can translate what they know into the language of business. Finally, it requires courageous executives willing to invest time and resources in a very different model of success, a challenging proposition even with hard data and evidence.
Access Previous State of Community Management Reports

The State of Community Management Toolkit includes downloads of all 11 years of the SOCM research, as well as additional related models and content for $99.