This year we felt the time was right to extend that research into quantitative data that community teams could use to have important conversations with stakeholders about strategy, investment and planning. Because the survey was so comprehensive, we are developing and publishing a portfolio of outputs, including our first report – The Value of Community Management – which is now available.

This report explores the question, “What does community management look like and what is the value of community management?”

The key findings include:

The post Announcing The 2013 State of Community Management Research appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

Since then, The Community Roundtable embarked on a quantitative study of community management and will be releasing the 2013 State of Community Management later this week with statistics to support these behaviors.  We look forward to sharing it with you and hearing what you all have to say on the subject.

Jim Storer will be joining the chat as will Joshua Paul from  Socious and Maggie McGary from McGary Associates – we’ll have our questions ready for them and you. We hope you’ll have some prepared as well.

Questions to consider in advance:

• What are the main differences between managing a non-profit community and a for-profit enterprise community? Similarities?
• Is having dedicated community management important? Why or why not?

We hope to see you there!

The post #CommBuild Chat – Habits of Highly Effective Community Managers appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

Some haven’t even started formal communities yet, but have started social efforts and want to learn from others who have been there and succeeded when starting their own community. We call this stage Start.

Many have established communities and have seen some successes but aren’t sure how to get to the next level and like to bounce questions and ideas off their community management peers.  This is the Build stage

And a smaller group have thriving communities and seek our expertise as a fresh set of eyes to help them strategize how their communities could be even more productive. These companies have reached what we consider the Grow stage.

On our new website we offer the tools to help you evaluate where your online community is at and the services and resources to help you navigate each stage in the journey:  start, build and grow.

Today we’re taking a closer look  at what a company in the build stage looks like:

If you have reached this stage you are most likely working on at least one of these projects:

• Developing an operational framework (i.e. community management playbook)
• Formalizing governance of our social media/community practices
• Deploying proprietary social software customized for your organization’s specific needs
• Hiring dedicated head count for social media and/or community management roles
• Creating a metrics scoreboards and reporting templates to measure community efforts
• Documenting your company’s social response and escalation efforts

Here is an example of a possible roadmap for a company who has reached this stage

Does this sound like you?  See what some of TheCR Network members who found us at this stage have to say about our services, and at the bottom of the page check out the pay services and free resources available to help your community thrive at this level and mature on to the next.

And let us know what you think.  What resources are we missing?  What services are most helpful at this stage?

The post The Journey of Managing Online Communities appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

Every year The Community Roundtable releases the State of Community Report, which aims to educate businesses about the business of community management, as well as to give community managers footing in their quests. By providing frameworks, models and research around community management, it allows community strategists to benchmark against peers and legitimize their financial plans in front of their businesses. I think this is really important work in a profession that’s at the height of everyone’s interest, but still lacks a common understanding. I believe in it so much that I joined this year’s advisory board.

As an advisory board member, I get various goodies, like sneak peeks at preliminary findings. As I dug into the data, I saw some signals that the practice of community management at businesses is starting to head into maturity. The data tells us that companies are starting to invest more in internal and external communities — but are they setting themselves up for success?

When analyzing survey data, we are seeing some trends that say yes:

Dedicated Community Management
Many businesses are dedicating headcount to community management; most have at least one FTE – and sometimes teams – dedicated to community management. This (I hope at least) points to a realization that communities don’t run themselves, and an investment must be made in community management and change management, not just technology. Although I don’t have research to back this up (if you do, please post in the comments), through anecdotal evidence and conversations with community managers, I’ve observed that most communities – especially internal ones — were started as IT initiatives, with little thought to what happens after launch. Investment in headcount points to the fact that businesses are either hiring from the beginning of launch, or realizing after launch that they will need a professional to step up and take the community to new heights.

In-House vs. Outsourcing
Also heartening is to see in the data that most community managers are in-house, not outsourced. Over the past few years, I’ve seen businesses retain agencies to manage their communities on a daily basis as a way to quickly meet demand. But as community building and development becomes more strategically important – and requires a unique skillset – it’s imperative to cultivate these skills internally. Investment in in-house talent is an encouraging trend and evidence that businesses are being more deliberate and strategic about community management.

Committing headcount is important, but it’s only the first step. From having worked in the field, I can tell you that even the most well-intentioned companies oftentimes have no idea what a community manager does and what skills are required. This means that hiring talent is a shot in the dark, and there isn’t opportunity for talent development. This brings me to the the trends that point to more could be done by companies to set themselves up for success:

Professional Training
Only half of our survey respondents provide resources for training for community managers. I found this interesting, and while the reasons are unknown, it’s fun to speculate. I think it’s mostly because companies don’t understand what skills and training are necessary, and what success looks like.

Oftentimes, people who step up to be community managers – or end up there because they launched the initiative – become “accidental community managers” without having the right skills or experience. Sometimes, community management is only part of their job – along with thousands of other things they have to do. I call these people “accidental community managers,” but it doesn’t mean that they don’t have the right mindset to be successful. A great opportunity in front of us is to help “accidental community managers” uplevel their skills, as long as they have the necessary success characteristics and passion for the job.

Other interesting points to explore as we go forward are:

• What the executive and cross-functional conversation looks like
• Trends in financial investment
• How community teams are structured
• What success looks like
• What community programs look like.

I’m excited to learn more in the release of The 2013 State of Community Management:  The Value of Community Management report being released mid-June. What points of Community Management do you feel need further exploration?

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Maria Ogneva is one of the many talented members of TheCR Network  –  a peer network for community and social business professionals from over 90 companies. Members lead and participate in discussions focused on tactical and strategic solutions to issues that challenge them daily.  Join today!

The post Investing In Community: 2013 State of Community Management appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

For these reasons we partnered with WOMMA and Comblu in 2011 to put together a training program for community professionals by community professionals.  Register Today! Members of TheCR Network receive a discounted rate. Get in touch with us for the promo code.

Why should you or your team sign on? We asked the pros:

Community Mangement – It’s an Art and a Science

Yes, You Can Teach Community Management

Are You a Community Manager? Check Out Training Targeted to Your Role Now

Keys to Effective Community Management

Community Management Training Course

New To Community Management? Our Top Resources

The post Community Managers on Why Training Makes a Difference appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

1. Understanding the mechanics of change (how to do something differently)
2. Belief that change is possible
3. A community that reinforces the change when you are stressed

It gave me new insight and appreciation to why what we are building at The Community Roundtable is so critical for community and social business leaders. One of the things that is true of most community and social business professionals is that they have their feet in two worlds – they go to their office, interact with their colleagues and are immersed in their company’s culture. But they are also people immersed in the online social environment and hyper-connected to a world outside of their organization in a way few others (if any) are. They are constantly pulled by the past and the future simultaneously.

And that is hard, sometimes almost untenable.

The “easy” part is articulating how things might change – how people might communicate in networked environments vs. through email and thus be discoverable or how they might write their expertise down in a blog so everyone can see it and those most affected by it can raise their hand instead of being hunted down.

The harder part is helping people build up the faith that work can, in fact, be better and communities can help by letting people expose what they know and be rewarded for it directly; by compounding their knowledge vs. fracturing it; and by removing unnecessary hierarchical barriers.

The hardest part still is when you get knocked down, dismissed or ignored repeatedly. As one of the few within your organization to really get the profound impact of digital communications you are isolated and because of that, it is often easier to believe you are crazy than that everyone else is. If you hope to succeed, you must find a community of like minded peers to reenforce the value of your work and its validity. It doesn’t have to be TheCR Network, although I personally think that would be a good choice, but it is critical that you have a support structure outside of your organization if you are to be any good at helping your organization do things differently. Change will almost surely not come from within.

As TheCR Network has grown, we have also been able to offer more value to our members. Along with weekly programming, we also offer:

• Speaking opportunities
• Event passes
• Early access to industry research
• Opportunities to advise and collaborate with TheCR on industry research
• Access to some of the smartest peers in the industry

If you (and your boss) are serious about the success of your community initiative or serious about growing your own career in the community or social business space, joining TheCR Network is a no-brainer for $995/year.

The post The Power of Change and Why TheCR Network Matters appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

While the community manager role is one that many are interested in being hired for, it is not all glamour and no, you don’t spend all day playing on social media.  It’s hard work and can be quite isolating and emotionally taxing.

The good news is that some of the information we collected from our 2013 State of Community Management survey shows that there are more and more formal community managers out there.  With education, support and resources like TheCR Network our hope is that community managers can proactively limit the impact of the dark side of the profession and avoid burnout.

Here are some of the interesting facts Maria and our research advisory board learned:

• Community management programs are maturing and some community programming practices such as welcome emails are now standard.
• A vast majority of community managers are in-house talent vs. outsourced to an agency.
• The majority of respondents said their business communities were started as deliberate efforts.
• Proactive community management has a dramatic impact on the engagement profile of a community with most companies surveyed seeing much higher engagement rates than the commonly used benchmark of 90-9-1.

We are very happy Maria brought forth this important topic at this time when community management is growing and maturing both as a specific role and as a discipline.  Share your ‘dark side’ confessions in the comments below or using the #CMDarkSide hashtag on Twitter or in our LinkedIn Group.

(This article was also published in this month’s edition of TheCR News, our monthly newsletter)

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TheCR Network is a membership network that provides strategic, tactical and professional development programming for community and social business leaders. The network enables members to connect and form lasting relationships with experts and peers as well as get access to vetted content.

TheCR Network is the place to learn from social business practitioners.  Join today

The post The Dark Side Of Community Management appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

Our goal with the new web site is to help visitors:

• Understand where they are on their journey to adopt social and collaborative approaches.
• Clearly see the enormous talent and knowledge that makes TheCR Network great.
• Seamlessly meet and interact with TheCR team.
• Understand our story and the depth of our services.
• Get the help they need, whether they’re just getting started or they’ve been doing this for years.

Here’s hoping we succeeded. We welcome your feedback and we want to know immediately if anything isn’t working correctly (we tested everything several times…but we’re only human.)

Take a test drive, kick the tires, let us know what you think.

And thank you! We couldn’t do what we do without you.

The post Check Out Our New Look appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

Jacob Hurwith: What separates this community manager webinar series from other CM programs?

Rachel Happe: We strongly prioritized practitioner experience and peer education with this training series, because the discipline of community management is evolving quickly. Most community leaders have gotten where they are by a lot of experiential learning and experimentation, but it’s not always well documented.

Jacob Hurwith: Why has the role of CM become so popular across various industries in the last two years?

Rachel Happe: Social technologies have enabled an explosion of connection and communication and with that come both complexity and opportunity. We can reach more people faster, which helps reduce costs and time. However, this causes volatility that companies have never before had to deal with from a communications perspective.

Jacob Hurwith: What is the single most important skill that all CMs need to have?

Rachel Happe: Having the ability to empathize and the motivation to help others is a trait that, if missing, would make it impossible to succeed as a community manager.

Jacob Hurwith: What is the difference between a community manager and a community strategist?

Rachel Happe: Like many career paths, as community leaders become more senior, they need to link tactics to business strategy and they need to be more connected externally. Community strategists, while they still participate in communities, are seldom the ones responsible for day-to-day engagement. Instead, their role is to ensure that community programs are deployed and optimized to achieve business results. The roles give them a lot of responsibility across the organization, but with limited resources under their direct supervision.

Another good reason for training is because community managers often feel alone and overwhelmed in their role. This gives them a chance to be part of something where everyone understands what they are going through. Burnout is a real issue for community managers and this training can help them not only be better at their jobs, but also better at managing the realities of day-to-day challenges.

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Members of TheCR Network are eligible for a discounted member-only rate for this training.  Get in touch for the discount code.

TheCR Network is a membership network that provides strategic, tactical and professional development programming for community and social business leaders. The network enables members to connect and form lasting relationships with experts and peers as well as get access to vetted content.

TheCR Network is the place to learn from social business practitioners.  Join today

The post Community Management Training Begins June 11 appeared first on The Community Roundtable.

Hillary Boucher, the community manager for TheCR Network, started off by making a video that she shared.  We now have members of TheCR Network making and sharing videos of their own.  It is a great example of:

1. Enabling your community to taking ownership of content for which you all care about
2. Recognizing community members for being creative and innovative
3. Curating great content to share

Here is Hillary’s video that started it all off.  In it she talks about how we on-board new members here at TheCR, a technique that is becoming mainstreamed, with the vast majority of our surveyed population sending welcome emails.  We hope you like and learn from it.  Stay tuned for more to follow:

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TheCR Network is a membership network that provides strategic, tactical and professional development programming for community and social business leaders. The network enables members to connect and form lasting relationships with experts and peers as well as get access to vetted content.

TheCR Network is the place to learn from social business practitioners.  Join today

The post Inside TheCR Network: Putting Faces to Best Practices appeared first on The Community Roundtable.