1.
Community Management Fundamentals
2017 Edition

2.
Community building is critical to leadership
success – and it always has been

3.
But it’s often been an implicit responsibility…

4.
...and success has been hard to define and
measure

5.
Online the dynamics and value of
communities comes into focus

6.
Online we can see:
1. Who engages and how
2. How communities form and evolve
3. How network structure impacts outcomes
4. Aggregate behaviors and culture
5. How to trigger, influence and reward behavior

7.
Because we can see community dynamics,
we can optimize building them…

8.
…which means we have standard patterns,
recipes, and measurements

9.
What is a
community?

10.
Com·mu·ni·ty
Noun
A group of people with unique shared values,
behaviors, and artifacts.
(our definition at The Community Roundtable)
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11.
Communities:
1. Speed information transfer
2. Develop shared ownership
3. Normalize acceptable behaviors

12.
An organizational ecosystem includes many communities
Organization

13.
The business
of community

14.
Communities are networks of relationships, not just content networks
Content Distribution Network Community
The difference, is typically not the channel,
but instead the approach to management

15.
Communities do not produce linear returns like many processes
15
Time
Return

16.
Time
Return
Good communities generate value by normalizing new behaviors, which
generates compounding value
16

17.
Time
Return
However, lack of understanding can lead to predictable community failures
17

18.
…and help us focus management based on a community’s maturity
18
Time
Impact
Stage 1 –
Hierarchy
Stage 2 –
Emergent
Community
Stage 3 –
Community
Stage 4 –
Networked
Pull
Grow
Community Objective, by Stage
Behavior
Change
TransformTransform

19.
TheCR Community Engagement FrameworkTM articulates how behaviors and value
change over the community lifecycle…
19

20.
…and can be translated into community ROI
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21.
What is
community
management?

22.
The Community Maturity Model™ defines the scope of community management…

23.
…which consists of two types of work: projects and routines
ANNUAL ROADMAP DELIVERABLES
• Big projects by quarter
• Curated content
• Designing programs
• Reporting to stakeholders
• Early community maturity markers:
• Expert participation
• New member programs
• Community guidelines
• Advocacy program
DAILY/WEEKLY ROUTINES
• Daily productivity routines
ü Open & Closing goals each day
ü Energy: exercise, breaks and in-person activity
• Schedule slots for:
ü Engagement
ü Program planning & execution
ü Advocacy program work
ü Stakeholder meetings
• Batch administrative work
ü Newsletters
ü Backchanneling
ü One-on-One outreach
ü New member & advocate communication/calls
• Develop systems
ü Member management
ü Email templates
ü Routines

24.
Project work can be broken down and prioritized by competency
Strategy
q Shared purpose
q Shared value
q Key behaviors
Leadership
q Engage subject matter experts
q Identify advocates
Culture
q Identify ideal engagement and build to it
q Prompt regular engagement
q Ensure constructive tone and behavior are modeled
Community Management
q Roles/Responsibilities
q Develop processes and engagement patterns
q Develop routines and schedules
Content & Programming
q Define a welcome process
q Define regular community programs
Policies & Governance
q Develop community guidelines
q Define roles and responsibilities for advocates, stakeholders,
experts and executives
Tools
q Set-up a CRM or contact management system so you can track
community relationships
q Optimize community features by highlighting desired workflows
and removing or deprioritizing unnecessary features
q Set up measurement tools to make monthly reporting easy
Metrics & Measurement
q Define what you will track and how often you will monitor

25.
Routine community management work can be laid out by frequency
Routine Occasional As Needed Quarterly or
Annually
Engagement • Monitoring
• Backchanneling
• Introducing & connecting
• Responding or prompting
• Onboarding
• Check-ins
• Interviewing advocates/
stakeholders
• Escalation
• Moderation
• Crisis management
• Advisory board
discussions
Content • Curation
• Promotion
• Newsletters
• Program/event delivery
• Program & content
planning
• Content Repurposing
• Evaluation of what’s
working and gaps
• Content Audit
Technical • Member administration
• Content/event posting
• Graphic development
• Content promotion
• Editing tags or taxonomy
• Reporting
• Updating UX
• Exporting and
analyzing data
• Updating
community
scorecard

26.
Daily/weekly community management routines
Routine Occasional As Needed Quarterly or Annually
Strategic • Aligning engagement
and content with
strategic goals
• Understanding member
needs and motivators
• Surveying
members
• Re-evaluate
roadmap/planor
strategy based on new
information
• Strategic audit
Business • Internal evangelism &
coordination
• Reporting
community
progress to
stakeholders
• Present community
progress & data
• Develop annual
community
roadmap/plan
• Request any
needed resources

27.
Combined, a ‘normal’ weekly schedule can be defined
= Governance
= Advisory Program
= Content & Programming
= Culture Change
@rhappe

28.
The Community
Business Case

29.
Why: Problem Statement
• What is the business
opportunity?
• Where is the pain point?
• What workflow is wasting
scarce resources?
We need more rapid
innovation
We keep re-inventing
the wheel and wasting
resources The customer
experience is
inconsistent

30.
What: a community to rapidly create, iterate and disseminate
• What behavior does the
community change?
• What process does it replace?
• What new behavior does it
introduce?
• What is the shared purpose for
organization and employee?

31.
How: What’s required to build a successful community?
• What are your community
efforts to date?
• What will be required as
community engagement
grows?

32.
When: What value will that network generate over time?
• What is the current
community ROI?
• What is the projected ROI
value for FY18?
• What is required to hit our
goals?

33.
Showing how is ROI is generated
• How does the community
impact workflows to generate
value?
• What does the community
workflow look like?
• What is the savings?
Task started
10 Days
2nd
Question
3nd
Question
Task
started
Task
completed
4 Days
2nd
Question 3nd
Question
Task
started Task
completed
4 Hours

34.
What does it look like in practice?
• What does a community-
based workflow look like?
• What is a specific example
of what this looks like?

35.
What progress have we made to date?
• How quickly are different
behaviors changing?
• How could we adjust to
meet goals or move more
quickly?

36.
What are our FY18 Goals?
• What are your top
community initiatives for
FY18?
• What are the top line goals
for the next 12 months?

37.
Roadmap & Budget
• What roadmap and budget
options will support different
outcomes?
• What is on the roadmap and
what resources does it require?

38.
Key Takeaways
1. Community leadership and management is a critical skill set
2. Communities generate compounding value, based on behavior changes
3. Community management can be defined, structured, measured, and
prioritized strategically
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39.
About The Community Roundtable
At the Community Roundtable, we collaborate with
clients to implement proven, practical strategies for
better communities.
Clients rely on our models, research, and peer networks
to take their communities to the next level.
Research
Community Performance Benchmark
and
Community ROI Models
Advisory Services

40.
Rachel Happe
@rhappe
rachel@communityroundtable.com
The Community Roundtable
@TheCR
info@communityroundtable.com