An online community can provide so much more to an organization than just customer support. Connie will provide five steps for creating a business model for your role that will lead to sustainability of the community manager role and career growth.

1. 5 Steps to Grow the
Community
Manager Role
• Swarm Sydney, Online Community Manager Conference
• November 10, 2011
Connie Bensen

2. Global Marketing
Connie Bensen, Community Strategist
• ACD – Digital Image Organization Software (B2C)
– Brought a new buying group to the company
– Redefined the support forums by creating an advocacy program
– Defined the Community Manager Role (Wikipedia)
• Techrigy SM2 – Social Media monitoring tool (B2B, B2C)
– Evolved tool based on customer’s business needs
– Wore many hats in tech startup which grew 840% in 9 months
• Alterian (Via acquisition of Techrigy) (B2B, B2C)
– Defined 10 use cases for data from social media monitoring
– Integration of social into corporate marketing and sales
• Dell (B2C, B2B)
– Advocacy program for support forums
– Mentorship for internal community managers
• Blog http://communitystrategist.com
2

3. Global Marketing
Social Media Role is Mainstream
• The business unit that it resides in is a variable.
• The need for community management is not yet fully realized.
3
• The internal community is the most important (your
colleagues).
• The external community can’t be supported unless the
company culture is prepared to do so.
• It is imperative to dedicate time and energy internally in order
to grow and expand your role.
A Philosophy for Career Growth

4. Global Marketing
Your Future
4
Community
Marketing
Customer
Service
Sales
Operations
PR
Product
Dev’t

5. Global Marketing
Create a Business Model for your Role
1. Put on a Consultant’s Hat
2. Synthesize Your Concepts
3. Become a great Salesperson
4. Lead 360 degrees
5. Continually Redefine Yourself
5

6. Global Marketing
Definition of a Business Model
• A tool used to describe all the touchpoints and impact to the
business
Needs to include:
• Visuals that simplify your message
• Resonate with executive pain points
• Metrics based on business objectives
6

7. Global Marketing
A Business
Model for Your
Role
7

8. Company-centric (old) Buyer-centric (new)
Search & find info, links
Visit website
Download a resource
Request a call
Describe a project
Give spec’s & budget
Request a proposal
Participate in a demo
Identify buyer
Send an Email
Call prospect
Assess the need
Determine budget
Submit proposal
Give a demo
Outbound Inbound
Paradigm Shift in Buying Cycle

9. Community Driven Social Business Model
Global
Community
Educate Activate Empower
Hosted
Communities
Social
Channels
External
Communities
Partners
Keyword
Search
Mobile

10. Impact of the Social Strategy Role
Sales Funnel
PR
Social Channels
Website
Social Channels
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Awareness
Business
Objectives
Return
Conversions
Up-sell
Cross-Sell
• Brand Awareness
• Marketing
• Lead Gen
• Product Marketing
• Sales
• Biz Development
• Peer Support
• Increased Loyalty
• Product
Development
• Executive
• Increased Sentiment
• Decreased Spend
• Decreased Costs
• Shorter Acquisition
Time
• Increased Revenues
• Decreased Support
Costs
• Faster Time-to-
Market
• Competitive &
Industry Insight
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

11. Global Marketing
Be a Consultant

12. Global Marketing
Think Like a Consultant
Management doesn’t always realize the value that an in-depth
and over-arching community strategy can provide.
You can periodically provide a:
• gap analysis
• identify opportunities and barriers
• educate internally
• sell your initiatives in order to drive innovation
Build relationships in order to execute on the necessary culture
shift required to integrate the input from the external
community
12

13. Global Marketing
Identify the business objective(s)
• % Reduced spend on PR, Marketing & Advertising
• % Increase in Sales
– % shorter sales cycle
– % increase in customer retention
• % Reduction in Customer Service Costs
• % Reduction Product Development Costs
• % Increased SEO Presence
• % Increase in Leads from Campaign
• % Increase in Brand Visibility
13

14. Global Marketing
Who are the Stakeholders?
• What are their challenges and perspectives
• What motivates them
• What are their fears (keeps them up at night)
• What are the competitive threats
14

15. Global Marketing
What metrics are important?
Dependent on business objective(s)
• Amount of increased conversation
• Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
• Number of uses of online content
• Number of issues resolved online by peers
• Increased customer satisfaction - qualitative
• Number of ideas gathered/implemented
• Compare previous cycle cost to present
• Reduced cost due to beta
• Google your brand/product
Attribution to social channels is critical. If your efforts are counted in
other processes, you won’t get credit.
15

16. Global Marketing
To Be a Successful Consultant
Divide your time between:
• Working towards existing objectives: Majority of time
• Growth initiatives including:
–Learning new skills and needs of organization: 5%
–Investing in securing new projects: 10%
16

17. Global Marketing
Synthesize your
Ideas

18. Global Marketing
Synthesize and Share Your Concepts
• Listen
• Learn
• Communicate
Know what works for you.
18

19. Global Marketing
Sell Yourself

20. Global Marketing
Sales = The Art of Closing the Deal
• Know what you’re asking for
–A pilot or project with measureable results that meets a
needed business objective
• Identify the objections
• Systematically remove them
• Make the ‘Ask’
Keep the pilot manageable and measurable so that it’s
successful
20

21. Global Marketing
Tips for Success in Selling your Concept
• Need to speak the language of the business
• Learn your market, positioning and your competitors
• Find out who the internal influencers are
– Are they willing to champion your project
– Are they early adopters
– What is their risk tolerance (and that of the business?)
• Presentations need to be succinct and high level
– Pictorial translation of your meaning
• Make sure the objections are not talking points
Prepare for the top 10 questions that you anticipate getting.
21

22. Global Marketing
Lead in All
Directions

23. Global Marketing
Lead 360 Degrees
• Manage expectations up, across and down
• Work cross-functionally across the matrix
23

24. Global Marketing
ReInvent
Yourself

25. Global Marketing
Continually Redefine Yourself
• Learn and ask for assistance
• Know your weak points
• Gather data from the organization that supports your premises
– Use it to convince and convert and depict what you know
Example:
Q2 – traditional marketing created 125 meetings for sales
– 5 deals were closed
– Leads from social channels had a shorter conversion time and
higher close rate
Remember quality versus quantity
25

26. Global Marketing
No Metrics are Ineffective and ‘so what?!’
• Drove market expansion for the company and built a community that included
resources, training materials and identification of advocates.
• Reinvented the online product forums and engaged six moderators to guide the
conversations while encouraging peer support.
• Developed and implemented overall community engagement plans based on the
marketing strategy for each customer segment.
• Defined and implemented the first comprehensive beta program for ACD’s flagship
product that incorporated formal paths for gathering participant feedback and
product requirements.
• Established & built framework for support of communities around the products
• Engaged evangelists & provided them with motivation & leadership
• Provided & implemented creative marketing solutions
• Utilized social media & WOM techniques
• Collaborated with product development & quality assurance teams.
26

27. Global Marketing
Metrics – Express yourself in terms of data
• Impact versus Tactics
– Don’t tell what you did, express it as the impact you made
› Not tactics, but rather the change the organization realized and the timeframe
– Resume, CV, LinkedIn profile
Examples:
– Refined corporate blog resulting in 275% increase in subscribers
Increased corporate digital footprint by 80% over the past year
– Implemented digital marketing strategy resulting in 840% increase in
customers and 1400% revenue growth in 9 months
– Leveraged freemium model and created self-paced online training
materials to scale the demand which resulted in:
› shortened the sales cycle from 8 weeks to 3 weeks
› 460% increase in freemium signups over 9 months
27

28. Global Marketing
When Philosophies Collide
A major change in the business such as a change in leadership
or acquisition.
You have choices:
• Be satisfied with the status quo and maintenance mode
(support helpdesk)
• You no longer feel that you can initiate change and need to
move on
Irregardless, it’s important that you are growing your role and
preparing for the future.
28

29. Global Marketing
Using the Process
• Identify the Business Objectives
• Who are the Stakeholders?
• Propose a pilot
• Sell the strategy and remove objections
• If rejected (or not understood), step back
• Revisit by planting seeds to build case over time and doing
more research
• Set expectations with parameters for timeframe and metrics
29

30. Global Marketing
Discussion and Resources
Email conniebensen@gmail.com
Blog http://communitystrategist.com
Presentations http://slideshare.net/conniebensen
Community groups:
Facebook Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelist
http://www.facebook.com/groups/3553055120/
Community BackChannel
http://community.thebrainyard.com
Outstanding LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cinnylittle
30