The document discusses the role of a community manager in an organization. It describes how community managers are responsible for both operational and strategic tasks related to designing, building, and managing online communities. It also outlines some of the key characteristics of community managers, including being a communicator, passionate about people and purpose, self-motivated, and acting as a facilitator. Additionally, the document provides examples of how community managers can provide benefits like market research, R&D, knowledge archiving, and ensuring information flow within an organization.
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The role of the community manager in your organisation
1. The Role of the Community
Manager in your
Organisation
Blaise Grimes-Viort
@blaisegv
Head of Social Media & Engagement Services,
Webjam
(c) 2010 Webjam Ltd ‐ Confiden6al
2. Role
”Community management is concerned with all operational and
strategic tasks and questions which arise about the design,
building and managing an online community. The remit covers on
one hand the care of members and on the other the provision of
community-operation in terms of technical, legal and monetary
aspects.”
Daniel Langwasser, http://www.community-management.de
“Ambassador” “Human face of organisation”
Pétur, Eve Online, Community Coordinator Alexandra, Dog’s Trust, CM/ SM Manager
“Listen, listen, listen” “Eclectic”
Heather, giffgaff, SM Manager Alistair, Ketchum, Community Manager
4. Positioning
Editorial
Marketing Customer
PR services
Community
Team
Sales Technical
5. Organisational
Structure
Chief Community Officer
Head of Community
Community Community Community
Manager Manager Manager
6. Bene ts of
Community Manager
Market
Research R&D
Information Community Team Training
Knowledge
7. Market Research
• Gathers customer opinions
• Trusted public face of your company
• Harnesses your brand champions
• Wealth of marketing research
• Word-of-mouth promotion
• Positive brand perception
source: “Phil Plait is listening”, by davefayram,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davefayram/3765105056/
8. Case Study
Cosmopolitan.co.uk
• Grew Twitter account to 20,000
followers
• I am a Cosmo girl because...
• Grew site community to 250,000
• Customer panel & editorial research
• Cosmopolitan Blog Awards
9. Research & Development
• In-depth understanding of your
product
• Collates data about customer feelings
about your product
• Harnesses your customers as a testing
or research force
• Long term benefit of customer panel
• Deeper engagement between brand
and consumers
source: “Red Wing Shoes Factory Tour”, by ninahale,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94693506@N00/4643248433/
10. Case Study
PlayStation Beta Network
• Testing implementation of network
• Setting up advocate group for emerging
network capabilities
• Ongoing feedback loop to ensure online
gaming platform was a success
• Developed into beta testing community
11. Internal Training
• Stays on top of emerging trends
• Uses and develops advanced monitoring
and management tools
• Well placed to train your staff on new
tools
• Helps increase productivity
• Increases staff engagement and
happiness
source: “John Ralston Saul keynote speech at the 2006 Parkland
Conference”, by itzafineday,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itzafineday/303072436/
12. Case Study
JWT
• Wanted to push knowledge around
organisation
• Also to drive innovation and creativity
• 300 staff staff sharing ideas and
inspiration
• Process of training and perpetual
education
13. Knowledge Archiving
• Acts as both customer and company
advocate
• Passionate about both the product and
the customer
• Enthusiasm and energy is infectious
• Deep knowledge and influence
source: “arne jacobsen, rødovre library, 1961-1969”, by seier+seier,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seier/2635873116/in/photostream/
14. Case Study
Jono Bacon
• Career spent deeply involved in open-
source software industry
• Was UK contact for KDE Linux
development
• Reference point for open source and
Linux
• Highly knowledgeable in software
product community management
source: “Ubuntu penguin”, by karindalziel,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nirak/2099867218/
15. Information Flow
• Can piece together flows of information
• Aggregator of your internal operations
• Observes situations from above
• Identifies the small details
• Carries buckets of information
• Heartbeat of your organisation
source: “Philippines March 2005 025”, by Trishhhh,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trishhhh/2334597687/in/photostream/
17. Effect on
Community Activity
• Spinsucks.com hired Community Manager to grow traffic
Traffic increase of 63%
Increase in subscribers of 164%
Visitors via search increase by 57%
18. Effect on
Community Activity
• Tom Humbarger: Removal of
CM leads to drop off in visits
and activity
• Fall-off of more than 63% on a
week to week basis
source: http://tomhumbarger.wordpress.com
• Debra Askanase: Removal of
CM results in collapse of
activity on Facebook Page
• From 25% conversion to
website to 0
source: http://www.communityorganizer20.com
19. So in Summary
source: “I am an outrageous octopus!”, by hoyasmeg, http://
www.flickr.com/photos/emeryjl/3495307567/
20. And a bit of...
source: “S is for Superman”, by Xurble, http://www.flickr.com/photos/
xurble/376591423/
21. Thank you for listening.
Blaise Grimes-Viort
Head of Social Media & Engagement Services, Webjam
Twitter: @blaisegv
blaise.grimesviort@webjam-ltd.com
http://www.webjam.com
http://blaisegv.com
(c) 2010 Webjam Ltd ‐ Confiden6al
Notes de l'éditeur
Operates from deep within the company,
managing customer relationships with a brand or product, and each other.
facilitating efficient inter-team and staff communication and collaboration.
focussed on the flow of information and knowledge, strengthening relationships and promoting productive collaboration,
moderation and hosting of both micro- and macro-events on the company’s community platform.
managing brand recognition and reputation outside of the scope of the brand website.
focussed on listening and evaluating brand perception, planning campaigns and promotional material or initiatives to promote the company’s message,
building and leveraging social networks on social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to facilitate depth of communication.
from left to right, internal skills, soft skills, hard skills
Need a combination of skills to go about role effectively
but all of these skills can be leverage through the company
at the forefront of communication online - for ex. i used bulletin bord systems (dialing via telephone pc to pc), others embedded in virtual worlds
quickly run through the fact cm team sits amongst other departments - usually ‘belongs’ to one (mgt, cs, editorial) but ideally lives within them all
flows info and interaction with all at some stage if embedded efficiently
we heard from antony earlier about how the organisation needs to change in terms of adapting in this new digital socially enabled world - the community manager can help improve your processes and we’ll see how now.
Because they are listening and talking with the public all day, they will soak up customer opinions and act as a trusted public face of your company. They can also help staff engage with your customers to identify and harness your brand champions. Thanks to this intimate relationship with your customers, the net result can be a wealth of marketing research, word-of-mouth promotion and positive brand perception.
workshop feedback, example above. use community to research our audience and sense check our editorial. Blog awards massive success in terms of reach. “most effective marketing initiative ever”
In order to be effective in their day-to-day operations, they develop an in-depth understanding of the weaknesses of both your web platform and promotional systems, as well as collate immense amounts of data about customer feelings about your product, whatever that might be. Not involving them in the development of your website or in the research process and testing phases of the next iteration of your product may well be your costliest mistake.
The nature of their work relies on them staying on top of emerging trends and use and develop advanced monitoring and management tools, they are well placed to train your staff and report back on new methods you could implement in your staff’s workflow to increase productivity and impact, and give you the cutting edge you need to succeed in your marketplace.
across forums and blogs - video, images, brainstorming groups - enterprise 2.0
in process, essentially training staff to use social media tools, and this knowledge can then be distributed outside the company.
teaching staff how to use them responsibly which insures less problems when they use social media personally
Since they act as both customer and company advocate, they need to know and be passionate about both the product and the customer on an intimate level. This makes them your greatest ally, and possibly your greatest enemy. Keep them close, because the combination of their enthusiasm for the brand and the powerhouse energy required to operate the engine room that is Community Management is something you want to infect the rest of your staff with.
worked at openadvantage as community builder (open source promotion agency government funded) + written 3 books on linux (and 1 on community management) + LugRadio, a podcast on open source running since 2005 - can u imagine the experience and drive he must bring to the organisation?
Finally, because they interact with the majority of departments, don’t under-estimate their ability to piece together flows of information, essentially acting as an aggregator of your internal company operations. They are used to observing situations from above, watching for the small details most people don’t notice. They can offer you a holistic view of your company by patching all department activity together, thanks to the water-carrying of chunks of information to and from the community.
my experience
we can see just how much of an impact in maintaining activity the CM has, and have to consider, in light of what we’ve discussed so far, what else was lost - feedback, opportunities
Your Community Manager holds your company on their shoulders, tending your audience and brand perception, and absorbing masses of information about your product and operations. Isn’t it time you tapped into that?