1.
How to Measure, Benchmark &
Calculate Community ROI
Rachel Happe
Principal & Co-Founder
@rhappe

2.
Research
Advisory
Training
Benchmarking
2!
The Community Roundtable
www.communityroundtable.com
TheCR
Network

3.
3!
Benchmarking
Community

4.
The Value of Benchmarking
www.communityroundtable.com
1. Focuses the Conversation
Benchmarking provides concrete and actionable guidance that
helps translate your strategic ambition into strategic reality.
2. Injects Unbiased Perspective
Data-driven analysis removes personal or political bias, providing
and objective look at performance.
3. Enables Confident Community Decision-Making
Benchmarking tells you where you are and provides the data to
make confident decisions about your community’s future.

5.
What Do You Benchmark?
www.communityroundtable.com
Management
The approach to building successful communities
Behavior
How individual communication behavior is changing
Results
The value produced by the community; benefits including ROI

6.
How do you benchmark?
• What’s
important?
• How
will
you
track
it?
Define
• What’s
the
current
state?
• What
interval
will
you
track?
Baseline
• Against
yourself?
• Against
other
internal
communiFes?
• Against
peers/idustry?
Compare
• Educate
&
sell
execuFves
• Planning
and
budgeFng
• PrioriFzing
resource
uliFzaFon
Use

7.
Limits of Benchmarking
www.communityroundtable.com
1. Benchmarking is ‘dumb’ to your strategy
Benchmarking provides a objective comparison, which is what
makes it valuable, but because of thatit cannot indicate/evaluate
where performance differences are intentional based on your unique
context and strategy
2. Trends, not specifics
The best use of benchmarking is to see trends and use those to
trigger deeper discussions about your approach – but it cannot
define priorities unique to your organization. It is one of many great
inputs to a strategic conversation.

8.
8!
Benchmarking
Community
Management

9.
The Value of Community
Management
www.communityroundtable.com
“Goals are for Losers”
– Scott Adams

10.
The Value of Community
Management
www.communityroundtable.com
Building Processes for Repeatable Results
While you may be able to generate results without a well
constructed management approach, it is difficult to maintain
performance without a consistent, documented approach
Can
measure
value
Gap
between
vision
and
ability
to
execute

11.
www.communityroundtable.com
Define: The Community Maturity
Management

12.
www.communityroundtable.com
Baseline: Document the current
state

13.
www.communityroundtable.com
Compare: Benchmark
competencies
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔

14.
www.communityroundtable.com
Use: Define where you want to
be

15.
www.communityroundtable.com
Use: Build a roadmap

16.
16!
Benchmarking
Behavior

17.
Impact!
Phase 1
Hierarchy!
Phase 2
Emergent
Community!
Phase 3
Community!
Phase 4
Networke
d!
Pull!
Grow!
Transform!
Behavior
Change!
Time! 17!
Behavior change drives ROI

18.
• Information Seeking
• Content Management
• Collaborative Analysis and
Decision-Making
• Co-creation of content
• Work Synchronization
• Stakeholder review
• Communication of decisions
or outputs
When
a
member
wants
to
___________________________
they
will
use
the
community
to
__________________________,
instead
of
doing
_____________
__________________________.
Define: What is the existing and
new behavior?

19.
Define: What is the existing and
new behavior?
Work Out Loud
Behavior: Share your priorities, ideas and current projects
Value: Serendipity, discover things you didn’t know you didn’t know
Ask Out Loud
Behavior: Ask in a community
Value: Improve the likelihood of a quick, valuable response; answer once
Solve Out Loud
Behavior: Brainstorm and resolve issues in a community
Value: Incorporate unexpected perspectives, mentor others, increase awareness

20.
Baseline: What percent of the old behavior
has been replaced?
Old
Behavior
New
Behavior
%
%

21.
Compare: Gauge your inflection
points
Behavior!
Time!

22.
Use: Adjust community management
approach
Impact!
Phase 1
Hierarchy
• Find an
internal owner!
• Identify
executive
sponsor!
• Align goals
and
capabilities!
Phase 2
Emergent
Community
• Identify
advocates !
• Align goals
and
capabilities!
• Formalize
governance!
Phase 3
Community
• Document
processes!
• Training!
• Evolve metrics
& reporting!
• Creating new
roles!
!
Phase 4
Networked
• Change HR
processes!
• Adapt
corporate
strategy!
• Phase out
older tools !
!
!
Pull!
Grow!
Transform!
Behavior
Change!
Time! 22!

23.
23!
Benchmarking
Results & Getting
to ROI

24.
Define:
When
a
member
wants
to
___________________________
they
will
use
the
community
to
__________________________,
instead
of
doing
_____________
__________________________
__________________________.
resolve an issue
ask a question
emailing a
ticket system (CRM, bug
tracking tool, etc.
Answered Questions Report
• Total Questions
• Questions with Responses
• Time to First Response
• Questions with Helpful Answers
• Time to First Helpful Answer
• Questions with Correct Answers
• Time to Correct Answer
• Total Views

25.
Baseline: Gather Data
Metric
Source
Baseline
–
Other
channels
Baseline
Jive/Community
Number of members Working
Out Loud
#
Manual
Count
0
Percent of community working
out loud
%
CalculaFon
0%
Number of Questions in the
Community
#
Jive
&
Manual
0
Total Questions Asked
#
Survey
Percent of Total Questions
Asked in the community
%
Calculated
100%
0%
Number of questions with
helpful or correct answers
#
Jive
&
Manual
Percent of Questions Answered
%
Calculated
Total Views for All Questions
#
Jive

26.
Compare: Assess Progress
Metric
Source
Baseline
–
other
channels
Baseline
Jive/
Community
Month
2
Month
3
Number of members
Working Out Loud
#
Manual
Count
0
Percent of community
working out loud
%
CalculaFon
0%
Number of Questions
in the Community
#
Jive
&
Manual
0
Total Questions Asked
#
Survey
Percent of Total
Questions Asked in the
community
%
Calculated
100%
0%
Number of questions
with helpful or correct
answers
#
Jive
&
Manual
Percent of Questions
Answered
%
Calculated
Total Views for All
Questions
#
Jive

27.
Use: Communicate
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
August
September
October
QuesFons
Helpful
Response
Correct
Responses
Response
Rate
No
Response
Response
Helpful
Correct
Ques>on
Trends,
by
Month
670
680
690
700
710
720
730
740
Views
August
September
October
Views
Per
Ques>on,
by
Month

28.
Use: Potential Management
Adjustments
1. Engagement Approach: Close Response Gap
Create a way to regularly highlight open questions like a Friday blog
post or a bigger advocate initiative that encourage them to
backchannel to prompt responses.
2. Content Management Resourcing
Allocating time to mark responses as helpful or correct so that
reporting is more accurate.
3. Tool Integration
Consider integrating email distribution addresses to publish into the
community, increasing question capture

29.
Use: Constructing ROI
Traditional Response Process
Question -> Ticket System -> Resource time to respond
Cost Per Answer = FTE / time to respond
Community Response Process
Question -> Community -> Percent requiring employee response *
Resource time to respond
Cost Per Answer =(FTE / (Percent of questions requiring employee
response * time to respond))
Answers Avoided (Opportunity Cost) Per Answer: ((Views * multiplier/
confidence factor)*(FTE / (Percent requiring employee response * time to
respond)))

30.
30!
Community
Performance
Benchmark

31.
31!
State of Community Management
Developing the methodology
www.communityroundtable.com
2010

32.
Community Performance
Benchmark
www.communityroundtable.com
The Community Performance
Benchmark Service Includes:
• Online survey for one community or
network
• Report
• Overall maturity score, compared to survey
average and best-in-class
• Maturity score by competency, compared to
survey average and best-in-class
• High level findings and recommendations
• Recommendations by competency
• One review cycle
• Webinar presentation
Additional Options:
• More than one community
• Comparison to a different survey
segment (use cases, industry,
company size, etc)
• In-person presentation

33.
8|
Key Observations
​ Content & Programming
​ Your community offers a variety of
programs, including those for new
members. You have an editorial
calendar, and one way to increase
the effectiveness of that calendar is
to offer recurring programming, like a
weekly Ask Me Anything chat, for
example. Regular programming has a
positive impact on member
engagement.
​ Leadership
​ As your community matures, one area
that you can spend time growing is your
advocate program. Community
leadership and advocacy programs are
one way you can boost member
participation in your community.
​ Your response did not indicate many
executives are participating in the
community. Spending time helping them
understand the value of the community
and how to participate will help the
community mature.
​ This Community Performance Benchmark will cover your community’s performance
in the eight competencies of the Community Maturity Model. We observed three key
areas of opportunity for your community from your survey response:
​ Community Management
​ Your community has one full-time
community manager – fewer resources
than the survey average, but not
uncommon. The number of
responsibilities assigned to your
community manager is closer to the
responsibility profile of the most mature
communities surveyed, which have
more than five full-time resources to
execute on those responsibilities.
Key Observations

34.
Analysis by Competency
Maturity
score
Comparison
Recommendations

35.
Thank you!
Rachel
Happe
Principal
&
Co-­‐Founder
The
Community
Roundtable
rachel@communityroundtable.com
617-­‐271-­‐4574
@rhappe
www.communityroundtable.com