community manager manifesto

http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-manager-manifesto/

THE COMMUNITY MANAGER’S MANIFESTO

Created Collaboratively at “The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite”

SXSW Workshop on March 13, 2013


C O N N E C T I N G C O M M U N I T Y M E M B E R S, G I V I N G T H E M VO I C E , A N D E N S U R I N G A

S E N S E O F C O M M U N I T Y B E L O N G I N G A N D O W N E R S H I P

• We must respect that a healthy community is inherently social. Our voice, tone, and influence are derived from our ability to relate as human beings first, and brands second. We must be champions of real communication and not surface messaging.

• We must understand the overall purposes of our community and the

diverse needs of its members, and acknowledge that these purposes and needs can change.

• We must create spaces where community members are continually

encouraged and empowered to participate. We must also realize that community design should be a collaborative effort: community members must have the power to help design their own communication tools.

• We must curate, recognize, and elevate valuable community-sourced

content regularly. • We must give our community members a sense of purpose and a strong

motivation to connect: we must publicly share our unique vision and “reasons for being” with our community, thereby giving them a sense of belonging.


MEASURING THE HEALTH OF THE COMMUNITY

• We must recognize that there are many ways to measure the health of a community: determining the “right" metrics depends on the communication platform(s) used.

• We must track our own community health metrics

regularly, based on a deep understanding of our community’s purpose and members’ preferences and needs. These metrics include but are not limited to: overall engagement and engagement by community segments, community sentiment, and membership size and growth.

• We must embrace giving and reciprocity: the health of a community should not only be measured in terms of our own success, but also in terms of how we provide value to our members.


CURATING AND AMPLIFYING CONTENT FROM THE COMMUNITY

• We must establish clear standards and criteria for community curation, giving members the knowledge and confidence to contribute.

• We must build a collaborative and empowering environment that amplifies community members’ voices and experiences, and also respects each member’s unique personality.


USING COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE TO DEVELOP ORGANIZATIONAL

STRATEGY

• We must represent the voices and opinions of our community members authentically.

• We must acknowledge that community contributions are actionable data: they are vital to promoting innovation in and providing strategic direction to our organization.

• We must seek reliable information and use appropriate

measurement tools to validate qualitative and anecdotal community feedback and behavior.

• We must empower ourselves and be empowered to take

initiative without bureaucratic approval - even pivot direction - when community members offer timely and pertinent suggestions.


TRUSTING THE COMMUNITY TEAM AND UNDERSTANDING ITS

OBLIGATIONS

• We must facilitate a vigorous feedback cycle and conversation: just as it is important for us to advocate for our community members internally, it is also important for us to advocate strongly for our organization, our brand, and our colleagues’ voices and opinions.

• We must secure the trust of our colleagues by sharing our success stories: as frontline communicators who exist in “two worlds,” we must help our colleagues understand the calculated risks that we must take to meet and exceed our organization’s goals.

• We must publish clear and accessible process-, protocol-,

and service-level agreements, based on empirically grounded test-and-learn strategies, and we must actively educate our colleagues about these agreements.


DEFINING THE COMMUNITY MANAGER AS EDUCATOR,

NETWORKER, AND EXPERT

• We must educate our organization about insights and opportunities provided by the community, and show our colleagues how they can contribute directly to its ongoing growth and success.

• We must cultivate close relationships with community influencers—and motivate lurkers and occasional participants to become influencers—in order to grow our membership and strengthen our brand.

• We must commit to the never-ending task of growing our own expertise: we must identify and craft effective community management strategies that transcend any one marketing campaign or organizational culture.


DEVELOPING A VOICE IN THE 24 /7 /365 NEWS CYCLE

• We must serve as a key author in developing the brand voice and primary brand stories of our organization.

• We must be empowered with enough information and relationship-building opportunities to represent our company autonomously and at a moment’s notice.


P R OV I D I N G E XC E L L E N T C U S T O M E R S E RV I C E A N D S H A R I N G VA LUA B L E

P R O D U C T F E E D B A C K

• We must invite and act on community feedback on an ongoing basis. We must constantly share this feedback with our own team members and use it to improve our organization.

• We must respond in a swift, all-inclusive, and complete manner from start to finish.

• We must strive to make community members feel heard,

valued, and influential. • We must meet the community’s expectations at a

minimum and exceed them whenever possible.


I N T E R N A L C O L L A B O R AT I O N

• We must work with internal stakeholders to define our community’s purpose, develop shared practices and processes, and determine binding communication guidelines.

• We must collaborate with internal stakeholders to find and build tools, technologies, and platforms to maximize efficiencies and effectiveness.

• We must update internal stakeholders about key discussions

in the community regularly, and share any follow-up actions that arise from these discussions.

• We must identify key areas where internal collaboration is

necessary, and describe processes for collaborating effectively, including processes related to legal/PR approvals, compliance and audits, product/service education, and analytics integration.


Workshop Leaders:

Natalie Rodic Marsan

@rodicka

Tim McDonald

@tamcdonald

Nick Cicero @nickcicero

CONTRIBUTORS


Jessica Masterson @awomanswork

Mike Gerholdt @MikeGerholdt

Nicole Bohorad @nbohorad

Raechel Megahan @alphamommie

Meghan Murphy @mmurphydc

Boyan Shmorhun @boyanshmorhun

Justine Bloome

Dean Schaffer

Dan Bohm

Allie MacPherson @alliemac01

Jessica Klimczak

Kimberly McCabe @kimberlymccabe

Keith McLellan

Roland Smart @rsmartx

Nikki Serapio @nikkiserapio

Carie Lewis @cariegrls

Alia Mohsen @amohsen

AMee Tomlinson @amee_tomlinson

WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS:

Rafael Sangiovanni

Price Smith

John Refford

Dean Broughton

Ricky Hutchinson @dcricky

Jose Leon

Kaye Blum

Tony Dunn @tony_dunn

Jay Bartlett @jay_bartlett

Yunfei Ren @yufeiren

Phillip Crowe @phillipcrowe

Mindy Broeren-Martosoedjono @mindymusic

Kathy Houghtalen @khoughtalen

Anna Bacheller @annadaron

Trevor Martin @trevorFmartin

Adam Chapman @socialmediatoday

Scott Stephens @HotSauceFire

Jessica Murray @jessicaRmurray

Igla Lear Generoso @iglageneroso

Liz Arroyave @lizign

Meghan Krane @meghan_krane

Andrea Campbell @andreac007

Melissa Bojorquez

Lauren Hogan @l_hoges

Shannon Webb

Joel De La Garza @joeldelagarza

Joyce Sullivan @joycemsullivan

Jack Pate @arkansas

Sharon Lasure-Roy @sharonlroy

Christina Brady @cfgbrady

Laurie Briggs @lauriebriggs

John burgess @work_jb

Gina Bollenback @gbollenback

Kat Lourenco

Nikki Lee

Rachel Cain

Michelle Catin

Jean Scheidnes

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