State of Community Management 2014

How Real-World Community

Managers Build Successful

& Thriving Online

Communities

Rachel Happe

Principal & Co-Founder

The Community Roundtable

@rhappe

Mary Cauwels

Sr. Director, Product Marketing

DNN Software

@mcauwels

Join us on Twitter#SOCM2014@DNNCorp

@TheCR #SOCM2014

Agenda

• About the State of Community Management

• Research Overview

• Key Findings

• Comparison Views

• Be Data Driven

• Recommendations

• Discussion

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About the State of Community Management

[RESEARCH] State of Community Management 2014Download your copy of the report on the DNN website.

@TheCR #SOCM2014

The 2014 report is the fifth, building on previous

research

2010

20112012

2013

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Enabling the Community Maturity Model

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Research Overview

@TheCR #SOCM2014

SOCM 2014 Themes

1. How are communities performing?

2. What are the standards and strengths of

online communities today?

3. What opportunities should community

managers focus on to grow their

programs?

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Survey Demographics

The State of Community Management 2014 surveyed 164 communities across

industry, use case, size and age. The average community age was 4.8 years and 43%

of survey respondents represent communities from TheCR Network member

organizations.

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Key Findings

@TheCR #SOCM2014

Communities are critical to change and innovation

1 2 3

The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Key Findings

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Community management maturity

delivers business value.

Executive participation impacts

success.

Advocacy programs increase

engagement.

1

2

3

@TheCR #SOCM2014

Community maturity delivers business value and

reduces investment risk

…and are much more likely

to be able to measure

value

Best-in-class communities

are more than twice as

likely to have fully

resourced roadmaps...

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Advocacy programs increase engagement

Multi-tiered community leadership

programs have some of the best

community engagements rates…

…but higher engagement rates

require more community

managers…

…and are typically found in older

communities.

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Executive participation impacts success

Not surprisingly, communities with executive participation are

more likely to have a fully funded roadmap…

…and best-in-class

communities have considerably

higher executive engagement

rates.

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Comparison Views

@TheCR #SOCM2014

Best-in-class communities demonstrate potential

Best-in-class communities are almost twice as likely to

know their value.

Best-in-class communities are

significantly more engaged.High levels of formal and multi-tiered leadership

programs deliver engagement and value.

Best-in-class

Best-in-class

Average

Average

Collaborators

Creators

Contributors

Lurkers

= 5%

Average

Best-in-class

Multi-tiered program

Formal program

Informal program

No program

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Community managers matter

Dedicated community management improves engagement rates.

Dedicated community managers correlate to higher community maturity.

Communities with dedicated community managers almost twice as likely to be able

to measure value.

Best-in-class communities have more than twice the number of community managers as average.

Collaborators

Creators

Contributors

Lurkers

= 5%

Can measure value

No full-time community manager

1+ full-time community manager

1+ full-time community

manager

No full-time community

manager

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Internal and external communities are

similar… but different

While overall maturity is very similar, external

communities have a bigger gap between

ambition (strategy) and execution (roadmap).

Average Community Managers:

Average Part-time Community Managers:

Internal External

2.4 1.8

9.0 2.5

Engagement rates in internal communities

are higher than in external communities –

but not by as much as expected

Internal and external communities are

almost equally able to measure value. External

External

Collaborators

Creators

Contributors

Lurkers

= 5%

Strategy but no roadmap

External

Internal

Internal

Internal

External

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Can measure value

Data Driven Insights

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Community Maturity in 2014

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Strategy: Executives have bought in to community

vision (strategy) but still feel like investing is a gamble

The gap between approved community strategies

and funded roadmaps is pronounced…

…best-in-class communities likely benefit in this

capacity by more often seeking external guidance

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DNN Customer Case Study

The market leader in education enterprise asset management delivering cloud-based applications that help both small and large institutions better manage their facilities, IT and business operations

• Uses DNN’s Evoq Social

› Ideas

› Discussions

› Blogs

› Events

› Gamification

23 DNN / Proprietary and Confidential. All Rights Reserved.

Read the full case study on the DNN website

@TheCR #SOCM2014

Measurement: Understanding Community

Value

Best-in-class communities were much

more likely to track outcomes

Almost 60% report on

community metrics monthly…

…and commonly track basic

activities

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Community Health Cards Drive Fact-based Decisions

25 DNN / Proprietary and Confidential. All Rights Reserved.

• Comparative graphics quickly keep focus on engagement

• Colors indicate healthy results or potential problems

• Best practices drive strong results

Visit the DNN website for more information on our online community solution, Evoq™ Social.

In-context AnalyticsInforms Immediate Actions

26 DNN / Proprietary and Confidential. All Rights Reserved.

• Gain deeper understanding of performance with in-context analytics

• Track required actions with more persistence and immediacy

• Visualize trends over time

Visit our website for further details on Evoq™ Social Analytics

@TheCR #SOCM2014

Community programming is standardizing and

increasingly integrated

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Best-in-class communities are more than

twice as likely to have integrated

editorial calendars

Communities programming

standards are emerging

Community Newsletter & Events

• DNN has an active community representing 30 countries.

• Over 8,000 new members sign up each month.

• Our Community newsletter includes:

› A Message from the Founder

› Product news and release updates

› Highlights of top community contributors and leaders

› Top questions

› Top ideas

28 DNN / Proprietary and Confidential. All Rights Reserved.

DNN Community Newsletter

Message

from the

Founder

At the beginning of

2014 we formalized

our Product Plan for

the DNN Platform.

This Product Plan

defined the high

level themes we

intend to focus upon

in our product

development efforts

for the year -

themes which are

directly tied to

customer value and

user satisfaction.

@TheCR #SOCM2014

Community managers are stretched thin

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Community managers are

stretched thin – and are

distributing responsibilities to

their communities in order to

scale

Recommendations

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Invest in community maturity.

Some of the following are key markers of

mature community programs are:

A measurable community strategy.

A fully resourced roadmap.

A community playbook.

One or more full-time community

managers.

Executive participation.

Key Research Recommendations

Develop an advocate

program.

Community advocacy and leadership

programs are highly correlated with

community engagement, mature policies

and value. Start by:

Identifying influencers and advocates.

Asking advocates to help create a

program that is a win-win-win.

Developing advocate terms or a

playbook.

Encourage executive

participation.

Participation from executives influences both

the engagement of the community and the

success of the community program. Start by:

Understanding executive needs.

Piquing their interest in participating.

Supporting and coaching them until they are

comfortable.

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@TheCR #SOCM2014

Compare your own performance

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Mission: Advance the Business of Community

1. Champion: Advocate for the needs of community business owners & teams

2. Educate: Provide training solutions to community & social business leaders

3. Curate: Aggregate, document & share community management best practices

Member Organizations & Clients

Services

TheCR Network | TheCR Advisory | TheCR Research | TheCR TrainingRachel Happe

Principal & Co-Founder

@rhappe

Jim Storer

Principal & Co-Founder

@jimstorer

Leadership

About The Community Roundtable

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