The State of Community Management in 2011
We've been spending some time with this fantastically thorough report from The Community Roundtable since its publication last week, and unsurprisingly it's filled to the brim with goodness. As you'd expect, it's a broad-thinking, thorough and inspiring look at how enterprises are getting to grips with social media (not badly at all), and the challenges yet to be met (still a few) - but there's also yards of great stuff on the socialization of enterprise culture; on content-generation; on policy and governance; and on measurement and tools. And of course, the report also digs deep into the community manager's role.
To be frank, there's so much here that it's nigh-on impossible to summarize - but for those who are pressed for time (that'll be all of you) we thought it might be useful to offer, over the next few days, a taster menu of some of its best takeaways. The full report is a must-read, so treat this as an appetizer, designed to whet your appetite for the full monty.
The report canvassed 109 individuals involved with social initiatives at their respective organizations - typically business leaders and community managers. It delivers a timely snapshot of current practice in enterprises who are committed to "social business", defined here as "the result of making organizations more humane, adaptive, and resilient in order to increase revenue through relevance and reduce costs through crowdsourcing", and having community management at its heart.
But this isn't simply an analysis of the current state-of-play. In seeking the views of social business's advance guard, the report has gathered reams of cracking advice on good practice in pretty much every aspect of managing, developing and sustaining a social business, Here, then - in no particular order - are some of the stand-outs.
Where we're at, and where we need to be
According to the report, enterprises are getting to grips with the monumental shift in the speed and informality with which information is shared, and the rapid democratization of the power to share it: it's predicted that social software adoption will have expanded at a compound annual rate of 38% between 2009 and 2014.
"The integration of social tools and methods into existing business goals and processes has become the norm rather than the exception. The majority of companies, who like to see themselves as 'Fast Followers' because it promises lower risk with higher reward, can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch since not one but many of their competitors are deploying these new communications tools and processes."
Social techniques are increasingly being deployed enterprise-wide, to encompass internal and external processes - and, rather than piloting smaller individual initiatives, late-comers are working to catch up by jumping in with both feet.
Stats: Leadership adoption - the good news
Respondents were asked about executive attitudes toward social business within their organization. Overwhelmingly, leaders were positive; 31% of executive's views were described as 'enthusiastic':
Skeptical 7%
Interested 19%
Resistant 3%
Neutral 10%
Cautiously Optimistic 28%
Enthusiastic 31%
But - and here's where it gets interesting - the report finds that the effective management of the opportunities and risks of this new communications environment demands far more than receptiveness at leader-level. To succeed in social business, profound changes are necessary in the management culture of the enterprise as a whole: the adoption of "an approach that assumes influence but not control, while managing risk and promoting productive behaviours."
Community Management: an enterprise-wide mindset
Happily, an increasing number of companies are seeing the value of a dedicated community manager - 67% of companies had done so. But the report lays down a challenge to enterprises seeking to excel in this new environment; they, and their leaders, must internalize the community-manager role. And - key learning - community management isn't simply a set of practices, it's a whole new mindset - a value-system which will impact the networks of relationships within and between enterprises, and (crucially) with its customers and the public, who have no vested interest in the organization. Community management is state of mind.
"Community management is the discipline of ensuring that communities are productive. In this context, communities are collections of individuals who are bound by needs or interests rather than authority or hierarchy, which is why a new approach to management is needed."
Go to the full report for an indispensable - and exhaustive - checklist of the overarching principles of "community-mindedness" - each one will repay your attention. But the distilled version of starter points might look a bit like this:
No-one owns the brand. Everyone's a publisher now. Accept it; embrace it.
Stop, listen... and engage. The ability to listen to your customer's voice is at the cornerstone of community-mindedness. Barge in with your own message, relentlessly push your agenda, and your market stops listening.
Engage some more. The more you engage with your customers through community - helping, educating, collaborating - the stronger that community becomes; the stronger your community, the deeper your customer relationships.
Find the commonalities. It's ALL about bringing people who share a passion together.
It's not as hard - or as new - as you think. We're all wired to value relationships over transactions - which is why, pre-mass media, businesses were built around them.
Don't forget the transaction. Remember that you're here to do business; hire communicators who feel passionately about engaging, and the brand.
Bringing the World With You
"A community-minded leader values transparency, engages with various constituencies, solicits feedback, promotes inclusion, and supports and shares other people's ideas."
One of the many strengths of the report is its timely focus on the necessity of, and strategies for, bringing your enterprise to an understanding of social business. Yes, enterprise leaders are rapidly warming to the benefits of a more horizontal, easily-scalable and responsive communications hierarchy - but clearly, that's only half the battle. The survey found a notable disparity between business leaders' openness to social business, and the mindset of the enterprise as a whole - interestingly, medium-sized organizations, who typically have the complexity of large enterprises but not their generous resources, are the least likely to have embraced new enterprise technologies and processes; and organizations with a dedicated community manager are considerably less likely to be culturally resistant than those without.
Stats: information-sharing and enterprise culture
Respondents were asked how their organizations approached the sharing of information
Paranoid 4%
Controlling 15%
Resistant to Sharing 9%
Team-based 25%
Opportunistically collaborative 19%
Committee/consensus driven 6%
Open 21%
Note that 28% of respondents said that their culture was either resistant to sharing, controlling, or (ouch) 'paranoid', compared with the meagre 10% of executives who are resistant or sceptical.
Spreading the Social Word
It goes without saying that the culture of an enterprise will impinge upon the success, or otherwise, of its social business initiatives. With this in mind, the report makes a heap of recommendations for successfully embedding a social business initiative across your organization, and offers a strategic menu for overcoming resistance to change. A summary might look a bit like this (but do check out the full report for a comprehensive set of proposals):
The basics still pertain. You need a framework which establishes where your enterprise currently sits; where it needs to be; and the steps needed to move from A to B.
Gather the evidence. Listen to customers and conduct an internal audit - if there is already organic activity emerging in the social arena, senior executives have a choice: allow it to grow ungoverned - or set out a framework through which to harness it.
Nothing will happen without leaders who are confident, open to risk, pioneering.
Nevertheless, focus on the risk-averse. Legal, compliance, information security all have a job to do, and no initiative will succeed without their buy-in. Collaborate with them - find advocates within each department. Bring them onside before tackling execs - and make sure they contextualize the risk of any social initiative against the risk of not engaging.
Keep your eye on the prize. Describe the benefits of social business in terms of the enterprise's core business objectives. Show them what competitors are doing well, and doing badly - and by doing so, demonstrate your desire to reduce risk.
Educate, but keep it simple.'Social Media Socials' will enable you to evangelise and demo the benefits of social media - but use smart tools, not endless slide presentations, to get your point across.
Show 'what's in it for me' to shift the mindset. Position social media, and social media tools as increased effectiveness - not extra work.
Encourage experimentation. No-one can see the bigger social media picture without personal experimentation - and that includes senior executives, and your legal team.
Let the Outside In. Broad adoption won't happen if employees have their access to social networks blocked. But give clear boundaries, particularly on which aspects of their work they can and can't share.
Be open, and keep talking. Transparency is key: keep everyone informed, don't spring any surprises. Encourage individuals to speak honestly in return, even if it hurts.
Baby steps. There's nothing wrong with starting small, if your enterprise culture is an anxious one. Succeed - then scale up.
Rely on relationships and foster a variety of evangelists. Peer-to-peer connections are as important as senior voices when spreading the social business word.
See the big picture. Measure group performance, not that of individual. And give everyone a voice in decision-making.
Of course, there are many more goodies where that came from - peruse the full report here, and watch this space for a breakdown of the report's recommendations on policy and governance, content-generation - and the ever-shifting role of the community manager.