5 Steps to Grow theCommunity Manager Role

• Swarm Sydney, Online Community Manager Conference• November 10, 2011

Connie Bensen

Global Marketing2

Connie Bensen, Community Strategist• ACD – Digital Image Organization Software (B2C)

– Brought a new buying group to the company

– Redefined the support forums by creating an advocacy program

– Defined the Community Manager Role (Wikipedia)

• Techrigy SM2 – Social Media monitoring tool (B2B, B2C)

– Evolved tool based on customer’s business needs

– Wore many hats in tech startup which grew 840% in 9 months

• Alterian (Via acquisition of Techrigy) (B2B, B2C)

– Defined 10 use cases for data from social media monitoring

– Integration of social into corporate marketing and sales

• Dell (B2C, B2B)

– Advocacy program for support forums

– Mentorship for internal community managers

• Blog http://communitystrategist.com

Global Marketing3

Social Media Role is Mainstream

• The business unit that it resides in is a variable.

• The need for community management is not yet fully realized.

• The internal community is the most important (your colleagues).

• The external community can’t be supported unless the company culture is prepared to do so.

• It is imperative to dedicate time and energy internally in order to grow and expand your role.

A Philosophy for Career Growth

Global Marketing4

Your Future

Community

Marketing

CustomerService

Sales

Operations

PR

ProductDev’t

OR

Global Marketing5

Create a Business Model for your Role

1. Put on a Consultant’s Hat

2. Synthesize Your Concepts

3. Become a great Salesperson

4. Lead 360 degrees

5. Continually Redefine Yourself

Global Marketing6

Definition of a Business Model

• A tool used to describe all the touchpoints and impact to the business

Needs to include:

• Visuals that simplify your message

• Resonate with executive pain points

• Metrics based on business objectives

Global Marketing7

A Business Model for Your Role

Company-centric (old) Buyer-centric (new)

Search & find info, links

Visit website

Download a resource

Request a call

Describe a project

Give spec’s & budget

Request a proposal

Participate in a demo

Identify buyer

Send an Email

Call prospect

Assess the need

Determine budget

Submit proposal

Give a demo

Outbound Inbound

Paradigm Shift in Buying Cycle

Community Driven Social Business Model

Education

Training

Pilots

Global Community

Educate Activate Empower

HostedCommunities

Social Channels

External Communities

Partners

KeywordSearch

Mobile

Impact of the Social Strategy Role

Sales FunnelPRSocial Channels

Website

Social Channels

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Awareness

BusinessObjectives

Return

Conversions

Up-sellCross-Sell

• Brand Awareness

• Marketing• Lead Gen• Product Marketing• Sales• Biz Development

• Peer Support• Increased Loyalty• Product Development

• Executive

• Increased Sentiment

• Decreased Spend• Decreased Costs

• Shorter Acquisition Time• Increased Revenues

• Decreased Support Costs• Faster Time-to- Market

• Competitive & Industry Insight

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Global Marketing

Be a Consultant

Global Marketing12

Think Like a Consultant

Management doesn’t always realize the value that an in-depth and over-arching community strategy can provide.

You can periodically provide a:

• gap analysis

• identify opportunities and barriers

• educate internally

• sell your initiatives in order to drive innovation

Build relationships in order to execute on the necessary culture shift required to integrate the input from the external community

Global Marketing13

Identify the business objective(s)

• % Reduced spend on PR, Marketing & Advertising

• % Increase in Sales– % shorter sales cycle

– % increase in customer retention

• % Reduction in Customer Service Costs

• % Reduction Product Development Costs

• % Increased SEO Presence

• % Increase in Leads from Campaign

• % Increase in Brand Visibility

Global Marketing14

Who are the Stakeholders?

• What are their challenges and perspectives

• What motivates them

• What are their fears (keeps them up at night)

• What are the competitive threats

Global Marketing15

What metrics are important?Dependent on business objective(s)

• Amount of increased conversation

• Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation

• Number of uses of online content

• Number of issues resolved online by peers

• Increased customer satisfaction - qualitative

• Number of ideas gathered/implemented

• Compare previous cycle cost to present

• Reduced cost due to beta

• Google your brand/product

Attribution to social channels is critical. If your efforts are counted in other processes, you won’t get credit.

Global Marketing16

To Be a Successful Consultant

Divide your time between:

• Working towards existing objectives: Majority of time

• Growth initiatives including:– Learning new skills and needs of organization: 5%– Investing in securing new projects: 10%

Global Marketing

Synthesize your Ideas

Global Marketing18

Synthesize and Share Your Concepts

• Listen

• Learn

• Communicate

Know what works for you.

Global Marketing

Sell Yourself

Global Marketing20

Sales = The Art of Closing the Deal

• Know what you’re asking for– A pilot or project with measureable results that meets

a needed business objective

• Identify the objections

• Systematically remove them

• Make the ‘Ask’

Keep the pilot manageable and measurable so that it’s successful

Global Marketing21

Tips for Success in Selling your Concept

• Need to speak the language of the business

• Learn your market, positioning and your competitors

• Find out who the internal influencers are– Are they willing to champion your project

– Are they early adopters

– What is their risk tolerance (and that of the business?)

• Presentations need to be succinct and high level– Pictorial translation of your meaning

• Make sure the objections are not talking points

Prepare for the top 10 questions that you anticipate getting.

Global Marketing

Lead in All Directions

Global Marketing23

Lead 360 Degrees

• Manage expectations up, across and down

• Work cross-functionally across the matrix

Global Marketing

ReInvent Yourself

Global Marketing25

Continually Redefine Yourself

• Learn and ask for assistance

• Know your weak points

• Gather data from the organization that supports your premises– Use it to convince and convert and depict what you know

Example:

Q2 – traditional marketing created 125 meetings for sales – 5 deals were closed– Leads from social channels had a shorter conversion time

and higher close rate

Remember quality versus quantity

Global Marketing26

No Metrics are Ineffective and ‘so what?!’

• Drove market expansion for the company and built a community that included resources, training materials and identification of advocates.

• Reinvented the online product forums and engaged six moderators to guide the conversations while encouraging peer support.

• Developed and implemented overall community engagement plans based on the marketing strategy for each customer segment.

• Defined and implemented the first comprehensive beta program for ACD’s flagship product that incorporated formal paths for gathering participant feedback and product requirements.

• Established & built framework for support of communities around the products

• Engaged evangelists & provided them with motivation & leadership

• Provided & implemented creative marketing solutions 

• Utilized social media & WOM techniques

• Collaborated with product development & quality assurance teams.

Global Marketing27

Metrics – Express yourself in terms of data

• Impact versus Tactics– Don’t tell what you did, express it as the impact you made

› Not tactics, but rather the change the organization realized and the timeframe

– Resume, CV, LinkedIn profile

Examples:

– Refined corporate blog resulting in 275% increase in subscribers

Increased corporate digital footprint by 80% over the past year

– Implemented digital marketing strategy resulting in 840% increase in customers and 1400% revenue growth in 9 months

– Leveraged freemium model and created self-paced online training materials to scale the demand which resulted in:› shortened the sales cycle from 8 weeks to 3 weeks

› 460% increase in freemium signups over 9 months

Global Marketing28

When Philosophies Collide

A major change in the business such as a change in leadership or acquisition.

You have choices:

• Be satisfied with the status quo and maintenance mode (support helpdesk)

• You no longer feel that you can initiate change and need to move on

Irregardless, it’s important that you are growing your role and preparing for the future.

Global Marketing29

Using the Process

• Identify the Business Objectives

• Who are the Stakeholders?

• Propose a pilot

• Sell the strategy and remove objections

• If rejected (or not understood), step back

• Revisit by planting seeds to build case over time and doing more research

• Set expectations with parameters for timeframe and metrics

Global Marketing30

Discussion and Resources

Email conniebensen@gmail.com

Blog http://communitystrategist.com

Presentations http://slideshare.net/conniebensen

Community groups:

Facebook Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelist http://www.facebook.com/groups/3553055120/

Community BackChannel

http://community.thebrainyard.com

Outstanding LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cinnylittle