Intentional Community management

How to be intentional about community management. Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to know Adrian Speyer pretty well. I’m thrilled to share this new review of his book. The book, The Accidental Community Manager: A Guide to Building a Successful B2B Community, is highly recommended. 

If you are new to the online community industry, this book is an excellent tool for you! If you find yourself in the same situation as Adrian, being an “accidental community manager,” it will be helpful. The book is written as a guide to have alongside you day by day. 

The book provides thoughtful insights, detailed strategies, and actionable tips for new and experienced community professionals. If you haven’t heard of the term before, a community manager’s role isn’t managing an apartment building. You also might not know what a community manager does. 

As a community manager, I’ve struggled to explain this role to others. I’ve also had clients ask me about managing a community. However, they do not have the budget to cover the investment of hiring a community manager. 

Many community hosts have not yet learned what they want a community manager to do. They expect more than just creating content and moderating the community message boards.

Why would a company want to build an online community?

Companies have discovered that creating spaces for their customers to meet is beneficial. These interactions can be valuable feedback loops to marketing and product teams.

Getting to know the customers can enhance customer service. Better understanding their challenges can increase revenue for a company that prioritizes people first. This is the future of business. So many consumers are more interested in giving companies feedback on products. They also want to give reviews on services online.

Intentional Community Management

In this episode of the Community Strategy Podcast, Adrian Speyer, an experienced digital marketer and community builder shares his story. He discusses his new book, The Accidental Community Manager. 

How to be intentional about community management.

In this book, Adrian makes a clear decision. He concludes that “followers” aren’t a community. The people who use or consume a product or use a service are not a community either. 

In The Accidental Community Manager, a community is defined as: 

1. A shared space for people to gather and connect 

2. People who share common language (jargon), customs, interests, or passions. 

3. People who share with one another voluntarily and among themselves in this space. 

4. People feel a sense of belonging in this group. They are genuinely interested in supporting each other. They help, share, and learn from one another.

Key Takeaways

MVP Principle – Most Valuable People 

Community Managers are tasked with identifying, encouraging, and supporting external advocates and empowering them to be leaders. This happens when sharing insider knowledge, grinding special privileges, or through recognition.

Set goals (KPIs) tied to stakeholders and only report the goals tied to the business goals and overall digital strategy. Examples are reduced costs, increased customer satisfaction, revenue, or growth in advocacy.

Get leadership to define the KPIs and get more than “increase engagement,” as that doesn’t lead to clear outcomes. 

Pick a focus from SPAN 

Support, Product, Ambassador, or Network. Adrian says, “A great community probably has all four components. Start by choosing the best fit for your first focus,”. 

Get Strategic with CARGO

Solidify your community concept. Acquire your members. Find ways to keep them coming back (retention). Return to the community goal and adjust when needed. Visualize the outcomes and how you and your stakeholders will define success. 

Community Guidelines should provide the mission and expectations of member behaviors to create the community culture. Don’t just list “rules” but guide members on “best practices” for the space. 

Categories or Topics in a Community

Consider each category as its culture. Avoid conversation paralysis by not making so many category options. This ensures people don’t know where to start a discussion.

 

Community Management Skills

Reporting and storytelling – These are essential for conveying the value of the community to stakeholders. They also provide quarterly or annual reports or updates. 

Writing – Creating great content is vital to communicating clearly to community members and engaging and inspiring participation. 

Social Media – It is like a community professional to coordinate with or, in some cases, act as a social media content collaborator to understand the messaging your marketing department is broadcasting to potential members. 

Analytics – A critical role of a community professional is to give deep insights into the data from your community. They also offer analysis and recommendations. 

Support – Community Management is fundamentally a support role. It is dedicated to talking to online community members. It provides a place for members to feel heard and seen when they have a problem, challenge, or need. 

• You are the heart of the customer experience. You are doing real advocate marketing. YOu are doing the crucial frontline PR work. You are an essential piece in reducing frustration as customers seek self-support.” 

• “When you Don’t own the platform, you don’t own the data. You are making business decisions based on the data the platform decides to give you.” (Referring to building a community on platforms that are not able to be owned like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.) 

• “You want the online community to be their space. If you are coming from the marketing space, you need to change your mindset. You must stop seeing members as leads or prospects to truly make a successful community.” 

• “Believe it or not, most people want to help if they’re passionate about a topic. They will love to be asked. Make sure you spend more time listening than telling.” 

Thinking you need a community manager?

If you need support, document your process. Use a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). If you plan to hire a community manager, you’ll need a process to guide this person. Many new community professionals are expected to be trained by you or your team.

If you don’t yet have a document that outlines your processes, it’s worth your time to set up an SOP. Start by writing out everything you can think of that’s required to operate your community. You can perfect the document later. For now, capture anything that comes to mind. Consider the necessary software and time to set up each community space. Take notes about how-to’s, like logging into your community platform, updating content, adding new content, or creating events. Everything you do or want the community manager to do should be written out. 

I wish I could give you an easy solution. Still, it’s about getting what you know out of your head. Someone else needs to read it, understand it, and take action from your guidance. 

Pro-Tip – You could use artificial intelligence (AI) or voice-recording software to transcribe your SOP for you. Alternatively, you might hire a virtual assistant (VA) to capture your verbal brain dump and turn it into action steps. (But remember: This person’s job isn’t to read your mind. You still have to be heavily involved in the process.)

Consider what this community manager would do and how they would best support you in your current situation. For example, if you run a course, how can they help you gather course materials? How can they set up events, or schedule social media to promote it? The more specific you can be about what you need, the easier it will be to find the right person. The community industry has become booming; there are different kinds of community managers now.

Some community managers are more operational-based, focusing on systems, processes, and efficiency. Other community managers are focused on the member experience. These professionals moderate the digital space to ensure members get what they need and respond when expectations aren’t being met. 

So many people I’ve worked with want to hire a community manager right away. I did, too, at the beginning of my community-building journey. I’ve learned that it depends on the community hosts’ individual needs. Their intentions, challenges, and goals will decide when and how to hire a community manager. 

Ultimately, it comes down to budget; if you have the financial backing to hire support, great! But if you don’t, you’ll need to find ways to use ambassadors and advocates. You can also engage volunteers, moderators, and members who want to support the community. 

How, when, and why to hire a community manager

I hosted my community for over two years. I’ve met dozens of community managers worldwide. I was so excited to offer my services to entrepreneurs as their community manager. I was eager to use my skills in this way, and I was ready to dive in. After my first experience as a community manager, I got a crash course. I thought it would be relatively easy to do it again. I was wrong. Very wrong. 

I learned that many businesses and organizations are still trying to understand how a community professional fits in an organization. Secondly, many business owners have unrealistic expectations about how much revenue the community will bring in early on. They assume the community will fund the community manager, which may be false. 

Pro-Tip – Keep an open mind when considering funding for the expense of hiring a community manager. Suppose your community needs to generate more revenue to sustain a team. Consider how your other business revenue could help support the community as it grows. If your community is not generating enough revenue to maintain a team, you must bring a team to support growth. 

Community management is about building relationships, solving problems, and facilitating a safe space. Many community managers offer technical support and quickly respond to members when issues arise. 

A good community manager will know many of the members of a community by first name. They can usually tell you something about each one. The host’s activity level within the community influences the manager’s role. The manager may become the heart and soul of the space. Members should feel comfortable talking with them, expressing their issues, and asking questions when the needs arise. 

No matter the platform, a community manager needs to understand the importance of their role. They could handle the daily operations so the host can focus on the business development and growth strategies.

Before you hire a community manager: 

Develop an SOP for your community processes.

Assign funds to cover the investment. 

Make time to train this new person.

Prepare a 30-or-60-day plan to guide them.