2011: connie bensen (dell) - 5 steps to grow the community manager role
DESCRIPTION
An online community can provide so much more to an organization than just customer support. Connie will provide five steps for creating a business model for your role that will lead to sustainability of the community manager role and career growth.TRANSCRIPT
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5 Steps to Grow theCommunity Manager Role
• Swarm Sydney, Online Community Manager Conference• November 10, 2011
Connie Bensen
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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
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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
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Global Marketing4
Your Future
Community
Marketing
CustomerService
Sales
Operations
PR
ProductDev’t
OR
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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
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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
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Global Marketing7
A Business Model for Your Role
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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
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Community Driven Social Business Model
Education
Training
Pilots
Global Community
Educate Activate Empower
HostedCommunities
Social Channels
External Communities
Partners
KeywordSearch
Mobile
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Impact of the Social Strategy Role
Sales FunnelPRSocial Channels
Website
Social Channels
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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
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Global Marketing
Be a Consultant
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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%
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Global Marketing
Synthesize your Ideas
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Synthesize and Share Your Concepts
• Listen
• Learn
• Communicate
Know what works for you.
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Global Marketing
Sell Yourself
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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
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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.
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Global Marketing
Lead in All Directions
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Lead 360 Degrees
• Manage expectations up, across and down
• Work cross-functionally across the matrix
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Global Marketing
ReInvent Yourself
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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Discussion and Resources
Email [email protected]
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