The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite

A SXSW Interactive Workshop

March 10, 2013

#CManifesto

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Workshop Hosts

Tim McDonald @tamcdonaldCommunity Manager: Huffington Post LiveFounder: MYCMGR

Community Manager is responsible for letting people know they matter.

Nick Cicero @nickciceroLead Strategist: LivefyreEditor: SocialFresh.com

Community Manager is an organization’s eyes, ears, voice, and soul.

Natalie Rodic Marsan @rodickaFounder: BrokenOpenMedia & Early-Stage StartupCo-Organizer: Community Manager’s Meetup

Community Manager is not a job title, but a frame of mind and reference for all the work I do.

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Case Studies

Jenna LangerVP Customer Experience: Livefyre

When She Started

• 1st Community Manager at Livefyre

• 3rd Employee Hired - before any engineer

• Built a community without a productToday

• VP Customer Experience

• More than 40 Enterprise Users, Thousands of Community Users

• 7th largest Online Site Network

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Case Studies

Meghan PetersCommunity Manager: MashableCo-Organizer: Community Manager’s Meetup

When She Started

• 2.5 Years at Mashable• Started: Community Assistant

Today

• Built a team of six. Community is its own department

• Focus: social & community strategy, operationalizing, team leader

• Gatekeeper with community-first perspective. Works across almost all aspects of business:• product: tech & UX• sales• editorial

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Why We’re Gathered Here Today

• Buzzworthy job title

• Not always the title, and not always the role

• Countless variations of the job

• Little clarity on where it falls in the organizational hierarchy • most digital agencies = entry level • startups and brands = expected to design and run entire program

• Limited support or understanding of the role across the company

Current Challenges

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Why We’re Gathered Here Today

Our Goal

• Frame the discipline, not just the role

• Mold the discipline into what we collectively believe it should be…

….in the future

• Create a Community Manager’s Manifesto

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Let’s Co-Create!

1. Massive Brainstorm with Post-It Notes

2. Get into Groups & Break-Out Group Exercise with Assigned Theme

3. Writing of the Manifesto

4. Reading of the Final Manifesto

How the Day Will Go

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

1. We’re going to be strict on time. Please obey the time keeper.

2. Remember, you’re not at work right now. You’re not representing your company.

3. You can put your name to the manifesto, but you don’t have to.

4. All opinions are valid. Think big. Think utopian.

5. We here to co-create with a win-win positive-sum approach. Make your partners in this room look good in the process of co-creation.

Rules for the Road

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Task:Identify the top three themes or pillars that you would classify as essential for the development of the community manager discipline

Some examples: - Maintaining 1:1 relationships at scale - Connecting both internally and externally - Determining the value of mattering

Write one per Post-It-Note and you’ll send it to the end of the row at the end.

You have five minutes to come up with themes.

Exercise 1: A Massive Brainstorm

GO!

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

1. Make sure you know everyone in your breakout group. 2. Identify one scribe and one presenter in your group.

Task: Take your assigned theme(s). Come up with two to four declarative statements that define the support for your theme.

Example Theme #1:What are the KPI’s for measuring the success of a community department?

Example Declarative Statement #1: - Community practitioners should not be judged based on sales, but on new community member acquisition, converting lurkers to active members, and the number of self-proclaimed brand advocates created.

Exercise 2: Break Out Groups

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Example Theme #2:Speaking the language of varying stakeholders.

Example Declarative Statements #2: - We must evolve perspectives to understand business objectives, while maintaining the position of the lead community advocate. - We must expand the defintion of community to include both internal and external stakeholders. - We need to prioritize nowing how, why, and when to communicate with stakeholders.

You have 30 minutes.

Exercise 2: Break Out Groups, cont.

GO!

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Presentations & Writing the Manifesto

Send your scribe and your speaker to the front of the room

#cmanifesto | The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite | A SXSW Interactive Workshop | March 10, 2013

Download the SXSW Community Manager Manifesto http://mycmgr.com/cmanifesto

Connect with us online and continue the conversation as we go forth on this journey together with #CManifesto

@NickCicero @TAMcDonald @Rodicka

Wrapping Up