Why Numbers Are Your Most Powerful Tool as a Community Manager
Gut instinct is important. If a community manager can't go with his or her gut, they just might be in the wrong business. In many companies the community manager jumps into the front line with the objective to go, raise awareness, engage and grow the community. Many times responsibilities do not include providing detailed analytics for activities - and in many cases I agree that there is a time period where it's trial and error, back-to-back events, and an intense period of awareness. But what happens next?
Gut instinct is important. If a community manager can't go with his or her gut, they just might be in the wrong business. In many companies the community manager jumps into the front line with the objective to go, raise awareness, engage and grow the community. Many times responsibilities do not include providing detailed analytics for activities - and in many cases I agree that there is a time period where it's trial and error, back-to-back events, and an intense period of awareness. But what happens next?
One of our values at Twilio is "Start with Why" - Starting by understanding why customers care. Challenge assumptions with data. This drives our culture and how we approach everything we do from product to marketing to support. I've been thinking about numbers a lot lately, and as I'm upgrading our community manager metrics at Twilio I wanted to share my process. This is part one of a two part piece about community manager metrics but before we dive into those metrics I've defined for community management, let's start with why you should care. More specifically, why these numbers are your most powerful tool as a community manager.
You have to. OK we're starting off a bit blunt but here's what I'm getting at: your company is moving from early startup awareness phase to demand and lead generation phase thus, you are asked to begin contributing to the funnel. Trust me, this is a really good thing because it forces you to stretch and form your analytical side, and we all know most community managers don't do this enough.
You want that promotion. You've put in hard work on the front lines and now you'd like to expand your team as you see how much value community work is doing. Maybeyou want to build out your team and gradually move upwards into a more strategic position. Hard numbers are going to show the team your value add to the bottom line. The team knows you're important, but with numbers you prove just how much impact you have to the marketing funnel. Side note, in general it's best to support any argument or team ask with data - it will drive your points home.
It is so important for Content. Most likely you manage your company's content strategy, at least the blog, handful of customer stories and maybe you've kicked off a new webinar series - am I close yet? You need to understand and implement SEO strategy for your content - then you need to measure the heck out of it. Knowing the effectiveness of your content, how your audience reacts to it and where it's getting the most traction is more than just good community management tactics. It is informed strategic planning and will help guide you to make better and more effective content.
It is better for your community. Psst, this one is most important - Real data will help you be a better community manager. How can you make informed decisions about your community if you don't know what they are doing and why they are doing it? How can you grow your community base if you don't know how they are interacting with you online, in your content and within your product? You can't, you have to dig deep and figure out what your users are doing in order to give them a better experience and then give that better experience to your new users.
To be able to ask the right questions. The more data diving you do, the more questions you will come up with. Try to always start with why from the perspective of your user and think about what data will drive action or a change of action in what you do. Listen to the questions that your colleagues ask - in fact, why don't you walk over to your sales or product or support team and ask them what they would want to know about your community - the answers might surprise and inspire you.
Now that we're all fired up and ready to get analytical, go read up on the resources above. I'll follow up next week with the specific numbers and data that I look at in my day-to-day as a community manager and some awesome things my Twilio colleagues implement too. For now, here's a few resources to kickstart your new journey into analytics:
The Kiss Metrics Marketing Blog
Check your local workshops - Groups like Girl Develop It, Parisoma in San Francisco, or SkillShare for online classes
Know your tools - Sprout Social, Bit.ly, Awesome Wordpress plugins like Jetpack and more. Check the analytics page on any social tool you're using, it's probably chalk full of goodies.
Google Analytics - learn it, love it, use it
We're actually hosting an upcoming SF Community Manager Meetup covering SEO best practices and optimization tactics - join us!
SF Community Managers Talk Event Strategy at #SFCMGR Meetup
This week the SF Community Manager Meetup group gathered for a panel discussion focused on event planning, strategy, and deciphering ROI. I invited Brianna Haag, Marketing Manager @ Eventbrite, Lauren Sherman, Marketing Manager @ Taskrabbit, Emily Castor, Community Manager @ Lyft, and Tony Mataya, Developer Relations @ Twilio to discuss their experience with events and how they navigate this large part of community management.
This week the SF Community Manager Meetup group gathered for a panel discussion focused on event planning, strategy, and deciphering ROI. I invited Brianna Haag, Marketing Manager @ Eventbrite, Lauren Sherman, Marketing Manager @ Taskrabbit, Emily Castor, Community Manager @ Lyft, and Tony Mataya, Developer Relations @ Twilio to discuss their experience with events and how they navigate this large part of community management.
Though hard to capture all of the incredible insights from this conversation, here are a few highlights thanks to Kate Klepek of Reinventing Events who took amazing notes during the discussion:
- Your budget should drive everything
- TaskRabbit Facebook fan page has been the most important tool the have - took a page from Lyft's community book who also has a very active Facebook Lyft Group
- Invest in a process of how to participate in events as a sponsor and figure out what your criteria is. What is the sponsorship value to you?
- Some tips include vetting the organizer clout, projected quality of attendees, relevance to your audience, and knowing how this will directly help your brand
- Make sure you have a relevant presence and targeted message
- Measuring the impact of events is both qualitative and quantitative
- Eventbrite has great event reporting tools
- Survey your attendees
- Create a process to measure effectiveness that works for you and your team
- Track where your product or service inbound traffic is coming from
- Track every piece of publicity around the event to see what is driving traffic
- Google Analytics has incredible tools, tracking and new dashboard features - all free
- Free events will receive a lower attendance rate - if you charge a minimal amount people feel obligated to show. Donate these funds to a worthy cause.
- Using Evenbrite vs. Meetup
- Eventbrite is very customizable, allows planners to capture leads and take advantage of reporting tools
- Meetup is a good space to build out a community around reoccurring events
Event tools recommended by our panelists
- Eventbrite for tickets and attendee organization
- TaskRabbit for any last minute help, errands or on-site logistical help
- Use of hashtags and encouraging people to share for a visual representation of the event
- Eventstagram can stream all social items from an event
- Marketo or Pardot to move your event leads through the marketing funnel
- Meetup.com for community building
Community Manager Resources mentioned
- Eventbrite's hosted tweet chats called #meettheexperts
- Community Manager Breakfast at UserVoice
- Be proactive and reach out to mentors
- Many groups in the industry found on Meetup
- Shared learning so reach out to other people who have planned successful events
Thanks again to our panelists who volunteered their time and insight to community management and events. Our next meetup will be planned for May so stay tuned!
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What Community Managers Should Do Every Morning for Success
I recently caught this post on Fast Company called "What Successful People do the First Hour of Their Work Day" - great advice in there. I felt inspired to write something on how you can make the most of each day as a Community Manager, based on my personal experiences. Some might not exactly be "morning only" tips but they are relevant and important. Here are some ways I kickstart my day for optimal success:
I recently caught this post on Fast Company called "What Successful People do the First Hour of Their Work Day" - great advice in there. I felt inspired to write something on how you can make the most of each day as a Community Manager, based on my personal experiences. Some might not exactly be "morning only" tips but they are relevant and important. Here are some ways I kickstart my day for optimal success:
Re-connect with your Community
Well this sounds silly since that's our job right? As fast as our day-to-day moves and with the consistent juggling of priorities, sometimes we forget to slow down and make an effort to connect on a personal level. Plan an in-person coffee date. Reach out to a community member without a prompt or objective. Call someone on the phone. Doing this not only will remind you why you love job but also impact your community in a positive way.
Internet Listening
We most likely start every morning checking an onslaught of tweets from the previous night, attempting to get to inbox sanity, and pouring over our social media tools. We plough through it and respond, but are we really listening? What's the sentiment of the conversation (I'm not talking that percentage in your social platform)? Community Managers are good at their jobs because of instinct and good judgement - we can read one Hacker News comment and infer where the conversation is headed. It isn't measurable but extremely valuable. Really get your head into the pulse of what's happening by watching the patterns of your community and the industry. Once you know the patterns, you can figure out the correct next steps for both positive engagement and fire drills. Then you can truly be proactive instead of reactive.
Plan for Productivity
A day in the life of a Community Manager means balancing a load of multiple objectives and tasks. Depending on your role you might be jumping between creating content, managing Twitter, assisting support and more, all in between meetings. It's important to block times to do work, as well as protect your work day in order to be productive. I look at my calendar every morning and plan exactly how I'll be spending that day by putting blocks of work on the calendar for specific projects. This helps keep you on task and focused, in the end increasing your productivity. Here's a snapshot of my calendar - it's a mix of meetings and blocked work times, I even schedule my workouts:
Push Back
It can feel like every day something pops up that is a 'must act now!' situation driven by someone on your team with a sense of urgency. Maybe you open your inbox each morning to new, and always 'high priority' requests. Companies may also push programs over to Community Management if it doesn't seem to fit on any other team internally. While it's in our nature to want to take it all on, we have to learn to say no and push back on internal demands to do what best serves the community.
Strategize
As mentioned above, it's tough for a community manager to carve out time to plan and strategize while we're balancing our work load. When you are planning your day for productivity it is so very important to block time for strategic thinking. This allows you to take a step back and figure out what's working, what's not working and what you can do to pull the right levers for success. It also helps drive the importance of community management in your company by providing thought leadership instead of just demonstrating tactical skills.
Make Friends on the Inside
Community Managers work across multiple teams inside our companies: engineering, recruiting, design, support, product marketing, etc - it's important to strengthen those relationships for a friendly and smooth workflow. It's also important to have a clear idea of other teams' objectives and work load so you're knowledgable when asking for resources. Everyone is fighting for resources in a startup, especially from engineering and design. It's as simple as making time to ask a team what they're working on in the upcoming sprints, or walking to a person's desk instead of using IM to communicate. Having respect and understanding for the other teams you work with will open the door for more positive work relationships. It seems like something we should already know, but it can get lost in the every day hustle.
Be Grateful
I borrowed this from the Fast Company article because it's a great tip for everyone in any field, and in daily life. Take 5 minutes in the morning (or evening) to think about the things you are grateful for - this will also remind you why you are doing the job you do. It can be focused on your career, but extend it to what you're grateful for in every day life. You can also take this a step further and try out a little visualization tactic, envisioning what you want to achieve in the future and engaging your subconscious mind. But that's content for an entirely different blog post....
What do you do to make sure you're being the most successful community manager you can be?
Community Manager Productivity: Reviving Your Inbox & Evernote Success at Work
Last Tuesday was the first SF Community Manager Meetup of 2013 and we focused this session on productivity. For community managers, one major challenge is finding that balance between daily tasks and time for strategic planning. One area where I'd like to improve upon is bringing more productivity into my daily tasks, which include email and content production. Luckily, I invited Aye Moah, Head of Product, Baydin and Joshua Zerkel, Evernote Ambassador, to teach the group some tips and tricks on how to do just that.
Last Tuesday was the first SF Community Manager Meetup of 2013 and we focused this session on productivity. For community managers, one major challenge is finding that balance between daily tasks and time for strategic planning. One area where I'd like to improve upon is bringing more productivity into my daily tasks, which include email and content production. Luckily, I invited Aye Moah, Head of Product, Baydin and Joshua Zerkel, Evernote Ambassador, to teach the group some tips and tricks on how to do just that.
Moah gave us stellar tips and tricks on finding success in your inbox and Joshua taught us the best way to organize your work life with Evernote.
Here are few highlights from these productivity thought leaders:
Inbox Productivity:
- Archive everything over a month old - you won't get to it anyways
- Make subjects searchable for YOU - be selfish so you can find it later
- To increase response rate, summarize what you need in the first sentence
- When asking for something, try to send when the recipient's blood sugar is high (right after lunch!)
- Use Boomerang by Baydin to keep your inbox actionable, send reminders and find "Inbox Few"
For more inbox tips make sure to follow Moah on Twitter @AyeMoah and download Boomerang for ample productivity. www.reviveyourinbox.com
Using Evernote for Work:
- Evernote is a perfect tool for creating and capturing content
- Create a notebook for your eBooks, whitepapers and PDFs - drag and drop, read later
- Use tags for serious search power - Evernote can even search scanned articles
- Set up a recipe with Zapier to send Twitter mentions to Evernote
- Be clear on how you want to use Evernote and be strategic about your notes
Joshua just released an eBook about using Evernote at work - make sure to check out www.NotesAtWork.com and follow him @JoshuaZerkel
It was extremely educational and I walked away with items I know I'll use in my day-to-day. Make sure to join the SF Community Manager Meetup for news on upcoming events: http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-Community-Managers/
