This presentation highlights insights and findings from The State of Community Management 2014 report from The Community Roundtable. What makes an online community stand out as best-in-class? The Community Roundtable found they have deeper engagement, can measure their impact on the business, and are more likely to seek external guidance. The key findings of the research: 1) Community management maturity delivers business value. 2) Advocacy programs increase engagement. 3) Executive participation impacts success.

1. StateofCommunityManagement2014
How Real-World Community
Managers Build Successful
& Thriving Online
Communities

2. Rachel Happe
Principal & Co-Founder
The Community Roundtable
@rhappe
Mary Cauwels
Sr. Director, Product Marketing
DNN Software
@mcauwels
Join us on Twitter
#SOCM2014
@DNNCorp

3. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Agenda
• About the State of Community Management
• Research Overview
• Key Findings
• Comparison Views
• Be Data Driven
• Recommendations
• Discussion

4. 4
About the State of Community Management
[RESEARCH] State of Community Management 2014
Download your copy of the report on the DNN website.

5. @TheCR #SOCM2014
The 2014 report is the fifth, building on previous
research
2010
2011
2012
2013
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6. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Enabling the Community Maturity Model
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7. 7
Research Overview

8. @TheCR #SOCM2014
SOCM 2014 Themes
1. How are communities performing?
2. What are the standards and strengths of
online communities today?
3. What opportunities should community
managers focus on to grow their
programs?
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9. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Survey Demographics
The State of Community Management 2014 surveyed 164 communities across
industry, use case, size and age. The average community age was 4.8 years and 43%
of survey respondents represent communities from TheCR Network member
organizations.
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10. 10
Key Findings

11. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Communities are critical to change and innovation
1 2 3
The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg
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12. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Key Findings
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Community management maturity
delivers business value.
Executive participation impacts
success.
Advocacy programs increase
engagement.
1
2
3

13. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Community maturity delivers business value and
reduces investment risk
…and are much more likely
to be able to measure
value
Best-in-class communities
are more than twice as
likely to have fully
resourced roadmaps...
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14. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Advocacy programs increase engagement
Multi-tiered community leadership
programs have some of the best
community engagements rates…
…but higher engagement rates
require more community
managers…
…and are typically found in older
communities.
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15. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Executive participation impacts success
Not surprisingly, communities with executive participation are
more likely to have a fully funded roadmap…
…and best-in-class
communities have considerably
higher executive engagement
rates.
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16. 16
Comparison Views

17. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Best-in-class communities demonstrate potential
Best-in-class communities are almost twice as likely to
know their value.
Best-in-class communities are
significantly more engaged.
High levels of formal and multi-tiered leadership
programs deliver engagement and value.
Best-in-class
Best-in-class
Average
Average
Collaborators
Creators
Contributors
Lurkers
= 5%
Average
Best-in-class
Multi-tiered
program
Formal
program
Informal
program
No program
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18. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Community managers matter
Dedicated community management
improves engagement rates.
Dedicated community managers
correlate to higher community maturity.
Communities with dedicated community
managers almost twice as likely to be able
to measure value.
Best-in-class communities have more than twice
the number of community managers as average.
Collaborators
Creators
Contributors
Lurkers
= 5%
Can measure
value
No full-time community manager
1+ full-time community manager
1+ full-time
community
manager
No full-time
community
manager
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19. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Internal and external communities are
similar… but different
While overall maturity is very similar, external
communities have a bigger gap between
ambition (strategy) and execution (roadmap).
Average Community Managers:
Average Part-time Community Managers:
Internal External
2.4 1.8
9.0 2.5
Engagement rates in internal communities
are higher than in external communities –
but not by as much as expected
Internal and external communities are
almost equally able to measure value. External
External
Collaborators
Creators
Contributors
Lurkers
= 5%
Strategy but
no roadmap
External
Internal
Internal
Internal
External
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Can measure
value

20. Data Driven Insights
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21. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Community Maturity in 2014
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22. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Strategy: Executives have bought in to community
vision (strategy) but still feel like investing is a gamble
The gap between approved community strategies
and funded roadmaps is pronounced…
…best-in-class communities likely benefit in this
capacity by more often seeking external guidance
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23. DNN Customer Case Study
The market leader in education
enterprise asset management
delivering cloud-based
applications that help both
small and large institutions
better manage their facilities,
IT and business operations
• Uses DNN’s Evoq Social
› Ideas
› Discussions
› Blogs
› Events
› Gamification
23 DNN / Proprietary and Confidential. All Rights Reserved.
Read the full case study on
the DNN website

24. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Measurement: Understanding Community
Value
Best-in-class communities were much
more likely to track outcomes
Almost 60% report on
community metrics monthly…
…and commonly track basic
activities
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25. Community Health Cards
Drive Fact-based Decisions
25 DNN / Proprietary and Confidential. All Rights Reserved.
• Comparative graphics
quickly keep focus on
engagement
• Colors indicate healthy
results or potential
problems
• Best practices drive strong
results
Visit the DNN website for more information on our online community
solution, Evoq™ Social.

26. In-context Analytics
Informs Immediate Actions
26 DNN / Proprietary and Confidential. All Rights Reserved.
• Gain deeper understanding
of performance with in-
context analytics
• Track required actions with
more persistence and
immediacy
• Visualize trends over time
Visit our website for further details
on Evoq™ Social Analytics

27. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Community programming is standardizing and
increasingly integrated
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Best-in-class communities are more than
twice as likely to have integrated
editorial calendars
Communities programming
standards are emerging

28. Community Newsletter & Events
• DNN has an active community
representing 30 countries.
• Over 8,000 new members sign
up each month.
• Our Community newsletter
includes:
› A Message from the Founder
› Product news and release
updates
› Highlights of top community
contributors and leaders
› Top questions
› Top ideas
28 DNN / Proprietary and Confidential. All Rights Reserved.
DNN Community Newsletter
Message
from the
Founder
At the beginning of
2014 we formalized
our Product Plan for
the DNN Platform.
This Product Plan
defined the high
level themes we
intend to focus upon
in our product
development efforts
for the year -
themes which are
directly tied to
customer value and
user satisfaction.

29. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Community managers are stretched thin
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Community managers are
stretched thin – and are
distributing responsibilities to
their communities in order to
scale

30. Recommendations
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31. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Invest in community maturity.
Some of the following are key markers of
mature community programs are:
A measurable community strategy.
A fully resourced roadmap.
A community playbook.
One or more full-time community
managers.
Executive participation.
Key Research Recommendations
Develop an advocate
program.
Community advocacy and leadership
programs are highly correlated with
community engagement, mature policies
and value. Start by:
Identifying influencers and advocates.
Asking advocates to help create a
program that is a win-win-win.
Developing advocate terms or a
playbook.
Encourage executive
participation.
Participation from executives influences both
the engagement of the community and the
success of the community program. Start by:
Understanding executive needs.
Piquing their interest in participating.
Supporting and coaching them until they are
comfortable.
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32. @TheCR #SOCM2014
Compare your own performance
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33. Mission: Advance the Business of Community
1. Champion: Advocate for the needs of community business owners & teams
2. Educate: Provide training solutions to community & social business leaders
3. Curate: Aggregate, document & share community management best practices
Member Organizations & Clients
Services
TheCR Network | TheCR Advisory | TheCR Research | TheCR Training
Rachel Happe
Principal & Co-Founder
@rhappe
Jim Storer
Principal & Co-Founder
@jimstorer
Leadership
About The Community Roundtable
33