The State of Community Management 2014
The Community Roundtable (CRT) has released its 2014 State of Community Management report, an annual pulse-check of the industry. Gleaned from responses from 164 organizations, including Nike, ING, Microsoft and Rogers, the report provides a detailed look at how community management works today.
Last year’s report helped inform our Evolution of Community Management series – a detailed look at the explosion of community managers in Canada and how they fit into the ad industry. This year the CRT turned its attention to maturity; how companies with mature, realized social and community programs fare compared to their greener peers.
Here are five key takeaways from Tuesday’s report:
Communities pay off over time
Organizations that have sunk significant time and money into developing their forums, feedback communities and social presences are better equipped to measure the ROI of their community initiatives. Respondents in the CRT’s best-in-class group (top 20%) had “mature” processes and were almost double as likely to measure the value of their communities (85% vs. 48% overall).
Executive participation leads to success
The CRT’s “best-in-class” group was much more likely to have an executive participate in discussions on forums and social sites. Fifty-eight per cent of the best-in-class companies had a CEO participate, compared to 36% overall. Interestingly, CMOs and CIOs were also likely to participate – 45% of CMOs at best-in-class companies participated in their brand’s communities vs. 23% overall. CIOs also scored high, at 45% participation in best-in-class and 18% overall.
Community managers advise executives
The executives who do participate on social/community platforms are likely getting pointers from their community managers. Fifty-eight per cent of community managers are responsible for “coaching” their executives in how to communicate to their communities.
Most community managers report monthly
The most common reporting cycle for how communities are performing is monthly, with 60% of respondents saying they file monthly reports. A quarter of respondents report more frequently than that, with 4% even filing daily reports. On the other end of the spectrum, 13% never report and 2% report annually.
Daily tasks continue despite strategic role
More community managers are taking on strategic roles, with 70% of companies reporting their community managers are responsible for strategy. However, 70% still do daily tasks like creating content, monitoring activity and managing the escalation of problems. The study suggested that’s not likely to change – amongst the mature, top 20% of respondents, 90% of community managers do these daily tasks, showing community managers that work for socially advanced companies aren’t any less tactical.
How Canadian brands celebrated Easter
Canadian brands rolled out their Easter ads on social last weekend, complete with eggcellent puns. Here’s our roundup of Easter-related real-time, from Holt Renfrew, Tim Hortons, Ubisoft, Microsoft Canadian and Telus.
Here’s the full story.
Pinterest marketing goes IRL
Pinterest has proven itself a worthy driver of traffic for brands and publishers alike, but now several brands are looking to take that to the street. Digiday has a roundup of five brands that are bringing pin boards to the physical world, from a giant pin board in a mall to parties hosted by popular pinners.
Read the full story here.
Shoppable Spiderman G+ Hangout
The cast of Spiderman 2 and its director, Marc Webb, hosted a shoppable Google+ Hangout during which fans could buy tickets to the film direct from Fandango. Shoppable hangouts, a fairly new feature, allow brands to use e-commerce tools like Fandango that generate direct revenue for the company rather than for Google.
Read the full story here.
The Numbers
On Monday LinkedIn announced its surpassed 300 million users, a landmark for the social network. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at how LinkedIn has grown:
15,000,000
Average daily profile views on LinkedIn
44,000
Jobs applications submitted daily on LinkedIn
100,000,000
LinkedIn users in the U.S., making up a third of its user base
140,000,000
Professionals in China, where LinkedIn has just launched a simplified version of its site
50%
LinkedIn traffic that’s mobile
