Building a System of Engagement: Resources to Secure Investment, Build a Plan, and Demonstrate the Value of Community Management
Rachel Happe
I am passionate about designing community-centric organizations that reward the best in people by connecting, energizing, and empowering them.
Back when I co-founded The Community Roundtable, we set out to demonstrate the value of community and community management with our members and clients. Since 2009, we have worked relentlessly to generate shared value that does just that; publishing research and tools based on our collaboration with them that helps the broader market. The research we’ve published moved quickly from qualitative, to quantitative, to mature benchmarks, to strategic impact.
We have also spent the last few years developing, experimenting with, and using a community ROI model. This model has dramatically helped in communicating the value of engagement, justifying the cost of community management resources, projecting the growth of community value, and in diagnosing community management issues.
We’ve shared this liberally with our broader network in hopes that it raises the intelligence of the entire market.
Here are some free resources:
- Harvard Business Review: Calculating the ROI of Customer Engagement
- New: TheCR Research Brief: Calculating Community ROI
- Tool: Online Community ROI Calculator
- eBook: Building a Community Roadmap
- Research: 2018 State of Community Management
Some additional resources for TheCR Network Members (aka, why join TheCR Network):
- (Report) A Community ROI Model We Can All Love
- Examples of TheCR ROI Model Out in the Wild
- (Discussion) How to use TheCR ROI Model with Jive Data
- (Discussion) Best Practices in Communicating ROI
- (Report) TheCR Salon: Community Strategy, ROI, & Business Case
- (Report) A Community Manager’s ROI Adventure: A Humana Case Study Report)
- (Report) How ROI Changes Your Community Story, Case Study from Ciena
- (Video and Report) Building the Business Case to Defend and Grow Your Program
I also spend a good portion of my time helping executives build engagement and community strategies, business plans, scorecards, and roadmaps. If you are interested, Contact us about our advisory and training services.