Connie Bensen

In my first position as a community manager I worked directly with customers. Our products ranged in price from $40 to $350. That B2C (business to customer)  environment was intuitive for me.

For the past six months I’ve been working with a company that’s mostly B2B (business to business). We offer the ability to white label our software. In turn many of our customers are agencies that offer the service to their clients. We also have companies/organizations that use our tool for their own needs.

Some of our customers realize quickly that I’m not in sales. When I was hired, my CEO specifically told me that I was not doing sales work. There was a period of time where we were growing and I tried helping out with sales. It was quickly apparent that I’m much better at opening conversations rather than closing deals. But I am pleased to say that our sales team has written some contracts for my sales so there is hope for me if I need a career change!

People wonder how my role fits into sales? It’s a great question for two reasons:

1. Customers sense how my team has evolved a great model of how a community manager can compliment & enhance the efforts of the sales team.

2. It underlines how invaluable community building can be in every organization.

One of the best things about my present role is that we have evolved together. I taught our sales team about social media and they in turn have taught me about the sales funnel. Because we have a web 2.0 product I believe that our company has to live and breathe it. I noticed that someone commented on my blog that my team should be closing sales rather than participating in social media. I disagree. I think that they all should be building community. I’ve created a team that’s well versed in my role. They are all practicing community managers!

My philosophy is that if a company provides resources & excellent customer service then people will purchase. This is how my role interweaves with the sales funnel.

• Outside the sales funnel – I build product awareness by providing information and interacting on the web at large. I help direct traffic if people are interested in learning more about our product. It’s a conversation though, not push marketing.
• In the sales funnel -  I provide high level training & specialized support. My team also knows that they can always call on my expertise in social media. This is not limited to sales but includes the executive level in regard to assistance with partnerships. Our focus is on building relationships & ensuring that the potential customer is confident that our product will serve their needs.
• After the sale – We are a software as a service (SAAS) so we really don’t have an end point  of sale but rather a monthly contract. It doesn’t matter to me because I would never consider a sale as the end of the company’s commitment. Once a customer joins the Techrigy family by purchasing they experience excellent customer service. Our customers are delighted with weekend support. This is the most important time to continue building relationships & educating on product use. We can see the result as people recommend our tool to others. Positive word of mouth isn’t something that can be bought. It’s earned.
• All around the funnel – No matter where I connect with people I’m continually gathering ideas & feedback on our product. This is imperative for our evolution. We need to provide what our customers need and what they don’t even realize they need.

In melding my role with sales the purchase cycle is 2/3 shorter in time. I have some ideas on why that has happened: 1) We have a symbiotic relationship that benefits our customers in every way. And our customers have not only noticed, but they want to know more. 2) The leads are people that are sincerely interested in our product & it suits their needs. They already know that before exploring a trial.

What could a community manager do for your business? Would you like to:

• shorten your purchase cycle?
• increase the number & quality of leads?
• increase your brand visibility?
• increase satisfaction with customer service?
• re-energize your sales department?
• gather product feedback directly from influencers, potentials and customers?
• gain market research ideas directly from the community at large?

Can you afford not to?

The recession has affected people in many ways. Many have lost jobs. And in some cases certain types of jobs are no longer as relevant.

In talking with people it’s interesting to note that after being laid off some people say they didn’t have the job satisfaction anyway. So maybe that’s the upside of the recession? It’s forcing people to reinvent themselves.

In other cases employers are using the recession as a reason to reduce their workforce & restructure for efficiency. My question on this is what criteria is being used? Are they reducing staff based on performance? or seniority?

This past week found me talking with individuals who are in the process of reinventing themselves. My philosophy is that you can ‘Create your own Opportunities’. Rachel shared her story on how she used resources on my blog to help her find a job. (It’s a must read if you haven’t done so).

As much as I love talking with individuals I was trying to put my finger on how to scale that one on one time. How could I impart how I help people find their path & impart optimism?

Here’s the general path we follow when someone asks for advice:

• Provide your objectives: I ask people to send their questions in advance. I think that this is a good exercise in identifying what it is that you specifically want to ask.
• What are you seeking? ask yourself that & put it in the form of questions
• Find your advisors: When I talk with people I generally share that others have helped me identify what my focus should be. My suggestion is to ask people who know you well – what do you think I’m good at? and explore possibilities with them. Things that aren’t apparent to you will be to them. You just need to ask them to be frank.
• What unique value propositions do I offer an employer?
• What should you be doing? consulting, long term contracting or seeking a job? Please be doing all three. And take it a step further by connecting with people and offering your services. Maybe you can provide 10 hours per week? If you do an outstanding job then it may grow. Maybe it means volunteering your time to prove your willingness & abilities. No matter what it is, you need to be doing something! No one is going to do it for you.  
• Make yourself indispensable. That’s important in any job.
• Put yourself out there. There are many seeking jobs. You need to TELL potential employers that you’re interested & how you can contribute to their business objectives. How do you know who the potential employers are? Look around because they’re everwhere. Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn make it easier than ever to connect with everyone at a company no matter their position. (Tip for LinkedIn – if you don’t know someone’s email address, use Groups & select one that you belong to. Add a note as to why you want to connect.)
• This is the time to stand out from the crowd. Make your success happen.
• I established my mantra of ‘create you own opportunities’ long before the recession. And I believe that life is what you make of it. If you were a statistic change it around and use it as a reason to put your knowledge of social media tools to work. You offer employers something that they may not even realize they need. But it will be up to you to sell your skills. The final question is:
• Why should they hire you?

What are your thoughts? If you’ve shifted into working in the social media space what worked for you?

Taking a break from work always causes me to reflect. On Thursday evening the word “exhilarating” came to mind. We had just wrapped up a celebratory party at work via video conference. They were teasing the person who had bought beer because he had only bought a 6 pack & there were 7 of us. (I am 1500 miles away in Minnesota …but that gives you a sense of how connected we are.) It was suggested that Aaron Newman write a program so they could share their libations with me virtually. That would take Emeril Legasse’s concept of ‘smell-o-vision’ to a new level! (He has a great new show on Planet Green by the way. I have cooking shows on while I work).

One of my goals of this blog is to help people understand the role of a community manager. There is much interest in how companies are utilizing the position & how it can help their company.

Why do I find my work exhilarating?

That can be answered in one sentence: I work in a transparent and flat company that embraces Web 2.0 and allows me to grow & learn on an on-going basis.

Merriam-Webster defines ‘exhilarating’ as:

1 : to make cheerful and excited : enliven, elate

2 : refresh, stimulate

It really isn’t work to me. I love what I do & I do what I love. I recommend that you strive for that too! And if the economic situation has you searching for a new job, this is the perfect opportunity to make that commitment to yourself. Last summer I listened to an interview that Anna Farmery did with Tom Nixon of Nixon McInnes a social media agency with an amazing internal culture. It moved me so much that I had the impulse to contact Tom and tell him that I wanted to work there! But they were in the UK… It gave me the idea though.

Techrigy has an amazing internal culture

Last fall Aaron Newman asked if I’d like to work with him. Many people ask for help & I do what I can. It was apparent fairly quickly that we shared similar values (and are both workaholics). It’s been almost seven months and Thursday found our company celebrating some huge milestones. We are growing at an amazing rate. If you’re going to be at NewComm Forum next week you’ll be the first to hear about the case study of Techrigy & community building for a B2B.

About Techrigy: we’re a B2B (business to business) company & the majority of our customers are agencies that have clients. We live & breathe Web 2.0. Ninety nine percent of our demo’s, training, customer support, marketing, lead generation, etc is all done online through social media. What makes us unique from our competitors is that we offer a free version of our social media monitoring tool for an unlimited time.

Our team has an incredible synergy. Our sales team came from the traditional sales world. I’m impressed with how quickly they immersed themselves in the social media world. And on the flip side they have been teaching me about sales. A customer that I sold to asked me, ‘How does your role fit into sales?’. It’s a fit that’s powerful due to our company’s culture. I’ll be doing a future blog post on how my role fits in the sales funnel. (yes, I’ve been learning new terms)

The joy of flat and transparent

Aaron frequently says this is ‘your company’. If you listen to the interview you’ll hear Tom talk about how employees are informed of everything including the financial state of affairs. That is very empowering in building trust and loyalty. It’s very easy to work in a company that doesn’t have silos and there’s transparency. We practice that within our team and most importantly in our work with our customers. Customer service is our first priority and everyone pulls together to accomplish that. We surprise & delight our customers with support on the weekend. There are many agencies that are working on weekends!

We are adding more staff to accommodate our growth. This will require more processes as we scale to ensure smooth delivery of service. But it doesn’t mean that we need silos or control. We will be adding tools to help us grow. Some companies go in the other direction. A friend emailed me this week saying that his company had blocked Facebook & chat. He thought that Twitter would be next. (He called them ‘corporate Nazis’). In all fairness to him he only chatted infrequently & would say, ‘my break is over I need to get back to work’. So that saddens me that companies don’t trust their employees & recognize the value of social networking. How can they expect trust & loyalty back if they don’t practice it?

Working remote

I feel this obligation to continually repeat that employers consider allowing staff to work remotely. We are knowledge workers and as Chris Brogan suggests: We can work from coffee shops. Our demo with his team was a bit noisy But he walks his talk!

Quick repeat: Techrigy is located in Rochester, NY. I’m located in northern Minnesota. One of our sales guys works from the Buffalo office (his house) We have customers around the world & time zones need accommodating. (I never can tell when he’s working from home.)

I am so pleased that we have hired two more that will be working remotely! I look forward to meeting them in person next week when I’m in San Francisco, but their training has already started. Web 2.0 truly breaks down the geographical barriers.

I am really thankful to have the opportunity to help shape Techrigy’s future. And I believe that as a team we’re all contributing in our unique ways to achieve a shared vision. It is refreshing to work with people who love what they do.

If you’re in between jobs or seeking a new direction I hope that you can find a cultural fit so that you don’t feel like it’s work. And if your company is embracing social media then I encourage you to join in the internal cultural shift (with little steps) to create an environment where you love going to work.

Are you looking for some good conferences this spring? Last year I realized how valuable the in-person networking is & met the amazing people that I had ‘met’ online. Social media people are a great group to hang out with.

In the end of April I’ll be in San Francisco for NewComm Forum. As a 2009 Fellow with Society for New Communications Research I will be presenting on Metrics & Measurement for Successful Communities. Kellie Parker from Sega America will be co-presenting with me.

NewComm Forum has an amazing agenda lined up. It will be a great event!

NewComm Forum :: Apr 27 – 29 :: San Francisco
$100 discount discount code SNCRFRIEND, or a $200. discount off of a Full Access Pass to both NewComm Forum and the Inbound Marketing Summit with discount code NCFCOMBO2

In mid-May I’ll be back in San Francisco for Community 2.0. I am really excited about this event too! They have lined up an awesome group of presenters. I’ll be doing a 1 day workshop on community management, a presentation on the role of the community manager, and a panel on how to be a kick-ass community manager (thanks to Dawn Foster for that title).

Community 2.0 Conference :: May 11 – 13, 2009 ::  http://www.link2community.com/

Discount code to save 20% off the standard pricing will be: SPKRM2105CB

And this has nothing to do with San Francisco,  but I may as well mention that I’m doing a half day workshop on community strategy at Enterprise 2.0. This will be in Boston & I’m really looking forward to my first trip there. I have a list of friends to meet! So if you’re from that area, stay tuned because we’ll be having a meet up.

Enterprise 2.0 Conference :: June 22 – 25, 2009 :: e2conf.com

Discount code to save 20% off the conference or a free Pavilion Pass  — CNACEB03

If you’ll be at any of these events let me know. I’d love to meet you. Connect with me via email: conniebensen @ gmail.com or on Twitter @cbensen

And I plan to have a meet up outside of each conference. Again, let me know if you’d like to join that. The one I had in San Francisco last fall was great fun!!