Connie Bensen

Kristin Paulick and her staff did a great job with Community 2.0! I had heard wonderful things about last year’s conference & I was excited to join the second annual gathering of people who live & breathe community.

When Kristin & I first talked, she was exploring topics/speakers for this event & asked what challenges community managers have. This presentation evolved from that brainstorming session. It’s an overview of the role from the employee and employer’s perspectives.

After I finished my slide deck I asked my friend Bill Miller, CMO at Digium to review it. He reminded me what other CxO friends have told me, “You need to show ROI and how it affects the bottom line”. For a long time I tended towards the purist side of community, but I do understand that business conversion goals are needed. Having a community manager is dedicating precious resources and it needs to be justified.

Here is my slide deck along with a quick overview of my presentation.

I was a librarian for 10 years and I was a disruption there too. I’m a connector by nature so providing resources and information comes naturally to me. I mentor community managers from around the world despite the fact that I’m geographically challenged. (Starbucks is 60 miles away!).

Community is a new channel for business. It offers new strategies for customer acquisition, customer satisfaction, retention, product development & the list goes on… but it takes a human touch! The Community Manager is a MetaCustomer who connects with customers, potential customers and identifies new markets which translates to increased revenues.

The community manager position will increase your brand value in 3 months. What is your brand worth? Consider the converse question – What is your brand worth if it has no visibility?

Slides nine & ten outline the traits of a community manager. If you quit listening to them they will go away. If you have an excellent one cherish them. It’s a challenging job and we love what we do. But we want to make a difference!

I was the first to broach the topic of salary & some may consider it tacky. I strongly believe that this role provides so much value that it shouldn’t be compensated as an entry level position. Having a community manager is like giving them an open checkbook for your brand. There needs to be trust, respect and they need to be compensated for that level of responsibility.

There are many advantages to having a community manager that works remotely. They see beyond the four walls of the company. And they’re project oriented so they have ‘deliverables’ rather than do ‘seat time’. Many of us know that we get so much more done by working off site.

Slide thirteen is for organizations considering adding a community manager. If you’re not interested in listening to your customer’s ideas, acting on them and open to change then don’t bother with the position. It’s a waste of everyone’s time (and will result in a frustrated community manager).

On slide fourteen the circles will expand when a skilled community manager is engaged. Our role is to provide resources and information. This will increase conversionfor your business goals. We compliment the efforts of the other teams & work cross functionally to increase communication & break down barriers.  People WANT to support brands that interact with them in a positive way.

Here’s a short video of my presentation with an overview at Community 2.0 blog.

This shiny new vending machine was getting a lot of attention at LAX. Everyone was stopping by to ponder the offerings.

There wasn’t anything edible in there though. Best Buy has it filled with lots of electronic goodies ranging from MP3 players, digital cameras, various types of cords, on up to headphones including a  pair of Bose.

There’s a video monitor on the top right with some flashy advertising.  The screen on the right provides a touch screen for additional info about the products and offers to take your credit card.

Best Buy is a Minnesota company so it was nice to see them trying this idea out. When I was still in libraryland we had talked about putting kiosks like this at the mall. But that’s a bit different scenario (and it never happened). The advantage here is that they don’t have to rent a whole store space. And they don’t need to staff it. Vandalism shouldn’t be too bad because it’s in a very public spot. It’s good advertising for the brand with the signage.

We were flying back from San Francisco and taking the scenic route through Los Angeles airport on our way back to Fargo, ND. So we had a few hours. I also ended up in 2 book stores.

When I was in the largest one, I found myself wishing for computer access to look up an author that I knew had released a new book. Wouldn’t that be cool if I could walk over to a computer and look up the information I was looking for while I shopped? (just like at the library?) I finally asked the girl at the counter and she looked it up for me. Then she told me they didn’t have that title in the store. But now consider if I would have had access to their online store and could have:

1. looked up the information I was thinking about

2. and ordered it right then & there to be delivered to my house

I’m not sure how practical that is in airports where people are browsing. Do major bookstores offer that? (yes, I am geographically challenged & rarely go into a bookstore because I use Amazon & have them delivered to me).

Last week I was shopping at my favorite store, Christopher Banks. I overheard the clerk say to a customer that they maybe had the item in her size online & suggested that she check their site. Wouldn’t it be nice if they had a computer there where the customers could do that and place the order for themselves right then & there? I’m wondering if the desire to purchase lessens or is forgotten after the person leaves the store? What if they don’t have a computer?

Libraries provide access to their online catalogs so that people can request items that aren’t available inhouse, so it should work well for retailers that offer online items too I would think. Would customers use it? If the retailer has invested in adding an online presence should they interweave that experience with the in-store one? Do kiosks offer a new direction?

This is the presentation that I did at NewComm Forum. The first part outlines how to establish what to measure. The metrics are based on your strategy & driven by your business goals.

The second part is a case study on my work with Techrigy which is primarily B2B. Kellie Parker provided a case study on her work at Sega which is B2C. Both of us have been with our respective companies for six months.

For my case study I used screenshots from SM2 to show the increase in conversation around the brand since I started working with the brand (slide 15). At Techrigy my community isn’t on a hosted platform. We have our customers, our Freemiums and the extended community on Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook.

*update* I see that Slideshare did a bit of reformatting. Here is the text

What questions do you have?

Here’s a link to all of the presentations at NewComm Forums.

More presentations are coming. On Monday May 11th we’re doing a day long workshop on How to be a Community Manager at Community 2.0 in San Francisco. And I’m also doing a presentation on the role of the community manager from both the employer’s & employee’s side. If you’re there definitely say ‘hi’!

Here’s your dream job listing! I was thrilled to see how flexible this employer is being.

A month ago I received an email from someone asking where to find a community manager. Look at the posting they did up!

Note the location – Anywhere in the World! & the option to telecommute!

The trips to the home office would be great too! I had a lovely time in London last year.

Is this job for you? The biggest question is does the topic fit your expertise & passion?