Connie Bensen

This diagram summarizes what I have learned over the past year about how my role as a Community Manager influences the sales funnel. We are in agreement that social media efforts need to be measured. I will contend that the role of community manager or social media specialist requires you to show how you contribute to your organization’s business objectives in order to justify your presence (and paycheck).

I created the diagram to help us as practitioners describe our position and influence in the sales funnel. The concepts apply to B2B sales as much as to B2C. Too often I think that Community Managers are viewed as caretakers of forums and having the voice of the company. I will argue that it is so much more.

The Community Manager influences the sales funnel in a three dimensional way. We are everywhere: before consumers enter the sales funnel, assisting them as they move through it, holding their hand as they convert, and providing ongoing service after the purchase.

Building Brand Awareness before consumers enter the sales funnel:

This is where everyone sees Community Managers interacting with everyone. They make social media marketing look easy while they build brand & positive PR. They truly are the voice of the company as they deal with the positive as well as the negative. And they’re at events making things happen!

Assisting with the Conversion as people move toward the purchase decision:

A Community Manager is the industry expert. They have in-depth knowledge of the products and their application. And most importantly they’re very connected with the customers. Community Managers can be the Salesperson’s best friend when they need some extra assistance for the challenging questions. A Community Manager can also help with customer support issues both before and after the sale. This builds trust and confidence about the product/brand. If people know they’ll get good service they’re much more likely to purchase.

CrossSelling and UpSelling:

Our culture requires that we provide excellent customer service after the sale. So that’s considered to be assumed. The cone gets larger for a specific reason. Community Manager’s have many opportunities to educate customers about new features, additional products and provide resources. Many customers appreciate hearing about additional products or higher levels of service. It’s easy to work hand in hand with sales to provide for customer’s needs.

Product Improvements:

The opportunity to influence product development is a very important aspect of the Community Manager’s role. Working directly with the customers and sales provides much feedback as to what’s working, what’s not & ideas for improvement. As a Community Manager interacts with thought leaders and others involved in the industry they are well prepared to advise the executive level. And the final area is staff training & HR. A Community Manager needs a team. HR has the ability to empower the organization so that they can interact with customers. This will require staff training and the Community Manager to lead that & be the go-to person.

This is not to say that we need to forget social media best practices and push our message. I believe that Community Managers need to work in synch with Sales and provide assistance as needed. My experience has been that we had so much to teach each other. Once we hit our stride and realized how the two roles complemented each other we were able to run with it.

What are your thoughts? Does this help justify a Community Manager/Social Media Specialist in your business?

If you’re interested in reading more:

Responsibilities & Goals of the Community Manager Role

How We Grew Our Startup 840% in a Year

My most frequently read posts are:

Community Manager Responsibilities and Goals

Updated Community Manager Job Description

And I speak about the role from both the employee and employer’s perspectives. So over the past year I’ve been sourcing jobs. Recently people have been asking that I write more. I only have so many hours in a day, so I decided to shift the job sourcing out of my inbox and let it be self serving.

My sister has created a simple job board that allows you to post your information if you’re seeking a job in social media and also post a job if you’re hiring.

To access it, you’ll need to click on Job Listings and register the first time using the Join button.

It’s free and I hope that you’ll make a connection with the many that cruise thru my site. I only ask that your postings be social media related.

I’ve said many times that people should: “Love what you do and do what you love”. So I hope this resource will help you achieve that goal.

If I can work remotely from rural Minnesota and make a difference, then you can too. If you know what unique values you provide, then you too can do so similarly. It’s just a matter of connecting with the right opportunity.

Other job boards:

Jake McKee

Jeremiah Owyang

That’s the title that I have chosen for my new role at Alterian. For the past four months I’ve been the Chief Community Officer. I love that title because it encompasses my leadership across this broad range of areas at Techrigy:

• product marketing
• brand building
• product development
• training (team & customers)
• quality assurance
• customer service
• new business development
• sales (high level augmentation)
• operations

My vision is that the Community Manager should work cross functionally. As you can see, Aaron Newman, CEO of Techrigy, gave me much freedom in that regard. Our startup grew so fast (over 800% in 10 months) and I enjoyed taking the lead in scaling and putting processes into place as we needed them.

Now it is time to evolve my new role within Alterian. This past week I was introduced to people in many departments. It felt a bit like I was working cross functionally across two companies! Tomorrow I will travel to the UK to meet the various teams and start planning the integration.

I was asked to choose a title and they encouraged me to be creative. Does it matter? Well it does to me when I have to explain what’s on my business card. My friend & previous employer, Shashi Bellamkonda chose ‘Social Media Swami’. That’s a great conversation starter! And if you know @ShashiB, you know that it totally suits him!

I almost chose Director of Community Strategy and Choreography. Choreographer provides a nice visual of one leading a dance. But I wondered if it was too abstract?

So I went with ‘Director of Community Strategy and Architecture’. The ‘Community Strategy’ aligns with my personal brand. I think that that’s important. I’ve invested a lot in that & it’s equated with Connie Bensen.

I will put ‘Community Strategist and Architect’ on my business cards. Architect is a nice solid word for community builder. You know how I dislike the term Community Manager. I’m continually building community within my organization and without. Community Architect also encompasses the work that I’ll be continuing with SM2 as a product and my involvement in the social media industry. I’ll also be contributing to the integration of SM2 into Alterian’s products.

Is your title representative of what you do? Does it matter? What if you could choose one? What would best suit your philosophy and attitude?

Not long ago I had outlined how being a community manager is like being a parent. I’ve extended the analogy to my startup too. Techrigy was just a toddler when I joined the four others in October 2008. Together we have grown the Techrigy family (staff) and added extended family (customers). Our product, SM2 evolved, and it has been a really exciting 10 months for me filled with learning and much growth!

Last week we announced that our Techrigy family had been adopted (acquired) by Alterian, a company with analytical products for marketers. They intend to bring SM2 into the mainstream. It’s time for SM2 to come of age. Alterian’s three hundred strong has assumed our vision and will take it to the next level!

Before the announcement some of Alterian’s executives joined us at the home office to share their enthusiasm and vision for bringing us into their company. David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian summarized it best by saying that he wants to revolutionize marketing. If you’ve used a social media monitoring tool you know the power of bringing in online conversations and viewing the information in a variety of ways. There’s a learning curve but that’s part of what I enjoy so much about my job! There’s also a sense of unknown being on the leading edge. We’re going down a road that hasn’t been mapped yet!

Friends have asked me a number of questions & it’s easier to answer them here:

1. Will I have to relocate?

No! Alterian is a global company with people living where they live. When I was asked how I felt about travel, I said, “We have airports!”. I didn’t confess to not having iPhone access, but they use Blackberry’s. I am now connected with a global Tour! And I now have lots of motherships to visit.

• Techrigy headquarters will remain in Rochester, NY
• UK offices in Bristol & Newbury (I’m traveling there next week! )
• US office in Chicago – a one flight hop for me (I’ll be there last week of August)
• and they also have other US offices

2. Why did they choose Techrigy?

Alterian researched many companies and chose SM2 for a number of reasons:

• similar corporate culture (I love this one! more coming on this topic)
• similar selling geographies & use of partner channels
• similar approach to software innovation

And I must say I am so excited & pleased about the first & third. I’ve written about our culture at Techrigy & my contributions to that. And in the third case I’ve worked closely with customers to evolve SM2 to their needs. So I’m really proud of Techrigy’s being chosen & believe that it underlines the value of having a community manager. I’m also excited to join Alterian as we continue to evolve SM2!

3. Why did Techrigy choose to be acquired by Alterian?

We have built our brand and reputation on our technology & excellent customer service. We see a lot of potential in joining with Alterian’s sales channels & partners. Together we can do more and continue to offer a leading social media monitoring product as well as integrate it with Alterian’s products.

Mike Talbot, CTO at Alterian summarized it in his tweet last week:

4. What will my role be?

I wore a few hats at Techrigy (and no I can’t say that without smiling). My concern in being adopted by a new company was that I would have to ‘sell’ the use of social media. It’s apparent that I shouldn’t have been concerned at all! Everyone is very enthusiastic about getting involved in utilizing SM2 and social media so I have a new challenge of how to transition a B2B company into online engagement. The VP of Marketing has agreed that I can blog this journey, so you’ll get to learn along with us. How’s that for transparency?! I’m impressed that they not only want to lead the revolution in marketing, but also walk the talk. So we’ll do that! Stay tuned …

5.  How will this affect our customers?

As mentioned previously, our customers are our number one priority. There are going to be so many benefits! We are already offering more resources:

• http://training.techrigy.com Check out the downloadable workbook! It rocks!!
• Webinars on SM2 starting next week – come see what it’s all about
• Faster evolution of the product to meet customer’s needs

So our Techrigy SM2 is growing up! And I’ll be taking the community building strategy that has been working well at Techrigy and applying it at a corporate level. I always enjoy the  challenge of taking things to a new level!

What questions do you have?