The next Online Community Research Network project is open for participation. As part of our ongoing research around online community and social media strategy, metrics and ROI, we’ve launched our latest study on Social Media Strategy and Monitoring.

The intention of the study is to explore how organizations are managing their social media strategies what tools they are using to monitor their social media presence.

If you are involved in the development of your organizations’ Social Media and Community strategy and monitoring, I would encourage you to participate in a short survey here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/socmedmon

The topics we are exploring in this project include:

• Key policies for staff participation in social media;
• Highest priority social media sites;
• Organizational business goals for participating in the social media ecosystem;
• Metrics and tools used to measure success on social media sites;
• The biggest challenges that executives and teams are facing

I would ask that you please complete the survey by next Friday, 7/16. All participants will get a copy of the results.

The tag for this research project is: #socmedmon

The next Online Community Research Network project is open for participation. In January, OCRN members discussed and prioritized a long list of topics, with a high priority being a repeat of last year’s useful platform satisfaction study.

If you are involved in strategy or management of your organization’s online community strategy or management, I would encourage you to participate in a short survey here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XWPJF79

The topics we are exploring in this project include:

* Review of current online community platform;
* Other community vendor services (metrics, sentiment analysis, moderation, etc.)
* Services you’d like to see but are currently unavailable

I would ask that you please complete the survey by next Friday, 6/17. All participants will get a copy of the results! Thanks!

Cross-posted from the Good Ideas Blog:
We are in an era of “Government 2.0″ enthusiasm. The Obama Administration, as well as state and local governments, are working hard to move information and services online. But as agencies and departments implement new web and social media programs, they run into a number of structural and legislative obstacles.

To sort through these challenges, we asked for the views of Fred Smith, a Senior Technologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who oversees many new media efforts. The CDC is always included on the short list of US government agencies using social media in innovative ways.

Here are five of Fred’s good ideas for effective social media programs in government:

1) Take Risks

New media are new. We all are experimenting to some extent. This means accepting some risk in social media efforts, and also tolerating some degree of failure. Senior management and staff need to understand the risk profile of social media efforts. (As a related note, Amazon reportedly includes “risk-taking” in their performance reviews.)

2) Realistic Evaluations

It is important to evaluate social media efforts, and particularly to understand which channels are best for reaching which audiences with which messages. Performance reporting will improve efforts. That said, it is necessary to be realistic about how precise communications evaluations can be (e.g. nobody ever asks “how effective was that brochure?” — they ask “how effective was our campaign?”).

3) In Government, Identify and Update Social Media-Challenging Policies

Many government policies were written before social media (or even the internet). They now can create obstacles. For example, as part of the “Paperwork Reduction Act”, the OMB is required to approve any program that asks questions of the public. Should that include, for example, voting up an idea on a social media site? This law, as well as laws and policies dealing with terms of service, tracking technologies, privacy issues, and others topics are being updated.

4) Promote Open Source

Government should use and contribute to open source initiatives. Unfortunately there are many terms of service, liability and other issues which hinder government participation. These obstacles are (slowly) being addressed. When government agencies can’t turn to open source, they should at least investigate offering their data and content
through open APIs.

5) Coordinate Security and Social Media Efforts

IT security staff and social media staff have very different – and typically conflicting – approaches to the web. It is important that they work together. At the CDC the security and social media teams meet monthly to work out any issues, and (importantly) to describe what is on the horizon in order to identify potential challenges.

Please feel free to vote or comment on these or other ideas – or add your own – on Good Ideas.

Guest post by Amy Sample Ward

I love my community. Whether I’m talking about my role at NetSquared, my blog, or my network of friends, I am inspired every day and find value in, and rewards for, my participation. Regardless of whether I feel like, or am trying to be, a community builder, the community always provides opportunities for others to join me. These spaces are built on distributed power and that makes the community a moving, growing, living thing that I am a part of, rather than a weight, trouble, or burden that I’m responsible for.

But, it ain’t easy. Being a Community Builder (I refuse, on principle, to use the word Manager) is a lot of work. So, how do you do it without losing sleep or sanity?

Here’s my 3×3 to Sustainable Community Building.

1. There are no short cuts.

Lead by example
Interact, use tools, and create and share content the way you want your community members to do so. Seeing you leave a comment, or share a resource, will model the desired behavior so others can see what to do (especially if they are new to social media or new to your community) and how to do it (especially if they are new to your tool or platform).

Operate in public
When it comes to “administrator” or “moderator” activity, always conduct it in public unless it requires or involves personal information. Don’t send a private welcome message – do it in public so others can benefit (they too can see, join in, and find someone new)! Don’t remove or edit contributions, but leave a comment to suggest how they can be improved. If there’s offensive or inappropriate behavior, note it in public so others can learn what’s okay and what isn’t, and feel empowered to help moderate as a community.

Ask for feedback and help
Asking for help or ideas means that 1.) you trust the community, 2.) you know that your community is valuable and smart, and 3.) you are interested in collaborating (not dictating). Don’t be shy about it – post blog entries or conversation starters, share your own feedback (operate in public), and provide places for the community to share ideas or feedback at any time (not just on specific ideas or proposals).

2. Know your community.

Let the community know itself: Working in networks means that the “center” (that’s you) is no better than any of the other parts. You don’t have all the answers, all the information, all the best jokes. So, help your community know its self. Messages shouldn’t just be about you, stories shouldn’t just be about you. Find content and value from the community that you can help put the spotlight on; find stories and changemakers from the community that you can support. Make connections and introductions.

Know your role: Knowing your community means figuring out what they need from you, how they need your help, how they need you to help them to succeed. Some communities may need a “manager” to help keep everything moving along, and others may need an “operator” to make connections and recommendations. Some communities need a “friend” to share ideas and honest feedback, others may need a “champion” that can help push ideas and opportunities forward. Find your role (by asking for feedback and help!) and take pride in operating the way your community needs.

Help it grow: Part of knowing your community means recognizing when it needs new blood, a fresh wind, or a change of pace. That doesn’t always mean just one or the other. New blood = new members. If this is the case then help the community to promote itself and attract others interested in participating. Fresh wind = new topics or ideas. Sometimes, conversation can grow stagnant and ideas can fail to materialize into projects. It is your role to help find new inspiration. Change of pace = new way of operating. This may mean that the community has outgrown its facebook group and needs someone (you) to help move it onto the next platform/space where it can do more. You may need to be the one willing to say what everyone’s thinking and take on the task of making change.

3. Strive to be replaced.

Encourage interaction without you
The goal of operating in public and leading by example is to enable the community to know how to operate without you. There can be interaction and exchange without your permission. There can be conversation without your moderation. Encourage the community to take control by giving them the responsibility and opportunity to do so.

Reward and spotlight leaders
Your goal should be to be replaced by other community members, as this means that you’ve created something so valuable, with members so dedicated to it, that they are willing to steer the ship and man the sails themselves. To begin nurturing those who may become the captains, start highlighting members who are contributing value. Shine the spotlight on those taking on extra responsibility. Operate in public by thanking them for their work in a way that’s visible to the whole community.

Share your toolbox
There’s no way that the community can take responsibility and contribute equally with you if you hold the key to a hidden set of tools. Open up all functionality to anyone who has proven their elevated role in the group. Share resources like strategies, best practices, and examples with the community so everyone can learn and contribute at the level you do. By sharing resources, you’ll probably find that the community has some to share back that will make your work even better, too!

But remember: all communities are unique, just like the members that comprise them. You can’t expect every group to operate the same way as others, or for one successful example to hold true in another setting. Communities are made up of people and the best approach you can have is to remain human. Organizations are buildings: they aren’t any fun, they aren’t very conversational, and they’re often made of neutral colors. You’re a human: you’re passionate, you’re interesting, and you have something to say. So even if you have different tools, different ideas, and different goals from one community to the next throughout your work, remember to stay human.

For more on my experience with community building, read Online Community Building: Gardening vs Landscaping.

The Social Marketing Compensation Study was initiated in December of 2009 as a joint research project between the Online Community Research Network and WOMMA. The intention of the study was to get a broad look at the emerging field of social media marketing, and specifically, to explore issues related to compensation and satisfaction in the area of social marketing. Forum One released a report based on the study this week.

We received approximately 224 responses. Participants represent a wide swath of the types of organizations participating in online community building activities, including: large software companies, large community destination sites, niche community sites, platform providers, interactive marketing firms and independent consultants.

A sample of the 220+ organizations that participated include (with their permission):
HP, Nielsen, Community Partners, Satmetrix, ComBlu, Avid, Fanscape, ZAGG, Bumbleride Inc., Vemma, PEMCO Insurance, Xorcom, Procter & Gamble, GlobalGiving, Hallmark Cards, Inc., Culligan, and Open Text.

Several key issues pertaining to the compensation of marketers working in social media surfaced during this report, including:
• On average, the female participants earned an annual salary of $64k, which is significantly lower than the average annual salary for men, which was close to $104k. (Our data set was 58% male and 42% female).
• Less than a third of the respondents, 31% (69), indicated that they received a salary increase in the past 12 months, and 19% (42) said they had actually taken a decrease in salary within the last year.
• On average, participants are somewhat satisfied with their current salary, with an average satisfaction score of 3.2 (where 1 = Dissatisfied and 5 = Very Satisfied) and a median score of 3.5. The male participants, on average, are slightly more satisfied with their overall salary amounts than the female participants.

Other Highlights Include:

Salaries by Gender
On average, the female participants earned an annual salary of $64k, which is significantly lower than the average annual salary for men, which was close to $104k. A large number of female participants indicated that they had a salary range that was less than $50k which brought the average salary lower for the women, whereas the male respondents, taken as a whole, had a much more evenly distributed salary ranges.

Salaries by Age
According to the respondents that participated in our survey, people who are in the age category of 41 – 50 are making the highest annual salary of $117k. The respondents aged 51 – 59 were the second highest salary earners, with an average salary of $109.5k. The lower salary averages belong to the 21 – 25 respondents, who earn an average salary of $28k. The overall average annual salary for all participants was $80.7k.

Salary Increases
Less than a third of the respondents, 31% (69), indicated that they received a salary increase in the past 12 months, and 19% (42) said they had actually taken a decrease in salary within the last year.

The Full Report
The full Social Marketing Compensation report includes additional information about job descriptions, departments in charge of social marketing, job satisfaction and other areas related to the emergent role of Social Marketing. To purchase the report ($99), please go to our Research Store.

The next Online Community Research Network project is open for participation. In January, OCRN members discussed and prioritized a long list of topics, and the issue that made top of the list was “Developing Social a Strategy”.

The OCRN chose to study how social media strategy is developed, communicated and implemented because, frankly, so many organizations are actively struggling with the topic. We hope that by getting real-world feedback, advice and experiences from practitioners (read: the folks ACTUALLY doing the work), we can all gain insight in to this important topic.

If you are involved in the development of your organizations Social Media and Community strategy, I would encourage you to participate in a short survey here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ocr_socstrat

The topics we are exploring in this project include:

• The definition of social media strategy;
• The current scope of community and social media efforts;
• The current state of strategy development;
• The process organizations are using to develop strategy;
• Ownership and governance of social strategy;
• The biggest challenges that executives and teams are facing

I would ask that you please complete the survey by next Friday, 3/12. All participants will get a copy of the results.

The tag for this research project is: #socstrat

This post is part of an ongoing series about developing an online community strategy. As a reminder, all posts are being tagged #ocb2b.

In my last post, “Want to Know What Community Members Need? Just Ask” I discussed the importance of asking your members what they need from you as a community host, and what they need from other community members, as part of your extended community.

In this post, I will discuss the methodology for conducting a discovery exercise of the relevant parts of the social web to find out where your community (or potential community) is already working and playing. .

Most community strategies have traditionally focused on the hosted properties of the organization. The reality is that there is an ever expanding universe of online touchpoints that an organization’s community members are participating in off-domain. An ecosystem research exercise should be conducting as part of a strategy development (or strategy course correction) exercise in order to discover where the off domain centers or activity are, and who the most vocal and active participants are. The discovery exercise is essentially an audit of the current community ecosystem, including customer, prospect, partner and competitor touch points. This information will help establish a baseline of market-oriented sites and activity, which will be important to understand the opportunities for new community activity by your (or your client’s) brand.

What Should You Look For?
The purpose of this discovery exercise is to look for existing signs of life for your community “off domain”. Signs of life include conversations about your company, product, or issues related to your particular market or issue area. What should you specifically search for as part of your discovery process? The following list is a jumping off point for starting your discovery process:

• Mentions of company name
• Mentions of brand or product names
• Issues related to you market
• Topics related to your market
• Mentions of key employees
• Advocates or spokespeople
• Mentions of competitors

Where Should You Look?
Using tools like Google Blog Search, Twitter Search, Delicious, and Ice Rocket, conduct searches for brand mentions in news, the mass social media sphere (blogs, twitter) and on smaller niche communities. You will quickly come up a list of the communities hosting conversations about your organization, products or brand, and the members (often time bloggers) engaging in those conversations.

It’s also important to research activity on the “walled garden” communities, and larger social media sites that some times don’t surface in search results. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, Ning, LinkedIn, Get Satisfaction, etc. In particular, look for ad-hoc groups that have sprung up around your brand, or content tagged with your brand and/or products.

Key Sites:

Outputs of the Ecosystem Audit
Insights that will likely emerge from your ecosystem audit include:

• Key news sites
• List of most active members (potential community members)
• List of influential users (potential community members)
• Thought leaders (personalities shaping your industry)
• List of active groups (potential partner communities)
• Independent community sites (potential partner communities)
• Key blogs (Niche bloggers and group blogs)
• In-person meetups and events (you might consider participating)
• A list of spaces where your community *isn’t* (helpful in prioritizing where to participate)

One helpful by-product of conducting an ecosystem audit is the set of fundamental elements for an ongoing listening strategy: search terms, topics and relevant online sources. The ecosystem audit process forces a team to experiment with and refine search terms and topics in order to discover content sources. Many of the tools mentioned above support RSS feeds with near real-time results. So, wether you use a simple tool, like google reader for your listening strategy, or something more industrial strength like a Radian6 or Scoutlabs, you have completed a lot of the prerequisite work for ongoing listening and monitoring.

In the next two upcoming posts “Designing an Online Presence Architecture” and “Engagement Planning” I will describe how to take the inputs of goal definition, member research and the ecosystem audit to create an Online Presence Architecture and to develop an engagement plan.

Recommended Reading:
Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem

Last month, the Online Community Research Network conducted our second study that examines how community and social media professionals engage in the social media ecosystem, Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem. In April 2009, we conducted the Social Media Ecosystem study to gain a better understanding of how organizations were managing their hosted and external online community touch points.

Our goal with the Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem report was to gain more information on how companies participate, how frequently they engage in activities in the social media ecosystem, who manages the participation, and what value participants’ companies have gained from their activities.

We received approximately 125 responses. Participants represent a healthy swath of the types of organizations participating in online community building activities, including: large software companies, large community destination sites, niche community sites, platform providers, interactive marketing firms and independent consultants.

A sample of the 125+ organizations that participated include (with their permission):
Microsoft, Intuit, Best Buy, Cisco, Museum of Life and Science, VMWare, BusinessWeek, Autodesk, Consumer Reports, Time Inc., REI, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Quest Software, WiserEarth, Current TV, and TripIt.

Several key issues pertaining to participating in social media ecosystems surfaced during this report, including:

• More than half of the participants, 56%, have developed a comprehensive social media strategy within the last 6 months compared. In our last Social Media Ecosystems study in March of 2009, only 18% of the respondents had a comprehensive strategy in place.
• The two most common changes respondents made in their social media strategies over the last six months are:
  • Utilization of Social Media Sites, such as Twitter and Facebook   
  • Refinement based on Lessons Learned

• Twitter and Facebook emerged as the prevailing social media sites. 92% of respondents use Twitter and 87% of respondents use Facebook.
• Google Analytics is the most commonly used tool to measure participation in the ecosystem.

Job Titles
A large percentage of the respondents have high level positions within their organization such as Owner, Partner, Director, CEO, CFO, Vice President or Manager. Over a third of the participants are managers 35%, with the title ‘Social Media Manager’ or ‘Community Manager’ being the most common management title reported. Other management positions that respondents held were Project Manager, Product Manager, Program Manager and Marketing Manager.
Other common job titles included: Principal, Account Executive, Community / Social Media Strategist, Social Media Coordinator and Consultant.

It is interesting to note that 26 of the respondents have the word “Community” in their job title, whereas only 11 have ”Social Media” in their job title.

Social Media Strategy
More than half of the participants, 56%, have developed a comprehensive social media strategy within the last 6 months and 30% (37) are currently working on a comprehensive social media strategy.

Social Media Strategy Changes
Respondents indicated that the most common change in their social media strategies over the last six months was the utilization, integration and enhancements of social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. The integration and enhancement of Twitter was the most commonly reported change. Some participants felt that staying current with these social media sites was critical to their company’s marketing and outreach. Some respondents indicated that they had also created a blog within the last six months.

Content Monitoring Responsibility
Almost three quarters of the respondents, 71% (61), said that an employee that holds a manager role in is responsible for creating and monitoring social media content for their organization. These managers include Community Managers, Marketing Managers, Social Media Managers and Program Managers.

• 22%    (19) have a Community Manager responsible for creating content
• 22%    (19) have a Marketing Manager responsible for creating content
• 21%    (18) have a Social Media Manager responsible for creating content
6%    (5) have a Program Manager responsible for creating content
• 2%    (2) have a Moderator responsible for creating content
• 2%    (2) have a C-Level Executive responsible for creating content
• 25%    (22) have Other people responsible for creating content

Key Social Media Sites
Twitter and Facebook are by far the most popular social media sites, according to the respondents. 92% the respondents said that they utilize Twitter and 87% said that they utilize Facebook. Several respondents indicated from the answer to a previous question, that Twitter was introduced in their organization within the last 6 months.

The other most commonly used social media sites are:
• 75% (95) of respondents said that they used Blogs
• 71% (90) of respondents said that they used LinkedIn
• 71% (89) of respondents said that they used YouTube

The least utilized social media sites, included Sphinn, iLike, Slashdot, Techmeme, and Friendster.

The Complete Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem Report
The full 33 page report can be purchased here: http://store.onlinecommunityresearch.com/painsomeec.html and includes detailed information, analysis and charts on:

• Organization type and size
• Social media strategy changes
• Staff participation in Social Media
• Content Schedule / Calendar
• Content Monitoring Responsibility
• Staff Engagement
• User Generated Content
• Metrics Used to Measure Engagement
• Case Studies from leading companies

A few weeks ago, we announced our partnership with WOMMA. As part of our partnership, the Online Community Research Network (OCRN) and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) are co-producing our first research study on Social Marketing professionals (marketers who focus on social media) compensation, job satisfaction, and team structure.

For the past two years, the OCRN has studied online community and social media professionals compensation. As social media continues to intersect with marketing tools, we’d like to study how social marketers are being compensated and how actively they are involved with online marketing.

If you’re a marketing professional involved with social media, we’d like to invite you to participate in the Social Marketing Compensation survey.

The survey can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NYYK8BB

Things for participants to note:

-All participants will receive a participant version of the report, which includes aggregate data.
-All data will be processed and compiled in aggregate. Data will not be reviewed or presented in a personally (or company) identifiable way.

Please complete the survey before the end of the day on December 18th.

Feel free to email me with any questions: hvirga@forumone.com

The Online Community Research Network is conducting our second study that examines how community and social media professionals engage in the social media ecosystem. Last April, we conducted the Social Media Ecosystem study to gain a better understanding of how organizations were managing their hosted and external online community touch points.

Our goal with the current Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem study is to gain more information on how companies participate, how frequently they engage in activities in the social media ecosystem, who manages the participation, and what value participants’ companies have gained from their activities.

The research targets online community and social media executives, strategists, and managers, working both in the commercial and non-profit space.

The survey can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W3MT3ZL

If you decide to participate, there are few things to note:

-All participants will receive a participant version of the report, which includes aggregate data.
-All data will be processed and compiled in aggregate. Data will not be reviewed or presented in a personally (or company) identifiable way.

We would like to receive your responses by the end of the day Friday, December 11th, please.

Feel free to ping me if you have any questions: hvirga@forumone.com