People & Processes By Dave Lutz, CMP

Take Away

We Need a Little Community, Right This Very Minute!

The most urgent and critical opportunity for membership organizations— or any business, for that matter—is to build community with individuals. Hurry, before your members grow a little leaner, colder, sadder, and older.

Your organization isnolonger the onlygamein town. Unless your business is built with the gold- en handcuffs of certification (or some other signif- icant tangible benefit), you’re probably having a challenge with retention. If this is the case, I’ll bet you also are having dif-

ficulty in attracting and signing up newmembers. Your business needs an effective strategy to increase value and grow loyalty.

Community Management Is Tough For most organizations, growing a community requires a significant culture shift and herculean team effort. Some try to build community by implementing newmembers-only technology and hiring an e-community administrator. That’s a field-of-dreams approach that rarely succeeds. In a blog post (see On theWeb, below), Duct

Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine author John Jantsch asks the question: “What if you developed a place in your organization for a per- son that played the role of community host? That person’s job [would be] to see to all the little things that made your community members feel appreciated, informed, special, and looked after.” Thecommunity host’s real title, Jantsch says, is

communitymanager,whomhe defines as“theone personin the organizationfocusedonmoving peo- ple logically through the steps ofknow, like, trust, try, buy, repeat,andrefer, while also ensuring that all the members of your business ecosystem co-evolve their capabilitiesandrolesandalign themselves with the direction of your organization. The communi- ty manager would in effect be an advocate for the members of yourcommunityandact to hold every

department in the organization accountable for creating a better community experience.” Someonewiththis responsibilitymustbe strate-

gic and able to speakonbehalf of the organization. It is notarole that can be adequately filledbyalow- paid administrator. Effective community manage- ment cannot be limited to a single platform. The strategy needs to include any and all touch points, including social networks, phone, emailcommuni- cations,webinars, and face-to-face opportunities.

Community Connects — It Doesn’t Sell Communitymanagementisaboutbecomingasocial organization that is tryingtohelpandconnectpeople, notsellprogramsandservices.Acommunity-manage- ment or social-media strategy isn’t likely to be opti- mizedif it’safunctionofyourmarketingdepartment. Here aretwoother things to keep in mind: 1. Community fills the gap. Nothing builds

trustmore than your face-to-face customer touch- es.Awell-planned and well-executedcommunity strategy is the one thing that can keepthatmomen- tum alive and help you earn positive word-of- mouth marketing across an individual’s networks. If you’re viewed as an organization that is caring, sharing, and helping, you will be rewarded with long-term loyalty and referrals. 2.Itdoesn’tonlyhappenonyourturf.Commu-

nity efforts need to extend beyond your organiza- tion’s platforms to wherever your stakeholders engage.Sometimes it isanindividual’s personal blog or social-media profile.Community is achieved by people having a relationship with people—not withyour brand.The channel is less important than the engagement.

ON_THE_WEB: Marketing consultant John Jantsch’s blog post “The Community Is the Business” served as the inspiration for this column. Read the entire post at http://bit.ly/jantsch-blog.

48 pcma convene December 2011 ILLUSTRATION BY BRAD YEO

Social-Media Strategy Must Align Savvy businesses are embracing lead-nurturing and social CRM (Customer Relation- ship Management) to identify and move prospects through the sales funnel. Associations with thriving private-com- munity solutions use public social- media platforms to help draw prospects into relevant member-exclusive discussions and content.

Dave Lutz, CMP, is managing director of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting,www .velvetchainsaw.com, a business-improvement consultantcy specializing in the meetings and events industry. His com- pany assists organizations in realizing top- and bottom-line growth by delivering customer- focused solutions in business development, best practice and process improvement, strategic planning, and training.