going for the big winsHow to get unstuck and achieve phenomenal growth

What do community managers do with their time?

Engagement and participation40%

Creating content25%

internal meetings15%

Technical ‘stuff’10%

On all the ‘other stuff’ 10%

Engagement

Content

Meetings

Technical

Other

spoutsocial.com, 2014

The Community Roundtable, 2016

Most community people waste most of their time

You’re doing the same activities every week?

Growth and engagement has flatlined?

You’re on the same salary and working with same budget as last year?

You feel burnt out?

Nothing seems to be working?

You might be stuck if…

You’re doing the same activities every week?

Growth and engagement has flatlined?

You’re on the same salary and working with same budget as last year?

You feel burnt out?

Nothing seems to be working?

√

You might be stuck if…

You’re doing the same activities every week?

Growth and engagement has flatlined?

You’re on the same salary and working with same budget as last year?

√√

You might be stuck if…

You’re doing the same activities every week?

Growth and engagement has flatlined?

You’re on the same salary and working with same budget as last year?

√√√

You might be stuck if…

You’re doing the same activities every week?

Growth and engagement has flatlined?

You’re on the same salary and working with same budget as last year?

You feel burnt out?

√√√√

You might be stuck if…

You’re doing the same activities every week?

Growth and engagement has flatlined?

You’re on the same salary and working with same budget as last year?

You feel burnt out?

Nothing seems to be working?

√√√√√

You might be stuck if…

Why do we get stuck?

Content

Meetings

Technical

Other

Engagement

we divide our precious time into

smaller chunks hoping for

bigger results

Initiate discussions Reply to discussions Reply to emailsSolicit responses Welcome newcomers WebinarsVolunteers/VIPS Facebook InstagramTwitter Pinterest YouTube

Engagement

Content

Meetings

Technical

Other

Engagement

“struggling to prioritise”“never enough time”

“can’t change the metrics”

“can’t focus on what I

want to do”

“my boss doesn’t support this anymore”

real success comes from doing 1 thing incredibly well This is the ‘big win’

For years I did ‘all the things’ myself

Then I focused only on big wins and our revenues

doubled in a year

Most community people keep activity ticking over…

Approx 2% growth per year

Company hires us

we focus only on 2 big wins

62.5% sustained growth YoY

A big win is a ‘one off’ activity which delivers a sustained >10% improvement

Number of members affected

Length of impact

Replying to a discussion

Creatingcontent

OptimisingmemberjourneyNewcomer

contentseries

Inbound links

Resolving disputesremoving trolls

RecruitingVolunteers

Onlinewebinars

Offlineevents

Refining platform

Building relationships

Rituals &traditions

Updating social media

Polls/surveys

Number of members affected

Length of impact

Replying to a discussion

Resolving disputesremoving trolls

Updating social media

most people spend their time doing routine 1 to 1 stuff

Number of members affected

Length of impact

OptimisingmemberjourneyNewcomer

contentseries

Inbound linksRecruitingVolunteers

Refining platform

Rituals &traditions

But the Big wins are doing ‘one off’ activities, not routine tasks

do fewer routine tasks and focus on your big wins instead

Never the solution

Not the solutionFirst, we need to free up our time

Track where you spend your timewww.rescuetime.com

collect your data set that reflects your work

Keep a list of every task you do for one week

List of tasks for week beginning xxInvite new members

Welcome newcomers

Meeting with boss about platform changes

Collect and create data reports

Write content

Host webinar

Remove spam

Recruit volunteers

Newcomer introduction thread

Create newsletter

Reply to discussions

Initiate discussion of the week

List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metricInvite new members No. new members who join

Welcome newcomers No. newcomers who participate

Meeting with boss about platform changes Approved $ budget for platform change

Collect and create data reports N/A

Write content Clicks to read content / time on site

Host webinar No. attendees

Remove spam No posts per member

Recruit volunteers Posts per volunteer

Newcomer introduction thread No. newcomers who introduce themselves

Create newsletter Open and click through rates

Reply to discussions Avg. no. responses to discussion

Initiate discussion of the week Avg. level posts per member

List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metricInvite new members No. new members who join

Welcome newcomers No. newcomers who participate

Meeting with boss about platform changes Approved $ budget for platform change

Collect and create data reports N/A

Write content Clicks to read content / time on site

Host webinar No. attendees

Remove spam No posts per member

Recruit volunteers Posts per volunteer

Newcomer introduction thread No. newcomers who introduce themselves

Create newsletter Open and click through rates

Reply to discussions Avg. no. responses to discussion

Initiate discussion of the week Avg. level posts per memberDo these tasks..

List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metricInvite new members No. new members who join

Welcome newcomers No. newcomers who participate

Meeting with boss about platform changes Approved $ budget for platform change

Collect and create data reports N/A

Write content Clicks to read content / time on site

Host webinar No. attendees

Remove spam No posts per member

Recruit volunteers Posts per volunteer

Newcomer introduction thread No. newcomers who introduce themselves

Create newsletter Open and click through rates

Reply to discussions Avg. no. responses to discussion

Initiate discussion of the week Avg. level posts per memberlead to these results?

List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metricInvite new members No. new members who join

Welcome newcomers No. newcomers who participate

Meeting with boss about platform changes Approved $ budget for platform change

Collect and create data reports N/A

Write content Clicks to read content / time on site

Host webinar No. attendees

Remove spam No posts per member

Recruit volunteers Posts per volunteer

Newcomer introduction thread No. newcomers who introduce themselves

Create newsletter Open and click through rates

Reply to discussions Avg. no. responses to discussion

Initiate discussion of the week Avg. level posts per memberIf not, stop doing it

List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metricInvite new members No. new members who join

Welcome newcomers No. newcomers who participate

Meeting with boss about platform changes Approved $ budget for platform change

Collect and create data reports N/A

Write content Clicks to read content / time on site

Host webinar No. attendees

Remove spam No posts per member

Recruit volunteers Posts per volunteer

Newcomer introduction thread No. newcomers who introduce themselves

Create newsletter Open and click through rates

Reply to discussions Avg. no. responses to discussion

Initiate discussion of the week Avg. level posts per memberBut there is a more important question…

Success metric Value metricsNo. new members who join Retention rates

No. newcomers who participate Share of wallet

Approved $ budget for platform change Ad revenue

N/A Lead generation

Clicks to read content / time on site Lead conversion

No. attendees Reduced customer service costs

No posts per member Reduced customer acquisition costs

Posts per volunteer Research costs

No. newcomers who introduce themselves Recruitment costs

Open and click through rates Capacity building

Avg. no. responses to discussion Social impact

Avg. level posts per member Donations

do these results…

Success metric Value metricsNo. new members who join Retention rates

No. newcomers who participate Share of wallet

Approved $ budget for platform change Ad revenue

N/A Lead generation

Clicks to read content / time on site Lead conversion

No. attendees Reduced customer service costs

No posts per member Reduced customer acquisition costs

Posts per volunteer Research costs

No. newcomers who introduce themselves Recruitment costs

Open and click through rates Capacity building

Avg. no. responses to discussion Social impact

Avg. level posts per member Donations

…create value this value?

But how do we know what drives value-based outcomes?

GET A PHD GRADUATE TO RUN A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS

or export your data set to Google Sheets (or Excel)

use =correl function to identify possible relationships

manipulate the variables to test the relationshipDoes the correlation hold?

Question every task you do.

stop doing tasks with limited impact

The usual ‘time sucking’ suspects

replying welcoming

creating searching Updating

collect data

replying welcoming

creating searching Updating

collect dataeliminate, automate,

or delegate these tasks

Volunteers Virtual

assistants automation

you should now have a few hours to work on your big wins

But, where can we find our big wins?

Your big wins will usually fit into one of these three

categories

Increase engagement from existing members Increase engagement from new members

• Utility (improve usefulness of the community, speed or quality of response, initiate and reply to discussions).

• Habits (notifications, gamification, reputation systems).

• Technology (mobile, simplifying the technology, improving the design).

• Sense of community (establishing guidelines, shared history, rituals and traditions, fun activities, events)

•Awareness(SEO,directoutreach,guestpos4ng,externalpar4cipa4on,adver4sing,referralprograms,partnerships).

• Joining(webdesign,webcopy,latestdiscussions,interes4ngac4vi4estopar4cipatein)

• Par-cipa-ng(welcomeprocesses,automa4onrules,directmessagesfromcommunitymanager)

Persuade members to perform new behavior Persuade members to perform new behavior

•Changingsocialnorms(Insider/volunteergroupstoperformnewbehavior,changewhat’sshowntomembers).

•A5tudechange(Directinterac4on,content,webinars,newsleEers,casestudies,emails)

•Audienceresearchandanalysis(surveys,interviews,data-gathering).

•Buildrela-onshipsandinfluencewithprospec-vefounders(createcontent,hostevents,interactwithprospec4vemembers,par4cipateinothercommuni4es).

•Pla>ormselec-onandimplementa-on(selectaplaGorm,nego4aterates,designandimplementtheplaGorm).

big wins might change how we feel about the behavior

Ask members who perform behavior you like today how they feel about it

Find situations that provoked that emotion,

and turn these into tactics

Find situations that provoked that emotion,

and turn these into tactics

reach * depth * length

reach * depth * length

Does it reach a high % of the target

audience?

reach * depth * length

does it significantly change their

behavior?

reach * depth * length

does that impact last for a long time?

score and rank your tactics 3 for high, 2 for medium, 1 for low

stop doing tactics that don’t have a

high ‘RDL’

or big wins

..without us noticing

change our habits

find what most people are already

doing, and improve it

significantly

spend your time on high-impact tasks which only you can do

WHATEVER YOU DO, Swing for the fences

Instead of another webinar…

Host a filmed interview

or a short professionally

filmed and edited

advice video

…and create a video library

Instead of answering every question

…create a vip program

…or create the definitive knowledge base in your field

instead of sending

another newsletter

release major exclusive news to members first

instead of welcoming every new

member

…build valuable partnerships

..or increase search traffic

31% increase in search traffic in 3 months

31% increase in search traffic in 3 months

$1000 in tech consulting

instead of writing

another 500-word blog post

$0

Write a definitive guide to a pressing problem

…or a popular book in

your field

What would you do if you had unlimited time, but could only spend it on one activity?

the web is filled with shortcuts.

Avoid them.

Forget the small optimisations too

and work hard on your

big wins

www.feverbee.com/scm