A Human Touch to Online Training: How One Community Director Builds Lasting Relationships and Results
Though the Community Manager role is still in its infancy, businesses of all sizes have quickly recognized its importance for driving long-term customer value and insights. Part customer advocate, brand evangelist, and industry expert, the role incorporates both online tools and in-person strategy to create relationships, shape the product roadmap, and ultimately build the company’s brand.
To celebrate Community Manager Appreciation Day, we sat down with Kibibi Springs, the Community Director of myGreenlight. myGreenlight is an online training platform that teaches business executives the fundamentals of relationship mastery.
Q: What makes the myGreenlight community different?
myGreenlight is a private community for those enrolled in our 30-week business relationship mastery curriculum. It’s a very accomplished and smart group, with 90% of our members being executives at or above the manager level, or entrepreneurs. Because it is a private community, I have the opportunity to get to know individuals and groups a bit more intimately than one probably would as the manager of a larger, public community.
Q: What are your top three pieces of advice for successful community management?
1. Don’t mistake quiet for disinterested I’ve learned that even at times when there doesn’t appear to be much dialogue going on, people are still paying attention. Our community includes extremely busy professionals who are committed to achieving new levels of success, so I must be proactive and show them our committment to their goals. Every time I reach out about content they are working through, I’m met with a great deal of immediate appreciation.
2. Ditch the cookie-cutter mentality and customize your outreach I have the advantage of being able to categorize our members by corporation and industry, and it can give me clues as to how I can best communicate. Understanding a company’s corporate culture, especially regarding their view on the role of technology, is important – just because a company signs up for an online resource, doesn’t necessarily mean the current corporate culture supports the use of it. So I must carefully listen and observe, read between the lines, and consider how we can best integrate with members’ current work rhythms. This can mean cutting back or stepping up communications, presenting information in different ways, and customizing touch points and content for different groups.
3. The phone is still a powerful social tool I’m also lucky to have phone numbers for our clients, and in many cases, this is still the best way to connect. Sometimes when I see a member respond to something online, I maximize the moment right then and there with a phone call. Or if someone takes the time to send a long email, they certainly deserve a focused discussion. These are the times when I learn the most – why the person is here, what is working for them, and what we can do better. Time spent getting to know your customers is always time well spent.
Q: How do you define and measure success?
I believe metrics are the roadmap to success. I’m sure many people can relate to the feeling that there is just so much to do, and so many interesting things that could be done, but you have to pick your battles and evaluate which will have the most impact. Now that we’ve had some time to watch what drives the myGreenlight experience, we’re taking the time to build customized tools around the following:
1. Engagement We have a dashboard that monitors engagement, which we define as a combination of both lesson completion, and community dialogue and interaction. Each day, I take the time to go through this dashboard, at both an aggregate level and by forum, company, group, etc. I reach out to both front-runners (those who are moving quickly through the program or getting very involved in forums), as well as to those who are moving more slowly. I try to learn what is either driving or prohibiting their progress and share these learnings with the team.
2. Qualitative feedback We also have important qualitative indicators. We collect success stories and try to understand how we tangibly affect our clients’ lives. Our members tell us how myGreenlight has helped them increase sales, build better prospect pipelines, and broaden their spheres of influence.
3. Content value We are building tools to better understand which pieces of content are being accessed the most and what sort of results they are driving. This will help us better filter and provide our members with the most valuable resources possible.
Q: What are some similarities between building relationships on and offline?
1. Virtual facetime is valuable I’ve learned a great deal from both managing a virtual community and being a member of a virtual team. For example, at first I wasn’t sold on the importance of video during meetings, but over time I have learned there are advantages. I’ve attended many webinars without video, and when you have a dynamic facilitator or guest, you want to see their face. You feel more deeply connected. That being said, just as you would prepare to meet with someone in-person, there is a bit of production work everyone should do when presenting themselves on video. Treat it as if it’s a television broadcast: check how you look, your lighting and background, and the sound level and quality.
2. Get leaders in your corner Another important similarity between the real and virtual worlds, is that leadership buy-in goes a long way. We see better results when a company’s management team takes the time to explain why they have invested in myGreenlight. When leaders articulate how they hope it will address a particular goal, or tell employees just why they were selected to participate, the program gets much more attention and respect than without that kind of context.
3. Connect with your members outside of the community platform All relationships are about understanding the other person, so even if you connect within the walls of the community or spend time in-person, you should also leverage social media and other communities. Though our members each have a profile page, this is just one piece of their story. I’ve found LinkedIn and Twitter really help me get a better picture of who they are, what they are interested in, and that enables me to better help them.
Q: Which new myGreenlight product feature do you find most exciting?
The ability to share your progress, goals, and action plans with others, even if they are not a member of the myGreenlight program. The more people you have cheering you on and holding you accountable, the more likely you are to succeed.
Passionate about helping people “move into positive action”, Kibibi Springs brings 15 years of corporate and marketing communications experience to the myGreenlight team. Previously, Kibibi held senior management roles where she directed internal and external brand, culture and communication strategies for organizations such as Edelman Public Relations, The Milken Family Foundation, Procter & Gamble Beauty and The Virgin Entertainment Group. Kibibi completed her B.A. in Communication Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara and her M.A. in Industrial/Organizational & Consumer Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Connect with Kibibi and follow her @KibibiSprings