Communities.cisco.com, on the other hand, gets it. A platform that contains more than 50 communities for Cisco’s partners, customers and employees, communities.cisco.com, also known as Cisco Communities, has almost doubled its membership and has seen a 50% increase in overall traffic in the last year. Additionally, Cisco continues to see measurable savings and efficiencies as a result of the program. Allison Johnson, Social Media and Community Manager at Cisco, who has worked with Cisco for 5 years and communities.cisco.com for the past year and a half, discusses the ingredients that make up Cisco’s recipe for success and the challenges of managing a successful global community platform.

Q: What is your role at communities.cisco.com?

A:  At Cisco I manage the communities.cisco.com platform in addition to driving social media and digital marketing across the company.

When working on the communities platform I oversee the entire program at a macro level. My team and I work on everything from identifying technical problems and scheduling the bug fixes as well as onboarding new teams and setting up the overall program structure. We work closely with the community managers to help them reach their individual goals as well as goals we have for the program.

Sometimes we joke around that in my role I’m essentially a community manager of community managers. Every day is different and I never know what hat or situation I’ll find myself in. A main focus for us is our long-term strategy. People forget that communities are a long-term commitment and it’s essential to align your long-term plan with corporate strategies and initiatives. At the end of the day, the most important thing I can do is give the community managers the tools they need to be successful.

Q: What’s your vision for communities.cisco.com and its business purpose?

A: We set both short-term and long-terms goals for the program. Our 5-year vision is to sustain and create a global community program that deepens relationships with partners, customers and employees. Getting there involves building out some of our core areas to make them more engaging and relevant. We’re in the process of a study to learn more about behaviors. Currently we added a social share functionality to the platform to encourage conversations that are happening in the social web to interact and share with our communities.

Q: Tell us about some of the success you’ve seen as you’ve worked toward that vision.

A: This past year we saw tremendous growth in registrations (more than 50% to more than 110,000). Overall that is one of our largest success metrics. Monthly, we capture metrics and do analysis on our platform. This past year we’ve seen a lot of growth. Ways we hope to continue this growth are building out case studies and best practice sharing modules from these growth spikes.

A more specific example can be seen in our Partner Community. This private space was built for our Cisco partners and we have seen it contribute to reducing travel and increasing the productivity of Cisco experts. These experts travel most of the time and have little time for face-to face interactions with our partners. Now these experts broadcast training sessions for partners on communities, which achieves the goal of deepening relationships with our partners.

The common theme here is that the Web 2.0 technology that communities use can positively impact the business by encouraging innovation, reducing travel costs, opening communication and open up resources. Another way we’re positively impacting the business is that we are capturing and sharing frequently asked questions and conversations within the community. We have a wider reach and we’re able to answer more than one person’s question online. If someone else has the same question it’s all right there with a paper trail.  Communities.cisco.com have proven to be a very transparent, authentic way to communicate so more than one person is able to benefit.

Q: Those are impressive results. What are some recent milestones you’ve reached in terms of overall traffic and membership?

A: Our membership a year ago was at about 74K. We are now at about 113K. In 2011, we saw more than a  50% increase in overall membership and traffic. And, we’re also happy about the response time we’re seeing. Support questions usually get at least one or multiple responses within 24 hours.

Q: What are a few best practices you can outline that have helped achieve these results?

A: Open and frequent communications are a must when you are working with a group this large. We have an open bi-weekly Community Manager meeting to serve as a communication platform as well as a best practice share and overall time to update one another on the various projects we have in the works. We set the agenda in advance and we have an area in our own Community Managers Community, completely dedicated to presentations delivered and communications relayed in these meetings. We encourage CMs to bring up topics they want to cover as well as set the agenda for future facing meetings. Not limiting ourselves, we also bring in our external networks.  I think it’s really valuable that we’re always willing to learn from internal and experts about how to best manage the platform.

Additionally, every community has an established and committed community manager. You must always have one point of contact for each space. This way that person can drive communications about the community and content within their space. It is also imperative that they manage the editorial calendar. This is another best practice.

Overall the CM will coordinate with campaigns in different parts of the organization to drive awareness. Some may also work with hired moderators to make sure questions are escalated to appropriate subject matter experts. They should be focused on the communities health.

Q: What is the biggest challenge ahead of you?

A: I’d say it is taking the platform to next level. As I mentioned before we recently added social share into the platform, but what else is out there? It will be a challenge making communities an easy go-to Web 2.0 tool. There are so many different ways we communicate day-to-day whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, e-mail or text messaging. It’s hard to make sure there’s one central place to go to. From a platform perspective, technology and communities will continue to evolve and it’s my job to monitor this space and help drive what will make communities a better platform and program, without losing sight of our goals.

 - Lauren Bittner, the author of this blog, is Senior Director of Client Services at Impact Interactions and has 10 years of experience with helping companies align their online community management efforts with their business goals.

© 1994 Castle Rock Entertainment

By Matthew Lees

One night while I was researching and writing a recent report on best practices in crowdsourcing, “The Shawshank Redemption” happened to be on TV. So I watched a bit of it for the umpteenth time. One scene jumped out as particularly relevant to what I was working on. I couldn’t find a way to weave it into the report, but it’s been on my mind ever since.

About halfway through the movie, the protagonist Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) ends up managing the library at Shawshank State Prison. In search of newer materials for his fellow convicts to read, he writes letters, interestingly enough at the warden’s suggestion, to the Maine State Senate. One letter a week. Every week. For years.

Eventually — actually, six years later! — he wears them down. Tired of his never-ending solicitations, the Senate sends him a check for $200. (The film takes place in 1947, so $200 was a tidy sum.) The library district also sends him boxes of books and magazines, along with a note saying they now consider the matter closed, so please, stop writing!

Success!

Surely our protagonist is pleased with the outcome. Well, he is…but he realizes that his persistence has paid off. So, with a twinkle in his eye, he says to a friend “From now on, I send two letters a week instead of one.”

I love that line.

Nothing succeeds like success, and the Main Senate and library district made Dufresne successful in his letter-writing campaign. (I’m admittedly focusing on this nice little moment in the movie, ignoring the harsh reality and horrid conditions under which Dufresne lives, although he does meet with success again later in the film.)

What did the Maine Senate do to deserve the increased volume of letters from the Shawshank librarian?

They listened and they took action.

Isn’t that what your customers (and business partners and employees) are looking for from you?

Crowdsourcing programs aren’t the solution to every problem, but they can be a great way to help you listen to your customers, and help them tee up their most important ideas, wishes, and requirements, so you can take action. For such programs to work, you need to engage people who not only have good ideas, but also the perseverance and determination to make things happen. If you’re running a crowdsourcing program (or managing an online community) your biggest wish should be to find and involve as many people as you can who have these characteristics in common with Andy Dufresne.

Like Dufresne, when people see how their actions generate positive results, they tend to repeat those actions. We hope your customers don’t need to be as determined as he was — your crowdsourcing efforts should see results in time frames closer to six weeks or six months than six years — but showing them how their input is making things better for your business, and, in turn, for them, too, should lead to both increased participation and a more effective and profitable business.

At least…I hope.

Come learn the best practices for utilizing B2B Social Media for your marketing efforts in 2012. Through our work with clients Cisco, SAP, NetApp, The American Chemical Society, Intel, and others, the team at Impact Interactions will help you to learn:

• Best practices on using social media to build awareness, increase your prospects, nurture your leads, and enhance your reputation through thought leadership social strategies
• Understand what tool to use when in your efforts (LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, etc.)
• Innovative ideas for channel management education and marketing activities
• Methodology for measuring your results and presenting them to key stakeholders and executives

Since 2003, our team has been helping clients to realize measurable business value by using social media and online communities. Whether you are a global organization or a local company looking to improve your social media marketing results, this breakfast meeting is for you.

There will be plenty of time for questions and discussions of issues that are of interest to you and your company. We’ll have plenty of hot coffee to keep the energy level high…. and decaf for those who are already running at a high level!

Register at: http://b2bsocialmediachicago.eventbrite.com (Space is limited to 20 guests to keep this a discussion oriented meeting!)

Impact Interactions to present “Social media demystified: How to build it, grow it and measure its success”

Impact Interactions’ president Mike Rowland will deliver a hands on workshop with Sam Hosencamp of Ragan Communications and Dave Thomas of Radian6 at the Fifth Annual Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference  in Las Vegas on Febuary 14th. This workshop will provide attendees with current best practices on audience building, engagement, and measurement for social media. To learn more, please visit: http://bit.ly/u3vS1A

Impact Interactions President to host “Ask the experts: Advanced social media strategies” at the Fifth Annual Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications conference in Las Vegas on February 15th

Join Mike Rowland as he moderates a Q&A panel on the best practices of social media today with Mark Carpenter of The American Chemical Society, Jill Okawa Fletcher of Virgin American, Conz Preti of Univision, Sarah Lumbard of NPR, and Em Hall. The panel will quickly cover their top social media successes, then take questions from the audience in a true interactive knowledge sharing session. To learn more, please visit: http://bit.ly/oYjsXC

Start your 2012 Social Media and/or Online Community year off right with Impact Interactions’ free one hour consultation to clarify your tactics and measurement.

Impact Interactions’ Crains Chicago Business advertisement is offering you a one hour consultation to help get your 2012 off to a fast start. As part of the consultation, we’ll review your current efforts and discuss your objectives for using social media and communities. Then we’ll provide you with insight into our best practices to help you succeed. Whether you want advice on tactics, content, or measurement, our team will give you practical, proven advice to start your year off with a bang! Contact us to learn more. Act fast, this offer expires January 31, 2012.

Impact Interactions’ president Mike Rowland to present “Encouraging excellence in the workplace through internal social media and communities” at The Role of Communications in Creating Best Places to Work hosted by SAS December 7, 2011

Social media and online communities are powerful tools for building excellence and continuous improvement. These tools support internal communications while they build a stronger corporate culture of knowledge and expertise sharing. By empowering employees, organizations gain value as they promote corporate values and make the transfer of knowledge much easier and faster.

Drawing upon global companies in the past ten years, this workshop will explore the tactics, best practices, and measurement of internal social media and online communities. Attendees will better understand the value of internal social media and communities.

You will learn:

• Why now is the time to use social media
• How corporate culture affects engagement
• What to consider before beginning an internal social media project
• The methodology for launching and managing an internal project
• How internal and external uses of social media differ (and why)
• Measuring internal social media and online communities
• Best practices to keep your internal project moving forward

Learn more at http://bit.ly/oXVbYm

Impact Interactions’ president Mike Rowland to present “Ten Years in the B2B Trenches: A Practioner’s Guide to Maximizing the Return on Your Community” at Social Media Best Practices for B2B Communicators Conference, May 4, 2011 in San Jose, CA.

How many online communities really succeed at meeting their objectives? Does yours? Online communities expand the conversation with your customers, prospects and fans. Whether you want to reduce your support costs, generate leads, nurture customer relationships or build awareness for your products, online communities require a clear purpose and processes to deliver results. Managed properly, online communities can deliver a stunning ROI that will impress even the most jaded executive.

Drawing upon ten years of experience and examples from Cisco, NetApp, SAP, Ace Hardware, Intel and others, we’ll discuss many of the best practices and issues that impact online community success (including how to use social media with your community). A panel of top B2B community management executives will answer your questions for the last hour of the session. Attend this session to learn how to:

• Avoid common mistakes made in B2B communities
• Better meet member needs
• Use membership recognition programs to build your effectiveness
• Determine when to add local language communities to your offering
• Refine your reporting and measurement strategy to home in on what’s important
• Use integrated social media tactics to improve your results

Mike Rowland of Impact Interactions to present “B2B Social Media – Moving Beyond the Hype” at iStrategy San Francisco, April 5, 2011

Using case studies from its B2B clients, Mike Rowland of Impact Interactions will host a keynote roundtable session featuring Navneet Grewal, Director of Marketing at NetApp; Jeanette Gibson, Director of Social Media at Cisco; and Sara Larson, Senior Director of Digital Marketing for SAP North America. This session will focus upon the external opportunities and internal issues that surround the successful use of social media in the B2B channel.

Impact Interactions to sponsor and exhibit at Marketing Profs’ SocialTech 2010 Event on October 26th in San Jose, CA

With more than 30 years of combined Technology Industry Social Media & Online Community experience, the Impact Interactions team will be sponsoring the highly anticipated SocialTech 2010 event in San Jose, CA on October 26th. Visitors to the Impact Interactions exhibition space will be given the oppportunity to ask questions about how clients such as Cisco, SAP, NetApp, IBM, and Intel have achieved success using these interactive tools. Guests will also be offered a free 45 minute consultation for after the event to discuss their specific social media and online community questions.

Impact Interactions president Mike Rowland to present “Moving Beyond Counts and Traffic – Social Media Measurement That Works” at iStrategy meeting in Chicago, September 16

What is the value of a follower on Twitter or a fan on Facebook? What about a Community member? Too often marketers use traffic metrics or counts of followers as a proxy for value. In his presentation, Social Media expert Mike Rowland will focus on providing a clearer methodology for using and understanding social media to drive business objectives. The link to iStrategy’s Chicago Meeting can be found here.

Impact Interactions and Cisco launch Community Hall of Fame to recognize top members

Our team has been helping Cisco with the Cisco Support Community (CSC) since its initial creation as the Networking Professionals (NetPro) Community in 2000. Over the past ten years, the value provided to Cisco by its community members has been significant. To recognize the top members and employee contributors, Impact Interactions and the CSC Management team designed and launched the CSC Hall of Fame. Recognition and “MVP” style programs are an effective tactic to engage and retain members. To learn more about how a program like this can support your efforts, please contact us.

Impact Interactions presents B2B Social Media Workshops for Partner Channel Marketing in Europe

Following our successful presentation and exhibit at London’s Internet World, the Impact Interactions team is now engaged in delivering several social media workshops on using B2B Social Media to support channel partners and value added resellers (VARs) lead generation efforts. With workshops taking place in Paris, Munich, and Milan our team will work with over 40 organizations engaged in the technology consulting and implementation industry across Europe. Key concepts covered include the top of funnel build out using social media to extend the reach, nurturing leads using social media and communities, and the best practices in measuring and reporting on social media efforts in conjunction with traditional marketing programs.

Impact Interactions and PDAgroup of Austria Partner to Bring World Class Social Media Services to Companies in Europe.

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with PDAgroup to serve our joint European clients. PDAgroup of Innsbruck Austria and Impact Interactions will provide a complete range of services including consulting, moderation, reporting, and social media monitoring for large organizations across Europe. To read more about this exciting new venture, please read our press release.

Impact Interactions to exhibit and present “B2B Social Media Strategies That Work” at the Internet World 2010 London

Members of the Impact Interactions team will be hosting a conference exhibit at the Internet World 2010 show in London from April 27 to 29. We’ll have our latest whitepapers and social media briefs on using social media and online communities to drive business results. Additionally, our president Mike Rowland will deliver several presentations during the event showcasing Impact Interactions’ experience with global B2B social media projects. The client team from SAP’s partner channel in EMEA working on the Best Performance Challenge will join Mike to demonstrate how social media can enhance partner enablement, lead generation, and sales in a highly competitive industry.

We look forward to seeing you there. You can find us at exhibit area 7067, next to the Social Media Theater. Please stop by and meet our team.

Impact Interactions in the News

Our president, Mike Rowland was featured on Business.com’s Smart Business Results Blog.