Is Community Inevitable

2013

When the topic of discussion is Social Business, it is almost inevitable that the term ‘Community’ will also be mentioned. There was a time when the terms were almost used synonymously. You see people breaking away from the ‘community’ pack now, increasingly talking about ‘social business’ instead.

I was wondering why the term ‘community’ became so popular in the first place. I believe the credit goes to the marketing function/discipline, which has been one of the most pioneering and widespread users of social technologies in the enterprise. Most of their efforts are of course directed externally, to the customer base and markets, whether to drive marketing messages or to create loyalty and retention.

Communities are notoriously difficult to build. Sometimes they already exist and the challenge is mostly to move them to an online environment and then make the transition significantly more interesting and valuable. In other cases, there is no extant community and one must seed, nurture and grow one online.

Since customer communities in most cases are sponsored by an interested enterprise, it must necessarily design them and intervene in their life in order to ensure that they meet the enterprise’s purpose, in other words, exercise some form of control.

The criticality of the role of “Community Managers” follows from this strategic objective, and is linked to the achievement of the stated purpose. However, even though customers do not come in a single form, external customer communities, to a large extent can be considered homogenous, at least in the sense of the enterprise’s objectives, and the role of a Community Manager becomes quite apparent.

The internal perspective is however completely different. If an enterprise has been around for a while, it probably already has a community even though there might not exactly be a prevailing sense of community – two different connotations of the term. The use of social technologies can go a long way in encouraging and fostering this desired sense at a broader and more pervasive level.

However the challenges of implementing social initiatives inside the enterprise are totally different than those dealing with external entities.

An enterprise uses a number of different social forms in the accomplishment of its business purpose. These include teams, groups, communities of practice, communities of interest and so on. Some of these forms are formal while others are informal.

Social business initiatives should not necessarily presume the social form, such as ‘community’. The appropriate form should be the outcome of design, or emerge from the fulfillment of a bottom-up need. Each design, with whatever social form it uses, should be accountable to its business purpose. And, this accountability cannot be delegated to some ‘community manager’ somewhere. It is integral to the management of the business function, just as it was when hierarchical structures were the norm. ( Hierarchies are still an appropriate social form to use in some cases, as are matrices etc!).

So, what does the term Enterprise Community Manager really mean – Is this person then someone who is responsible for driving a new initiative across the enterprise? Perhaps the role then is of a Product Manager and a facilitator. Perhaps this person is more appropriately the fountainhead of a “Center-of-Excellence”. Each definition brings with it a different perspective on what is expected of this role – A driver of Innovation, a Creator of Capabilities or a Program Manager. Sometimes it is the creation of a Community. I have always believed, that calling things appropriately is very important to the realization of purpose and the fostering of a Practice.

I believe today is “Community Manager” day. It would be nice to reflect on what it means and build a larger community of Social Business Champions.