FeverBee's Richard Millington explains why most community managers are wasting more of their time on tasks which don't move the needle. Instead they need to identify and achieve their 'big wins'.

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

2. What do
community
managers
do with
their time?

3. Engagement and
participation40%

4. Creating
content25%

5. internal
meetings15%

6. Technical
‘stuff’10%

7. On all the
‘other stuff’ 10%

8. Engagement
Content
Meetings
Technical
Other

9. spoutsocial.com, 2014
The Community Roundtable, 2016

10. Most community people
waste most of their time

11. 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…

12. 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…

13. 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…

14. 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…

15. 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…

16. 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…

17. Why do we get stuck?

18. Content
Meetings
Technical
Other
Engagement
we divide our
precious time into
smaller chunks
hoping for
bigger results

19. Initiate discussions Reply to discussions Reply to emails
Solicit responses Welcome newcomers Webinars
Volunteers/VIPS Facebook Instagram
Twitter Pinterest YouTube
Engagement
Content
Meetings
Technical
Other
Engagement

20. “struggling to prioritise”
“never enough time”
“can’t change themetrics”
“can’t focus on what I
want to do”
“my boss doesn’t
support this
anymore”

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

22. For years I did ‘all the
things’ myself

23. Then I focused only on big
wins and our revenues
doubled in a year

24. Most community people keep
activity ticking over…

25. Approx 2% growth
per year

26. Company hires us

27. we focus only on
2 big wins

28. 62.5% sustained
growth YoY

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

30. Number of members affected
Length of
impact
Replying to
a discussion
Creating
content
Optimising
member
journeyNewcomer
content
series
Inbound links
Resolving disputes
removing trolls
Recruiting
Volunteers
Online
webinars
Offline
events
Refining
platform
Building
relationships
Rituals &
traditions
Updating
social media
Polls/surveys

31. Number of members affected
Length of
impact
Replying to
a discussion
Resolving disputes
removing trolls
Updating
social media
most people spend their time
doing routine 1 to 1 stuff

32. Number of members affected
Length of
impact
Optimising
member
journeyNewcomer
content
series
Inbound links
Recruiting
Volunteers
Refining
platform
Rituals &
traditions
But the Big wins are doing
‘one off’ activities, not routine tasks

33. do fewer routine tasks
and focus on your big wins instead

34. Never the solution

35. Not the solution
First, we need to free up our time

36. Track where you spend your time
www.rescuetime.com

37. collect your data set
that reflects your work

38. Keep a list of every task you do for one week

39. List of tasks for week beginning xx
Invite 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

40. List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metric
Invite 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

41. List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metric
Invite 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
Do these tasks..

42. List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metric
Invite 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
lead to these results?

43. List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metric
Invite 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
If not, stop doing it

44. List of tasks for week beginning xx Success metric
Invite 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
But there is a more important question…

45. Success metric Value metrics
No. 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…

46. Success metric Value metrics
No. 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?

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

48. GET A PHD GRADUATE TO
RUN A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS

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

50. use =correl function to
identify possible relationships

51. manipulate the variables to test the relationship
Does the correlation hold?

52. Question every
task you do.
stop doing tasks
with limited
impact

53. The usual ‘time sucking’ suspects

54. replying
welcoming
creating
searching
Updating
collect data

55. replying
welcoming
creating
searching
Updating
collect data
eliminate, automate,
or delegate
these tasks

56. Volunteers
Virtual
assistants
automation

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

58. But, where can we find our big wins?

60. Your big wins will usually fit
into one of these three
categories

61. 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, direct outreach, guest pos4ng, external
par4cipa4on, adver4sing, referral programs, partnerships).
•Joining (web design, web copy, latest discussions, interes4ng
ac4vi4es to par4cipate in)
• Par-cipa-ng (welcome processes, automa4on rules, direct
messages from community manager)
Persuade members to perform new behavior Persuade members to perform new behavior
•Changing social norms (Insider / volunteer groups to
perform new behavior, change what’s shown to
members).
•A5tude change (Direct interac4on, content, webinars,
newsleEers, case studies, emails)
•Audience research and analysis (surveys, interviews, data-
gathering).
•Build rela-onships and influence with prospec-ve founders
(create content, host events, interact with prospec4ve
members, par4cipate in other communi4es).
•Pla>orm selec-on and implementa-on (select a plaGorm,
nego4ate rates, design and implement the plaGorm).

62. big wins
might
change how
we feel
about the
behavior

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

64. Find situations
that provoked
that emotion,
and turn these
into tactics

65. Find situations
that provoked
that emotion,
and turn these
into tactics

66. reach * depth * length

67. reach * depth * length
Does it reach a high %
of the target
audience?

68. reach * depth * length
does it significantly
change their
behavior?

69. reach * depth * length
does that impact last
for a long time?

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

72. stop doing tactics
that don’t have a
high ‘RDL’

73. or big wins
..without us
noticing
change
our habits

74. find what
most people
are already
doing, and
improve it
significantly

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

76. WHATEVER YOU DO,
Swing for the fences

77. Instead of
another
webinar…

78. Host a
filmed
interview

79. or a short
professionally
filmed and
edited
advice video

80. …and create a video library

81. Instead of
answering
every
question

82. …create a vip program

83. …or create the definitive
knowledge base in your field

84. instead of
sending
another
newsletter

85. release major
exclusive
news to
members first

86. instead of
welcoming
every new
member

87. …build valuable
partnerships

88. ..or increase search traffic

89. 31% increase in search
traffic in 3 months

90. 31% increase in search
traffic in 3 months
$1000 in tech consulting

91. instead of
writing
another
500-word
blog post

92. Write a
definitive
guide to a
pressing
problem

93. …or a popular
book in
your field

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

95. the web is
filled with
shortcuts.
Avoid them.

96. Forget the small
optimisations too

97. and work hard on your
big wins

98. www.feverbee.com/scm