Bringing in Rachel Happe from the Community Roundtable was a sure thing.  Note only have I seen Rachel speak several times (and she’s always taught me something new) but the regular lunch time get-togethers hosted by Community Roundtable generally provoke some of the more interesting conversations I am involved in.

Like many/most of our Innovation Breakfast speakers, Rachel kept it casual, introducing everyone to the concept of how Community Roundtable works and setting us up for a conversation on things like:

• The difference between moderating an online community and true community management.  Moderators make sure content is appropriate & terms of service not being violated. Community managers deal with things at a higher level and looks at things like the goals of the community.
• How new community and social media tools are shortening sales and marketing funnels.
• How business strategy relates to your community strategy, if the first isn’t clear, the second won’t be either.
• Marketing’s role in community, often very content-oriented.
• Internal ownership of a community is very dependent on what the company thinks is important.
• Internal evangelism is very important to a community manager’s job.  Many community managers  say people don’t know what they do all day.
• Good community managers spend a lot of time on the back channel, behind the scenes.

I think if Rachel hadn’t had another appointment after our breakfast was over, we could have kept her there all day!

There’s some footage on our YouTube channel as well.  Thanks again to everyone who came out and contributed to the conversation, IBM Innovation Center for hosting us again and to Rachel for leading a terrific discussion!

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