Episode 068 - How to Get Resources for Your Online Community

00:00.00 Michael Sandoval Hello and welcome to another episode of peers over beers I'm 1 of your hosts Michael sandoval.
00:04.58 cdetzel And I'm the what other host Chris Detzel I was trying to come up with something better
00:09.34 Michael Sandoval Ah I know something clever like 1 other host. Yeah
00:22.91 cdetzel Yeah
00:28.93 Michael Sandoval no no I always giggle if it's pretty funny. Ah yeah
00:45.41 cdetzel Yeah
00:47.55 Michael Sandoval Boston Marathons and you're so that sounds incredibly healthy whereas I was just drinking and eating on a boat. So I yeah I consider in both marathons. Ah.
00:55.70 cdetzel Ooh that sounds good.
00:59.59 cdetzel Ah
01:01.13 Michael Sandoval Ah
01:15.53 cdetzel She did. Yeah you know I didn't she took it. no no this year There was only 1 run. Ah so I just cheered on and she she ran the marathon. She did her second best and ah
01:19.30 Michael Sandoval And how she do by them right? How you do did you did did you did you do like ah 1 of the runs.
01:34.18 Michael Sandoval Um
01:34.29 cdetzel At the Boston marathon so she's done 8 of them so at Boston yet. So I think she got a 3 hours and thirty one minutes or something like that. So it's good. Yeah
01:50.30 Michael Sandoval Yeah
01:52.47 cdetzel Just yeah
02:09.20 Michael Sandoval Congrats I think it's an incredible achievement I yeah I wonder if I envy I'm just look with awe now I would do it but I am in awe. Definitely an a.
02:09.83 cdetzel Yeah
02:28.42 Michael Sandoval Yeah
02:29.90 cdetzel Accomplish Lots of goals and I think that's what you have to do is whether it's in personal life business. Whatever it.
02:42.19 cdetzel Yeah.
02:47.92 Michael Sandoval She seems to be focused does that kind of world. You does it kind of feedback loop of pushing you more and she pushes you more that kind of back and forth like you feed off of each other in some way.
02:55.50 cdetzel Um
03:06.45 Michael Sandoval Ah
03:14.80 cdetzel Were alike in that kind of way you know what I mean I do feel like you know
03:15.39 Michael Sandoval Wow! Yeah
03:34.74 cdetzel Let's let's just say ah
03:37.97 Michael Sandoval Um.
03:50.61 Michael Sandoval Yeah
03:52.70 cdetzel She wouldn't be with me as soon. So yeah
04:01.50 Michael Sandoval Ah
04:07.89 cdetzel Yeah
04:18.80 cdetzel Yeah.
04:20.43 Michael Sandoval Right? So as you grow what is that critical point where you get going right? So I thought I thought we just do some whiteboarding I've got my spreadsheet open and I'm just going to write some stuff down and we can post this on the notes but it's it's a good way to kind of.
04:27.87 cdetzel I Like it who I like that even better because I can use it.
04:37.55 Michael Sandoval Get going and so I thought we would do the exercise. So the so here's let me see the problem statement and then we can go down to the legend problem statement is um today I have the beginning of a community tomorrow I want it to look like this however from getting from a to b. There's going to be growth. How do I plan for that growth that's on the cost side and I think we had another discussion whether it's another another episode is as I grow what is the offset of that cost and either a either in revenue. Potential share of revenue meaning I draw I grew some revenue somewhere else or ah cost reduction of something. Usually it's on the support side exactly correct. So I thought we do the cost side of the leisure which is the resource planning.
05:25.19 cdetzel Support side.
05:35.21 Michael Sandoval Um
05:35.50 cdetzel And yeah
06:59.00 Michael Sandoval Are there.
07:07.17 Michael Sandoval I just plug in some numbers and Bob's your uncle.
07:08.83 cdetzel Can put together something that you can just give me you know to plug in some numbers or you know there's this. You know this says these are the things that they'll do kind of like a you know job description is but not you know
07:33.21 Michael Sandoval Yeah.
07:39.58 Michael Sandoval Um
07:46.74 cdetzel Her.
07:57.95 Michael Sandoval And then we can kind of dig in and see how far that gets us and then maybe the next episode we do like some numbers but let's just try it this way so you can't see what I have but and there's way to share on this thing but um
08:10.58 cdetzel There's not.
08:15.54 Michael Sandoval Is how you know this is like real life. But so I'm gonna share with you chris and those who are listening will be able to see it I think on the show notes. But I'm going to send you a quick text of what did what I'm building so you give context of what I'm doing and wait was is chris detzel there we go Boom boom. So.
08:16.70 cdetzel And.
08:25.41 cdetzel Yeah
08:35.42 Michael Sandoval What I thought we would do is talk about big bugets and big buckets are around first. What is our aspiration look like the next is going to be around what are the resources that we need to to get to the end state. What does the software look like.
08:53.30 cdetzel Yep.
08:55.34 Michael Sandoval For that and then we can brainstorm to see if there's any other buckets that will be needed. Let me know if you get the text that I sent you so to give you description for those listening in I Think what you what I gave Chris was just a spreadsheet.
09:00.86 cdetzel I Think it just now got it. Okay.
09:10.40 Michael Sandoval Along the x-axis I have year 1 year 2 year 3 year four and year five and then I'm building out the big buckets. My first is aspiration. The second is on resources and the third is on software. So I thought we'd start a little bit on aspiration.
09:14.87 cdetzel Yep.
09:25.40 Michael Sandoval And so if we think about what we want to be in year five what does that look like I thought we'd put down some numbers. We'd have to say the numbers just the buckets of numbers. So the first 1 I put down was total membership. Um
09:46.85 cdetzel You could. You could say reg. What do? what's that Google Analytic number the users has that it yeah new New Users or or there's users and new users I would say users because it's a better. Yep.
09:54.90 Michael Sandoval Oh Unique users Also that a page views Unique users. Yeah
10:18.76 cdetzel Yeah
10:33.66 Michael Sandoval Um
10:42.56 cdetzel Yeah
10:50.49 Michael Sandoval Another area I'm thinking about is new customer growth as a result I'm trying to think something business specific like um I want that so what I'm thinking is in year five I want the community to be. Looking like this I want a community that is that is helping each other large and vibrant has some weight in the in in our space an asset to the company we have to describe what asset means and and so asset I think I'm putting things like.
11:26.58 cdetzel Yet.
11:26.99 Michael Sandoval Value to the company which is I'm reducing a cost I am bringing in new customers I have a larger share of voice right? Okay link generation. Okay
11:31.26 cdetzel Bringing in leads I think 1 is bringing in leads to like you kind of mentioned 2 is um
11:53.60 Michael Sandoval Ah
12:19.38 cdetzel The other piece is advocacy so are are we getting our customers to advocate for our brand right? are they giving us case. Studies are they are they you know going to events and talking about us. Are they you know giving us quotes or.
12:27.14 Michael Sandoval Excellent.
12:37.46 Michael Sandoval Excellent I like that. Ah that could be another 1 could be I don't know if this is something meant I'm just brainstorming. So if it's like at mentions of the company. Um yep mentions. Yeah.
12:38.37 cdetzel Anything like that. So.
12:44.85 cdetzel Yeah
12:57.20 Michael Sandoval Ah
13:03.70 cdetzel I mean wouldn't that be like organic seo for it like people are searching.
13:16.59 Michael Sandoval Customers and say can you name the top 5 um edm companies without and without help and sometimes a company will come up number 1 number 2 number 3 that rank means something because that's awareness right.
13:30.50 cdetzel Oh got it? Yep Brand Awareness How does community affect that. Do you think.
13:34.75 Michael Sandoval Oh because in my previous life. We've seen ah where it ranked was name. 1 thing that your company excels at doing and 1 of them was support and it was because of the community. And it was actually came out in the Brand study so if they didn't have it the valuation of that brand goes down That's how it was assessed and I wish I could share those data because but that's that's definitely a purchased ah research that.
14:00.85 cdetzel That's pretty cool.
14:06.19 cdetzel Yeah
14:09.43 Michael Sandoval Yeah
14:11.90 cdetzel Um
14:26.84 cdetzel So let's say I'm a director of online community and I'm looking to push engagement so I look at an engagement community manager that looks at you know some of those automated emails that are going out or they are they doing their you know are they working are people clicking on stuff.
14:29.50 Michael Sandoval Um.
14:45.68 cdetzel You know is there rewards and recognition badges. That's what that person would do right? Yeah
14:46.30 Michael Sandoval Okay
15:03.60 cdetzel Yet.
15:05.38 Michael Sandoval Manager those 3 I think it put you need moderators I think um maybe a paid subject matter expert. Maybe this is what they do or maybe we we pay subject matter experts. So I'm just gonna put in. Ah.
15:22.40 cdetzel I would come in and answer and ask questions.
15:24.29 Michael Sandoval Technical S and me aha technical s me Um
15:31.20 cdetzel Yeah
15:43.10 Michael Sandoval Even though I could be Yeah
15:48.33 cdetzel You know I have a webinar program Now you know these things are huge like a program manager for Webinars right? You know? and so um for the community.
15:56.22 Michael Sandoval Yep yep I think you need an email marketing person I think if you really get going. You need something who is an Seo guru.
16:11.96 cdetzel Um
16:11.99 Michael Sandoval Ah.
16:20.95 Michael Sandoval Oh totally I Think what I'm working is these are the roles of people now I need to assess how much of that percentage of individual do I need and is it worth putting that person as a full time is there enough effort there you know? ah.
16:27.83 cdetzel Um
16:35.10 cdetzel Um
16:39.33 Michael Sandoval Ah
16:49.35 cdetzel Content you know getting blogs and videos. You know.
16:59.17 Michael Sandoval Well
17:35.65 cdetzel And then I don't know if he kind of covered this but somebody that's you said technical I don't know if it's like a developer type person depending around the community itself and.
17:45.73 Michael Sandoval Yeah
17:50.80 cdetzel I Don't know if it's a developer but it's more of a person that can connect business systems from community to other business systems. You know the the company settings. Yeah.
17:58.95 Michael Sandoval Ah
18:06.93 Michael Sandoval Okay
18:18.90 cdetzel Yeah.
18:26.22 Michael Sandoval Then there is server costs. Um
18:37.28 cdetzel Yeah I mean that could that could be you know outsourced. But yeah
18:42.74 Michael Sandoval How about we do this third party development. That's something I know that's develop yep development consulting. Um
18:57.24 cdetzel Not oh I mean maybe but.
19:04.18 cdetzel Talk about content gus.
19:14.72 Michael Sandoval Try and think of the other stuff that I would I would do serve with match everything. yeah yeah I mean there's probably some office costs of like that. But that's kind of below the line. Um all right 3 buckets right? So let's think about.
19:16.48 cdetzel Um
19:32.22 Michael Sandoval Um
19:59.68 cdetzel Yet it.
20:07.15 cdetzel Yet.
20:09.83 Michael Sandoval Let's go back to community manager right? Let's just say we had to hire 3 community managers if that is true then we'll need a community a director of community right? So let's put that in here director of community.
20:19.38 cdetzel Yeah.
20:27.72 Michael Sandoval And that person can manage your community managers and your moderators. How's that and then you'll probably need a that marketing manager can manage your email person.
20:34.22 cdetzel Hip.
20:46.83 Michael Sandoval And your content creator if that makes sense and then we may do some shared services on Seo and maybe data analyst.
20:50.70 cdetzel Yeah
21:03.55 cdetzel Yeah
21:05.52 Michael Sandoval Yeah
21:13.48 cdetzel Um
21:23.89 Michael Sandoval Of what that looks like and I'm just writing these down So I'm gonna send this to you Chris Um oops. So let's okay
21:24.15 cdetzel Um
21:41.23 cdetzel Or saying to me
21:45.43 Michael Sandoval I'm saying to you right? versus showing? Um
21:58.30 cdetzel Has.
22:02.55 Michael Sandoval So today we have 1 director of community, right? you and you have shared services with a technical s and me like somebody who's answering your questions or you kind of like send it to the.
22:10.53 cdetzel Yep.
22:14.41 cdetzel Um
22:20.95 Michael Sandoval Universe internally.
22:25.10 Michael Sandoval But I think in these roles this you are playing part marketing manager part Community Manager part content creator maybe more like content organizer and ah.
22:33.18 cdetzel Um
22:43.82 Michael Sandoval Ah
22:50.10 cdetzel That's what I do today and a what a program manager for webinars too.
23:01.79 Michael Sandoval Manager now that's okay when you have say a total membership I don't know what your total membership is you? You can talk about if you want to let's just put. Let's just put 2000 just for kicks and giggles. Okay
23:10.52 cdetzel Yep.
23:18.94 Michael Sandoval But you feel like you're right now maxing out your time because you want to do other things but you don't have the time to devote to them right? So let's just yeah
23:29.58 cdetzel That's right? or or I'm doing these other things and I can't find the time to devote to the community completely.
23:37.31 Michael Sandoval Add 1 extra person to your to your to your organization. What would that be.
23:42.35 cdetzel Yeah
23:49.37 Michael Sandoval To her.
24:00.76 cdetzel Gamification Rewards recognition badging digital process right? um that piece and then you know the email piece so that person would focus solely on. It's definitely acquisition. But also the engagement piece that makes sense.
24:14.97 Michael Sandoval It does and ah I know we only have a full awareness but let me just send this to you so you have an idea of what I'm doing share as ah oh Microsoft why do you have to be like.
24:32.66 cdetzel Should just put it in the Google sheets and copy and paste and just do that later but I always say later and you always forget.
24:33.36 Michael Sandoval This Oh I should have done that. Okay.
24:44.93 Michael Sandoval Ah
24:48.69 cdetzel Just email it to me I'll put in a Google sheets realty 1
25:03.19 Michael Sandoval I know this is all live for everybody's kind of what the hell is it doing hold on chris that so Realtio I'm gonna send you this thing called community desktop. But at that the all right? so. If you see this now in your inbox Hopefully you see a quick will all right and and then we could probably stop here so that we can post this to google sheets. You can see what I'm doing let me know when you get it not explaining to you.
25:21.66 cdetzel Okay.
25:36.94 cdetzel It's coming now yet. Oh there it is okay.
25:41.40 Michael Sandoval All right? So there's just notes so it is what it is but so right next to year 1 I didn't put a title but I put it now as the words today I put under total membership I said I don't know what it is. We'll just put 2000 you have to tell me what the number is later.
25:53.10 cdetzel At.
25:58.77 cdetzel Yet.
26:01.12 Michael Sandoval Under resources director community I put 1 right and I should remove the 1 next to community manager but in a sense this is what your resources look like today. So you're able to do all these things with just 1 person with that much today and you're capped.
26:17.33 cdetzel Yeah
26:20.14 Michael Sandoval You cannot add so in the next line under year 1 I say oh don't know let's grow. Maybe what we'll do the numbers later but I said the next growth since you were able to do that with 2000? Let's make it four I put five thousand we'll pick. We'll do 5 four thousand. To get to that level I need to have myself so I have you as 1 and then I put community manager as 1 and then marketing manager probably half of someone's time that makes sense and so I'm kind of walking down through here the rest and saying.
26:48.77 cdetzel Who yep.
26:55.92 Michael Sandoval Content creator. Do we need to get somebody's time with that.
26:59.51 cdetzel I mean I remember 1 time you said if if you had all the money in the world. What would you do and you said a content machine. That's all I would do.
27:04.46 Michael Sandoval Yeah that's what I'm doing right now. Yeah
27:50.65 cdetzel Yeah
27:59.23 Michael Sandoval Knowing that you can't get half a community manager so part of that is going to now be a cost right? So for example for year 1 you have listed here marketing manager is a half and we'll cover this next chris so not that's worry about it. But I can't get half a person. So.
28:00.46 cdetzel Right.
28:18.16 Michael Sandoval Clearly that's going to be either a consulting service I'm gonna have to contract out with either our current environment or if with somebody at a cost right? What that looks like and we'll have to guess on the costs right? I remember in their old days. We'd work with ah with aquint and we would all.
28:23.95 cdetzel Yeah.
28:32.47 cdetzel I Think we have some ideas but I think we have some ideas. But yeah.
28:36.55 Michael Sandoval Ah
28:44.24 cdetzel Yeah
28:54.71 Michael Sandoval You just put in some numbers. Bottom line toll it up Bos your uncle.
28:57.81 cdetzel I like the registration piece because it's easy and people understand it and maybe puts a few other things in there but this is helpful. Well michael what this has been good.
29:08.25 Michael Sandoval Absolutely hope hope this helps a little bit. We can talk about it later. But once again I've gone over another episode of peers over beers. But maybe we can put this on google you can put on google she's but thank you very much I am 1 of your hosts Michael sandoval right? Chris nice talking to you talk you later.
29:18.73 cdetzel I will and I'm Chris Detzel