August’s Community Manager Breakfast focused on Internal Communication, a challenge that many departments face but particularly vexes community departments. We had a fantastic group with a lot of similar challenges and some great suggestions (I’m implementing at least two of them). A selection of them are below, but for the full shebang you’ll want to attend our next breakfast.

Thanks to Krista Gambrel for taking notes! You can finger her on Twitter @kristagambrel and  her company @mindieapp.

Biggest Challenges

• Getting Info: Many struggled with getting insight into roadmaps, what other departments were doing, etc.
• Participation: Getting team members to participate on an intranet, give them images for social, just give feedback.
• Brand Disconnect: On a similar note, a lot of CMs got negative feedback on certain posts but didn’t get any directional feedback about the brand to help shape those posts. Sometimes, even the general mission statement was a bit of a mystery.

Getting Info

Why is there a disconnect? Perhaps because people don’t understand the role of Community Management.

Show metrics if you can:

• Do customers spend more? Are they more loyal? More satisfied?
• What is the average case cost? The community answers questions for you and saves company money.

Not all products have metrics to report – some people don’t have sales goals. In that case, ask questions: What are the top 3 things your boss needs to have done? Come in with ideas and recommendations. Be diligent about following up.

Participation

Pro Tip: “What’s Up Wednesday?”

Four questions:

• What are you excited about this week?

• What are the challenges you face?

• What is something you have read?

• (One question cycles through)

Then follow up with public thank-you’s (people notice if their name isn’t in there, and feel bad). Helps set a habit for participation.

Is it spammy? Sure, but if it’s a small enough team and you have buy-in from management, it works.

Brand

•  Ask for Forgiveness and not for permission – you gotta publish something
• Try not to be defensive- feedback is really important
• Ask them to describe the brand voice as a character – it helps!

• Asking what did the person liked is more useful than what they didn’t like.

General Tips 

• Forgive, forget and move on. It’s easy to get passive-aggressive. New day, new game.
• Make time for direct communication. Make time for a “standing-meeting” and have direct communication to talk about main points.
• Be empathetic to what your colleagues are looking for and elicit empathy.
•  Know your motivators, and internal audience.
•  Communication isn’t about what you say, but about how you act and how you say it and also how you listen.
•  Don’t be afraid to ask questions and listen. Its so important in extracting information.