Over the years I've seen a couple of disasters hit innocent communities.  Actually, come to think of it, I've also seen some disasters happen to communities that had it coming (this is coming from my fairly biased opinion of course).

Anyway, these disasters usually come in 4 different shapes:

1.  A PR disaster brings a negative element to the community

2.  A revolution among super users / popular users on the community tears the community up

3.  A competing community has its users come over to "bomb on" another community

4.  A significant hardware failure, software failure, or scripted attack results in the community going down

I've been the victim of 3 out of 4 of these on a few of the communities I've run over the years.  Conversely, I've had the immature pleasure of leading the charge in causing one of these disasters for another community, so I would like to think that I've lived on both sides of this stressful chapter in Community Management.

The good news is that this kind of stuff tends to happen more often to hobbyist communities rather than to communities that are tied to businesses.  However, the bad news is that when it does hit a business-oriented community, it tends to really rattle any sort of confidence that the business had in their social-media endeavor.  This ultimately results in the business sometimes wanting to pull up stakes altogether and shut down the community.

Whatever you do in the face of this sort of disaster, dont give up!

In my next article, I'm going to tell you what I've figured out as the best solutions on how to recover from all 4 of the above.

As Sam & Dave once sang, "Hold On, I'm Comin".

Looking back on the 2nd Annual Lithium Customer Conference, I'm left feeling a bit sad and also, simultaneously, pretty psyched.

First, thanks to everybody that showed up.  At this time; I know travel budgets are being cut into so I'll speculate that it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince Management that it is ok to jet-set out to San Francisco in order to attend a conference.  Still, you folks made it.  In particular I want to give a shout-out to...

...Makoto and Aya from Symantec - Japan who came all the way from Tokyo.  So good to finally meet you and hang out. 

...Also, major props to Phil from SCEE - Playstation Europe who came out (again) from the Big Smoke.  Always a pleasure.

...And finally, to the man who delivered a fantastic demo of his community and some of the business behind it, I tip my headphones to my old friend Kevin from Barnes & Noble.  Good looking out.

So with all of the good people I had a chance to see again (MarkH, JohnG, the guys from PGP, etc), I would like to also say how good it was to meet one of our legendary SuperUsers (EricaL), along with Kathy from VZ, MattL from the house of CAD, Carolyn and Srhidar, and many others.  Here is to hoping that you all come back next year (and bring your friends).

So why would I be sad?  Well, probably because Lithium is all grown up.  I'm not a parent but it feels like I just saw my kid off to college.  Wow, have we come a long way!  Between the Analytics Services that we're conquering and the product roadmap, I feel like the sky is the limit.  Trust me, last year was no slouch, but this year....well, I'm feeling like we've ramped up enough to get two or three times as much as we got done in 2008 (which was a lot, btw).

I know all sorts of folks are getting geeked up for what we plan to do with Twitter, but because 140 character limits dont excite me, I like to put my eggs in the TKB basket.  In fact, my new mantra is, "its all about the TKB".

Anybody that knows me, knows that I'm obsessed with SuperUsers and their expertise.  Being a SuperUser myself, I randomly go to many communities that I have little to no interest in, just to see what the SuperUsers are like.  Its kind of like how my girlfriend bought this big comic book on Vice Presidents, which I spent an hour reading this morning.  I'm not obsessed with the history of the Vice Presidential office, but if it is presented in a unique way (and full of expertise), count me in.

That is why I <3 SuperUsers.  If it is some random guy from Alton, Illinois that is a complete maniac when it comes to understanding routers or something, I like reading his posts.  He could be scooping ice cream at Ben & Jerrys during his working hours, but by night he is an absolute walking encyclopedia on how to fix / configure a router.  That is the guy who has killer content, AND THAT is the guy who should be building the TKB.

For those of you who dont know what the Lithium TKB is....well, it is the dawn of a new age in terms of how to bronze the SuperUser's content.  I cant wait!

I've been blessed with the high-class problem of having to work my tail off to stay ahead of the game here at Lithium.  Between the new 9.0 platform being rolled out (and wow, check out the new Lithosphere!), the new Community Health Report, and all the other day-to-day strategic / tactical things that a Customer Success Manager does, I'm feeling dead tired.  We're busy over here, and in these times of economic woe, I'm grateful for it.

Still, we've got another huge milestone for the year coming up, and that is our 2nd annual Customer Conference.  *applause*

For those folks planning to attend, I can tell you this, you could not ask for a better MC than Sanjay (our Chief Marketing Officer).  Sanjay is one of the best presenters I've ever seen.  Everytime he gets up and speaks during company meetings, the room is giddy.  I kid you not.

Looking at the agenda, and if I was a Lithium customer, the things that I would most like to see are the Product Roadmap presentation and anything related to ROI (and many of our presentations will touch on ROI in one way or another).  Think about it.  If you run a business, you want to know two things:

1.  How can I grow my business and earn / save money

2.  What are my partners building for me, so that I can wrap those things into #1

As a forums fanatic / SuperUser, the presentation I will personally most like to see is the Community Health Index explained (Data and Insights).  That is the kind of stuff that really fascinates me.  It takes me all of 5-10 minutes to determine whether any community out there is worth my time or not.  If I now have a number that can quantify whether a community is healthy or not, that I can trust, point me in that direction. 

I would love to know what are the best communities out there for motorcycles, record collecting, etc.  Imagine if this number was adopted across all the communities on the internet.  You would know right away what was the best, and where to go.  It would also raise the bar for those out there trying to make their communities better.  Those that had lame communities might also have to shut up shop (haha, that'll be the day).

Anyway, the Community Health Index is my bread and butter.  I'd be curious to know what other people really want to see.

Oh, I know...

A few of my customers are complete data maniacs.  I know that they'll be there front and center for Joe's presentation on Measurement and the Community Journey.  There is a reason that Joe is the OG community guy.  He has been out there evangelizing Community as a business solutionn for almost 15 years!  Joe, like Sanjay, is a great presenter. 

Sometimes I call Joe the "Great Diplomat", because I've seen him talk many a customer off the ledge with their bad ideas.  In the past, we have had customers that were completely hamstrung by some business requirement that would spell certain doom for a community.  When we escalate it to Joe, he is almost always able to give the customer convincing, quantifiable, and qualified reasons as to why their business requirement is at odds with what makes a successful community.  His presentation is on my must-attend list.

Going back to the data-maniacs for a second; I have to admit that I'm starting to take sincere interest in their perspective.  Now that we have the Omniture Integration, I'm starting to get the bug.  Math has never been my thing, but now that I look at metrics numbers in the context of a successful (or failing) community, this kind of stuff has my interest.

Anyway, thats all for now.

The Customer Conference - Get into it.

1.  There needs to be a Project Manager that can rally the troops internally to get things done and meet deadlines.

2.  There needs to be a Community Manager that needs to learn the software and the best practices associated with how to run a successful community.

3.  There needs to be a business stakeholder so that issues can be escalated

What kind of issues would need to be escalated?  Well, for one thing, please dont make your community private.  Sure there are some communities that absolutely HAVE to be private (for a number of reasons), but if you can get away with making most of it public, than push as hard as you can to do so.

Anyway, back to my point; there is a lot of work to be done during the launch process.  I acted in a play once at my community center, back in 7th grade, and I think going through the launch is a lot like getting a theatrical play off of the ground.  All the parts need to be cast (people need to "know their roles").  People need to learn their lines and cues (you can equate that to learning best practices and engaging Super Users).  People need to build the set (you can equate that to board structure and the skin).  And it all has to be done in 4 to 6 weeks.

Now, I'd like to think that Lithium runs a tighter outfit than the theatrical manager of the Highcrest Community Center.  And I will definitely say that the Lithium Customers are more organized than the 7th graders that typically star in those plays, but I cant help but thinking that the whole Launch Process really does compare well to putting on a play.

There are nerves about making a deadline.  Thoughts that maybe somebody was miscast.  Problems on the set.  Somebody acts like a diva, etc.

But we always come through.  And when I say we, I mean Lithium and the customer.

A lot has changed at Lithium in the last 2 1/2 years (since I've joined).  We have online / downloadable training modules now.  Before, we used to have these crazy Admin Training webinars that Robb L. and Scott D. would do.  It was 90 minutes of just pure brickwall Lithium training.  Now, the education modules are bite-sized, and customers can learn how to use the software at their own pace.

• CSMs used to be purely reactive a few year ago.  Now we have Success Checkpoints regularly with our customers.
• We have a Customer Case Portal where everybody on the Lithium team (and the customer's team) can see all of the open issues.
• And of course, we have the Lithosphere.

Oh, and we have the Customer Conference too.  You're coming to that, right?

A Customer Success Manager sometimes wears their crown on a troubled brow.  Why is this?  Well, we want to give our customers the best advice possible, even when their business objectives stand in stark contrast to our best practices.  How do you tell a customer that launching their community in 2 weeks can be done, but it is not necessarily a great idea?  Better yet, why would you tell them that?

I think that most companies arrive at their need for a community in a variety of different ways, but the result is always the same.  Once they decide that they're going to go for it, it needs to have been launched yesterday.  Out of the 50+ communities that I've launched, less than 5 were able to say that "we're going to take our time and get this right".  At least 20 of them needed it in less time than our launch process typically takes (about 4 weeks).  I'd say that about half of them were comfortable enough with the 4 week schedule.

What about those 20 that wanted to "move really fast"?  Were they successful?  Are they successful now?  Was the launch fun (believe it or not, it should be)?

8 of them eventually became failures.  Partially because the companies laid off a lot of people and streched their resources pretty thin, and partially because the people that were put in charge of the community never followed one single best practice.   Why did we spend so much time, working at such a brisk pace, to get the technical things right, when really we should have taken the time to study best practices and work up plans to have a successful communities?  

1 became a failure because they never checked with legal and/or the CEO before starting the project.  It has been ready to launch into Production for a year, but is being held in stasis due to the fear of possibly "exposing" something that would create legal risk.  Why are we rushing to get something out that does not have internal buy-in?

3 never promoted their community, and were thus doomed to never see any traffic.  My question for those customers?  Why are we rushing to get something out the door when nobody will ever know it exists?

1 of them decided shortly after we rolled their community out that they did not actually need the community, and that instead, they would save this one for a rainy day.  Huh?

7 of them did become successful.  But it took a lot of "cramming" on the part of the Community Management Teams.  Learning how to use the Lithium application in a week or two is not for the faint of heart.  Being able digest best practices for Community Management and then reconcile them with business objectives and the projected audience takes a bit of thought, and probably deserves a bit of reflection.

So, can I draw some kind of scientific parallel between a rushed launch and community success?  No, I cant.  However, I can tell you (from an anecdotal perspective) that it is easier to launch a succssful community when you follow the process that seems to work for the majority of the teams out there.

Didnt Mom always say "take your time and get it right" or something like that?  I know that she always said, "those cookies are for dessert, not dinner", but I'm having a hard time figuring out what that has to do with the Lithium launch process, so just forget this part of the article.

Tags are meant for the entire community (of course you can slice and dice permissions to not make that the case, but lets leave that aside for the moment).  Because forums are a many-to-many arena, tagging takes on a folks-onomy kind of momentum.  Cataloging is performed by the entire population, and thus the content is crystallized and categorized by the masses.  Forum content can be a massive amount of content, so who better to catalog it than the community (the masses) with tagging.

With blogs it is the one-to-many arena of communication.  Although people can tag the blog and also tag the comments, the onus is on the author to catalog his or her own articles.  Labels are meant for the blog author or those on the Community Management team to maintain (it is not a permission for the masses).  For example, people can tag things with words like apples, oranges, bananas, broccoli, carrots, and celery, but it is the blog author that can label his articles as “fruit” or “vegetable” and then serve it up to the readers.

Imagine a room full of doorknobs littering the floor.  There might be antique knobs, modern knobs, etc.  You have to pick them up and fit them onto a door.  Those are tags. 

Now imagine that room with a few doors in it and on each door there is a little label that says where the door leads to.  Somebody has been really thinking through how to form your room experience.  With the doorknobs everywhere, the collective masses have just given you tools that are up to you to interpret. 

Clear as mud, right?

The Customer Success Management department here at Lithium has an interesting story.  When the Customer Success Management department officially started three years ago, it literally had 1 official employee for that role.  Before that, our Customer Success Managers were the software Developers themselves at Lithium or other members of what is now our Executive and/or Management team.  The service that a Customer Success Manager provided back then was similar to what we provide now; a traditional technical support model that is mixed with a get-it-done approach in response to extra tasks that arise when working with a wide array of customers; all of which have somewhat unique needs.   However, in scaling our department with our company’s growth we have completely standardized the Launch Process and now have concrete best practices that have been culled directly from launching 100+ communities to pass along to our customers as we provide ongoing support. 

The Customer Success Management department now has a staff of 8, whereas three years ago, there was 1 person dedicated to the role.  Our number of what I will call defined "micro-services" has now has doubled.  I know the term "micro-services" sounds kind of weird, but bear with me.  We wear so many hats that have service approaches to them, but they all eventually roll up into one service, which is known as "Customer Success Management".  So when I slice up the pie of all the different things we do, I feel inclined to call each one a micro-service.  Not because they are micro in stature, but because they really do add up to a gargantuan service.  Kind of like Voltron.   

We now oversee almost every aspect of Community - Year 1 for our customers.  In the past, we had help from Community Management Services group for the Community Management aspects of Year 1, but the lines have blurred a bit since then.  Without exception though, we are 100% of the technical Support that Lithium offers, regardless of whether the customer is in year #1 or year #9 with us.  That is a pretty a tough burden to shoulder in tandem with Community Management support, but I'm proud to offer this level of support at such a boutique level, and for me, it is fun too.  I am a fanatic for forums, so any chance I can get to talk about them and discuss strategy on making them better is a pleasure for me.

And this may sound kind of strange, but I make it my personal goal to infect the customer with this kind of enthusiasm.

The moment a Customer Success Manager gets a new customer, we start going over that customer's service order and putting in a request for a staging server to be created that will reflect all the features of the application that the customer is expecting to see.  Then we put a basic skin on there so that the first time that the customer sees their "newborn" community it actually slightly resembles the aesthetics of their corporate site.

Next, we meet with the Lithium Account Manager of that customer in order to get a snapshot of the customer's business objectives and team members that the customer will be bringing into the launch process.  This is before we have even made contact with the customer.  When we do make first contact, we initially reach out to the customer's project manager and/or business stakeholder to introduce ourselves and have an informal discussion on what the coming 6-8 weeks will look like as the customer goes through the Lithium launch process.

We tend to learn a lot during those short pre-kickoff meetings.  They are prime opportunities to take stock of what potential hurdles may be in front of us, or to confirm that everything will be smooth sailing.  Whatever the outcome, they ultimately prepare us for the next meeting; which is the big one:

The Kickoff Meeting. (cue starter pistol)

And I will blog about what that meeting looks like in my next article.