Community Management has been perceived as the next big leap in brand management of any organization with its external stakeholders/customers. It has developed into a platform where the organization engages with their audience and cultivates and nurtures their relationship with their followers.
But community management has started transcending the border and entered the realm of stakeholders within the organization. MNCs across the globe have started investing heavily in nurturing the culture and building the sense of community among their employees. The benefits of an internal community management for an organization are at par with the benefits they receive from engaging with the clients.

What is a community?

A community provides you with a sense of belonging as you connect with people based on your shared interest or ideologies.

A community provides people with a feeling of belonging and a network of other people they can connect with based on their shared interests and/ or characteristics. And that’s why so many brands today are beginning to invest in the creation of communities for their customers, employees, and fans — as part of a process called community management.
Organizations have started using mediums like Slack to promote such communities wherein like-minded individuals can come together to feel this very sense of belonging at their workplace. Which in-turn generates an atmosphere of support, camaraderie, and inclusion in the organization thus boosting the employee engagement exponentially.

What are the benefits of an internal community management?

Here are some potential benefits that the organizations can derive through a synergized community management within their workplace:

1. You can intentionally create and nurture a culture that is in line with the core values of the organization.
2. Community Management involves identifying certain groups within your organization (ranging from chess enthusiasts to trekkies!). Promoting them can drive the energy and attitude of the employees there by re-invigorating the employee’s engagement.
3. Community Management is a two-way street – It helps you understand the sentiments running through the organization. It lets you obtain real time feedback and ideas from your employees and gives you the best platform to have a real “conversation”.
4. Community Management serves as the best tool for crisis management wherein it gives you the control on how information spreads across the organization (definitely more effective than water cooler conversations!).
5. A successful change management initiative thrives on an effective transformation. These communities are one of the best mediums to get the buy-in from your employees to thrive through such transformations.
6. Within an organization, an employee might have limited reach if they were to build their relationship organically, or to the extent of their “community”. But community management let’s them leverage knowledge and expertise across the organization.
7. Most organizations practice an open-door policy, but they have limited technological prowess to create a more productive outcome from this exercise. A well-established community management provides a platform for employees to voice and express their opinions.
8. The power of community management resides in the ability for an organization to have more nuanced and personal conversations with its employees across hierarchies and surpasses the complex layers of the formal organizational structure.