Like most things in life, a community launch is best done with support. Who you invite to join you in this effort to launch a community matters perhaps more than any other decision you will make in this endeavor.

You’re used to multitasking and moving a mile a minute every day at work. As a community manager, you’ll never find a shortage of work to do. But that doesn’t mean that you should spend the bulk of your time on tasks like data entry or other work that isn’t directly related to connecting your community. Instead, you can use tools that help you work faster and make the tedious tasks of measurement, reporting, and planning easier. Then you can get back to the fun stuff.

No matter what kind of work you do, measuring progress is a challenge. Many organizations set arbitrary measurements for the results of their work. In fact, less than one-third of the 3,200 executives that MIT Sloan Management Review surveyed actually believed that what they measured matched their organization’s strategic objectives.

Determining what to measure is even harder for community professionals, who sit at the edge of a still-nascent profession and must carve out a new path.

How long can you run a brand community without clear organizational goals? A few years? One year? Chances are, even less. Without meaningful goals, it is nearly impossible to get support from the larger organization. And if you’ve ever run a community without these goals, you know how frustrating - and potentially demoralizing - it can be to build community in an environment that questions your work’s value.

 You want your community to succeed. You work tirelessly to plan content, reach out to members, host events, welcome people, and grow your community. But if you’re like thousands of other community managers, you may struggle to gain leadership buy-in, collaborate with other teams, and garner support for your work.