This year at Super Forum we had so much fun highlighting a few of our clients who went above and beyond with their community building. It was hard narrowing it down to pick just one team per category—we’re lucky to have many community experts as clients!—but we are very proud of the teams we chose as winners.
So, without further ado, the winners of the 2017 Higher Logic Floyd awards are:
Most Successful Online Community
Dynamics GP User Group
Launched in 2013, the Dynamics GP User Group (GPUG) has successfully elevated a software user group into a member acquisition and retention titan. In 2017, they’ve experienced 60 percent non-member to member conversion rates and 81 percent member retention rates. Their discussion digests average over 45 posts a day, offering immense value to their 31,000 members.
Most Successful Community Launch
Perkins School for the Blind
Launched a year ago, the Perkins School for the Blind online community has successfully brought together professionals from all over the world with different cultural backgrounds and time zones to improve educational services offered for visually impaired children. Over half of the 291 members have contributed to their discussion groups, creating over 700 posts in the year since they’ve launched. Read more about their community here.
Best Main Site Design
International District Energy Association
With a modern, clean design and intuitive information architecture, the International District Energy Association’s main site is a standout. It surfaces the information most critical to its members and shows incredible restraint in keeping noise to a minimum. To help capture and engage its members, the site is fully responsive and strategic in prioritizing content in its mobile design.
Best Community Site Design
Public Lands Alliance
In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, the Public Lands Alliance site achieves what is not easy – combining a main site and community site in a way that keeps user-generated content front-and-center. They have created a homepage that continues to have fresh, new content that encourages engagement, and they have prioritized the user experience, creating easy-to-use resources for information-sharing and recruiting.
Community Manager of the Year: Simona Ciampi
American Association for Clinical Chemistry Artery
As the Associate Director of Online Members Engagement at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Artery, Simona focuses on creating plans and driving adoption of the association’s online community, engaging and activating members with tactical psychology, marketing, communications, and people skills. She increases engagement from within her team of ambassadors with frequent contests.
Innovation Awards
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards
As a certifying body, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards community was designed to support candidates who are pursuing financial certifications. The community attracts and engages candidates, provides a place for them to share advice and personal and offers support while they go through the rigorous preparation process. Since launching the site, the CFP Board has seen active community participants experience a 10 percent higher pass rate on the certification exam compared to non-community participants.
Discovery Educator Network
The Higher Logic-powered Discovery Educator Network (DEN) online community provides a place to continue to strengthen the bonds created through the organization’s live events and brings a broader audience into the mix. Unique privacy restrictions required innovation with data integration and introduced engagement challenges.
Automation Rules Master
Sigma Theta Tau International
Sigma Theta Tau International enhances engagement with 62 well-choreographed automation rules. They not only leverage out-of-the-box best-practice rules, they’ve also created custom rules to welcome and thank chapter leadership based on when users join/leave the community; encourage mentor/mentee enrollment by targeting emails based on job encourage members to join communities of interest based on demographics.
We are so grateful for our wonderful clients! Keep up the good work and we look forward to announcing next year’s winners.