ONLINE COMMUNITIES
Most community investments fail quietly.
Not with a dramatic collapse — just slow disengagement, executives who've stopped asking about it, and a platform that technically exists but doesn't do much. Clocktower Advisors helps organizations figure out why that's happening and build something that doesn't.
The problem we work on
Community failures rarely announce themselves. The platform is running. People are logging in. Reports go out. But underneath: participation is hollow, governance is improvised, and no one can tell the leadership team with confidence whether the investment is working.
The failure modes we see most often:
Misaligned Purpose
The community was built to serve a business goal, but members experience it as a broadcast channel. Engagement drops. Administrators run out of ideas.
Platform Dependency
The organization has built its community on a vendor’s terms. When pricing changes or the platform gets acquired, there’s no exit plan.
If any of that sounds familiar, that’s where we start.
Activity Mistaken as Health
Dashboards show logins and posts. Executives see the numbers and assume things are fine. The trust underneath is eroding.
Governance Gaps
No one owns the hard decisions — moderation, escalation, platform changes, member data. When something goes wrong, teh scramble is expensive.
What working with Clocktower Advisors looks like
Our approach is phased because the risks at each stage are different. Rushing from "we want a community" to "we launched a platform" is how most of these investments go sideways.
Imagine & Align
Before anything is built or bought, we run workshops to establish shared clarity: what the community is actually for, who it serves, what success looks like in plain terms, and what the riskiest assumptions are.
Deliverables: community canvas, stakeholder alignment notes, prioritized roadmap.
Build & Launch
We support product ownership, project management, and governance design through launch.
Deliverables: launch plan, onboarding flows, seed content strategy, moderator training, launch-day playbook.
Plan & Validate
Assumptions get tested before they get built. We use interviews, surveys, and environmental scans to confirm real member needs — not projected ones.
Deliverables: personas, journey maps, community charter with governance rules and decision rights.
Evaluate & Select
Platform selection is a risk decision as much as a features decision. We evaluate options against your requirements, your governance needs, and your ability to exit if the vendor relationship changes.
Deliverables: evaluation rubric, vendor demo facilitation, negotiation support.
Grow & Thrive
Healthy communities require active governance, not just content. We provide weekly coaching for community managers, analytics tied to business outcomes, ambassador program design, and ongoing governance support as platforms and goals evolve.
Community Manager Recruitment
If you need someone to run the community, we can help you identify professionals with the right experience for your industry and the judgment to handle what the role actually demands.
Additional support
Community Manager Coaching
For new or developing community managers, weekly calls provide support, accountability, and current knowledge from the broader community industry.
Measurement & Stakeholder Reporting
We help you define the right metrics and build reporting that answers the questions your leadership team is actually asking — not just activity counts.
Why Clocktower Advisors
Clocktower Advisors was founded by Todd Nilson, a community strategist with more than a decade of experience inside organizations where communities were supposed to work and didn't. Todd started in tech recruiting — which is fundamentally about listening and matching — then moved into enterprise social platforms and online community strategy in 2013. Clocktower has been the through-line since 2015.
Our edge isn't a proprietary framework or a technology preference. It's pattern recognition: we know where communities quietly go off the rails, and we know how to slow decisions down before they become irreversible ones.
We work with B2B technology companies, professional associations, and mission-driven organizations. Engagements range from fractional strategic leadership to full lifecycle support.
Our Services
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Let us help you review what’s working and what needs work in your online community. We can help you put together a plan to turn around problems with growth and engagement.
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Lost on the sea of community platform options? Let us help you navigate your way to a platform choice that fits your organizations budget and the needs of your customers and partners.
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Community setups can be complex. Let us work with your platform implementation team to set the right configurations that align with your strategy and your community members’ needs.
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Communities need community managers to run them. Clocktower Advisors helps you identify top talent community professionals who have relevant experience with your industry vertical and the right energy to make it all come together.
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If you’ve got a new or inexperienced community manager, our coaching option may be the right choice. Weekly calls with your community managers will help them feel supported and informed about the latest happenings community professionals should know about.
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What doesn’t get measured seldom improves. Our community advisors and strategists have practical, long-term experience to help you set and track progress. We’ll also help you to communicate that progress effectively to your leadership team and stakeholders.
Ready to have a direct conversation about where your community stands?
No pitch deck. No obligation. Just a conversation about what's actually happening and whether we can help.