
John Wayne Zimmeman
I’ve been building global communities for over 20 years with some of the most innovative companies.
Each is unique in what they want to accomplish, but the pains are similar to growth.
Most brands that come to me say:
‘We do not have enough engaging participation.’
‘We are not getting an ROI yet.’
‘We are not sure we have the right strategy and/or are measuring the right metrics.’

I have a Simple Formula
I start by focusing on your business goal. Next, we look at, what’s in it for the community?
We have to address both of these and they have to be in alignment for community to work.
Why John Wayne?
I create trust in teams quickly.
We co-create projects/products based on qualitative and quantitative data.
I pull out my toolset and we get to work/play.
We get curiously engaged.
I align the team with your purpose and mission.
We follow through on the work needed to make communities solve problems and get results.
I ask the right questions and dig deep.
We all build relationships and change the culture so community can thrive.
Personal info
John Wayne Zimmerman
New York

Work Experience
- Developed and implemented a global community strategy for customers, staff, and partners
- Aligned and integrated a community of multiple interest groups to create trust, collaboration and ideation
- Established core metrics and measurements used for evaluation including bottom line revenue growth
- Established community programs, leadership and guest speakers
- Nurture the culture to grow adoption, build relationships, and amplify better contributions, not just more
- Created a customer advocacy program to integrate community with sales and marketing for MQLs+
- Identify problems, discover wants/needs, bridge gaps, create strategy and execution plans that foster communities that work together.
- Evangelize and inspire teams to adopt new visions.
- Translate business goals into digital solutions with global, multicultural, teams (i.e. ABB, Accenture, Google, Facebook, Four Seasons)
- Activate internal and external communities larger than 1 million participants (American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and American Medical Association)
- Lead cross functional teams to collaborate and build content that drives interests and participation.
- Drive campaigns from start to finish including ideation, goals, creative, KPIs, analytics, optimization and reporting.
- Create an experience where all stakeholders feel heard, seen and acknowledged - this is key to community success.
- Created and ran 10+ large communities of interest/practice for a total of 50K users globally
- Managed an editorial calendar for white papers, infographics, guides, press releases, announcements, videos, testimonials, and promotions
- Built a learning platform to educate the community with webinars, tele-seminars, workshops, masterminds, summits and conferences
- Created dashboards to measure and monitor digital investments
- Led internal staff and outsourced agencies to attain goals, reach benchmarks, manage corporate communications
- Created a roadmap that increased customer base 60% and boosted online product/service sales 5,000% in 5 years
- Grew email list 300% organically in one year
- Managed $1.5M budget; Directed 4 managers
- Established the genesis of eCommerce at ConAgra globally
- Recruited & assembled 50 staff, advertising agencies & design firms
- Developed global internet-based marketing initiatives
- Architected online strategy to launch 50 consumer branded websites
Education
Strengths
10+ years proven experience in creating large education communities
Senior leader with strong analytical, program management and written/verbal/communication skills
Creative leader that motivates and inspires others to be part of changing workspaces with teams that innovate
Hands-on facilitation experience with building communities online & offline
From my Blog
Let's Connect
Get in touch if you’d like to collaborate on your next project with me.
John Wayne Zimmerman
(+1) 917-740-4249
New York