— WHAT IS A COMMUNITY MANAGER?
A Community Manager is the face of a company, managing communications in both directions. This digital-savvy employee is responsible for all communications, public relations, social media, events, and content creation, among other things.
It’s a Web 2.0 communications role, incorporating online tools and in-person networking to create relationships and ultimately build the company’s brand, both online and off.
— COMMUNITY MANAGER FUNCTIONS.
- Working alongside the social media manager to generate new ideas for social content to drive communications.
- Planning social content and maintaining the content calendar ensuring social media content is regular, relevant and engaging.
- Writing engaging copy for use on relevant social media platforms.
- Engaging with Fans and Followers to build relationships with the community and encourage engagement.
- Weekly reporting on social media engagements within the community.
- Monitoring the success of the community and of social media in terms of the overall marketing strategy.
- Liaising with internal stakeholders to relay customer feedback insights gained from online conversations within the community.
— COMMUNITY MANAGER ABILITIES
Communication
It might sound like an obvious skill, but there’s a difference between being a good writer and someone who is a skilled communicator.
Community management is not just about crafting creative or engaging tweets – it’s also about listening to what members are saying and using this to shape future messages. The role is basically digital networking, so it is vital for a community manager to have excellent people skills, too.
Empathy and judgement
Following on from this, a community manager must be able to empathise with the customer and know how to respond in a manner that reflects the brand’s values and identity. Again, this is different to a social media manager or exec who might post as the brand, where as a community manager is always speaking on behalf of the brand – and as a human being.
Organisation and data analysis
While community management is based on a lot of human and emotional attributes, it also requires organisational skill and the ability to manage a fast-paced workload.
With multiple platforms to monitor, it is important to keep on top of how communities are responding in real-time, using analytics tools to measure things like reach, traffic and engagement.
Adidas, for example, shuts down homophobic comments on an Instagram pic using just two emojis.