A community manager is an essential role in helping you manage and grow your online community. The role can mean different things to different organizations, but there are some general aspects of the role that will be true in every situation.
A Community Manager has three primary areas of focus:
Community Advocate - As a community advocate, the Community Manager’s primary role is to represent the community members. This includes listening, which results in monitoring, and being active in understanding what customers and stakeholders are discussing in the community, both internally and externally. They engage community members by responding to their requests and needs or just conversations, both in private and in public.
Community Evangelist - The Community Manager promotes events, products and upgrades to community members by using traditional marketing tactics and conversational discussions. As a trusted member of the community, the individual promotes appropriate featured content and moderate content that is inappropriate. The individual safeguards intellectual property (IP) and will be an advocate of the company’s vision.
Communications Manager - The Community Manager should first be very familiar with the tools of communication, from forums, to blogs, to podcasts, to external online communities such as Facebook and Twitter, and then understand the language and jargon that is used in the community. This individual is also responsible for mediating disputes within the community, and will lean on advocates, and engage detractors in a constructive dialog. The role is responsible for the editorial strategy and content planning, and will work with many internal stakeholders to create a sustainable content strategy. Sometimes the community manager is also the social media strategist, who is out in the social network channels making connections with customers, prospects and partners.
Do you have a community manager looking out for your online community? If so, how does the role vary in your organization. Are you a community manager? How long have you had your role? How much has it changed since you started?