So You Want to Be a Social Media Community Manager…

Social media roles have many responsibilities: strategy, content creation, community management, reporting, and so much more. Since the social media industry has grown and been taken more seriously, we have started to see these many responsibilities turn into individual roles. More specifically, social media community managers have been in demand.

“A community manager will post as a brand ambassador under their own account, not the brand’s, and work on developing the community by participating in discussions, finding new customers and listening to the current ones.”

Community management plays a vital role in the social media industry. If this sounds like an interesting role to you, I highlighted what I believe to be the top three most important personal attributes and skills of a social media community manager.

Be a People Person

When it comes to personal attributes, a social media community manager must be a people person. This person is on the front lines for brands on social—answering questions and dealing with customer service inquiries. This can be the good, bad, and the ugly. So good people skills are ideal. In addition, perception is definitely skewed online—it is difficult to tell someone’s tone if a message or comment is not written properly. Even more of a reason for community managers to understand the vital customer service skills.

In Paras Pundir’s Medium article, “9 Skills Every Community Manager Should Have | Experts’ RoundUp”, Pundir lists some essential personal attributes that I also agree with:

• “A community manager has the ability to listen and be calm in every situation.”
• “He/she should know talking, listening, understanding, empathizing and ensuring that everyone’s needs get fulfilled through a community.”
• “A community manager must have empathy for all the members of the community. He/She needs to find out what their members want to accomplish by being a part of their community.
  And for that, he/she has to care about their needs, their desires, their goals and do all they can to help them along with their path.”
• “A community manager must have the patience and skill to absorb details and offer quality, well-articulated insights, and inputs to their audience.
  Because sometimes showing care to people is very human.”

Engagement is Key

In this Sprout Social article, Chen says one of the main responsibilities of a community manager is, “Replying and engaging current community members.” (2020) A majority of this role is interacting with and engaging with the community. Acting as brand ambassadors, they help welcome new members and keep up the relationship with current members. Overall, they are nurturing the community’s growth, so it is crucial that responses are consistently engaging and authentic. If users know that they will get a positive and timely response, they are more likely to continue to engage with content. This will not only help the success of the community but also help the social media manager’s success in developing their strategy.

Strategy, Strategy, Strategy

Just because the social strategy falls under the social media manager’s responsibilities, it does not mean that community management is free-range. Strategy is crucial in every aspect of social media. For community management, strategy can include voice and tone, service-level agreement, types of responses, and so much more. A strong strategy can lead to success in the community—although success is measured over a longer period of time in community management, things like sentiment, brand awareness, and engagement metrics like comments can prove the success of good and well thought out community management.

Of course, this is not an all-encompassing list—like any other professional role, so much goes into being a community manager. People skills, engaging comments, and strategy building are, in my opinion, the top three must-haves for any community manager. What else do you think is crucial for community management? Let me know in the comments!

References

Chen, J. (2020, January 26). Social Media manager vs. community manager: What’s the difference? Sprout Social. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-vs-community-manager/

Pundir, P. (2020, February 20). 9 skills every community manager should have. Medium. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://medium.com/community-folks/9-skills-every-community-manager-should-have-82c9d93e33e3