Community Management

A community manager is meant to be a bridge between a brand and the online community it is looking to create. It’s one of the ways that many companies have opted to build brand awareness. Building a solid following on social channels has become the 21st-century equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising.

Community management is adjacent to social media management, but while they’re both working on what is essentially the same product, the social media manager is more focused on the production of content and strategy (such as hashtags). Meanwhile, the community manager is focused on the community guidelines and moderating conversations among community and social board members.

Good community management services include communication, empathy, sound judgment, and some organization and data analysis. With these skills, an online community can grow while building trust and value. This increased engagement could mean customers are more willing to leave testimonials regarding your product.

If you’re currently growing an online community, the best way to be proactive is to find the right community management team. If your community is young, you may find some members among your current crowd who exhibit traits of good community managers. They could be helping with new member integration or with building the community culture. If that’s the case, consider how you might incorporate them into your day-to-day activities.

Digital community management typically takes place on social channels, such as LinkedIn, but can also take place in a forum such as Slack or Discord, depending on the nature and growth of the community. As the community grows, the company may see a need to add more team members to the community management team.

A good community manager is a a good writer and a skilled communicator. They are the ones listening to what the community wants and helping to shape the future of new campaigns. Their role also involves responding to and moderating conversations on social media posts. This could mean shutting down harmful discussions, removing comments that could harm members, or turning off comments in some cases. They can also use analytics tools to see what content is getting the most engagement from their user base.

Online community managers typically need at least a bachelor’s degree in marketing, journalism, communications, or public relations, since these typically provide the well-rounded background required for the role.