What is a community manager, exactly?
In addition to Blogging Agents, Community Managers are one of the fastest growing professions in the United States and Europe. The emergence of Community Managers as a profession blossomed in 2007 as online social networking was raging into mainstream and social media was subsequently evolving into a marketing platform.
This is a full time sport and it’s here to stay! Your business can’t afford to stay disengaged.
Every network has some purpose, whether it’s to stay connected, discuss common interests, or promote a belief, brand or service. Community Managers are the leaders behind this purpose. They hold the creative and collective vision of their social networking community, managing relationships and collaborative processes built on strategy and ideas implemented in real time.
The 5 C’s of Successful Community Management:
- Content – Bring value to your community.
- Context – Provide a deep understanding of the participants in your community.
- Connect – Think about the value provided by connecting members of your community.
- Continuity – Sustaining efforts over time, ensuring a productive, enjoyable community.
- Collaboration – The idea of working with a community to share, engage and grow collaboratively.
What to look for when hiring your Community Manager:
- Articulate – S/he must speak and write well, and be comfortable doing it.
- Social – S/he must enjoy being social. S/he should be comfortable and confident in all social settings.
- Professional – S/he must be able to stop and think. Discretion is mandatory.
- Adaptable – You can’t prepare for the reaction of your community. Flexibility and the ability to adapt quickly are key to a successful community.
- Enthusiastic – Passion begets passion. People are seeking inspiration today more than ever. Sincere enthusiasm spreads throughout your community.
- Connected – Must enjoy connecting people to people, initiating introductions constantly.
- Organized – Must enjoy heavy content and be able to create and maintain a content calendar of events (Tweet Ups, Blogs, Posts, etc) to build and maintain your community.
- Polite – Must be courteous under any circumstance, respond gracefully under pressure, and express gratitude for every member in your community.
The number of social media players is growing exponentially every day around the world. Your community is already out there somewhere. It’s up to your community manager to find them and build a relationship with them.
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