It’s been exciting to see the evolution of the Community Manager role and how it is becoming mainstream across organizations ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 50 and with no matter as to profit or non-profit.
People have been avidly interested in pursuing this type of role and want to know how they can gain the necessary skills. Back in June of 2008 I offered 2 training programs to meet that need. It went great until I got sucked into the tech startup world and social media monitoring. Since then I have continued to mentor and scale the reach here through my blog.
Periodically people would request my courses when they came across the old posts referencing training. I always felt bad when I had to explain that my day job was busier than busy. So, I’m really pleased to see that WOMMA and the The Community Roundtable are offering training courses that are specific to Community Management (in contrast to Social Media in general) and they are created by credible people in the industry. Earlier this week Jeremiah Owyang covered the pro’s and con’s of the certification aspect of the Community Manager Training courses.
These courses will:
- fast track your knowledge base on the expectations of community management
- open your eyes to aspects that you didn’t realize existed and cause you to have even more questions
- be excellent for those of you that have been assigned or are spending a portion of your time in this new role
They probably won’t:
- make it easier to get a job (employers are getting 100’s of app’s per position) or more pay
- ramp a company’s adoption of social media (ie: embrace the value of community & related culture shift)
- replace the value of volunteering and showing leadership in an online community and the related experience.
If you’re interested in exploring community management and strategy these courses are a good place to gain the skills and an overview.
I would highly recommend connecting with like-minded people in one of the following communities:
- Facebook group Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelist
An active group that has new people joining everyday. There is a doc with social media jobs there.
Membership is free, but there is a process for requesting it.
These active forums are a part of Patrick O’Keefe’s iFroggy network. Patrick is the author of Managing Online Forums.
Jim Storer & Rachel Happe are the founders of this peer network. They have built a very active community that is based on resources, research and regular activities.
Seeking a job? Check out this Facebook group of Social Media Jobs
If you’re a practicing Community Manager, what resources have you found the most helpful?
[…] Connie Benson has written a post discussing from her point of view as a community strategist, and recommending additional […]
While I’m not a community manager (per se) I love this article; it’s such a hot topic these days but many people can’t clearly define the role of a “community manager”.
What I found VERY helpful here: The up front and honest opinions of what the course will AND won’t do. The resources will all be bookmarked today.
Thank you!
Thanks Mark! It’s true that the role is very ubiquitous and it should be.
It should be grounded in metrics and the projects should flow and grow with the needs of the company (just as social platforms change and community grows).
My concern is that ‘standards’ will try to put the role in a box. We need to make sure that the role evolves and serves the business objectives of the company.
Connie,
As a community manager, I’ve recently started http://mycmgr.com to try to provide a wide variety of viewpoints for all types of community managers. Both to learn from each other but also provide as a resource to those wishing to become community managers. I’ve also found #cmgrchat http://tweetchat.com/room/cmgrchat on Wednesday’s from 2-3pm est very informative. There is also a Community Builder group on Facebook that is a wealth of information, but you must be submitted and approved to become a member. This is only for existing community managers. I have plenty more but didn’t want to write a blog post in one comment.
Happy holidays!
Thanks for sharing a link to your site, Tim.
It looks like a great resource for aspiring comm mgrs to connect with practitioners!
I agree that #cmgrchat is excellent too.
Hi Connie,
Thanks for writing about the training course(s) we’re developing with WOMMA and ComBlu. The current module is the first of three we’ve planned and should help lay a solid foundation for those that are relatively new to community management. Future modules with be geared toward people with more experience and those looking to think about community from a strategic perspective. Our goal is not to define what a CM is as much as provide examples and best practices about how a CM operates and get students to form their own opinions about what community management means for them. We expect these modules will help companies scale their CM teams with a common viewpoint on how to think about community management.
We also plan to continually evolve the modules based on feedback from participants and the market in general. Just as community management continues to evolve, so will the modules. We don’t think there’s a “one size fits all” answer to what community management is and will endeavor to make that clear with the way we monitor and update the programs.
Thanks for your continued leadership in community management.
I would also note that no class will be able to teach the basic skill needed to be a successful Community Manager = empathy.
If you cannot empathize with your fans & customers, you will have a very difficult time, no matter what classes you take.
Also, you need to learn how to communicate with your community, not simply talk /at/ them or market to them. Leave acquisition up to marketing/brand/PR. Your first priority should be as advocate, along with retention.
[…] training program have been fairly mixed, at least within our own little bubble. Jeremiah Owyang and Connie Benson (who’s an instructor in the program) have some good posts about why this program matters, and […]