The recipe is easy right?
Decide on a strategy & build a platform. Toss on some content & mix in some social media tools. And you’re done? ……. not quite! You’re missing the most important ingredient: the one that stirs it all together & serves it up. What is a recipe without a cook? (the dish probably won’t create itself – the ingredients will just sit there).
It’s really important to invest a qualified community manager. They’re the mortar that binds your community together & grows it. Tish Grier has an excellent outline of Seven Traits of Highly Effective Community Managers. It’s focused on journalism application so I’ll generalize her great ideas:
- Commitment to "the cause". It’s very important for your community manager to believe in your cause. Their communications need to be transparent & authentic. The job has many challenges so they need to inherently believe in their work & the brand.
- Love people. The position is about connecting & communicating. There is interaction with all types, so a community manager needs to enjoy it. (This is why it’s a great position under marketing).
- Must enjoy technology. It’s a web 2.0 job. Technology is changing quickly. The tools are constantly shifting & evolving. One has to thoroughly enjoy being immersed. And if your product/brand is technology oriented then it’s natural to be involved in product development & providing feedback.
- Must understand online culture. Did I mention this a web 2.0 job? Working online is a bit different than face-to-face. A person needs to maintain a sense of humor & not take things personally. Working online requires a level of perceptiveness so that you can interact with all types of people.
- Powers of Observation. I just mentioned being perceptive but it’s more than that. Providing feedback on trends, monitoring brand & being ever present require one to be ever watchful. As a metacustomer the community manager is the eyes & ears for the company – all teams – and responsible for providing feedback from the customers.
- Flexibility. Community work is 7 days a week. Checking in on my communities & responding to their needs isn’t a 9 – 5 job. (I do sleep though). But I’m cognizant of the time zones when I add people to teams. It’s nice to have people providing assistance from around the world (so I can sleep! :) ).
- Life experience trumps youthful energy. Tish’s point is to not entrust this important job to an intern or someone who is a short-timer. The more life experiences a person has, the more they have to offer the community.
Scott Moore provides his insights based on her 7 topics.
What characteristics do you feel are essential for a community manager to have?
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
great post connie.
i agree you need someone that really ‘gets it’.
authentic excitement can’t really be faked. i did 2 speaking events with mitch joel this week and we seemed to come back to the same basic point in both. you need to be authentic and really committed to whatever your talking about. if you don’t love it, you cant fake it.
cheers
david
Connie,
I agree with all you have said here, but have a question for you: How does someone with those qualifications find a job as a community manager? I know you blogged months ago about how you got your job, but it might be worth a revist of the topic with the growth in the area this year.
Love the blog – but you know that already!
Hi Connie! thanks for picking up this post. I also re-published it on my blog, the Constant Observer…
As to callkathy’s question, I started community development as a volunteer co-ordinator for a local film festival, which I got from volunteering. That position and all others, including what I now do for Placeblogger.com, came about from networking and building a reputation as a blogger and community developer for a number of different projects. It was lots of trial and error for me–partly due to tools, but also due to the difference in online and f2f communication. oh, and I’m really grateful to the folks who’ve given me such cool opportunities :-)
[…] on June 18th, 2008 Posted by Connie in Job Seeking Recently I wrote about the importance of Investing in a Qualified Community Manager. Kathy asked me to address how to find a job in this […]
Connie –
Thanks a lot for your post. For young start ups, do you think that a community manager needs to be a fulltime employee? While I see the need for such a position, I need to balance that with budgetary constraints.
Hi Ephraim,
Many times I’ve recommended that this be a part time position. There are a couple of options: 1) if you have someone internally that has time have them devote part of their time. If not, then 2) find someone and start them on a part-time contractual basis. That will allow the position to grow & may be better for both parties.
[…] the role of community manager and their responsibilities is being discussed by Tamar Weinberg and Connie Benson the issue of managing and employing for the roles is still being decided […]
[…] Poynter Online: Seven Traits of Highly Effective Community Managers – Good list of traits for community management superstars [via Connie Bensen] […]