Do you enjoy watching Wendy’s take shots at other fast food restaurants on Twitter? That is a company that has created a name for itself with brand personality. They are gathering a community around themselves online, encouraging interaction amongst the brand and audience members. Whoever they are, Wendy’s community manager deserves a raise.
The key to a successful brand community is the community manager. They are the driving force behind the audience’s perception of a brand’s image. What exactly does community management entail and what does the manager specifically do? Let’s take a closer look.
What is Community Management?
Community management includes designing, building, and maintaining an effective community. It is also an essential part of building a strategic business in the modern world. People are more lonely than ever and want to feel like they belong to something. Providing a space to belong creates brand loyalty among followers, which is an important part of business revenue.
Communities are one of the most effective ways to support member learning, growth, and productivity. They play a central role in developing more innovative organizations. Because of this, it’s important to have professionals who understand the dynamics of the community they are interacting in. They significantly help the company transition in better ways to serve its audience.
Community Manager Job Description
Basically, the community manager is a bridge between a brand and its audience. They set the tone for interactions and control the audience’s perception of the brand. For this reason, the manager utilizes content distribution, community support, and digital engagement, building the brand’s presence and audience trust.
Community managers must have intimate knowledge of the company and its goals. If they have no knowledge or experience with the company, they cannot confidently address the target audience. The managers need productive relationships with both the brand and the audience to properly bridge the two.
The community manager job description will vary from company to company depending on their need, but most brands need someone with:
- Well-developed soft skills
- These skills include compassion, empathy, and the ability to make people feel heard.
- A background in a support-related field
- A deep brand understanding
- Ability to create engaging content
- Public Relations skills
- Familiarity with social media
- Adaptability
Generally, the community manager role requires being able to engage audiences on different platforms and outlets. It won’t always just be social media, sometimes it’s also online forums or even in-person. The goal is to reach all audiences where they are. The different spaces have different cultures and requirements. Community managers should navigate this while maintaining a consistent brand tone and voice.
Community Manager Jobs
While the term community manager makes it seem like this is just one role, in truth it has grown far beyond that. Of course, one person is not always sufficient to meet the needs of the communities. The responsibilities are expanding, and new subsections of the field are being added every day. One person altogether cannot fulfill analytics, content, and governance all on their own anymore. By comparison, a community management team for larger companies might include:
- community manager
- community specialist
- operations manager for a community
- community architect
- director of community
- community program owner
- content manager for the community
- community strategist
- chief community officer
- digital workplace manager
- intranet manager
- associate community manager
- VP of Community
- customer experience manager
As a matter of fact, this isn’t even an exhaustive list of the different community jobs available nowadays. Smaller companies can get away with a smaller team, or even, surprisingly, just one person. As they grow, though, it is wise to continue adding to the team to utilize your manpower more effectively.
Keep Connected with Your Community Using StayTouch
StayTouch is an app that combines modern networking and easy relationship management. Build a community with ease, instantly exchange information, and explore scheduling and time management functions. Make notes and create reminders to reach out regularly to your network of contacts, helping you, above all, build a stronger community. Get connected and nurture your professional relationships, with StayTouch. Contact us to learn more.