It’s the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day (every fourth Monday of Jan) and I’d like to salute the folks working on the front lines at companies big and small leading the charge.
These folks are critical in the change as companies have moved from the static website to the dynamic human focused social business we’re seeing across every agency.
Charged with the following four key responsibilities: a community advocate, brand evangelist, savvy online communicator, and involved in shaping future products and services they’ve got their hands full. This exciting new role is common at many companies within the social media team, see composition of a social media team, and how community managers fit in.
Yet despite the sexyness of the modern day community manager job, these roles aren’t just “playing on Facebook all day”. They’re plagued with dealing with customer issues after hours (the “burnout“) , and on weekends, learning to manage undesirable community members, and trying to balance the needs of customers and sometimes conservative corporations unwilling to lean towards social.
Despite the upsides, and challenges, there’s a bright future for this role, as they learn to measure based on business goals, tap into the emerging outsourcing service providers, and extend beyond marketing and support to helping define future products based on real-time customer feedback.
A salute to you, Community Managers!
Related Resources
- Get engaged, converse with the #CMAD tag on Twitter.
- Wikipedia’s recognition of CMAD
- 2011 Annual Community Manager Appreciation Day
- 2010 Annual Community Manager Appreciation Day
- Next year, CMAD will be Jan 28th, 2013, mark your calandar
Well done goes without saying, way to go in leading the charge
With so many businesses still on the “outside looking in” when it comes to social, I find an “Appreciation Day” a bit premature. Especially considering the position’s responsibilities sound just like any other customer service, sales, PR, marketing and/or receptionist position in any company. Those positions, of course, go back more than a century…
Just saying.
It’s been great to see the “Community Manager” role become so much more diversified in the skills and experience that goes into adding value to a company. We’re seeing more and more innovation in how community managers are adding to the bottom lines of their employers and its exciting to watch!Â