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
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there™s a bright future for this role ” I thought you’d written the role off as waning into the sun and/or morphing into a more formal, wider-cast social media net…You think the CM role will evolve independently then? Thanks.
What a nice way to start the morning of a workweek. Made me feel nice to know that others understand the amount of work it is to manage a brand online. As a Community Manager for Bruce County Tourism “@explorethebruce:twitter “ Ontario Travel & Tourism DMO, I have around 10 brands to manage and nurture daily.  This is sometimes a very heavy job. I really connected with your article “trying to balance the needs of customers and sometimes conservative corporations unwilling to lean towards social.”.  It has been a long road when after 2yrs of Social Media growing in popularity and beginning to be a no brainer to invest in that the beginning was a lonely push. Yet, like the turtle and the hare we all can success and show returns on our efforts to people in charge above that fund our marketing efforts. Thanks for recognizing our efforts. @gemwebb:twitter
Gem hats off to you. Â Congrats on your success of the 10 brands to manage, and look forward to hearing your next steps.
As alluded to above, the CMs that can learn to manage lower-cost outsourced services will thrive –those that do not will be threatened. Â There are higher-order CM skills that (like the Face of a company, or strategy) that is difficult to outsource correctly, yet the more common skill-sets like Community Admin, baseline metrics, can certainly be outsourced as we see India and Philippines offer these services to brands. Â Hope that clarifies.
Here’s my post on that topic, I’m glad you raised it Jerome.
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2011/08/25/trend-some-community-management-activities-to-be-outsourced/
Great post Jeremiah. I echo Gem’s sentiment about a great way to start a weekday and if you live in Canada a great way to warm your heart mid-winter LOL. This is a great day to take a moment and reflect on all that you do. As a community manager you tend to be focused on the good of your company and usually you put yourself last on the list of priorities in the run of day and as you point out the evening and weekend. Such a positive event to be a part of.
Michael Girard
Community Engagement, Radian6
Great post Jeremiah. I echo Gem’s sentiment about a great way to start a weekday and if you live in Canada a great way to warm your heart mid-winter LOL. This is a great day to take a moment and reflect on all that you do. As a community manager you tend to be focused on the good of your company and usually you put yourself last on the list of priorities in the run of day and as you point out the evening and weekend. Such a positive event to be a part of.
Michael Girard
Community Engagement, Radian6
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Thanks Jeremiah for your support of the Community Management profession! We’ve been talking about this for a few years and it’s so awesome to see how it has evolved! It’s exciting to see the role becoming mainstream as org’s of all sizes realize the need to connect with their online communities.Â
Your readers are invited to join our Google+ Hangout at 1 pm est (10 am pst) today. A group of us are going to talk about the challenges and future of this role.
More info can be found here & you can join the Hangout here: Â (use the ‘Expand Post’ to see the speaker list)
https://plus.google.com/117161668189080869053/posts
Also, the Community Manager, Advocate, & Evangelist Facebook group is a vibrant group to share ideas http://www.facebook.com/groups/3553055120/
Happy #CMAD everyone!
Well done goes without saying, way to go in leading the charge
Thanks Jeremiah!!
It’s always nice to get a little appreciation for all the hard work we do (despite the fact that it looks like we’re playing on Facebook and Twitter all day).
Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos
it’s not in my job title, but it’s certainly a big part of what I do and have been doing for some time now. I do it because I love it. To be able to help someone, solve a problem and contribute to the continued growth of our brand in a positive way.Â
Cheers to your Sheldon!
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.
Sounds like a cool idea. I’ll try my best to join in
Sounds like a cool idea. I’ll try my best to join in
Patrick
I agree, these community managers are often change agents inside of their company and should be recognized.Â
Thanks Dan. Â Some community managers have been doing this for over 10 years! Â I agree however, that most companies are very immature in this space.
Such a nice work Jeremiah for your activity of the Gathering Management occupation! It’s breathless to see the Part of becoming thought as of all sizes realize the Required to joint with their online area.Â
I™ve learned a lot from your blog here! Keep on going, I will keep an eye on it.
I™ve learned a lot from your blog here! Keep on going, I will keep an eye on it.
Good work, Jeremiah! Those community managers should e recognized as
soon as possible.Â
If we want this role to have a bright feature, the basic is to develop system of Business goals measurement.Â
I think this for sure solves a problem which for many business employees has been a teething problem for quite some time in recent years!
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
Salute to all! I agree, this is so much more than “playing on facebook all day”…
I agree. It’s a tough role.
Thanks for this post and the others! You must be kept busy updating it all the time!
Congrats to the community managers and to you Jeremiah for a first class blog!
Congrats to the community managers and to you Jeremiah for a first class blog!
There is noticeably a bundle to know about this. I assume you made
certain nice points in features also.
Of course a salute deserves by a community managers. Specially that four key responsibilities are also very impressive.