What does a Community Manager do?
Over the past few years the new job title of ’Community Manager’ keeps coming up all over the Internet, in the press and even at the occasional social event when introductions are made. But what is a Community Manager and what exactly do they do?
What do we mean by ’Community’?
’Community’ refers to an online group of people that share a common interest and interact with each other about it on social networks. For businesses, these communities are current or potential customers seeking information and sharing their experience on the Internet, so it’s important for any company to make sure that the right information about their services is reaching them.
Not being present on social media is not an option for businesses anymore.
Some years ago the same was said about websites. However, now it’s not enough to have a static website that shows the same content for months and does not encourage a two-way conversation with its audience.
Finding the right online presence
So, you’ve decided to become social. Now, we hear you asking, what social networks are useful for every business and industry? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr...? Are all of these relevant to me? Am I missing a network my business should definitely be part of? What kind of content should I share? How often should I post? Is it ok to reply to every single interaction or is it better to select or prioritise the most urgent/relevant ones? Are we expected to address our online community with a different tone?
There you have it. Finding the right answers to these questions and putting them in action on real time is what a Community Manager does. It’s not easy to manage social networks for businesses when there is not a well-researched plan in place that works well with your online marketing strategy. It can become a very time-consuming task at best and, eventually, a complete loss of potential customers and business development if not done correctly.
It’s an art to turn an angry comment on Facebook into an effective interaction that eventually translates into a business opportunity. Good Community Managers master this skill.
Here at Drimlike, we find it exciting to come up with a tailored community management strategy for every single project and business. The way our Community Managers work is by keeping users and targets in mind to achieve the best results based on research, expertise and strong communication skills, all of which are key for any online social presence.