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What Defines a Community Manager?

by Rachel Happe on June 9, 2009

dilbert-04 What is a community manager? We all know that the community manager role comes in a wide variety of flavors with different expectations and different levels of responsibilities and often the person in the role isn’t called a community manager – they may be a VP of Marketing, a director of customer support, a business analyst. For us at The Community Roundtable this is a complex issue because it gets at the heart of who we target and invite in to our community. So what makes one VP of support a community manger and another just a VP of support? What does the person who manages a smaller B2B community have in common with the major brand manager who is managing tens of thousands of people?

Tough questions for us but critical to define. If The Community Roundtable can tackle that one issue with some success, I will feel like we have helped move the conversation forward for the whole market. Today I opened up the conversation to my Twitter crowd and got a flurry of activity. Below are some of the definitions and replies:

@Aronado – @rhappe who reps the Co. and has the most consistent & deep relationships with the customers

@megfowler – @rhappe I think you define it according to volume, tone, results, and uptake in terms of community response (also volume + tone)

@AuctionDirect @rhappe – Engagement levels, type of content, metric objectives (ie: proven traffic, conversions, leads, revenue, etc) Stuff like that?

@4byoung – @rhappe Tough call. No consensus in biz as to what a comm manager is / should be. Ability to organize & manage groups is key.

All good suggestions. One issue I raised is that some of the best community managers I know are like the silent hand of God – they don’t necessarily post and get huge reactions… they get others who get huge reactions to post. So direct measurement of short term responsiveness is dicey. A couple of people had really good analogies that I thought were useful to think about:

@gyehuda – @rhappe the analogy I use is Minister of Culture – not the artist, not the mayor, not the police, but still has budget and responsibility

@ayeletb – @rhappe That’s the same issue as communicators – everybody’s job is communication esp leaders so there is a need to isolate com mgr role too

I liked Gil’s the best – in that it is the job of the community manager to create the environment, set the stage, and make sure participants are encouraged and rewarded but not to be the primary actor. That means the measure of the community managers success is the activities of the community members. But what is the timeframe to measure? I would bet that the timeframe is different for different types of communities.

There were some other insights that I thought worth pulling out. 1 – Community managers job is to interface between one group or community and another. @AmberCadabra @DavidAlston and I were just discussing this today – that community managers spend just as much time converting internal advocates as they do with the community they were hired to manage. So the interface or foil role is important to the job description.

@Aronado – @rhappe haha! well, to me it means allowing a situation where two or more communities begin to communicate effectively with one another

There were also some things that people felt a community manager must do:

@DavidWLocke – @rhappe Someone who never posts can’t be the CM. No credibility. Ah, a metric.

So there are patterns we can identify – if not always explicit metrics. A community manager:

- Manages the interface between two communities/groups/networks (in effect be a translator)
- Participates in the conversation personally
- Creates the environment the encourages the intended outcome
- Influences activity of the participants

My question is not completely answered – still working out in my mind how I might identify the customer support manager who is a community manager vs. one who is not. Like many things in life, I know it when I see it but I can’t quite put words to everything. Characteristics I would add but have a hard time finding fact-based items to use as identifiers are:

- Must be a connector – (which is different than a hub)
- Have a desire to attract people vs. hunt people down
- Have no need to be right but also have an assertive perspective

Ultimately, you can have an isolated, discrete community manager or you can have a person in a functional role, performing that role in a community or social fashion. Is one a community manager but the other not? How would you decide?

I welcome your thoughts on this. As the community manager role evolves – and gets more strategic – it is evolving. Who *should* we at The Community Roundtable consider a community manager?

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  • http://12commanonymous.typepad.com/ Lauren Vargas

    There is no cookie cutter Community Manager, just as there is no cookie cutter parent. We adapt to our environment and the roles we take on. I would add to the list above that Community Managers must be communicators…not in the traditional, must-have education or be part of marketing silo type, but communicators with great instincts and knows how to actively listen and seek non verbal cues between the typed words. Community Managers must be trustworthy and facilitate authentic voice and action internal and external. Community Managers cultivate environment without going native.

  • http://www.gilyehuda.com Gil Yehuda

    One thing I notice is that everyone shares a slightly different perspective, because we all have a slightly different idea of “community” in mind.

    1. What’s the goal that initiated the community in the first place? Are we extracting insight? facilitating conversation? enhancing influence? This should inform the CM behavior.
    2. What’s the personal leadership style of the CM? some push their flock and herd the stragglers, Others set out ahead and call to the flock to catch up.

    Either way, the community manager is dedicated to the success of the community, and to the goals which the community support. I’m glad you like my Minister of Culture analogy :-)

  • Robin Harper

    I think a distinction needs to be made between role and the type of person you want to fill that role.

    In my view, the person in the organization who pays attention to the customer experience, which spans interactions from customer support, through online community management, to communications outreach, is the one who has the greatest potential to build an active and responsive relationship with customers — to create a community focused on the products/benefits/people of the organization. Which at the end of the day is the goal of a community manager, in the broadest sense.

    Someone who will be successful in that role needs to be a facilitator, marketer, communicator, leader, connector, and social psychologist, and have the thick skin of a rhinoceros.

  • http://www.community-roundtable.com rhappe

    Hi Lauren/Robin -

    Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments. Separating the role and the type of people good at it is an important distinction. The challenge for me is that many people who are in the roles that might act as community managers don’t and there are very few companies that have a well defined teams/roles specifically responsible for the entire customer lifecycle/experience. This gets to the heart of the issue in the current environment. In some companies the VP or marketing, VP of service – or VP of HR when looking at employees – has taken on the ownership of the customer experience and lifecycle and changed their approach from a push to a pull perspective… but what is the identifiable difference?

    Because of the issue with identifying how the role is different, I typically resort to understanding the person in the role – and then it becomes much easier to identify whether they have a community management/’social’ perspective or not. All VPs of Marketing *could* be community managers – only a few perform that way because most are incented primarily on lead generation, not satisfaction or engagement or positive customer testimonials.

    Rachel

  • Suzanne

    I love how part of your definition is that a Community Manager is a connector… I think that is true. Someone has to smooth the relationship between the company and the community, and that isn’t a partisan position, but necessitates understanding both sides, and helping each side understand, respect, and connect with the other. As opposed to a Community Advocate perhaps, who would just represent the Community in meetings and otherwise just be working with them… a true manager would help the community understand the company’s decisions and accept them, and also help the company understand the community’s needs, and know when to adjust for them. A tougher, but definitely more valuable, position to take.

  • http://blog.michaelleis.com Michael Leis

    I think you’re on to something with the concept of connector. As I have been helping clients define what comprises this role, as a broad stroke it boils down to:

    1) Advocating and personifying the brand in external interactive channels
    2) Bringing the personalities, insights, and skills of the people who make up the brand to the audiences who can benefit most
    3) Keeping both internal and external publics up-to-date on the activity that takes place

    Ultimately, it’s a circular model that keeps brand information, perception, and conversation flowing to improve the feedback mechanisms across all departments.

    Hope this helps :)

  • Maggie Battista

    I manage several community managers and several large, evolving communities at different stages of development. My role, as Community Director, is to really be the social psychologist mentioned above and read in between the lines to understand how the community is growing, evolving, changing and what programs/initiatives/engagement or listening techniques may help the community continue its evolution.

    I really do see all my community managers as unofficial Mama’s or Papa’s of their communities. They are not tasked with provoking responses (as some suggest above) but more tasked with remaining on the pulse, listening and trying to pave the way for the community to get smarter and tighter, but also more inclusive of new folks and more welcoming. We manage core communities who have to help millions of people each month, so while we need to engage with and strengthen the core, we also need to keep the peace and ensure it’s healthy for the broader group of visitors.

    One thing I would make sure is in a job description for a Community Manager is “Not afraid to engage with detractors, complainers, or folks who tarnish the brand or the community’s reputation.” When someone questions, they are really only trying to help (even tho’ they sometimes don’t have the skills to do it productively), and a Community Manager needs to instantly understand that, listen, hear and be able to confront the problem head on, or respectfully agree to disagree.

    I’ve gone on enough. I could talk about this all day! I would really enjoy coming together on a broad definition that suits all types of communities.

  • Maggie Battista

    One thing I would add, reading some of the follow up comments is, a Community Manager is not always a Social Media Strategist or someone that engages outside the community. It’s ideal if they are, but I’ve struggled finding people who consistently have that right balance of managing a community and being a brand evangelist across multimedia channels. They are not always one and the same.

  • http://www.themurr.com DaveMurr

    I would have to agree with Lauren in that there is no cookie cutter answer. A lot depends on the type of community, its platform, mission and goals.

    Per my experience as a CM, I’ve relied heavily on my customer service background. Helping and answering questions that run from, “How do I connect with this person to discuss X” to “How do I get my picture to show up in my profile?”

    Again, it all depends on the type of community. Managing Social Communities vs. Social Action Networks requires a different skill set. However, regardless what type of community is managed, you are there for them. Just like room service. The community will buzz you when you are needed and you better answer pretty quick, because you may be the only face/representation the community has.

    I think, one way to find your answer is to interview as many CM’s as you can. Out of these interviews may pop up common themes, requirements, and ideals. Then you may find what really defines a community manager.

  • http://blog.stroutmeister.com Aaron Strout

    Rachel – great post and I love how you’ve incorporated a lot of the feedback from your community (very community manager-esque in fact!)

    The way I like to think about a community manager is comparing the role to that of a good party host. To do their job well, they make sure there is good music, plenty of food and obviously lots of drinks (think of this as a good platform and the right content). Doing their job means introducing like-minded people, ducking in and out of conversations, keeping an eye on the food and drink supply and watching the crowds reaction to the music.

    What’s nice about your new endeavor, the Community Round Table, is that you and your partner in crime, Jim Storer, are both FANTASTIC “party hosts.” Even better is that you have complementary skill sets which is something that you didn’t touch upon in your post but can be extremely helpful (think social media lead AND community manager — great assets for any company).

    In the meantime, I look forward to reading more on your new blog!

    Best,
    Aaron

  • http://www.community-roundtable.com rhappe

    Wow – thanks everyone for chiming in – great additional insights.

    Suzanne/Michael – thanks for the additional perspective on the role of being a connector. I often think of communities as markets so the community manager is in essence the ‘market maker’ – deciding what kind of market you need will determine the environment you create – i.e. is it a market for ideas? commerce? support?

    Maggie – the conflict resolution skills are a definite must have and the role of social media person and community manager are definitely different… again, a little hard to always articulate but there are some very different aspects to the two positions.

    Dave – great suggestion and one of the things we’ll be doing more of. We do podcasts with all of our members but will also be doing podcasts with many other leading thinkers for the general public. We’ll try and incorporate a discussion of their role & responsibilities.

    Aaron – love the party analogy and thanks for the compliment… I do love a good party and to me a good party is when people come, meet a few people they know (makes them comfortable) and a lot of people they don’t know but will have a spark when they meet (which is engaging). And of course, there must be good food (bacon anyone?!? kidding!) and drinks.

    Rachel

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/whchamb Bill Chamberlin

    A community manager is the one person responsible for launching, growing, and sustaining the community. Simply put, they lead the membership in the pursuit of knowledge relating to the domain the community has formed around.

    Above all the community leader has to have passion for their role. If there is no passion, the leader will fail. Also of critical importance is that the community leader must realize they are in place to serve the membership needs. If the community experience is not directed at fulfilling membership needs, members will not participate.

    Some of the key activities performed by the Community leader are…
    – Promotes community across organization(s) and other communities
    – Encourages participation & discussion (grows the number of community champions)
    – Connects members with each other
    – Produces community deliverables
    – Reports community metrics
    – Monitors & responds to questions/feedback
    – Communicates news
    – Organizes consistent and regular events
    – Surveys for needs
    – Member advocate – has member’s needs always in mind.
    – Community evangelist
    – Creates editorial content
    – Harvests market insights from the community knowledgebase
    – Balances the needs of the community with organizational objectives

    Here are some of the skills required to be a good community manager:
    – Strong online communication skills
    – Approachable and conversational
    – Has the ability to relate to members online and offline
    – Master of Web 2.0 and social media tools
    – Writing skills

    Finally, the community manager needs to be resilient. By that I mean they need to stand firm when questioned about the value of the community and how much time it takes to be a community manager. Often upper management will not understand why it takes so much energy and time to be a community manager. Most managers think communities should end up ‘running themselves’ or becoming ‘self service communities’. Those of us who are long time community leaders understand that the community leader is critical to a vibrant community.

    Enough said….for now!

  • http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/ Roger Dooley

    I’ll second Aaron’s “party host” metaphor, I’ve used it often myself. A good host does move from conversation to conversation, makes introductions that seem appropriate, and welcomes new arrivals.

    That host is also on the lookout for guests standing by themselves with nobody to talk to. In an online community, that translates to watching for new conversations with no replies. Nothing makes a community look more lame than members, often new arrivals, seeking help and not getting any response at all.

    An effective community manager always has to be a calm, rational, “adult.” In communities I’ve managed, I’ve seen countless problematic members turned into great long-term contributors by pleasant, professional interaction with an admin or moderator. Not everyone has the personality to pull that off.

    Roger

  • http://thelostjacket.com Stuart Foster

    The hand of God reference may be the best thing I have read all day. Great stuff Rachel :) .

  • http://CommunityZenMaster.com/blogs/lliu/ Lawrence Liu (Telligent)

    This FAQ keeps popping up! My simplest answer: Stewardship. More details at my recent blog entry: http://bit.ly/18PXNo

    http://twitter.com/lliu

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  • http://www.community-roundtable.com rhappe

    Bill – thanks for the great description – thank you!

    My biggest question is… can a companies entire market be considered
    a community and therefore, the VP of Marketing or the VP of Support
    *is* the community manager… in bigger organizations I think not…
    in smaller ones yes. Also thinking about when companies move from a
    company with a community to a community-based company… then where
    do the roles fall. Not too many companies in that camp yet but a few
    are emerging – IBM & SAP on the large end and many smaller one in the SMB area.

    Roger, Stuart, Lawrence – thanks for stopping by and adding your perspective. Stewardship is a great word for it but also one of those things that you know when you see it but difficult to put universal description of what that means.

  • http://www.alertrank.com/MrGoogleAlerts Adam Green

    This thread has inspired me to respond with a blog post:
    http://www.alertrank.com/mrgooglealerts/2009/06/11/tracking-mentions-of-your-name-with-google-alerts-is-not-enough/

    The basic idea is that you have to look outward to join a conversation and bring people into your community. Too much attention is paid to monitoring mentions of your own brand, when you should be joining people in the larger community outside your brand. A community isn’t something you manage, it is a wide range of people you reach out to.

  • http://www.lithium.com Ian

    This is a problem that we run into on a constant basis. I know it’s not a failure on our part of pointing out how valuable an experienced community manager is to have, but for various reasons, they just don’t do it. I think in large part it’s due to the differing views of what a community manager actually is, and does. I’ve dealt with customers who would call their eCommerce manager their “community manager” when in fact he/she really had no experience in community, and had no desire to learn. But since they had good sales numbers, or had previously earned the company a lot of dough on the ‘net, management just assumed they could take the CM role and.. roll with it. The way I see it, the CM is there to ensure that the community is the best it can be. To keep new users coming in, to keep the existing users happy, and to deliver some kind of tangible ROI back to the company. I know that’s a very simple answer, and obviously the specifics would vary based on the type of community (support vs enterprise vs entertainment vs etc), but the basics of building a flourishing online community really are the same across all platforms.

    I also think a good community manager needs to be a good moderator. I have seen so many communities where the CM rarely, if ever, gets involved in the day-to-day discussions. You would think this should go without saying, and to most seasoned CMs it does, but to companies with little experience in the online world, it often doesn’t. You can learn a lot just from reading user feedback, but unless they have a visible person to contact with issues, a lot will go unmentioned and unresolved. That’s why I always favor promoting community moderators up to the community manager role. That type of real experience immersed in the community is what really helps make an awesome community manager. You can learn the business stuff, but there is no replacement for actually being in touch with your users and their needs.

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