Why Your Company Needs A Community Manager

What is a Community Manager?

They are the person who oversees, maintains and takes responsibility for your business’ presence online in all the forms needed by your company. Such as using many online tools that make it easier for people to listen, interact, engage and collaborate with each other online. Many Social Networking platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, message boards and countless others are becoming increasingly important connections to your customers.

Why do you need a Community Manager?

Your company can stop being reactive and start being proactive. Your CM can actively participate in social media conversations as the eyes, ears and voice of your company to create positive word-of-mouth about your products and services and grow your company’s reputation.Having one person tracking your online reputation and keeping you up to speed on what is happening in your industry is invaluable. Instead of always playing catch up with your competitors, be a trendsetter.

A CM can also research ideas, and learn more about what your customers and prospects are saying about their needs and experiences, and about your products and related areas. When this person becomes aware of something happening online among your audience, they will draw on the expertise and knowledge from within the organization to provide information to your customers. By analyzing your social media campaigns and translating the anecdotal data into recommendations you can gain new market and competitive insights to improve your products and services.

Some things to keep in mind:

Your community isn’t online from only 9 to 5. Communities never sleep, never take the weekend off and never take holidays or vacations. Being a CM is a very time-consuming job and the results are not always tangible and visible, though your CM should be able communicate what is happening in your community at any moment.

The launch phase of any community requires someone who is passionate and “transacting” a lot. Building communities is not about collecting as many people as possible and communities often don’t grow the way they are planned. The CM role will change as the needs of the community change. This means the CM doesn’t fit into any single definition. I often refer to the role as being similar to a liaison, bridging the gap between those inside and outside the organization.

I hope this has helped you and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

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1 Comment

  1. Haha, I’m not sure why I keep trying to refer to you as “The Habitat.” I keep getting my wires crossed. Maybe the thought process is “Hmm, he’s a community manager… a habitat is a community… he must go by The Habitat!”

    Fixed the title 😉 fantastic post, and good luck in your job hunt!

    Reply

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  1. Online Community Links Roundup 19/03/10 | Community Management | Blaise Grimes-Viort - [...] Why Your Company Needs A Community Manager [...]
  2. The Habitat on why you need an online community manager - Wavedash - [...] Video game community manager David “Historian” DeWald has a great article up on why your company needs a community…

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