Brooke BallardHave you defined — or do you need to redefine — your community manager responsibilities?
Whether you said “yes” or “what’s a community manager” this post is written especially for you!
If your current situation looks something like this: You’re busier than ever. Leads are pouring in. RFPs are out of control. You need 48 hours in a day, a clone, and a really stiff drink …
I feel ya.
This is exactly where I am today. And even though I need a community manager (CMGR) for my business and my clients’ businesses, anyone who utilizes social media needs to understand how to break down the duties of the community manager to help lighten that workload!
What’s a Community Manager or CMGR?
First things first, if your business uses social media as a way to market, sell, or converse with your current and would-be customers, you need a CMGR.
The role of the community manager differs from business to business.
And being that we’re in the business of putting Grade A community managers to work, I’m going to share just what to look for (and how we break down those responsibilities).
“The Community Manager Specialist is the contact point between a brand and its online community. She or he is responsibile for handling all incoming requests, being a catalyst for conversation, building an active online community, initiating engagement, excitement, and entertainment among the community. The CMGR Specialist must manage brand assets such as: content (created and curated), content calendars, publishing schedules, etc. as well as operate the tools that will assist in overseeing brand visibilty, scheduling, publishing, messaging, text and visual content creation, and analytics.“
After reading that a couple of times you’ll understand why we added “specialist” — yes we only hire special people, but they have to be well above average to manage a brand’s online reputation (and assets!).
Someone may be a communication expert but not like to deal with ranting online customers.
That’s a deal breaker.
How We Tackle Community Manager Responsibilities
Every company is different, so by no means am I saying this is the way you have to distribute duties for your CMGR.
This is our guide, what works for us (for now), and should be used a blueprint or basis for your own community manager responsibilities.
Strategy – 30%
Everything starts with a strategy.
Let me repeat: EVERYTHING. STARTS. WITH. A. STRATEGY.
Whether your CMGR is working solely on your business, or like for us, is working with multiple brands, he or she needs to be able to create a working concept of how your social media will integrate with:
- Business goals
- Marketing initiatives
- Campaigns, promotions, sales
- Product launches
- Sales
If a strategy is already in place, your CMGR needs to be able to translate that strategy into a workable, editable, flowing schedule of events. And content.
And, deal breaker, they need to be able to convey that strategy and plan not only to internal teams but to any clients who may be involved.
Audience Development falls under this piece of the pie and probably takes up a whopping 10%!
Content Creation & Curation – 20%
If you’re not in the biz, you’d be shocked at how much time is spent on creating and curating relevant, on-brand, and timely content for online communities.
The more communities you have, the more content you need.
No, you cannot share every piece on every platform simultaneously.
Content creation not only means writing status updates that are free of spelling and grammar errors, it may also mean creating a branded visual to assist with getting that message across.
If your CMGR thinks “content creation” is creating meme after meme in Canva and then posting said meme to both Facebook and Instagram in the same day? Run.
Scheduling & Publishing – 10%
Creating content calendars, schedules, publishing calendars, and whatever else it takes to ensure all of that content your CMGR has curated and created is organized is essential.
We like to post organically as much as possible. We also realize that automation can be a friend and timesaver, too.
If the same post, link, or photo hits Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram all within a few hours of each other.
The reason?
Why would I follow you on several accounts if I constantly see the same message?
I wouldn’t. You bore me. Unfollow!
Listening – 10%
A few things to listen for:
- Brand mentions
- Product/service mentions
- Custom hashtags
- Sentiment (positive, negative, neutral)
- Problemes/Needs/Desires
- Psychographics (feelings, attitudes, beliefs)
- Interests
And on and on …
Active listening is behind the best, brightest, and boldest social media marketing.
Community Management – 10%
Reviewing comments, conversations, mentions, reviews, etc. in a timely manner and crafting a response within allotted times (we strive for a one-hour response time during “normal” hours) is an absolute must.
Beyond that, community manager responsibilities should include:
- Responding in a positive, respectful way (probably obvious, but the inability to do this is a total deal breaker!)
- Responding in a way that fosters brand loyalty, and adds value to the conversation
- Ensuring community guidelines are met by both the moderator and the community
- Actively seeking out user-generated content to supplement peer-to-peer recommendations
Community Building – 10%
Keeping a healthy active and engaged community is one thing. Adding members and growing is another.
While this can sometimes happen organically, you have to have a defined process for continuing to attract, targeted, relevant fans.
Ads can help here, but good old-fashioned community building tactics are the cornerstone of awesome sauce community managers.
Reporting – 10%
Since we typically report monthly, there isn’t a HUGE emphasis on getting reports out often.
There is, however, a GINORMOUS emphasis on analytics.
My best advice for understanding analytics:
- Know your goals
- Set key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how/if/when goals are met
- Analyze often (again, for us it’s monthly)
- Revamp goals, KPIs, and tactics that aren’t being met or are unsuccessful
Putting It All Together
Each area, or duty, outlined above equals to 100% of what we expect from our CMGRs.
There are other tactics we include with community manager responsibilities, but these are the daily tasks.
Yes, meaning each area needs to be touched upon daily for continued success.
Here’s what the above looks like from a high-level view:
Do things differently? We’d love to hear how you tackle community manager responsibilities and roles. Let us know in the comments section below!
See you in the social sphere!
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