Community Management is not a junior role
The role of community manager (CM) is relatively new and is continuously evolving as the social landscape changes. As it stands right now, this role entails managing online communities, steering conversations, creating talkability around products/services, listening in on the community and acting on this information.
More often than not, CMs are also responsible for communication strategy and implementation on these social platforms. This is not a junior role or, at least, it cannot be spearheaded by an inexperienced person. It bears huge responsibility as this person or the team essentially become the spokespeople of the company. As far as the person who comments on your latest Facebook update is concerned, the CM is the company. The CM clearly needs to have a deep understanding of the company's values, goals, share its passion and most importantly, has the maturity to deal with all kinds of people in all kinds of moods that are sure to be encountered on a daily basis. Crisis management is an especially crucial skill that is admittedly hard to master, moreso for a junior. Also needed is the ability to see trends and possibly link them to a context beyond that of that platform (this is where experience comes in handy).
With this much accountability and responsibility, this role does not keep work hours and as such requires remuneration to match its sometimes stressful demands. It cannot be a thankless job and agencies/companies need to fully understand this or there may be trouble ahead for them or at least, they won't get the best results possible.
I'm interested in your thoughts on this topic so if you'd care to share, please leave a comment.
I fully agree with your sentiment. The role of a CM is very much an experienced position and shouldn't be filled by every influencer online (see what I did there?)
However the biggest struggle by far, is finding someone to fulfill that position for a length of time. Many times we end up investing long-term resources on someone who doesn't want to stay as a CM. And agencies aren't seeing bang for their buck. To me it seems people want to fast track a career without paying their dues.
Welcome to the world of instant gratification!
You mention that the CM needs to have a deep understanding of the company's values, goals, share its passion. In view of this, do you think that the role of the CM can be outsourced?
@Aasia As with any other job that is as dynamic as community management, there is always the possibility that it may not be long-term (relative) but the commitment may not necessarily be any lesser than a person who is willing to stick around for longer. Investing resources in a staff member that may change career course or leave altogether is a risk with any job, not just this one. As for agencies not seeing bang for their buck, there are admittedly very few senior CMs in South Africa currently so this situation is tricky.
@Francois I certainly think that it can be outsourced. My personal experience is testament to this. The client was often impressed by my thorough knowledge of their products/services, how I kept them in the loop almost instantaneously of the social landscape in relation to their brand and understood how their organization worked so we could work efficiently. These things can be learnt and I additionally in the process developed a passion for what we were wanting to achieve. What helped tremendously was having client staff that were fully supportive, acting as internal brand champions who believed in the cause and fought for it internally.
The big advantage of being an "outsider" is 1) being able to bring a different perspective from their own and 2) being able to bring experiences of working with other communities and learning from other CMs in the work place whose collective knowledge is vast that can be applied to the client's project. The main disadvantage is often higher agency costs relative to hiring an internal resource and perhaps a possible break in communication.
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Thanks for your reply. I think there is much companies can learn from social media specialists. Maybe a tight partnership is the answer. The authentic voice of the company mixed with the street cred of the specialist.
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