A Community Manager Is PR and Marketing Wrapped in One

What Is A Community Manager?

The correct question should be WHO is your community manager?

A community manager is a connector who connects people, ideas, and messages. He/she is the voice of the brand to customers, and voice of the customers to the brand — in as real time as possible.

Not anyone can be a community manager. First, you must know and BE IN social media. You must know the key platforms and have a respective following that you manage regularly. If this isn’t a part of your every day job description, don’t bother applying for a job as a community manager.

This is a position all to itself. Companies don’t know what a community manager does, they only know they need one, but they can’t say why.

Whether or not the company president, the public relations manager, or the sales executive has a social media account — it doesn’t matter. The customer/consumer does. That is where many try to reach the company.

If you factor in that people under 35 have never lived without a personal computer, that Facebook is already six years old, and that YouTube is the second largest search engine, the chances are more than 90 percent that at least 80 percent of your consumer/clients are communicating in social media. If you don’t believe me, how do you communicate with your 17 year old? You either text him or message him on Facebook because he never answers the phone. Right? Why should your customer be any different?

The community manager is a listener, a guide, a fireman, a connector, a first and last face the consumer sees.

It’s a customer service position on steroids.

It is why companies need to vet a potential hire on the social networks. Degrees mean nothing. You can have a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing, a Doctor of Philosophy, and three Communications Degrees. Nobody has learned this in school. If your future community manager doesn’t have a Facebook account, hasn’t sent a tweet since 2010 or has his tweets protected (like any tweet is that important), doesn’t have a picture or profile information on his/her LinkedIn account, and has no idea what Google Plus is, move on until you find someone who actually knows what they are doing.

The show below aired November 14, 2013.