Chris, I have no idea how you continue to churn out posts like this day after day. Incredible.
I'm not too sure about your measurement criteria on this one, though. I know measurement is a very contentious topic, but some of these measures seem to focus more on output than outcome.
I would definitely keep some of your points: - Responsiveness to communications in less than 24 hrs - Engagement on our blog/community/network
As a position reporting to a VP, I might look for slightly higher-level measurements. Why not look at the tone of comments/mentions? Similarly, rather than looking at just the quality of a Twitter stream (assuming a Twitter stream is essential), why not measure the engagement through that tactic?
I don't think we're on completely different pages here - I'd just maybe raise the level the measures are focused at from micro to a bit more macro.
Cheers,
Dave
Aronado
· 1 year ago
Buenos dias!
Wow! thanks so much Chris. For a starting Community Manager this is right on the money. If someone followed this as a template and they are positive, well spoken, & motivated, they would kick ass and definitely achieve your objectives. Not to mention, this is one of the most enjoyable "positions" out there.
Thank you, I am going to print this out and incorporate some checks and balances for us.
Perfect Monday morning reading, are you psychic??
Kevin Skarritt
· 1 year ago
Love the input ... but, I too wonder about the measurement issue. We just launched a highly niched social network (www.BlackWidowNetwork.com) just over two months ago. Needless to say, we're eyeball deep in "Community Management" issues.
My question to you would be, "what's the difference between Community Management for a niche social network (maybe 100K people) compared to a generic social network, like facebook." Do you think it's just a matter of scale? I can't Imagine we're facing identical challenges as a network with a thousand fold as many members.
What say you? (anyone?)
andrewhemingway
· 1 month ago
Kevin,
I was the Community manager for a very large skiing community, and dealt with issues much different from some of the large sites. I think because it is smaller and more targeted you are dealing with knowledgeable members, and they expect you to be the same. Also on a small niche network you have a very small margin of error because any action will be noticed by all of the members. Moderators are the key in a niche community.
Im in Bristol, NH and would love to talk sometime! Andrew Hemingway akreins@gmail.com
Colin Walker
· 1 year ago
Your second strategy point is exactly where I see a lot of people going wrong:
"Build a non-marketing community outreach to deliver a voice for our organization to the industry"
Creating a community via social media is not about spamming with a sals pitch it is, as you say, about out-reach and availability. Too often the wrong questions are being asked.
Measurement is going to be difficult to generalise so really does have to considered with relevance to the organisation. I agree with Dave regarding the output/outcome issue - just saying that you'll respond to a query within 24 hours is only the start, the results of that response are what it really important. Can you turn around complaints or convert a query into a sale etc.
It's a question of how much emphasis and importance is going to be placed upon the 'community' in comparison to more traditional methods of interaction with customers.
Steve Harper
· 1 year ago
Chris,
Great post and very timely. I am forwarding a link to a client of mine that is struggling with this very issue right now. Thanks for the outstanding post!
Ripple On My Friend!
Will Boyd
· 1 year ago
I applaud your pro-active role in thinking about such positions for organizations. I imagine that such a position will be common place among thoughtful, engaged organizations in the near future.
My question would be about measurement. Is there any way for an organization to look at the level of engagement with the brand that the community manager is fostering? In other words, is the community manager creating better customers or just more customers? Is this even a valid issue to look at?
Tyson Goodridge
· 1 year ago
Wow- great question and comments- can go in so many different directions here...
I think the term community manager can really mean a bunch of different things to different audiences.
Some community managers can spend all day in the trenches managing a large (or small) community of members and not look up from their desk all day long. They know their community cold. He/she may not need to (or have time to) post externally, blog, etc. It's probably his/her manager who is doing all of the externally focused work.
I like Kevin's comment above too- a niche community as different needs/expectations/challenges, than, say an open network like gather, divinecaroline, eons, and thousands more. (would love to chat about this another day)
I agree with Dave on macro vs/ micro measurements. At first, it's good to get an idea of how active/responsive the community manager is, but that notion may get tossed in the first month..
ilaxi
· 1 year ago
Great post and informative. I did get a writer's blog the other day with politics and kids - two worlds apart to concentrate. How to write a 100 useful blog posts - I'd say, that's just 'Amazing'.
Justin Thorp
· 1 year ago
Hey Chris! I'm the Developer Community Manager at Clearspring Technologies (http://clearspring.com/).
I use all of the techniques that you mentioned. One other thing I'm doing is going to A LOT of conferences, specifically unconferences like BarCamps, and using the events to engage folks within the industry.
I report to our VP of Product.
Troy Rutter
· 1 year ago
Chris -
Great post. I actually started the "community" department at the old Warner Bros. Online back in late 90's. (oh so long ago.) As the community manager for an entertainment company, the duties were pretty obvious, and included what you posted above.
You also have to acknowledge to yourself you are going to be known as the "face" of the company whether you like it or not. As soon as you put yourself out there and start interacting with people who love or hate your product, service or property ... you will be seen *as* that organization, so be mindful of that reality when answering emails or posting on message boards.
As far as measurement of success is concerned. I'm not sure it can be so easily defined. For instance, if you measured by the amount of negative comments coming in through one of your communications channels, it doesn't necessarily mean it was a direct result of your community manager.
I think you have to look at the output of all of the manager's streams and see how well they are representing the "soul" of the company. I don't think there is a magic "number" that signifies success in terms of signups to cancellations , etc.
I judged performance by how those in the department moderated their assigned boards / portals, etc.
Jim Storer
· 1 year ago
Killer post Chris. I'm with Dave one at least one of his points... I don't know how you churn out such rich, meaty posts day after day. Well done.
I'm also going to agree with several of the comments (Dave, Tyson, Troy) re: measurement. The metrics you outline sound like new breed PR vs traditional community management. Depending on an organizations goals, they might be one in the same, but this is just one approach to engaging community. If a company chooses to launch community to support customer service, a community manager's role might be almost entirely internally facing (to the extent tending to the needs of customers on the forum is considered an "internal" activity).
On the subject of where the CM reports into in the organization, it's dependent on what business process the company is supporting with community. Brand mgmt/relations will likely report into marketing. Innovation will likely report into product or engineering. Customer support will report into, well, customer support. This begs the question of who will oversee all of this community activity? IMHO, this should be a "Chief Community Officer" (insert any important sounding title). In some companies this may be the CMO or CIO, but the role requires someone who understands the nature of conversations and how a company can/should/shouldn't engage in them.
@jstorerj
davefleet
· 1 year ago
Troy - good point about measurement - measures can go up and down based on recent events. However, if you measure tone over a time, rather than just a snapshot, you should be able to get a sense of a trend.
Dell always seems to come up as a good example of this. They've reduced negative mentions online from 49% to 21%. Sure, there have been blips, but they're looking at a trend.
Melanie Notkin
· 1 year ago
Fantastic post! I have forwarded it on to friends.
As for me, I would love to get to a place where I can hire a Community Manager. But I always envisioned her managing the internal SavvyAuntie.com community. In order to stay authentic, I cannot imagine anyone else managing my Twitter account, for example. Like Tony, CEO of Zappos.com, I hope to be able to manage both my company (when it launches) and my authentic community (as it grows).
Fortunately or unfortunately, there is only one Melanie Notkin. But there are millions of Savvy Aunties out there. For them, I need help!
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
Hey Chris,
Once again you hit the nail on the head! I've been in community management or development for 14 years, so I do have a couple of quick thoughts to add:
1.) It is EXTREMELY important that a company or organization realize that community duties do not fit a 9-5 business role, but is an element that needs flexibility because your community never closes.
2.) It is very important that the community manager and company have a CLEAR understanding of goals and objectives of the community.
3.) What and how to measure needs to be uniquely evaluated and determined based on the goals and objectives of the community. A typical message board community has different goals and objectives than a social networking type of community and measurement must accommodate all tools for your community.
4.) Set the tone of your community up front and be willing to adjust as necessary to your community needs. A CM/CD/CP should be allowed to be the face of an organization without too many business politics in the way. If a CM/CD/CP has to go through 6 hoops to just say "hi we currently don't ... or do ....whatever" to answer a question, you'll lose that person and their potential return loyalty.
5.) I am currently looking for a position and if anyone is in need of an experienced CM/CD/CP with creativity and vision, just holler! My only caveat is the need to work remotely
(Note: CM - Community Manager; CD - Community Director; CP - Community Producer)
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
Another comment is -- make sure everyone is clear in the organization as what falls under the community element.
I probably could list more...maybe I'll take this and write a blog post later!
Cortney IM/Skype/Twitter/OoVoO: CortneySellers
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
Jim said...
"On the subject of where the CM reports into in the organization, it’s dependent on what business process the company is supporting with community. Brand mgmt/relations will likely report into marketing. Innovation will likely report into product or engineering. Customer support will report into, well, customer support. This begs the question of who will oversee all of this community activity? IMHO, this should be a “Chief Community Officer” (insert any important sounding title). In some companies this may be the CMO or CIO, but the role requires someone who understands the nature of conversations and how a company can/should/shouldn’t engage in them. "
I agree completely! Many times community support from the company is either kind of an after thought or "it'll manage itself" which isn't the healthiest way to build a community.
Jennifer Van Grove
· 1 year ago
What a timely post given our recent conversation at the Netvibes party.
As a former Community Manager, and current Community Consultant, I speak from experience when I say that what you expect from a Community Manager is completely realistic and essentially everything that I've tried to accomplish in previous positions...but you're one of the few who actually get it. I've worked for both a non-profit and a market research company, and the intentions for the Community Manager position have always been pure to begin with, but somewhere down the road if there's not someone in Management who is constantly supporting the Community Manager, the roles/responsibilities/expectations will change over time - especially at a small company.
I'd also like to point out that one of the main reasons I'm exploring the consulting route right now is that I know I can do more than just the Community Manager work, I'm capable of strategy and high level thinking. Goals and objectives of the position sometimes gets delegated to higher ups and passed down to the Community Manager, when the Community Manager should be sitting down at the strategy table.
Another challenge is being the bad guy. At some point, a Community Manager has to give "bad" news to either the community or the organization. The Community Manager is very much the middle man and mediator between what the community demands and what the organization wants; it's a difficult task to please everyone. Going back to my first point, the Community Manager needs to report to someone who really believes in the role - someone like yourself doesn't exist in most organizations.
Of course given everything I've said, Chris, I'd drop everything for the opportunity to work for you, well...I'm not sure I'm ready to leave San Diego again, but I'd consider it to learn from one of the greatest minds in the social media milieu.
francois gossieaux
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris - it was good to finaly meet last week. We are in the midst of a study with Deloitte and SNCR on this subject. I reported on the very early findings of the study at SNCR and added my slides to slideshare (http://tinyurl.com/6xzdkn). I would love to tahke you through it and get your perspective. Francois
Chris Brogan...
· 1 year ago
Clearly, measurement is the one that stuck out to the most people. GOOD! Let's talk about that. How else will we measure? What other choices should we make?
I should tell you that this post was one of the hardest for me to write, as it took a lot of thinking about what I *really* would want from my community manager.
In fact, writing this post inspired me to look at a lot of jobs and other problems this way: what exactly would I do next? Turns out that's a neat way to plan and think and consider.
Thanks again, folks!
And remember, today is World Commenting Day. Go comment on a few other blogs, too. : )
GeekMommy
· 1 year ago
Loving the comments thread on this one - but my one question is - how do we apply for your Community Manager job? lol... It sounds like the dream job for Comm Mgrs! :) Working for a company/boss that 'gets it' already.
Seriously - another home run Chris. But I think it's great that your own community stepped up so well to add to the discussion
Jeff Majka
· 1 year ago
Chris, great post! You've really crystallized an ROI focused description of a community manager. My two cents is to make sure your measurement metrics are flexible enough to adjust to new technologies, new services/apps as they arise.
Jeff
Jay (Twitter @qthrul)
· 1 year ago
I was volunteer coordinator over at movieminder.com for a bit. We used LiveJournal community as a way to get all the volunteers on the same page.
In retrospect, LiveJournal was a tool that we probably were using due to lack of other tools available. LiveJournal communities were great in that the history was there and archived and the threaded discussion was ideal.
What we had not planned for was the eventual need to recruit into the system for people NOT already on LiveJournal.
For them, requiring use of LiveJournal was simply not a sure shot.
So, I'd say -- be flexible in your tools but firm in your follow ups. Don't limit your community by force feeding them a single tools. Let the community go where it likes... you can lead but ultimately, the "best" tools are those that gets used the most -- and this is not always the ones the leader picks.
Holly
· 1 year ago
Chris -
As always, fantastic thought provoking post. You wanted to talk about measurement, so here goes...
I love measurement. I track everything all the time, graph it, chart it, measure it against every other data I can find. That's because I'm a goal-oriented person.
The tough part is that success isn't always measured in numbers. So you can be commenting more, posting more, and getting more comments, but still not actually be heading toward your goal. Here's an old example from the nonprofit sector.
You can hand out more eyeglasses each year, but are you really helping people see better?
So in terms of measurement, I think it's important to make sure that what you measure isn't geared toward productivity, but success. They aren't always the same thing.
stephen cribbett
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris, I have a UK business that develops and manages private online communities for insight and innovation purposes. We have a proprietary platform that we have developed which provides the fulcrum for our core service - Community Management. We see our business as being SaaS for this reason, though perhaps we are providing a subtle mix of software AND a human service.
Our unique brand of Community Management provides the following:
•Keeping the conversation alive •Avoidance of 'virtual ghost-towns •General community interaction •Management of tasks and activities and associated deadlines •Community Relationship Management •Identification and onward communication of insights •Provision of technical support •Ensure quality content is generated •Acknowledge points of view •Feedback of results to the community and it’s individual members •All known questions answered •Introductions to new community members •Collaboration on tasks and activities where required •Identification of valuable contributors •Skilled facilitation •Ensuring the community is a safe place to be
I think this will help fuel your discussion and I'm keen to get your response to this. Where once the internet had 'web managers', this has progressed along the time-line to Moderators and now Community Managers.
Josh
· 1 year ago
Chris,
I was brought on earlier this month as the Community Manager at NewsGator's growing SaaS division. Before that, I was a Community Manager at a MUCH smaller startup.
You make some incredibly important points in this post that I would love to have read when I first started out in this field. When I first became a community manager at my previous company I had to constantly remind myself that I'm communicating *with* an audience instead of *at* an audience. For a new community manager I would say that having that frame of mind is absolutely critical to the steps you talk about and to successful engagement.
Establishing an engaging, entertaining, informative *voice* is an ongoing process that I am constantly aware of -- and tweaking -- and also one that can be tracked using many of the metrics you bring up. Metrics are huge and I didn’t realize this at the beginning of my days as a community manager. But, quite simply, if you don’t track your efforts in a structured way, it’s almost impossible to ascertain whether you’re making the type and level of impact that you want. (And if you don't intimately know what the goals of the company are going forward, you can't establish these metrics.)
Finally, I have to say that I completely agree with Courtney's comment that a community manager's job is not 9-5 since a "community never closes." Right on. Flexibility is, indeed, key here.
Once again, thanks for such a lucid and pertinent post and also some great comments here.
Best,
Josh
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
Thanks Josh! That is by far the biggest hurdle I have in getting through to people or potential positions.
I think flexibility within a community *and* the staff for the support of the community should become an awareness issue.
I can not tell you how many jobs where I've worked 9-5 for the "office" and 5-untilwheneverthingssettledown" for the community.
BTW - this whole discussion is causing a brainstorm on this end, so stay tuned for the resulting weather report. LOL
CortneySellers
Tim Marklein
· 1 year ago
Great post, Chris. You've saved me the hassle of writing a job description for our next hire!
On the point of metrics, I'd recommend thinking of it across a few vectors: Activities, Reach, Relevance, Outcomes and Worth. You have several elements of the Activities, Reach and Relevance already covered. On the Outcomes, I would add a few:
1) Opportunities Identified -- your community manager will likely identify opportunities and should communicate them back into the company (and get credit for them) 2) Problems Identified -- same idea, but the negative 3) Problems Solved -- your CM is front-line customer and community support, whether formally the job or not 4) New Business Generated -- not the goal, but definitely something most CMs should track and get credit for 5) Customer Satisfaction -- this is the ultimate goal, and while the CM isn't the only contributor, the person's work should be tied to this company metric 6) Advocacy -- good CMs will build up good connections with their community, which leads to others recommending your company online and offline, also should be tracked
These types of Outcomes are important to track for any PR or community effort. Whether you can show causation or simply correlation is less critical -- but your business will need to see the connection in order to continue doing the right things. And the Outcomes are key to demonstrating Worth (some sort of $$ value associated to the work).
Sonia Simone
· 1 year ago
I'm a community manager (among other duties) for my day job company. My group is completely focused on our existing customers (who are members of a club, so there is a natural boundary there) and helping them feel great about their membership. Part of what I do as comm. mgr. is to create a human stand-in to allow members to engage with the club's corporate structure, and part of my role is to facilitate great opportunities for members to hang out with each other and enjoy the benefits of community. So part spokesperson, part Julie the Cruise Director, I guess.
JADP, external resources like Twitter, Facebook, etc. are totally irrelevant to the way this company has defined the role. I wouldn't say the company handles it perfectly, but there are aspects I think are terrific--notably the emphasis on creating a rich, rewarding experience for existint customers rather than using SMM to go hunt down new ones. We let our existing customers do that for us.
John Stauffer
· 1 year ago
Wonderful post, Chris. It really got me thinking about the dynamic role of a Community Manager.
I guess I'll ask a question about the Strategy section since most people are zeroing in on the measurement (which is a tricky question for sure).
As I read over the Strategy section I struggled to identify a mechanism that ensures the development of the strategy is aligned with the overall goals of the organization. How can we be sure community managers and communicators in general are creating communities that support the broader business objectives?
I ask only because it's so easy to fall in love with the novetly of social media tools and lose sight of the overarching mission. Is your hypothetical community manager at risk as well?
Mark Evans
· 1 year ago
As director of community for PlanetEye, the simple way that I describe my position is involves an interesting combination of marketing, sales, business development, media/public relations and customer service. Of course, I work for a start-up where most positions are multi-dimensional but what makes being a community person so interesting is it involves different constituencies/markets/groups that have different needs.
Mark
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
OOoooo I like - may I snag? (proper credit of course)
Brent Sheets
· 1 year ago
Good post, Chris. I'm the Community Manager on IT Knowledge Exchange, a community of IT professionals. I've been employed in community management for over a decade on various Web communities.
As you mentioned, each community is different, so naturally the measurements of a Community Manager must likewise be different. We all understand the need for measurements but I think it can be counter-productive to require too many output metrics as part of goals. We track many of the items on your list – but creative thinking and unique projects can be just as important – yet not so easily tracked.
Thankfully, I work for a company that understands this. Autonomy and creative thinking often spawn community growth and value. Metrics are an important tool but we need to remind ourselves each day that this is about people and community.
chrisbrogan
· 1 year ago
Tim's got me thinking, too. Man... lots of you have me thinking.
There are lots of things that will have to go into a next version.
SocialButterfly
· 1 year ago
Awesome post!
At the IAA World Conference in DC, the speakers commented that community management would be the next growing department in an agency. Very nice post!
Roxanne Darling
· 1 year ago
This is awesomely comprehensive Chris. The piece I would add comes before the measurement, and that is finding the person who really is cut out for this position. It is actually not that easy to find in my experience. You are looking for a combination of right and left brain skills, tech and personality, and like Cortney mentioned, it is a 24-7 position.
I think people tend to think that a junior person or a volunteer could do this. In many cases that is true, but this person regardless of position, will do best with support and nurturing provided on a regular basis too.
Justin Crossman
· 1 year ago
I would ask of you and love to see more about how we hold our Community Managers accountable. Result metrics are required of course, much like previously mentioned by Josh above, and I would love to know more about how those are acquired and proven as this data would be the first mark of measure. However, my request is posed differentially: how could a Community Manager track their effort both for their benefit in efficacy and also for use by the VP to ensure any number of accountability factors? And how could it be done such that it reduced bureaucracy and micro-management as much as possible?
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
It's me again... one more thought:
A CM needs to also understand the psychology of the core members of a community. It's one thing to know the tools -- it's another to know the PEOPLE who use the tools.
Cortney
yep this will be turning into a blog post soon... LOL
chrisbrogan
· 1 year ago
Roxanne is absolutely right. It's definitely important to find the person who lives this in their bones. Look at Cortney. Tons of passion for this subject.
It's a very good point: maybe that's another post. How to hire one. My thought: find community people from amidst the pool of community people. But is that wrong, short-sighted?
Jacob
· 1 year ago
Nice description of a community manager. Most job offers for this kind of role don't even get that detailed.
I especially appreciate the measurables you presented. They seem very reasonable and well-planned for this business.
I'm very interested in learning more about how different industries handle a community manager as a listener versus a content producer. Depending on the size of the company/brand and the activity/distribution of their community in the online space, I wonder if there is more or less value in a listening community manager rather than a more content heavy community manager.
I do realize that one plays off the other (listening to community to determine what content is desired or necessary), but I have noticed that some companies take a more pure listening and response approach (customer service) rather than trying to produce their own content.
Roxanne Darling
· 1 year ago
Chris - the hiring part is a real challenge for our industry I believe. This is one of those positions that is not so easily trainable - it is so dependent on that mix of technical ability, curiosity and knowledge about the space/vertical in mind, confidence and open-heartedness to work well with all kinds of people, etc.
I wrote a few short comments a while ago - please feel free to steal 'em - and I would say to companies - this may be your most important and most difficult hire. We are talking a very multi-dimensional person, and there just are not that many of them. Maybe 10% of all the people who might apply, or who are active either in your space or in social media. Just my hunch based on Myers-Briggs data and personal experience.
Sonia Simone
· 1 year ago
The measurable stuff is interesting, but it's the nonmeasurable that (for me) makes a great CM. Deft disarmament of trolls. Knowing how to tell a troll, in fact, from a potentially useful citizen, and how to encourage the latter without encouraging the former. Knowing when to step in and when to let it ride, and being willing to babysit the situation while it manifests. Caring about the citizens who are a PITA, and speaking on their behalf even when they're pissing off everyone who can see them. Creating a safe place for the quiet ones to speak their minds, because you know from long experience that the quiet ones can be some of the most interesting. Supporting the conversation, while knowing that it's not *your* conversation, it's theirs.
It's 80% art and 20% craft, IME.
chrisbrogan
· 1 year ago
Nancy has a two part post that really blows the covers off what this could all really mean once we get past the basics. I encourage you to check it out.
"Roxanne is absolutely right. It’s definitely important to find the person who lives this in their bones. Look at Cortney. Tons of passion for this subject.
It’s a very good point: maybe that’s another post. How to hire one. My thought: find community people from amidst the pool of community people. But is that wrong, short-sighted?"
First of all... THANK YOU Chris! I had about decided I was done with community, but your post yesterday shows that passion still burns more than I realized.
As far as community people -- there are some FANTASTIC people out there, but need to work remotely (as do I), it would be a huge help in having companies/organizations realize that true community is a 24/7 job and the option for telecommuting would help bring more experienced people into the applicant pile. Besides, telecommuting helps with the green movement.
The more I read this post, the replies, and Nancy's 2 part post -- I am left with more thoughts I need to write out. I don't think many people truly realize all that is involved with community and management. For instance, I've seen reference to "trolls" and "spammers" -- but no reference to positive reinforcement of your good community members to encourage them to become more involved, etc.
To me (and here's the title I'll be working with)... Community is like a diamond. Rough in initial form, but with a lot of planning, care, strategic thinking with all sorts of facets that together can be a beautiful brilliant gem to last a lifetime.
Cortney
Kyle
· 1 year ago
Since I'm going through this currently with building out means for our community to engage with each other and our company this is a hot topic. I blogged about it last week and came up with four initial steps I am taking that are similar to what you are saying, although I do believe the first one is paramount and we should spend more time discussing:
1. Engage the current user base to discover what they want to discuss, how they want to communicate, their likes, their dislikes…essentially building a “community advisory board”;
2. Evolve our blog to discuss the overall industry, openly looking at the competition, unveiling our product roadmap for insight and more;
3. Leverage our star power;
4. Worry more about our content than the social media apps we are using;
Currently I'm in the first and second layers and will be updating throughout the process.
Thanks Chris for continuing to make me think!
/kff
LisaN
· 1 year ago
Chris, thanks for the great list of ideas in which duties, strategies, and measurements of a community manager. Because my company is very small, I have to wear many hats, and community manager is one of them. I don't have to report to anyone other than myself, but your post gives me an excellent outline to follow to get from here to there.
Actually, I'm surprised at how many of these I'm already doing....................:)
TeganDowling
· 1 year ago
Regarding the difficulty of finding a Community Manager:
Given how hard it can be to find the combination of skills, aptitudes and "intangibles" that this role requires, maybe it would be useful to think of a more-probable assemblage of characteristics that would make up a good Community Management *team*.
Roxanne Darling's reference to Myers-Briggs personality types is spot on -- when the 'perfect someone' for the role isn't in evidence, the best solution may be to break out the functions of the role into subsets appropriate to complementary personality types.
Michael Clarke
· 1 year ago
The list of KPIs is quite invaluable - thanks! One additional one for our incoming new person (50% of their time will be spent on social media activities) is in how successful they are in turning everyone else into a community manager in their own right.
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
TeganDowling said...
"Roxanne Darling’s reference to Myers-Briggs personality types is spot on — when the ‘perfect someone’ for the role isn’t in evidence, the best solution may be to break out the functions of the role into subsets appropriate to complementary personality types."
While this is certainly an alternative, you still need someone who understands all of the facets to help manage multiple people for multiple roles so there is a cohesive environment presented to the community base.
Cortney
(y'all sick of me yet? LOL)
Theresa Zagnoli
· 1 year ago
Wow everyone - I am both overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of the original post and subsequent responses. AS the CEO of a relatively small business, I recently took on new challenge and established a new blog. My day to day schedule is packed already, so I started with the goal of a post a week (which I know needs to be more frequent). However, I downloaded a large number of the responsibilities Chris outlined in his original email to an employee. I didn't provide specific expectations for this role and clearly reading this post, I should have.
My question to the group - how many hours of your day do you devote to research, commenting, writing on your own blogs and others? I didn't anticipate this to be a full time job, but I am seeing now that it could quickly become one ...
Sonia Simone
· 1 year ago
Theresa, my take is that the more you invest, the more you get. You can do it with a part-timer, but you'll probably get the best ROI with someone full time. It's a bit like having a really excellent salesperson. When you find someone who's wonderful, you want as much of that person's time, expertise, energy and ability as she can give you--you'll always get your investment repaid many times over.
Chris Reed
· 1 year ago
Really interesting post, comments and follow-up posts elsewhere. I think we're at a crossroads in terms of the sorts of jobs/careers available now, and, in particular the transparency and the "slow-burn" needed to establish a reputation in an area while engaging with people within it.
This is a post to refer to back to. Often. Nice one.
LisaN
· 1 year ago
@Chris Reed. I printed the post out and now have a file next to my desk labeled "Community Manager." Within this file, I'll add my ideas, thoughts, and action. I love doing stuff on the computer, but sometimes, the value of having a hardcopy is great.
Catherine Stifter
· 1 year ago
Another comment from a part-time web/media director in a small non-profit, health and media project where even our staff are working overtime to move into the Web 2.0 paradigm. We all come from public radio or TV OR from health care, where blogging and online community are not yet common words or ideas. I, too, will print out your post as we build our communications plans and web logic model and actually, most likely, re-arrange what the jobs are! Thanks for the road map. I now can see the road, even though I'm still not sure exactly where we're going with all this!
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
Ok Chris, I have a question...
Why would your CM need an account on Google Reader? I understand the others listed -- but this one has me stumped. I have a Google Reader account but hated it so I went in search of a better system which I found, so I'm just curious as to why THAT choice.
Thanks, Cortney
Marnie Webb
· 1 year ago
Chris,
Terrific post.
I agree with a few of the commenters: this feels like a lower level community manager. To my money, the person you that describe should have an active role, not just creating a listening outpost inside the organization, but actually advocating to the organization for the needs of the community and bringing the community inside -- whether it is by hosting product development meetings, being on advisory boards. That will change depending on the organization. But it seems that you the need to make sure the feedback loop is one that is useable by the org and they should be measured, in at least some way, by that.
R R Dasgupta
· 1 year ago
Chris:
This is a great post.. dot on target. Two key processes come to mind 1) Awareness to Registration and 2)Registration to Engagement (in the community). As would be obvious, membership (or registration) in it self would not be a good enough measure of success. I think the real clincher would be how we can enable the member to actively participate in the communty, the level and quality of dialogue that ensues and how that in turn draws more members into the community. I think we need to look at all the moments of truth through the ACQUIRE-DEVELOP-RETAIN cycle and develop key metrics that will teal us the health of the community in each of these phases.
What we are building is a community enabled by a ecosystem and a platform that focuses on software product innovation. To us the level and quality of engagement is key and so are the solutions that get created, monetized and potentially reused. This for us is Wealth of the Commons/Community (ala Adam Smith - Wealth of the nations)
Cheers and thanks for the great post RR
chrisbrogan
· 1 year ago
@Cortney - Google Reader is a judgment call for me and for my employee. I love Google Reader. I can move through thousands of articles, finding exactly what I need, with a lot less time and effort than any other reader.
The sharing function gives me aggregation powers, and the starring, emailing, and further tagging features allow for rich metadata that permit me the ability to move through things fast.
It's how I use it. In list mode, with the keyboard commands. And so that's how I got it going.
Your mileage may vary. : )
CortneySellers
· 1 year ago
Thanks Chris! I may give it another shot someday, but I've really become fond of attensa in outlook.
Connie Bensen
· 1 year ago
great post Chris - I agree with some of the others that it is more entry level
Duties - Utilize the platforms listed, but explore emerging ones & evaluate how they can be utilized
Measurements - (This was interesting but I'd hesitate to have someone tracking their engagement. I would find it tedious to keep track of all that.)
I think that this position requires a highly motivated person & those items would all be inherently accomplished. So listing them is good. My caution would be to make sure to encourage new options be explored all the time.
Success I'm going to blog about this with a graphical representation, but here's my definition of success: the community manager will be facilitating conversations at the various levels:
Customer Engagement: Gather feedback Provide Resources Customer Services Marketing & PR support
Internal Engagement: Quality Assurance Development Tech Support & Customer Support
I agree with the person that said that Comm Mgr role is going to become more important as companies realize it's value. And the position if done well will be challenged by customers & internally. Hiring this type of person may also be challenging, but there should be a telecommuting option. There are definite advantages to working remotely & I believe I get far more accomplished.
In a post I made over there, I offered to try and do an online expo to cover this topic (and am flexible to adding others).
So I'd like to know 2 things (you can DM your answer on twitter @cortneysellers so we don't crowd Chris' blog):
1.) Would you be interested in attending such an event online?
2.) What topics would you like to see covered?
Thanks, Cortney
iwilker
· 1 year ago
Great post chris. And lordy, there's a lot of experience and wisdom in this comment string. (On a blog like yours, showing up late for the party -- e.g., after a post has been up a couple days -- might almost be considered a strategy: Maximum gorging on worthy contributions, in minimum time.)
Couple thoughts: I like the succinct way you (a) define measurement as qualitative more than quantitative, but (b) rough out a few areas where numbers can be meaningful: response-time limit, number of posts filtered up via Google Reader, ratios re twitter and original vs link posts on blog. All this helps bring measurement into some focus.
And a corollary to Marnie Webb's observation. At bottom, any community person's role is going to be about facilitating connection between the org they represent and that org's constituents or customers. And sometimes that may call for tasks, skills, and measurement I haven't seen singled out here.
In my view, what a lot of orgs really need in order to make that connection with their community is social-web skill widely distributed among staff -- it's great to have one or two community people who are incredibly prolific bloggers, twitterers etc., but in some contexts that community won't really be satisfied unless it has direct access to staffers with highly specialized knowledge. An intermediary is only going to weaken the signal. In the internet industry, so many people are now connected on social-web services that your community can probably tune in to the specialists doing what they're particularly interested in, but in organizations that are less savvy about web culture, social media, the value of online identity and so on, a senior community manager's role may be as much about getting colleagues online as about directly interacting with the community.
I've worked as a community gardener for some years now for a large advocacy org, and that's how it's been for me -- evangelizing the social web, building mechanisms allowing colleagues to interact directly with people outside the org, teaching and constantly coaching staff how to blog, use del.icio.us, Flickr, twitter et al. In such an organization, measurement might include something like "number of colleagues who've become self-sufficient users of blogs, Facebook, twitter et al, have established robust online identities, and who regularly use social-web tools in their jobs."
Missy
· 1 year ago
IMHO the perfect candidates for a CM position, are bloggers. Because in essense a blogger is just that, a Community Manager.
Bloggers are at the forefront of social media. Experienced bloggers know that no blogger is an island. One needs to make friends, and establish relationships within the blogosphere.
Also any blogger that picks up a blogging book, or reads an ejournal, etc. will soon enough find out that joining and participating in blogger communities is the best way to "make friends" and grow ones blog. The 2 go hand in hand. It is in the learing curve of a blogger.
Blogging and Social Media are intertwined. So if YOU are looking for a CM, look for an experienced blogger.
Great CM job description, Chris.
Chi-chi Ekweozor
· 1 year ago
Fantastic post.
Much fat to chew on...
This post was a bit of an eye opener to me as the term 'Community Manager' implied 'Organiser of After School Club' to me and it may well appear so to many other readers from the UK. We are catching up though...
The Measurables and Duties sections were pretty useful.
I read it all the way to the last comment which says a lot.
Thanks.
Dan Thornton
· 1 year ago
Great, and very interesting post. I'm intrigued why the message has to be explicitly non-marketing (I'm Community Marketing Manager for 10 brands!), but I can guess why...
I would say that a position exactly as detailed would be easier to set up in a smaller, or newer company. In a more traditional set-up, there still needs to be some balance between quality engagement, and at some point, driving significant numbers to what can be fairly established and substantial websites. Some of this is covered in your description, but the problem that normally occurs is in making an explicit link between community engagement, and an end result in attendance/readership/commerce etc.
With regards to structure, I work for a large and very established publishing company, so if the community resource is increased, it's likely to either mean working with community specialists located within brand teams, or creating a horizontal team of specialists working across a maximum of a couple of brands each - but that's a way off yet!
KareAnderson
· 1 year ago
A gem of a new resource on this is Patrick O'Keefe's book, Managing Online Forums Kare
Lisa
· 1 year ago
Great post! I would add FriendFeed to the list of platforms that the community manager should have an account on.
TeganDowling
· 1 year ago
Soooo much time has passed since this was first posted ;) that twitter should now be replaced (or at least augmented) with identi.ca. That's where the future will be.
Allison
· 1 year ago
We just established this type of position and your post will be VERY helpful and gave us some considerations for measuring success. Thanks!
Maggie McGary
· 1 year ago
Old post but very relevant to me because I have been wondering about this same thing, but in a slightly different context. My question is how important is the actual job title for the position we’re talking about? I work for an association and we already have a community manager--she manages the intranet--so that title's out. My title is assistant content developer, but I have become the de facto community manager--my job is exactly what everyone here has described.
Should job title be just an internal thing, or should it really matter if the person in this role is to be the "face" of the organization? With the association thing in particular--how much should/will it matter what title the people who begin to fit this job description have?
Take me, for example--would it have a negative impact on my credibility within the association community if my title stayed assistant content developer or would it not matter? How about to members, journalists, public—whoever; would they wonder if someone is really the spokesperson for a company/association if, say, the person acting in that role’s title was administrative assistant? Is it a necessary part of the job that the person be easily identifiable as the community manager by title, or does it just not matter? Such a big part of effectively doing this job is being an active participant in social networks, and I wonder if there is--or will be--some dynamic where community managers will be reluctant to share knowledge with someone they feel isn’t on par with them professionally.
And, btw, I totally agree with Roxanne’s point about this not being a role that just an intern or volunteer should—or could—manage. I can see how it’s easy for companies to think that all this position entails is setting up a Facebook profile and sending out the occasional tweet—but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Once you get the social media ball rolling you realize just how integral it is to many different departments and how involved and time-consuming a task it actually is.
And ditto about the skills—it’s not just a matter of finding someone who knows what Facebook is; it is a unique skill set that encompasses far more than it might appear. To have just a web person or just a writer isn’t enough; they need to be a strong writer—preferably a blogger, be technically savvy, know about/have experience in public/media relations, etc, etc. Not to mention not only be intimately familiar with all the current social media applications but constantly stay on top of new trends and technologies as they emerge. It truly is a 24/7 job because that’s how much time it takes to keep all the balls in the air and be able to see what’s coming around the next curve, not to mention be responsive to the needs of the community.
Kevin Skarritt
· 1 year ago
Maggie and Roxanne wrote: "...this not being a role that just an intern or volunteer should—or could—manage."
HEAR, HEAR! A little lesson on this point for anyone who reads this and is thinking otherwise. We (www.BlackWidowNetwork.com) brought in a full time Intern to take over a large quantity of 'Community Management' responsibilities. She was bright, energetic, a college business major, 'got' social media and was extremely excited to start her career path with such an important role. Long story short; It took her three weeks to become so completely overwhelmed with the job she ended up quitting and reconsidering her major. YIKES! Our best decision, next, was to bring in another employee with maturity, industry expertise and gave them a LOT more pre-framing of what the job entails. She too was initially overwhelmed, but she's doing fabulously well because of her business savvy.
My $.02 for what it's worth.
Roxanne Darling
· 1 year ago
@Maggie McGary - I think you've raised an important issue on both personal branding as well as strategic positioning. @Kevin Skarritt has given us two more data points of support as well.
As people who are at the leading edge of creating whole new industries and job descriptions, it is very important IMO to establish these new roles with the requirements and credibility they deserve (and even demand.) That translates across the entire org chart, and in your case, I would support 100% an upgrade in your title (and salary) to reflect the added responsibilities and skills required to be successful.
In this case, it becomes an opportunity to issue a press release (internal as well as external) to educate about the activities you are performing. If we don't carve out space for the work we are doing, as a collective of change-makers, there is no reason to expect others to know about or support us.
Please let us know what you come up with re: your new title and pay grade. And you can certainly turn to this post for extensive documentation.
Mark Neff
· 1 year ago
Our (CSC) Community Director is part of our KM function that is part of the Office of Innovation that reports into our CEO. She oversees the community strategy for the company and helps facilitate our key communities and actively engages their sponsors. She also provides help when and where she can to the rest of the communities around the company. She also acts as the leader of our community leader community. Each individual community has a community leader that can be from anywhere in the company.
Her performance measures are not focused on the external components you cite since her work is primarily inward focused. Although, it may be useful to consider them as an extension to her current work or even for community leaders in the Communication and Marketing areas. Thank you for your ideas.
Catherine
· 1 year ago
Interesting approach, particularly with social media aspect for managing a community. My concern is that the community you are talking about has to be highly motivated and of course connected to the internet. Something a lot of rural Australians aren't. (they have email sure but blogging,etc, not sure they have the know how or the time) So success with the community needs to be balanced towards how your audience wants to receive and give information. So I see this social media info and approach you have provided is mkting push rather than two way communication. I see your community manager also having the function of educating the community and their own coporation about how to have meaningful two-way dialogue about issues of concern. PLUS a function that demonstrates how decisions are made back to the community. I come from infrastructure community relations background so taking peoples houses etc is pretty emotive stuff.. we've found that the best way for a proponent to engage is face to face... and this social media is ancillary (while innovative )though necessary to complement traditional comms strategies..... ( esp if you have a computer literate demographic...)
Annette Lang
· 1 year ago
As the newly appointed Community Manager in a French start up offering simultaneous interpreting, I'm delighted about every piece of information I can get. I'm still into shaping the budding interpreter community, understanding their needs (joining a community in a job that normally prevents you from enjoying the benefits of working colleagues since you move all the time) and designing our goals. An issue we are actually discussing is that of starring members... how important is that according to you ? Thanks to all of you for your great ideas, Annette
John
· 8 months ago
Hi, Having started about a year ago my job as a "serial poster" as I posted on anything to do with our company, I have found myself in a community marketing manager position in a European startup. I needed a few ideas and your post is going to give me that chek list style thingy to go forward in my job. I am going to keep this post tight for a while. Thanks!
All Comments
I'm not too sure about your measurement criteria on this one, though. I know measurement is a very contentious topic, but some of these measures seem to focus more on output than outcome.
I would definitely keep some of your points:
- Responsiveness to communications in less than 24 hrs
- Engagement on our blog/community/network
As a position reporting to a VP, I might look for slightly higher-level measurements. Why not look at the tone of comments/mentions? Similarly, rather than looking at just the quality of a Twitter stream (assuming a Twitter stream is essential), why not measure the engagement through that tactic?
I don't think we're on completely different pages here - I'd just maybe raise the level the measures are focused at from micro to a bit more macro.
Cheers,
Dave
Wow! thanks so much Chris. For a starting Community Manager this is right on the money. If someone followed this as a template and they are positive, well spoken, & motivated, they would kick ass and definitely achieve your objectives. Not to mention, this is one of the most enjoyable "positions" out there.
Thank you, I am going to print this out and incorporate some checks and balances for us.
Perfect Monday morning reading, are you psychic??
My question to you would be, "what's the difference between Community Management for a niche social network (maybe 100K people) compared to a generic social network, like facebook." Do you think it's just a matter of scale? I can't Imagine we're facing identical challenges as a network with a thousand fold as many members.
What say you? (anyone?)
I was the Community manager for a very large skiing community, and dealt with issues much different from some of the large sites. I think because it is smaller and more targeted you are dealing with knowledgeable members, and they expect you to be the same. Also on a small niche network you have a very small margin of error because any action will be noticed by all of the members. Moderators are the key in a niche community.
Im in Bristol, NH and would love to talk sometime!
Andrew Hemingway
akreins@gmail.com
"Build a non-marketing community outreach to deliver a voice for our organization to the industry"
Creating a community via social media is not about spamming with a sals pitch it is, as you say, about out-reach and availability. Too often the wrong questions are being asked.
Measurement is going to be difficult to generalise so really does have to considered with relevance to the organisation. I agree with Dave regarding the output/outcome issue - just saying that you'll respond to a query within 24 hours is only the start, the results of that response are what it really important. Can you turn around complaints or convert a query into a sale etc.
It's a question of how much emphasis and importance is going to be placed upon the 'community' in comparison to more traditional methods of interaction with customers.
Great post and very timely. I am forwarding a link to a client of mine that is struggling with this very issue right now. Thanks for the outstanding post!
Ripple On My Friend!
My question would be about measurement. Is there any way for an organization to look at the level of engagement with the brand that the community manager is fostering? In other words, is the community manager creating better customers or just more customers? Is this even a valid issue to look at?
I think the term community manager can really mean a bunch of different things to different audiences.
Some community managers can spend all day in the trenches managing a large (or small) community of members and not look up from their desk all day long. They know their community cold. He/she may not need to (or have time to) post externally, blog, etc. It's probably his/her manager who is doing all of the externally focused work.
I like Kevin's comment above too- a niche community as different needs/expectations/challenges, than, say an open network like gather, divinecaroline, eons, and thousands more. (would love to chat about this another day)
I agree with Dave on macro vs/ micro measurements. At first, it's good to get an idea of how active/responsive the community manager is, but that notion may get tossed in the first month..
I use all of the techniques that you mentioned. One other thing I'm doing is going to A LOT of conferences, specifically unconferences like BarCamps, and using the events to engage folks within the industry.
I report to our VP of Product.
Great post. I actually started the "community" department at the old Warner Bros. Online back in late 90's. (oh so long ago.) As the community manager for an entertainment company, the duties were pretty obvious, and included what you posted above.
You also have to acknowledge to yourself you are going to be known as the "face" of the company whether you like it or not. As soon as you put yourself out there and start interacting with people who love or hate your product, service or property ... you will be seen *as* that organization, so be mindful of that reality when answering emails or posting on message boards.
As far as measurement of success is concerned. I'm not sure it can be so easily defined. For instance, if you measured by the amount of negative comments coming in through one of your communications channels, it doesn't necessarily mean it was a direct result of your community manager.
I think you have to look at the output of all of the manager's streams and see how well they are representing the "soul" of the company. I don't think there is a magic "number" that signifies success in terms of signups to cancellations , etc.
I judged performance by how those in the department moderated their assigned boards / portals, etc.
I'm also going to agree with several of the comments (Dave, Tyson, Troy) re: measurement. The metrics you outline sound like new breed PR vs traditional community management. Depending on an organizations goals, they might be one in the same, but this is just one approach to engaging community. If a company chooses to launch community to support customer service, a community manager's role might be almost entirely internally facing (to the extent tending to the needs of customers on the forum is considered an "internal" activity).
On the subject of where the CM reports into in the organization, it's dependent on what business process the company is supporting with community. Brand mgmt/relations will likely report into marketing. Innovation will likely report into product or engineering. Customer support will report into, well, customer support. This begs the question of who will oversee all of this community activity? IMHO, this should be a "Chief Community Officer" (insert any important sounding title). In some companies this may be the CMO or CIO, but the role requires someone who understands the nature of conversations and how a company can/should/shouldn't engage in them.
@jstorerj
Dell always seems to come up as a good example of this. They've reduced negative mentions online from 49% to 21%. Sure, there have been blips, but they're looking at a trend.
As for me, I would love to get to a place where I can hire a Community Manager. But I always envisioned her managing the internal SavvyAuntie.com community. In order to stay authentic, I cannot imagine anyone else managing my Twitter account, for example. Like Tony, CEO of Zappos.com, I hope to be able to manage both my company (when it launches) and my authentic community (as it grows).
Fortunately or unfortunately, there is only one Melanie Notkin. But there are millions of Savvy Aunties out there. For them, I need help!
Once again you hit the nail on the head! I've been in community management or development for 14 years, so I do have a couple of quick thoughts to add:
1.) It is EXTREMELY important that a company or organization realize that community duties do not fit a 9-5 business role, but is an element that needs flexibility because your community never closes.
2.) It is very important that the community manager and company have a CLEAR understanding of goals and objectives of the community.
3.) What and how to measure needs to be uniquely evaluated and determined based on the goals and objectives of the community. A typical message board community has different goals and objectives than a social networking type of community and measurement must accommodate all tools for your community.
4.) Set the tone of your community up front and be willing to adjust as necessary to your community needs. A CM/CD/CP should be allowed to be the face of an organization without too many business politics in the way. If a CM/CD/CP has to go through 6 hoops to just say "hi we currently don't ... or do ....whatever" to answer a question, you'll lose that person and their potential return loyalty.
5.) I am currently looking for a position and if anyone is in need of an experienced CM/CD/CP with creativity and vision, just holler! My only caveat is the need to work remotely
(Note: CM - Community Manager; CD - Community Director; CP - Community Producer)
I probably could list more...maybe I'll take this and write a blog post later!
Cortney
IM/Skype/Twitter/OoVoO: CortneySellers
"On the subject of where the CM reports into in the organization, it’s dependent on what business process the company is supporting with community. Brand mgmt/relations will likely report into marketing. Innovation will likely report into product or engineering. Customer support will report into, well, customer support. This begs the question of who will oversee all of this community activity? IMHO, this should be a “Chief Community Officer” (insert any important sounding title). In some companies this may be the CMO or CIO, but the role requires someone who understands the nature of conversations and how a company can/should/shouldn’t engage in them. "
I agree completely! Many times community support from the company is either kind of an after thought or "it'll manage itself" which isn't the healthiest way to build a community.
As a former Community Manager, and current Community Consultant, I speak from experience when I say that what you expect from a Community Manager is completely realistic and essentially everything that I've tried to accomplish in previous positions...but you're one of the few who actually get it. I've worked for both a non-profit and a market research company, and the intentions for the Community Manager position have always been pure to begin with, but somewhere down the road if there's not someone in Management who is constantly supporting the Community Manager, the roles/responsibilities/expectations will change over time - especially at a small company.
I'd also like to point out that one of the main reasons I'm exploring the consulting route right now is that I know I can do more than just the Community Manager work, I'm capable of strategy and high level thinking. Goals and objectives of the position sometimes gets delegated to higher ups and passed down to the Community Manager, when the Community Manager should be sitting down at the strategy table.
Another challenge is being the bad guy. At some point, a Community Manager has to give "bad" news to either the community or the organization. The Community Manager is very much the middle man and mediator between what the community demands and what the organization wants; it's a difficult task to please everyone. Going back to my first point, the Community Manager needs to report to someone who really believes in the role - someone like yourself doesn't exist in most organizations.
Of course given everything I've said, Chris, I'd drop everything for the opportunity to work for you, well...I'm not sure I'm ready to leave San Diego again, but I'd consider it to learn from one of the greatest minds in the social media milieu.
Francois
I should tell you that this post was one of the hardest for me to write, as it took a lot of thinking about what I *really* would want from my community manager.
In fact, writing this post inspired me to look at a lot of jobs and other problems this way: what exactly would I do next? Turns out that's a neat way to plan and think and consider.
Thanks again, folks!
And remember, today is World Commenting Day. Go comment on a few other blogs, too. : )
It sounds like the dream job for Comm Mgrs! :) Working for a company/boss that 'gets it' already.
Seriously - another home run Chris. But I think it's great that your own community stepped up so well to add to the discussion
Jeff
In retrospect, LiveJournal was a tool that we probably were using due to lack of other tools available. LiveJournal communities were great in that the history was there and archived and the threaded discussion was ideal.
What we had not planned for was the eventual need to recruit into the system for people NOT already on LiveJournal.
For them, requiring use of LiveJournal was simply not a sure shot.
So, I'd say -- be flexible in your tools but firm in your follow ups. Don't limit your community by force feeding them a single tools. Let the community go where it likes... you can lead but ultimately, the "best" tools are those that gets used the most -- and this is not always the ones the leader picks.
As always, fantastic thought provoking post. You wanted to talk about measurement, so here goes...
I love measurement. I track everything all the time, graph it, chart it, measure it against every other data I can find. That's because I'm a goal-oriented person.
The tough part is that success isn't always measured in numbers. So you can be commenting more, posting more, and getting more comments, but still not actually be heading toward your goal. Here's an old example from the nonprofit sector.
You can hand out more eyeglasses each year, but are you really helping people see better?
So in terms of measurement, I think it's important to make sure that what you measure isn't geared toward productivity, but success. They aren't always the same thing.
I have a UK business that develops and manages private online communities for insight and innovation purposes. We have a proprietary platform that we have developed which provides the fulcrum for our core service - Community Management. We see our business as being SaaS for this reason, though perhaps we are providing a subtle mix of software AND a human service.
Our unique brand of Community Management provides the following:
•Keeping the conversation alive
•Avoidance of 'virtual ghost-towns
•General community interaction
•Management of tasks and activities and associated deadlines
•Community Relationship Management
•Identification and onward communication of insights
•Provision of technical support
•Ensure quality content is generated
•Acknowledge points of view
•Feedback of results to the community and it’s individual members
•All known questions answered
•Introductions to new community members
•Collaboration on tasks and activities where required
•Identification of valuable contributors
•Skilled facilitation
•Ensuring the community is a safe place to be
I think this will help fuel your discussion and I'm keen to get your response to this. Where once the internet had 'web managers', this has progressed along the time-line to Moderators and now Community Managers.
I was brought on earlier this month as the Community Manager at NewsGator's growing SaaS division. Before that, I was a Community Manager at a MUCH smaller startup.
You make some incredibly important points in this post that I would love to have read when I first started out in this field. When I first became a community manager at my previous company I had to constantly remind myself that I'm communicating *with* an audience instead of *at* an audience. For a new community manager I would say that having that frame of mind is absolutely critical to the steps you talk about and to successful engagement.
Establishing an engaging, entertaining, informative *voice* is an ongoing process that I am constantly aware of -- and tweaking -- and also one that can be tracked using many of the metrics you bring up. Metrics are huge and I didn’t realize this at the beginning of my days as a community manager. But, quite simply, if you don’t track your efforts in a structured way, it’s almost impossible to ascertain whether you’re making the type and level of impact that you want. (And if you don't intimately know what the goals of the company are going forward, you can't establish these metrics.)
Finally, I have to say that I completely agree with Courtney's comment that a community manager's job is not 9-5 since a "community never closes." Right on. Flexibility is, indeed, key here.
Once again, thanks for such a lucid and pertinent post and also some great comments here.
Best,
Josh
I think flexibility within a community *and* the staff for the support of the community should become an awareness issue.
I can not tell you how many jobs where I've worked 9-5 for the "office" and 5-untilwheneverthingssettledown" for the community.
BTW - this whole discussion is causing a brainstorm on this end, so stay tuned for the resulting weather report. LOL
CortneySellers
On the point of metrics, I'd recommend thinking of it across a few vectors: Activities, Reach, Relevance, Outcomes and Worth. You have several elements of the Activities, Reach and Relevance already covered. On the Outcomes, I would add a few:
1) Opportunities Identified -- your community manager will likely identify opportunities and should communicate them back into the company (and get credit for them)
2) Problems Identified -- same idea, but the negative
3) Problems Solved -- your CM is front-line customer and community support, whether formally the job or not
4) New Business Generated -- not the goal, but definitely something most CMs should track and get credit for
5) Customer Satisfaction -- this is the ultimate goal, and while the CM isn't the only contributor, the person's work should be tied to this company metric
6) Advocacy -- good CMs will build up good connections with their community, which leads to others recommending your company online and offline, also should be tracked
These types of Outcomes are important to track for any PR or community effort. Whether you can show causation or simply correlation is less critical -- but your business will need to see the connection in order to continue doing the right things. And the Outcomes are key to demonstrating Worth (some sort of $$ value associated to the work).
JADP, external resources like Twitter, Facebook, etc. are totally irrelevant to the way this company has defined the role. I wouldn't say the company handles it perfectly, but there are aspects I think are terrific--notably the emphasis on creating a rich, rewarding experience for existint customers rather than using SMM to go hunt down new ones. We let our existing customers do that for us.
I guess I'll ask a question about the Strategy section since most people are zeroing in on the measurement (which is a tricky question for sure).
As I read over the Strategy section I struggled to identify a mechanism that ensures the development of the strategy is aligned with the overall goals of the organization. How can we be sure community managers and communicators in general are creating communities that support the broader business objectives?
I ask only because it's so easy to fall in love with the novetly of social media tools and lose sight of the overarching mission. Is your hypothetical community manager at risk as well?
Mark
As you mentioned, each community is different, so naturally the measurements of a Community Manager must likewise be different. We all understand the need for measurements but I think it can be counter-productive to require too many output metrics as part of goals. We track many of the items on your list – but creative thinking and unique projects can be just as important – yet not so easily tracked.
Thankfully, I work for a company that understands this. Autonomy and creative thinking often spawn community growth and value. Metrics are an important tool but we need to remind ourselves each day that this is about people and community.
There are lots of things that will have to go into a next version.
At the IAA World Conference in DC, the speakers commented that community management would be the next growing department in an agency. Very nice post!
I think people tend to think that a junior person or a volunteer could do this. In many cases that is true, but this person regardless of position, will do best with support and nurturing provided on a regular basis too.
A CM needs to also understand the psychology of the core members of a community. It's one thing to know the tools -- it's another to know the PEOPLE who use the tools.
Cortney
yep this will be turning into a blog post soon... LOL
It's a very good point: maybe that's another post. How to hire one. My thought: find community people from amidst the pool of community people. But is that wrong, short-sighted?
I especially appreciate the measurables you presented. They seem very reasonable and well-planned for this business.
I'm very interested in learning more about how different industries handle a community manager as a listener versus a content producer. Depending on the size of the company/brand and the activity/distribution of their community in the online space, I wonder if there is more or less value in a listening community manager rather than a more content heavy community manager.
I do realize that one plays off the other (listening to community to determine what content is desired or necessary), but I have noticed that some companies take a more pure listening and response approach (customer service) rather than trying to produce their own content.
I wrote a few short comments a while ago - please feel free to steal 'em - and I would say to companies - this may be your most important and most difficult hire. We are talking a very multi-dimensional person, and there just are not that many of them. Maybe 10% of all the people who might apply, or who are active either in your space or in social media. Just my hunch based on Myers-Briggs data and personal experience.
It's 80% art and 20% craft, IME.
Click here.
"Roxanne is absolutely right. It’s definitely important to find the person who lives this in their bones. Look at Cortney. Tons of passion for this subject.
It’s a very good point: maybe that’s another post. How to hire one. My thought: find community people from amidst the pool of community people. But is that wrong, short-sighted?"
First of all... THANK YOU Chris! I had about decided I was done with community, but your post yesterday shows that passion still burns more than I realized.
As far as community people -- there are some FANTASTIC people out there, but need to work remotely (as do I), it would be a huge help in having companies/organizations realize that true community is a 24/7 job and the option for telecommuting would help bring more experienced people into the applicant pile. Besides, telecommuting helps with the green movement.
The more I read this post, the replies, and Nancy's 2 part post -- I am left with more thoughts I need to write out. I don't think many people truly realize all that is involved with community and management. For instance, I've seen reference to "trolls" and "spammers" -- but no reference to positive reinforcement of your good community members to encourage them to become more involved, etc.
To me (and here's the title I'll be working with)... Community is like a diamond. Rough in initial form, but with a lot of planning, care, strategic thinking with all sorts of facets that together can be a beautiful brilliant gem to last a lifetime.
Cortney
1. Engage the current user base to discover what they want to discuss, how they want to communicate, their likes, their dislikes…essentially building a “community advisory board”;
2. Evolve our blog to discuss the overall industry, openly looking at the competition, unveiling our product roadmap for insight and more;
3. Leverage our star power;
4. Worry more about our content than the social media apps we are using;
Currently I'm in the first and second layers and will be updating throughout the process.
Thanks Chris for continuing to make me think!
/kff
Actually, I'm surprised at how many of these I'm already doing....................:)
Given how hard it can be to find the combination of skills, aptitudes and "intangibles" that this role requires, maybe it would be useful to think of a more-probable assemblage of characteristics that would make up a good Community Management *team*.
Roxanne Darling's reference to Myers-Briggs personality types is spot on -- when the 'perfect someone' for the role isn't in evidence, the best solution may be to break out the functions of the role into subsets appropriate to complementary personality types.
"Roxanne Darling’s reference to Myers-Briggs personality types is spot on — when the ‘perfect someone’ for the role isn’t in evidence, the best solution may be to break out the functions of the role into subsets appropriate to complementary personality types."
While this is certainly an alternative, you still need someone who understands all of the facets to help manage multiple people for multiple roles so there is a cohesive environment presented to the community base.
Cortney
(y'all sick of me yet? LOL)
My question to the group - how many hours of your day do you devote to research, commenting, writing on your own blogs and others? I didn't anticipate this to be a full time job, but I am seeing now that it could quickly become one ...
This is a post to refer to back to. Often. Nice one.
Why would your CM need an account on Google Reader? I understand the others listed -- but this one has me stumped. I have a Google Reader account but hated it so I went in search of a better system which I found, so I'm just curious as to why THAT choice.
Thanks,
Cortney
Terrific post.
I agree with a few of the commenters: this feels like a lower level community manager. To my money, the person you that describe should have an active role, not just creating a listening outpost inside the organization, but actually advocating to the organization for the needs of the community and bringing the community inside -- whether it is by hosting product development meetings, being on advisory boards. That will change depending on the organization. But it seems that you the need to make sure the feedback loop is one that is useable by the org and they should be measured, in at least some way, by that.
This is a great post.. dot on target. Two key processes come to mind 1) Awareness to Registration and 2)Registration to Engagement (in the community). As would be obvious, membership (or registration) in it self would not be a good enough measure of success. I think the real clincher would be how we can enable the member to actively participate in the communty, the level and quality of dialogue that ensues and how that in turn draws more members into the community. I think we need to look at all the moments of truth through the ACQUIRE-DEVELOP-RETAIN cycle and develop key metrics that will teal us the health of the community in each of these phases.
What we are building is a community enabled by a ecosystem and a platform that focuses on software product innovation. To us the level and quality of engagement is key and so are the solutions that get created, monetized and potentially reused. This for us is Wealth of the Commons/Community (ala Adam Smith - Wealth of the nations)
Cheers and thanks for the great post
RR
The sharing function gives me aggregation powers, and the starring, emailing, and further tagging features allow for rich metadata that permit me the ability to move through things fast.
It's how I use it. In list mode, with the keyboard commands. And so that's how I got it going.
Your mileage may vary. : )
Duties -
Utilize the platforms listed, but explore emerging ones & evaluate how they can be utilized
Measurements -
(This was interesting but I'd hesitate to have someone tracking their engagement. I would find it tedious to keep track of all that.)
I think that this position requires a highly motivated person & those items would all be inherently accomplished. So listing them is good. My caution would be to make sure to encourage new options be explored all the time.
Success
I'm going to blog about this with a graphical representation, but here's my definition of success: the community manager will be facilitating conversations at the various levels:
Customer Engagement:
Gather feedback
Provide Resources
Customer Services
Marketing & PR support
Internal Engagement:
Quality Assurance
Development
Tech Support & Customer Support
I agree with the person that said that Comm Mgr role is going to become more important as companies realize it's value. And the position if done well will be challenged by customers & internally. Hiring this type of person may also be challenging, but there should be a telecommuting option. There are definite advantages to working remotely & I believe I get far more accomplished.
This post led to some fantastic conversation here and at Nancy's Full Circle blog.
In a post I made over there, I offered to try and do an online expo to cover this topic (and am flexible to adding others).
So I'd like to know 2 things (you can DM your answer on twitter @cortneysellers so we don't crowd Chris' blog):
1.) Would you be interested in attending such an event online?
2.) What topics would you like to see covered?
Thanks,
Cortney
Couple thoughts: I like the succinct way you (a) define measurement as qualitative more than quantitative, but (b) rough out a few areas where numbers can be meaningful: response-time limit, number of posts filtered up via Google Reader, ratios re twitter and original vs link posts on blog. All this helps bring measurement into some focus.
And a corollary to Marnie Webb's observation. At bottom, any community person's role is going to be about facilitating connection between the org they represent and that org's constituents or customers. And sometimes that may call for tasks, skills, and measurement I haven't seen singled out here.
In my view, what a lot of orgs really need in order to make that connection with their community is social-web skill widely distributed among staff -- it's great to have one or two community people who are incredibly prolific bloggers, twitterers etc., but in some contexts that community won't really be satisfied unless it has direct access to staffers with highly specialized knowledge. An intermediary is only going to weaken the signal. In the internet industry, so many people are now connected on social-web services that your community can probably tune in to the specialists doing what they're particularly interested in, but in organizations that are less savvy about web culture, social media, the value of online identity and so on, a senior community manager's role may be as much about getting colleagues online as about directly interacting with the community.
I've worked as a community gardener for some years now for a large advocacy org, and that's how it's been for me -- evangelizing the social web, building mechanisms allowing colleagues to interact directly with people outside the org, teaching and constantly coaching staff how to blog, use del.icio.us, Flickr, twitter et al. In such an organization, measurement might include something like "number of colleagues who've become self-sufficient users of blogs, Facebook, twitter et al, have established robust online identities, and who regularly use social-web tools in their jobs."
Bloggers are at the forefront of social media. Experienced bloggers know that no blogger is an island. One needs to make friends, and establish relationships within the blogosphere.
Also any blogger that picks up a blogging book, or reads an ejournal, etc. will soon enough find out that joining and participating in blogger communities is the best way to "make friends" and grow ones blog. The 2 go hand in hand.
It is in the learing curve of a blogger.
Blogging and Social Media are intertwined. So if YOU are looking for a CM, look for an experienced blogger.
Great CM job description, Chris.
Much fat to chew on...
This post was a bit of an eye opener to me as the term 'Community Manager' implied 'Organiser of After School Club' to me and it may well appear so to many other readers from the UK. We are catching up though...
The Measurables and Duties sections were pretty useful.
I read it all the way to the last comment which says a lot.
Thanks.
I would say that a position exactly as detailed would be easier to set up in a smaller, or newer company. In a more traditional set-up, there still needs to be some balance between quality engagement, and at some point, driving significant numbers to what can be fairly established and substantial websites. Some of this is covered in your description, but the problem that normally occurs is in making an explicit link between community engagement, and an end result in attendance/readership/commerce etc.
It's certainly a problem which is fairly prominent in the Measurementcamp gathering I've been lucky enough to end up involved with (http://blog.willmcinnes.co.uk/blog/2008/04/meas...).
With regards to structure, I work for a large and very established publishing company, so if the community resource is increased, it's likely to either mean working with community specialists located within brand teams, or creating a horizontal team of specialists working across a maximum of a couple of brands each - but that's a way off yet!
Kare
Should job title be just an internal thing, or should it really matter if the person in this role is to be the "face" of the organization? With the association thing in particular--how much should/will it matter what title the people who begin to fit this job description have?
Take me, for example--would it have a negative impact on my credibility within the association community if my title stayed assistant content developer or would it not matter? How about to members, journalists, public—whoever; would they wonder if someone is really the spokesperson for a company/association if, say, the person acting in that role’s title was administrative assistant? Is it a necessary part of the job that the person be easily identifiable as the community manager by title, or does it just not matter? Such a big part of effectively doing this job is being an active participant in social networks, and I wonder if there is--or will be--some dynamic where community managers will be reluctant to share knowledge with someone they feel isn’t on par with them professionally.
And, btw, I totally agree with Roxanne’s point about this not being a role that just an intern or volunteer should—or could—manage. I can see how it’s easy for companies to think that all this position entails is setting up a Facebook profile and sending out the occasional tweet—but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Once you get the social media ball rolling you realize just how integral it is to many different departments and how involved and time-consuming a task it actually is.
And ditto about the skills—it’s not just a matter of finding someone who knows what Facebook is; it is a unique skill set that encompasses far more than it might appear. To have just a web person or just a writer isn’t enough; they need to be a strong writer—preferably a blogger, be technically savvy, know about/have experience in public/media relations, etc, etc. Not to mention not only be intimately familiar with all the current social media applications but constantly stay on top of new trends and technologies as they emerge. It truly is a 24/7 job because that’s how much time it takes to keep all the balls in the air and be able to see what’s coming around the next curve, not to mention be responsive to the needs of the community.
"...this not being a role that just an intern or volunteer should—or could—manage."
HEAR, HEAR! A little lesson on this point for anyone who reads this and is thinking otherwise. We (www.BlackWidowNetwork.com) brought in a full time Intern to take over a large quantity of 'Community Management' responsibilities. She was bright, energetic, a college business major, 'got' social media and was extremely excited to start her career path with such an important role. Long story short; It took her three weeks to become so completely overwhelmed with the job she ended up quitting and reconsidering her major. YIKES! Our best decision, next, was to bring in another employee with maturity, industry expertise and gave them a LOT more pre-framing of what the job entails. She too was initially overwhelmed, but she's doing fabulously well because of her business savvy.
My $.02 for what it's worth.
As people who are at the leading edge of creating whole new industries and job descriptions, it is very important IMO to establish these new roles with the requirements and credibility they deserve (and even demand.) That translates across the entire org chart, and in your case, I would support 100% an upgrade in your title (and salary) to reflect the added responsibilities and skills required to be successful.
In this case, it becomes an opportunity to issue a press release (internal as well as external) to educate about the activities you are performing. If we don't carve out space for the work we are doing, as a collective of change-makers, there is no reason to expect others to know about or support us.
Please let us know what you come up with re: your new title and pay grade. And you can certainly turn to this post for extensive documentation.
Her performance measures are not focused on the external components you cite since her work is primarily inward focused. Although, it may be useful to consider them as an extension to her current work or even for community leaders in the Communication and Marketing areas. Thank you for your ideas.
I see your community manager also having the function of educating the community and their own coporation about how to have meaningful two-way dialogue about issues of concern. PLUS a function that demonstrates how decisions are made back to the community. I come from infrastructure community relations background so taking peoples houses etc is pretty emotive stuff.. we've found that the best way for a proponent to engage is face to face... and this social media is ancillary (while innovative )though necessary to complement traditional comms strategies..... ( esp if you have a computer literate demographic...)
An issue we are actually discussing is that of starring members... how important is that according to you ?
Thanks to all of you for your great ideas,
Annette
Having started about a year ago my job as a "serial poster" as I posted on anything to do with our company, I have found myself in a community marketing manager position in a European startup. I needed a few ideas and your post is going to give me that chek list style thingy to go forward in my job. I am going to keep this post tight for a while.
Thanks!