You Mean I Need Another Community Manager?

A Community Manager is kind of like a Swiss Army Knife or a one size fits all jacket. They cover a wide variety of roles, have a broad range of skills, and often look like they haven't slept in 4-5 days. Finding an ideal person for this role is to say the least a pretty big challenge for any brand. It takes experience or a certain personality to be able to pull it off successfully. Each brand is different and needs a different voice. Factor this in and your pool of applicants is pretty limited even with the wealth of talent now available.

So now that I've scared you into thinking that finding a great CM is near to impossible, I'm going to give you the solution: 2 Community Managers. Now, I know this idea may not be in vogue and you want to save money given this rough economy. But specializing is always going to lead to a more successful product, especially if those products work in tandem.

What I am advocating is this kind of a divide: One CM handles Marketing/PR (outreach, meet and greets, new campaigns, brainstorming with community and leveraging said community) the other CM handles customer service (community problems, conflict resolution, community advocacy, and devils advocate @ company meetings).

The key is to have the 2 CMs work together constantly and thus always be in contact with one another. Think of it as having two hands instead of one: you need both of them and are stronger when you work together. We all of different strengths. Why not utilize our skills to their best advantage then? I've met people that are dynamite customer service people that would suck at marketing (and vice versa). Their brains just aren't always wired that way. It's tough to find someone that kicks ass at everything (present company excluded, hehe).

So play to their strengths, the essential component to a Community Manager is community. If you deputize two people to be fully committed to this full time and have this balance of skill sets: you are going to have one heck of a community, brand presence, and product.

However, what I am advocating here is completely brand dependent. Ford has 100 Fiestas in the hands of 100 20 somethings who will handle all their community/marketing outreach. Most companies only have one. When your brand needs to go to another level and you've been fostering a community environment and doing all the right things. Bring in a person to supplement your other CMs strengths. It just makes to much sense to me not to happen.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

photo credit: Leo-setä

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tagged as cm, cm social, cms, Community Manager, community social media, customer service community manager, marketing community manager, pr community manager, Social Media, specialized community manager

Stuart Foster

I like that Ari. Chief Cheese :). I do think if this model you are describing is prevalent then you need constant communication.

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Stuartfoster

Ari Herzog

Huh? Sure you can have someone in charge. Typical companies have marketing, HR, and IT departments; and a corporate website would include aspects of all three. Who's in charge? Yes, all three may be tasked with updating their info but there's usually a higher manager overseeing everything under the guise of corporate communications or R&D or such.

Take that analogy to social media and BAM! you have a chief cheese.

A.BILE

It does makes sense also in term of emulation - two mind working together can produce more than 1+1. Plus, you are absolutely right, as they do have natural acquaintances to other groups, it's likely CM effects will spread more outside and inside.
But in the current economical state of mind, you can consider yourself very lucky to be able to hire one trainee. So getting two experienced CM... well.

Crisis aversion is a big role of the CM, people respect honesty, humility and a willingness to say that you screwed up (or just explain yourself). CMs go a long way in promoting a healthy dialogue between consumer and company.

Maggi Blue

As a Community Relations Coord (basically a CM for the healthcare world) for a small health care system, I think the concept you outline is a great definition of what skill sets are necessary for success in the community realm.

For us, there will never be two CMs (hell, I am surprised is have a job in this economic climate much of the time) but I think having someone with the ability and tenacity to tackle a little of all the items mentioned is a good start.

The piece that I also find important is listening to what is being said about our company, products, staff etc - at all levels - online and off. Being able to deal with an impending crisis before it blows up as has paid off for me many times over.

Cole: I don't think you can technically have a community "head". I think that runs contrary to the idea of community managers in the first place. Does it happen? Yes, actually it does a lot...see celebrity Ghostwriting. But if you are truly interested in promoting/fostering that idea of community then you call that scenario what it is: A community management team.

Just be up front with what you are trying to do and generally people in the space will get on board and help you sort out your issues. It's the nice thing about SM, you always have a sounding board to go off of to see if anything rocks or sucks.

Cole

Stuart,

I think this is a very relevant post with the level of two-way communication that can be achieved through online communities. To be successful it is critical to have a good balance of skills with some overlap. In my opinion it would be critical that one does not overshadow the other in terms of how they are viewed by the community - something that may occur if one of them is more like a community police officer. Unfortunately, policing is part of being a community manager, but this is where some overlap may work to the benefit of the managers' reputations.

As you mentioned, the balance is something that really depends on what the community offers to its members. Communication between the two, or more, community managers is crucial, especially at the beginning so that an agreement can be made regarding responsibilities.

Question for you regarding the subject. What is your thought of having one community head that is basically "the face" of the community with a set of community managers below them? I see a potential hardship if this were to happen as the community looks up to this one person, instead of respecting the others. Just curious about your thoughts if there were to be a hierarchy within the "official" leaders of an online community.

Nice post Stuart - now all we need is for companies to jump on board!

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