Community managers are the link between an organization or brand and its audience. They drive an organization’s agenda to audiences through various communication strategies. They build a community by promoting an organization or brand through social media platforms. They then forge ways of maintaining that community and increasing the followers of the organization or brand.
Here are some of the responsibilities of a community manager:
- They plan and promote social media campaigns in line with an organization’s marketing policies.
- They engage in conversations with an organization’s online community.
- They distribute content through sharing images, blogs, or videos and updating status on an organization’s social media accounts.
- They monitor mentions of the organization or brand on the Internet to increase the community’s following.
Organizations should incorporate a community management plan no matter what business they’re in to successfully reach and engage with their target community. Depending on your needs or budget, a community manager can come on board either on a full-time, part-time, or freelance basis.
To be effective, community managers should possess certain skills, some of which are listed below:
- Communication Skills
Communication skills are the core attribute every community manager must have. The main job of community managers is to build and maintain communities through interaction. Engaging audiences to win them over to a particular brand and have a loyal following isn’t easy. This can only happen with excellent communication skills.
- Organizational Skills
Community managers have a lot to deal with. They’re expected to interact and respond to queries from the online community almost in real-time, schedule posts, organize media files, write reports, and do other tasks. Moreover, they have to monitor and manage various social media platforms concurrently. To accomplish all that efficiently, one has to have excellent organizational skills.
- Interpersonal Skills
Community managers should be equipped with tactics that’ll help them to interact effectively. They should be able to study personas to know how to deal with the community and get the right feedback. Moreover, their creativity should be beyond par to enable them to moderate conversations with the right tone.
If applied properly, interpersonal skills increase levels of engagement in the community, and the audience feels they’re being heard on an individual level.
- Adaptability
Trends change in a short time. To be on top of their game, community managers should possess adaptability skills. They should have the ability to drop whatever they’re doing without notice and rise to the occasion when a situation calls for it. For instance, a trending topic may require the participation of the community manager. Immediately, the manager will be required to give that situation priority over other things at that moment.
Community managers should be flexible enough to fit in new spaces fast. This is because they’ll time and again encounter new areas they’re not familiar with.
- Analytical Skills
The ability to analyze what’s working or not helps an organization carve the next step. A community manager should have analytical skills to know whether the tactics being applied to promote a brand are posting the desired results or not. They should know what triggers positive reactions from the community.
- Loyalty To A Brand
Community managers must love the brand they represent. They must fully believe, be knowledgeable, and be passionate about the brand. Being on the frontline, the voice and ambassador of a brand means that the content and narrative they sell to the community is what’s consumed.
A community manager that loves a brand will be quick to defend it. In the instance of bad publicity, they’ll be able to navigate the conversation positively towards the brand.
- Ability To Use Community Management Tools
One would have to be superhuman to perform community management duties effectively without tools. These tools help in engaging with the online community, managing time, and monitoring performance:
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- Napoleon Cat: Collects social media comments, messages, and reviews in real-time. It can also answer repeated questions automatically, hide spam, and delete offensive comments.
- Brand24: Helps in detecting where your brand has been mentioned online.
- Lalal.ai: Helps create music that goes along with blog posts and social media posts.
- 4K Video Downloader: Helps in downloading videos from platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and TikTok that can then be viewed offline.
- Hootsuite: Enables engagement with the community and publishing of posts on some social media platforms.
- Buffer: Helps in analyzing the reaction of the community regarding the content being put on social media.
Final Words
An organization may be thinking of stepping up its presence on different social media platforms. This is where community managers come in. Apart from managing social media accounts, community managers can enhance brand awareness, get real-time feedback on a brand, offer customer care service to clients, and help drive sales. Even though their role is still developing, the demand for community managers is growing every day.
