A company hires a community manager to act as a liaison between the company and the online community that it created or manages. Social networks, message boards, and interactive multi-player games are examples of online communities. Community managers interact with the people who make up the community using the community’s own networking system as well as other media tools like external websites and social networks.
The ability to interact well with people is an important part of a community manager’s job. This includes being able to accurately share observations about the community with the company, as well as communicating the company’s policies and intentions to the entire community. A community manager also acts as a company’s marketing arm, announcing new services and products. An online network’s staff and volunteer moderators are usually overseen a community manager.
To carry out their duties, online community managers use new media based on the Internet, such as social networking and streaming video websites. Most businesses will prefer to hire a community manager who has a bachelor’s degree and has worked with social media for business. Some people get into community management after volunteering as a moderator on an online forum or social network. Due to the ever-evolving technology, practices, and progression of both the online community and the field of community management, the job is frequently unstructured and undefined in responsibility. A community manager is usually in charge of creating an agenda that is tailored to the company’s and community’s needs.
Community management is a desk job that requires a standard 40-hour work week. Attending social media seminars and conventions, as well as interacting with fans and members of the online community at live events hosted the company, may necessitate travel. To connect a business to the people who make up any online social network, good observation and listening skills are required.
A community manager must be very familiar and well versed with all aspects of the community being managed in order to best relate to a company’s fan base and community members. Many community managers are also fans and participants in the community, allowing them to empathize with and connect people with the company to the greatest extent possible. The ultimate goal of a community manager is to understand and communicate with a company’s customers; the unique nature of the online environment allows this to be done in a creative way.