A note the world should know: Community manager ≠ Social media manager ≠ Communication or Content manager
A community manager is always looked at as a superhero in a community and is expected to cast a spell in the community. Yes, they can and he/she knows the best spell to calm things in a community and make sure that there is peace and harmony in place always.
Community Manager’s Magical Powers
Note: With every superpower comes side effects one must face. Brace yourselves, future Community managers.
Torchbearer of Peace
Magical Power #1 - Danger Intuition ⚠️
A community manager is someone who comes into the picture whenever there is a conflict between members or a crisis in the community. If a community has to be a happy place, there has to be peace and for this to happen there has to be a community manager.
Side Effect - Responsibility corruption 😐
This overload of responsibilities corrupts them in a way that their DNA starts to shout community.
Point of contact
Magical Power #2 - Power of Mediation 🎯
Community managers are the point of contact for multiple internal and external stakeholders. Starting from customers/ users, to management, to internal departments/ teams. This being said, they put themselves out to glue these two sides together.
clients.............community manager.............management
Side Effect - Attack Mode On 💣
Now that they are the point of contact, imagine the rate at which community managers get bombarded with queries, doubts, solutions, etc. from customers to management to any stakeholder that is dependent on the community.
May the force be with you
Voice, Face, Ears of your Brand
Magical Power #3 - Power of Providing Solutions 💡
A community manager is expected to be the go-to person for customers. Hence, one of his or her superpowers should be the ability to answer all the queries and solve all concerns put forth by the end customers.
Additional superpower, solution 24*7! Questions can come at any point in time and the weirdest issues have to be solved then and thereby.
Side Effect - Romance with gadgets 📲
A community manager's life is glued to their phones, as they have to attend so many calls per day to keep a community running in all its well-being. You might think that they are dealing with their romantic life, but sorry they have a community to run. Come on!
Your Community’s Doctor
Magical Power #4 - Keeper of reputation 🔎
A community where there is freedom of expression also has another side to it. And that can possibly put a brand’s reputation at risk. A community manager works hard to make sure that brand reputation is well maintained in the community. It involves guidelines, moderation, community leaders, communicating and reminding members about what the community tolerates, etc.
personal life sabotage:😐
With all the time spent in the community's well being, they have lost track of their personal life
Ultimate Connection Enabler
Magical Power #5 - True Connection 😀
You would have heard people say " I can't do long-distance relationships". This is apt for a community manager. They don’t prefer staying away from the community. So, they make sure that they meet and engage with the members regularly to build a strong rapport and connection, which eventually leads to improving self-identity and a sense of belonging for any member.
Side Effect - No F.R.I.E.N.D.S. at OFFICE
With so many people to connect to, talk to, and maintain relationships with, they often forget or fail to connect with their peers at work even for a cup of coffee.
So, do you still think a community manager's job is 9-5?
The world of the community manager seems like they don’t have time to spare, but you can always strike a balance instead and avoid burnout.
Here are some tricks that can come in handy for you. And, it's important to add a bit of magic called smart work and time management.
The Smart work magic trick:✨
This magic trick has 3 spells that can help community managers have their me-time regularly.
1. Leader identifying spell
It takes great skills to identify an additional magician who could help you work on innovative spells while they help you. This way, you could reduce your workload.
“So, a leader always finds leaders, not followers. Be the leader who could pass the torch and keep the community lit with your magic.”
2. Divide and Rule Spell
Now that you have the best people to maintain the community, it’s important for you to define roles and distribute the responsibilities to identified leaders from the community. For instance, helping members when needed, reminding the tone and culture of the community, redirecting queries and issues to respective team members, monitoring what is happening or trending in the community.
“So, a responsible leader defines and lays down the roles and responsibilities of the future leaders clearly.”
3. Recognise Leadership Spell
It is important to give feedback, to check if the identified leaders are doing above and beyond or if they are failing to perform assigned responsibilities. This way, it is easy to appreciate and recognize efforts. This will help create a strong bond between yourself to appreciate your team's success, discuss how to set strategy, organize, innovate and build a strong community which goes a long way.
Identifying leaders is not only to reduce your workload as a community manager, it is a way to make the community partially decentralized, where members take ownership to help their peers involuntarily. And, you can’t run a community all by yourself.
As the saying goes by, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
For the community managers who are individual contributors, we hope our suggestions could help you.
If you are a startup and want to run communities without dedicated personnel, we have a solution for you here.
Are you planning to build your community from scratch and you are looking for a platform that could help you achieve your goal? Reach out to us at people@habitate.io
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