The Role of the Community Manager

The community manager in the social media team is ‘the doer’. They’re the one at the end of the day who will actually post content on to the sites and interact with fans, followers and users of the social sites. Effectively, the community manager represents the company and shares their ‘voice’ over the different channels.

While the Social Analyst will be able to suggest what works well in different times, genres, format, etc – the community manager is the one who will have the final say on what actually becomes visible on the social sites. They will decide what a Facebook post says, what image goes with it, whether it is a video or vine and so on – the same with tweets or other variations of social content. At the end of the day, the community manager’s work is what you see on social media.

As mentioned, content creation is key. Having a high quality of content while still maintaining your brand’s core values can be tricky at times but rewarding in the long run. While most people will initially look at the number of likes that a Facebook page has, or followers that a Twitter account has, this figure can also be misleading in judging how successful a company’s use of social media is.

While companies will have different goals and aims for their social media, the one commonality is the need to look professional and set a good impression for customers/users and potential future customers/users. The ultimate aim is to stay professional and offer the fans/followers the best experience possible.

The community manager is responsible for driving engagement with the users. By creating engaging content that encourages users to Like, Comment, Share, Retweet, Favourite, etc, the community manager has given the company the best opportunity to impress their fans and create a positive impression in their mind.

Customer services have developed to the point where social sites are one of the fastest ways of getting access to the solutions and answers that you want. The CM is responsible for handling the comment and resolving the issue as quickly as possible. With a friendly, yet professional approach, they have to diffuse a potentially difficult situation by helping the customer.

Competitions are a great way of not only rewarding fans for their help in maintaining a community, but to increase brand awareness and appeal to new fans. Creating or acquiring visuals necessary to make the competition stand out is important, but it’s only successful if the copy/question/competitive aspect is noteworthy.

A strong input in all social campaigns is of course essential as whatever is decided, will end up on the social sites – the workspace of the community manager. While they have an important role, there is a reliance on the analyst to assist with vital information to enhance the opportunities of putting their work in from of people’s eyes.

That’s why there are social media teams. Not just; ‘the guy who does the Twitter for the company.”

 

The Role of the Social Analyst

Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a community manager more than being asked…. “What value does social media hold for me financially?” Asked by people that don’t quite understand social, they understand its importance but fundamentally question the ability for it to impact the business in a meaningful way. Well this is where not only having a grasp on words is important, but also the numbers.

So, what’s important to note are the following things…. Well the first thing is that social is really a numbers game. It can all be boiled down to reach, impressions and the mystical x factor that ultimately will dictate the viral nature of content and posts. So whose job is it to look after and monitor these numbers? To make sure that you are performing above the expected industry norms and monitor your brand across all metrics? Cue the social analyst.

The social analyst is your numbers. The stat man. The man who will ultimately become an excel wizard by the end of the first month of the role. They’re the insights guru, the techy of social and probably the most introvert.

So what is expected of the analyst?

It’s a simple answer really – insights. Reporting tools and analytics based packages nowadays work in such a way that all the data can be scheduled. The boom of big data is slightly passed and the ability to provide actionable insights from spreadsheets is where the power of effective social lies – sitting and looking at spreadsheets and spotting the anomalies. Setting your filters to negative and spotting conversation trends, looking beyond the how much but into the why and how.

Trying to spot the gap and spot what makes people tick and engage with your brand. Ultimately, while the role of the analyst doesn’t seem to be as glamorous as the community manager, they are a dynamic duo when in sync. Using numbers to support the words and drive forwards any brand socially is a match made in heaven. Recognise what works, ensure that the correct audience is being reach and at the end of the day, the social media properties bring home the bacon.

It’s a tricky role to summarise as every business will have their own objectives and the role that social plays in every journey changes slightly. The analyst will be the person to call on at the end of the day and ask…. “So we gained X entries to this competition, now what can you tell me?”

But go easy on us as we don’t often function well under bright lights, around people or just during the day in general.