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A Community Manager’s Job Description

What exactly falls “under the jurisdiction” of community management?

Jerry Silfwer
by Jerry Silfwer

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

Table of contents

Community Manager is an increas­ingly pop­u­lar job title.

I think of the com­munity man­ager (also known as social media man­ager) as a clas­sic­al con­duct­or ded­ic­ated to show­ing the online com­munity (the orches­tra) how to get in sync, nev­er through force or coer­cion, but by using the magic­al powers of sug­ges­tion alone. 

So, what exactly falls “under the jur­is­dic­tion” of the com­munity manager? 

Here goes:

Responsibilities of a Community Manager

I’ve out­lined sev­er­al typ­ic­al respons­ib­il­it­ies here:

  • Develop and drive the inbound mar­ket­ing strategy.
  • Adapt cor­por­ate mes­saging for social channels.
  • Manage online influ­en­cers and secure magic middle collaborations.
  • Transform social media chan­nels into cus­tom­er experiences.
  • Set up land­ing pages and com­pile lead magnets.
  • Drive traffic, interest, leads, and sales to land­ing pages.
  • Monitor the online com­munity pro­act­ively and reactively.
  • Analyse and optim­ise for increas­ing rel­ev­ant online conversions.
  • Run the email mar­ket­ing- and the autorespon­der program.
  • Strategically man­age fol­low­ers on social media.
  • Manage online reac­tions on owned, earned and paid platforms.
  • Deal with online trolls and handle online issues man­age­ment.
  • Continuously eval­u­ate and report on com­munity reactions.
  • Manage and engage the brand’s true fans.
  • Establish and execute a growth strategy for the brand com­munity.
  • Prepare and man­age any online crisis.
  • Manage online cus­tom­er ser­vice when it appears with­in social networks.
  • Train exec­ut­ives and spe­cial­ists on how to use social media.

The above scopes of work are some of the most import­ant pub­lic rela­tions activities. 

Affiliate: I use Mailchimp as my default email list manager.

Affiliate: I use Missinglettr to plan, cre­ate and sched­ule my social media posts.

Affiliate: I use beacon​.by to cre­ate, man­age, and deliv­er lead mag­nets and con­tent upgrades.

Affiliate: I use Email List Validation to pro­tect my sender’s repu­ta­tion by keep­ing my PR email lists free from boun­cing emails.

Affiliate: I use SamCart to host online courses and oth­er edu­ca­tion­al PR material.

The Community Manager Appreciation Day

Many com­munity man­agers I talk to tend to have this one thing in com­mon. They often feel under­ap­pre­ci­ated. No won­der the pro­fes­sion has its own day every 4th Monday of January—the Community Manager Appreciation Day.

Signature - Jerry Silfwer - Doctor Spin

Thanks for read­ing. Please con­sider shar­ing my pub­lic rela­tions blog with oth­er com­mu­nic­a­tion and mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sion­als. If you have ques­tions (or want to retain my PR ser­vices), please con­tact me at jerry@​spinfactory.​com.

PR Resource: The Inbound PR Strategy

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

Inbound vs Outbound

The inbound mind­set is a fun­da­ment­al shift in the PR- and mar­ket­ing industry.

Historically, many PR- and mar­ket­ing depart­ments have argued:

“Why should we spend our PR- and mar­ket­ing budgets on ‘already acquired’ audi­ences?”

The truth is — it’s the oth­er way around.

Instead of “spam­ming” non-exist­ing audi­ences, pub­lic rela­tions and mar­ket­ing can do much more with exist­ing online pub­lics. 1Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Jerry Silfwer speaking about inbound marketing
Jerry Silfwer (Doctor Spin) speaks about inbound marketing.

If your Inbound Shift PR Strategy is good, you might not need to pri­or­it­ise out­bound PR strategies — because your inbound audi­ence will attract out­bound publics.

Drawing a line between those who know you and those who don’t know you is noth­ing new:

  • Push Marketing
  • Cold Leads
  • Traditional Marketing
  • External Comms
  • Pull Marketing
  • Hot Leads
  • Permission Marketing
  • Internal Comms

This inbound shift is just the online equivalent:

  • Outbound Comms
  • Inbound Comms

Learn more: The Inbound Shift PR Strategy: Beauty From Within

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR ideas.

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PR Resource: The Follower Contract

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

The Follower Contract

How can brands bet­ter under­stand fol­low­er engage­ment? Think of every fol­low as an invis­ible contract.

Dear Brand,

  • Yes, I’m now fol­low­ing you. Congratulations (to you).
  • I fol­lowed you based on what you’ve demon­strated in the past, so don’t be sur­prised if I stop enga­ging (or unfol­low­ing) if you do oth­er stuff.
  • You now have my per­mis­sion to provide me with the type of con­tent that first attrac­ted me to your brand.
  • I, the fol­low­er, will determ­ine any involve­ment on a future case-by-case basis.
  • My fol­low is not a ‘pay­ment’ for your past accom­plish­ments; my fol­low is an ‘advance pay­ment’ for what I expect from you in the future.
  • It would be best if you always pre­sup­posed that I’m inter­ested in myself and my friends first and then, maybe, in your brand.
  • Until we part ways, I expect you to be clear about my poten­tial involve­ment in your cause.

Best regards,
Your New Follower

Think of every single fol­low­er, fan, and sub­scriber hav­ing such an agree­ment with your brand.

Read also: The Follower Contract

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR ideas.

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PR Resource: The High Road Tonality

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

The High Road Tonality

An organ­isa­tion is the total sum of all its cowork­ers. Imagine tak­ing the most mature traits from each cowork­er and com­bin­ing them into one voice — the High Road Tonality.

  • Openness. A mature organ­isa­tion under­stands that every­one must be allowed to express their thoughts and opinions.
  • Fairness. A mature organ­isa­tion will see (and respect) both sides of a divis­ive argument.
  • Strength. A mature organ­isa­tion is con­fid­ent in its chosen strategies and acquired abil­it­ies, not because they’re per­fect, but because they are grounded.
  • Wisdom. A mature organ­isa­tion will take their time to explain com­plex top­ics without condescending.
  • Humility. A mature organ­isa­tion under­stands that no one can have everything com­pletely figured out and that we all have learn­ing and grow­ing to do.

Learn more: The High Road Tonality: Don’t Be Pushed Around

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR ideas.

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PR Resource: The Social Objects Workshop (SOW)

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

Types of Social Objects

To pro­mote word-of-mouth for your brand, you need ideas about what social objects to cre­ate con­tent around.

“The first and most basic rule is to con­sider social facts as things.“
Source: The Rules of the Sociological Method 2Durkeim, E. (1982). The Rules of the Sociological Method. New York: The Free Press. p. 60.

There are dif­fer­ent types of social objects:

  • Curiosity objects. What do people seem curi­ous about with­in our brand’s sphere of influ­ence?
  • Fear objects. What do people seem afraid of with­in our brand’s sphere of influence?
  • Gap objects. What con­cepts or vocab­u­lary is miss­ing with­in our brand’s sphere of influence?
  • Mystery objects. What do people find mys­ter­i­ous with­in our brand’s sphere of influence?
  • Inspirational objects. What do people find inspir­a­tion­al with­in our brand’s sphere of influence?
  • Envy objects. What do people seem to envy with­in our brand’s sphere of influence?
  • Conflict objects. What do people seem to be fight­ing about with­in our brand’s sphere of influence?
  • Ego objects. How do people express their indi­vidu­al­ity with­in our brand’s sphere of influence?
  • Anger objects. What do people seem angry about with­in our brand’s sphere of influence?

Workshop idea: In the first half of the work­shop, spend a few minutes on each type of social object. Write each idea as one sen­tence on a Post-It start­ing with, “Have you heard…”. In the second half of the work­shop, run through the ideas, dis­cuss­ing, “Is this some­thing real people would say?”

Learn more: Social Objects and Public Relations

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR ideas.

ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1 Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/
2 Durkeim, E. (1982). The Rules of the Sociological Method. New York: The Free Press. p. 60.
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Cover Photo

The cover photo isn't related to public relations; it's just a photo of mine. Think of it as a 'decorative diversion', a subtle reminder that there is more to life than strategic communication.

The cover photo has

Community Manager - Doctor Spin
The only thing more terrifying than change is the stagnation that comes from your own inertia.

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