A Community Manager’s Job Description

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:

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

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 4^th Monday of January—the Community Manager Appreciation Day.

The Inbound Shift

As pub­lic rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als, we must rethink how we think about pub­lics. Traditionally, many PR depart­ments have argued:

“Why should we waste budgets on ‘already acquired’ audiences?”

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

The inbound shift is a fun­da­ment­al mind­set change in the pub­lic rela­tions industry.

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/

Inbound vs Outbound: The Difference

Inbound vs out­bound is the online equi­val­ent of draw­ing the line between those who know you and those who don’t.

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

If your inbound shift PR strategy is strong, you might no longer need to pri­or­it­ise your out­bound PR strategies since your inbound audi­ence will attract out­bound publics!

Learn more: The Inbound Shift PR Strategy

What should you study next?

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Discover this free Social Media PR Course and mas­ter the art of digit­al pub­lic rela­tions on social net­works and plat­forms. Explore now for valu­able insights!

Social Media Mechanics

• How Social Media Algorithms Rule Our Lives
• The Silent Switch
• Why Subscriber Counts Matter Less
• Why Social Media Algorithms Are Basic
• Dark Social: The Online Interaction We Can’t See

Social Media Psychology

• Social Media Naturals
• The Narcissistic Principle
• The Selfie Generation
• Emotional Maturity and Social Media
• Attention Spans in the Social Media Age

Social Media Management

• Social Media Must Be Managed
• The Follower Contract
• A Community Manager’s Job Description
• No Brand Community for You
• Critical Mass: How Many Social Media Followers Do You Need?

Social Media Issues

• The Social Media Complaint Department
• The List of Social Media Issues
• How Ghost Followers Destroy Your Social Accounts
• Social Media Myths in PR
• Facebook Zero: Your First Fix Was Free

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