Social Media and Building Community. Community Development Managers
Posted June 16th, 2009 by Tina Le
Hi IMU community,
I was listening to the Social Media and Building Community class on IMU and it inspired me to ask What do you guys think of companies pursuing Social Media creating Community Development Manager positions? Essentially a Community Development Manager is the party host of a party. Making sure people at the party are engaged and satisfied. Will a community development manager make building an online community easier? Is it necessary? If not, will it become necessary? Does it need be be a brand new position or can it be new responsibilities tacked on to an existing position?
Thanks @simoncmason for suggesting to ask this on the forum! Feel free to start a microconversation with me @RUfrank
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community managers and upside down cake
Greg Torgerson 2 years 33 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago
IMU and the fans in the stands-
I think it is important to understand that within any organization, strategic management and business policy is the product of thoughts and ideas placed into action with the assistance of human interaction. This seems so simple, yet so removed by many executive level managers. For a community manager to be effective and have an impact within the organization, the management of such a position must be handled 180 degrees away from theory X and Y. If the role becomes a "flavor of the day" it will not become successful. It calls for a shift in new thinking for executives to view the cake of the company form the bottom up, not from the top down. It must be approved of and by the CEO, owner, or other at the top of the food chain. In other words "Mr. Exec ' if we are going to do this, you must commit long term and it's not about you, OK? Now get over it." If Managers manage the community manager the way they manager the rest of the organization, they have little chance of success in this new world of social business networking. Take a close look at the age band of the person calling the shots. Does this primary thinker who dictates broad and seeping vision, implements new models of social networking even know how to use twitter? ..or even have a facebook account, know anything about mashable, linkedin, dig or delicious? If not, he or she needs to start one, or jump on board all of them, or you may come into the office some day and find out the cake has collapsed and there is nothing left. Just one guys opinion at the age of 50, that has managed hundreds of people and worked for numerous incompetent executive managers.
basics
Jelena Jovanovic 2 years 33 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago
wohoo, good questions!
If your company aims to host community on its own platform, why not - go for community manager.If social meidia is part of brand new strategy perhaps its better to try communities on yourself before you host it on your own. Useful content, relevance and responsiveness are crucial. Skilled C.development manager knows how to do it without making too many mistakes. If you are gathering a team for building the new community, split obligations on team members and allow them to learn and to grow with the community....However it would be best if at least one person knows whats he-she is doing, has some relevant experience and is able to make a plan and to implement it so growing new community actually can be part of every day job for the rest of the team members involved in building it.
You can find dos & donts of community management as well as many other stuff on www.themoderatorcommunity.com
There is section for newbies http://www.themoderatorcommunity.com/category/category/basics-newbies
Join and dont hesitate to spark the discussion, submit a recource, apply for the job...
Good luck :)
JJ
im having a hard time doing this!
Kevin P McGowen 2 years 33 weeks 5 days 18 hours ago
The company i work for just created a social community (after my recomendation) however i was put in charge of maintaning the site and trying to bring in traffic. This was added on top of my daily duties and has been a challange. I need at least two more people to help me run the site, but with no extra money hanging around in the companies bank account we cant afford to hire someone else to help.
o- the site is .... www.MiataCommunity.com
Tina- I think this is a
Dave Lowe 2 years 33 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago
Tina-
I think this is a fantastic idea. I do think it would be best to create this position, but make sure the individual with the job is passionate about social media ("evangelism" was mentioned in another thread). This person should be excited about what they're doing, not just someone trained to make static presence on social networks.
yes!
Tracey Kazimir-Cree 2 years 33 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago
I love this idea and think it's incredibly important to create communities where it makes sense to do so. I'm in the process of recommending this to a number of my clients. Unfortunately, they're not big enough companies to have that as a full-time gig, but I can guide the right employees on how to do it. I do think some larger companies would benefit from having this as a FT position in their marketing departments...particularly having one person to monitor blogs and the twitterverse for complaints and negative stuff that might be floating around.
And if it's a company that's fun and the employee is very passionate about, can you imagine what a fun job that would be?
Good question.
Aditi Sawhney 2 years 33 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago
Hi Tina
Its a great and thought provoking question.
I personally feel that "Online communities can not be managed" , therefore push back on titles like "Community Manager" .
Communities definitely can be developed and strategist. You are right, the role defines developing and satisfying your community members. But trust me when i say that you will not be able to satisfy each and every person related to the community.
With the recent advancement in Social Media and online Social Networks, having an "Online Community Relations' Strategist" can be very beneficial. As such it is not "necessary" but having one is an valuable asset.
He/She can:
steer the conversation in case of a negative sentiment,
promote the product and services online and
increase value, loyalty and sentiment attached to company's service or product.
If a company has resources then it is definitely advisable to hire someone with an understanding , you will spend a little extra but the results can be very awarding and quick . If not enough resouces are available then its better to delegate such responsibilities to someone from inside, but remember the person will have a learning curve which may slow down the process (this is advisable if time is not a constraint)
:-Aditi
Community Development Managers would be a great help!
Kirsti Scott 2 years 34 weeks 18 hours 31 min ago
Depending on the size of your company, and the extent of your social media programs, a Community Development Manager (CDM) could be one of your existing staff members. If you can reallocate some time (maybe time that was previously devoted to traditional PR, event management, advertising, etc.) you might not need an additional employee.
But, just as you might hire a caterer to handle the food, drinks, and decorations for your party so the host can spend his or her time talking with the guests, a CDM could make sure all the company profiles and pages were up to date, post new content that other employees provide, and others can spend their time in conversations with the community.
Of course, if you're the Martha Stewart of online communities, and can cook, bartend, decorate, and clean up while entertaining your guests, by all means keep doing what you do!