In the hierarchy of a social media marketing team, the role of a Community Manager is impeccable in spreading awareness of the business. Many businesses usually think that there is no difference between a Community Manager and a Social Media Manager. I feel sorry for this misperception. And here in this article, I’m going to give a clear idea on everything that you need to know about community management and community managers.
Community Management & Community Manager
Well, you have your business pages on various social media networks. And the pages boast a good number of follower count. Your social media manager is doing well on the social networks with cool content and strong strategies for maintaining good relations with the fan base.First things first, how can you make new followers on a social network where your social media manager, being the brand, works for a better CRM only?
There must be someone who advocates your brand on social media and deals with the people who have never heard of your business. And that person is the Community Manager who brings new followers and potential customers for your business. And this process is called community management.
Community Management Vs Social Media Management
Both the things deal with social media only. But there is some slight difference between community management and social media management for a business. In social media management, your main focus will be on the social users who are your followers. You maintain your business page and produce content explaining your new products and services. In a way, you have to blow your own trumpet.On the other hand, community management deals with the people who are not your followers. In fact, it deals with the people who have never heard of your business. You hire an individual who is an expert in endorsing a business through his personal profile on a social network.
What are the Responsibilities of a Community Manager?
Advocating the brand on a social media network is the key responsibility of a Community Manager. You have to build your own persona on a social network and have to search for new potential customers, interact with them, and make them loyal customers of the business you are working for.Simply, the community manager should be the nexus between the business and the community. The key responsibilities of community managers can be regarded as the pillars for a better community management of a business on social media. Let us take a look at four such responsibilities of a community manager:
Growth
A Community manager’s duty never stops with getting new follower. He has the responsibility to drive early adoption. That is, he has to make them involved actively with the community. For this, there are many practices that community managers should follow:• They have to interact with new blogs and networks and answer questions of the targeted users. To find such blogs or networks, they have to make a research on finding new keywords and topics.
• They should be able to use a variety of social networks where they can find potential customers.
• They have to find influencers, on the social networks, who can endorse or advocate the business.
• Getting followers for their social accounts. Please observe: as we mentioned earlier, community managers have to make their own social media presence and advocate the brand. So, they have to gain followers for their accounts.
• Conducting events and chats. This is the key practice that helps with the growth of the community. As an example:
Sprout Social’s Community Manager Sarah Nagel conducts a twitter chat with her potential customers for Sprout Social with the name @sprout_sarah. In this chat, she asks questions to the potential customers of Sprout Social regarding social media marketing and management.
Thus, she creates interaction with the members of the community and advocates the business. Everytime she comes with a new topic and questions, she finds new users thereby increasing the follower base on the business.
Engagement
Social media managers present on the social networks as a brand. But most of the customers don’t want to listen or communicate to a business page as they believe that brands may hide the facts. But hey listen to social influencers and other users on social media.In such a situation, Community Managers can create a humanized engagement with your customers on the social networks. They can create this engagement by:
• Creating effective, fresh and relevant content that shares knowledge and updates of the business.
• Searching for blogs and forums where users talk about the business or the niche. And answering the questions of the users and giving solutions for their problems.
• Giving replies to the comments made on the social media posts.
Listening to the Users
A Community manager listens to the users and measures the metrics for business on social media. The things involved in the process of listening are:• Asking the customers about their feedback on the services and products.
• Talking to them personally and seeking suggestions.
• Analysis of the performance of the business on social media with the help of social media analytics.
• Suggesting the businesses on the content that should come up next and the audience who are to be targeted.
Improvement
The tastes of users change from time to time. Social media comes up with new technologies. With a continuous listening and engagement, a community manager helps the business to go ahead on social media.
How to be a Successful Community Manager?
Community Management is so different from other jobs. They have to play different roles on each social media network. Community Managers advocate your business by being the voice of your brand. On the other hand, they study the consumer behaviour and give suggestions to the businesses for a better performance as a social media analyst.However, the way a community manager deals with his duties vary from business to business. It depends on the niche of the business. So here, let us see some tips for a better community management:
Sift Your Community User-list
There may be a million users in your community but a thousand of them are active and influential. Then focus more on the thousand users. They are like the brand ambassadors for your business. Offer them your guest posts and participate in their events. And do whatever you can do with the active users.Interact with Each and Every User
Well, you are utilizing your power users to spread awareness. But it doesn’t get you all what you want. Your key responsibility is to build an active community. So, you have to play your part. Try to interact with each and every individual in the community and make them active.Take the Responsibility
Sometimes your posts or comments may go wrong and may cause inconvenience to others. Then, say sorry. It’s not like apologizing as a business. As a community manager, you have to take the sole responsibility for what caused an inconvenience to your followers. This improves your credibility.Keep Your Cool
It’s quite natural getting busy with things as a manager and facing problems. In such cases, don’t lose your cool and show your frustration in the comments or replies to your followers. This messes up things. Rather, keep your cool. Usually, people like the one who handles things all with a smile.Be Prepared with the Possible Queries
As a community manager, you are responsible for taking care of the customer queries regarding the products and services. The most part of your job will be answering the questions of your users on social media or through emails.So, it is better to know the products and services your business is offering and anticipate the most probable queries. Contact your product and support teams and get your answers ready for such questions for each platform you are going to give answers on.
Bonus infographic:
How to Become a Great Online Community Manager
Via: Vanillaforums.
Conclusion
Your followers listen to your business. So a social media manager is enough to maintain good CRM. But spreading your brand awareness to the people who are not your followers and making them as your followers is not possible by being a brand on social media. To achieve it with a human touch, your business needs a community manager indeed. Their job is not just hanging out on social media and blow your trumpet. Community management is a great responsibility that deals with propagating your business on the social community. So, every business should have a community manager in their social media marketing team.
Hello Friends, I am Sumit, CEO of Socioboard Technologies and the Marketing Head of Socioboard. I'm responsible for the overall marketing strategy of SocioBoard which includes product roadmap, positioning, inbound demand generation and digital marketing. Socioboard's new approach to open source social media management is changing how Social Media Marketing companies, digital agencies, corporations, and web/broadcast media across the world think about Digital Marketing.
