Community Manager

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introduction community manager

What Is a Community Manager? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

A community manager cultivates healthy online relationships with a company’s customer base by monitoring social platforms, blogs, forums and other digital spaces. They engage with customers when appropriate to share content, facilitate discussions and spread brand awareness, with the goal of turning customers into fans. Here’s what to know about a community manager’s needed skills, salary and how to become one.

What Is a Community Manager?

Community managers monitor digital spaces and engage with customers to build and spread a positive brand image. These professionals may promote content on social media, respond to reviews or answer questions in online forums. The ultimate goal is to raise the status of a brand by fostering trust, respect and loyalty among customers.

What Do Community Managers Do?

Community managers maintain and spread a positive company brand through online interactions. As a key part of a brand’s online presence, a community manager displays a consistent voice and tone while strengthening relationships with audiences.

Community Manager Responsibilities

  • Build and manage a brand’s online community.
  • Interact with — and facilitate interactions between — a brand’s customer base.
  • Promote and help run company events.
  • Keep a pulse on customer sentiment.
  • Maintain uniform brand voice and tone during digital customer interactions.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities of a Community Manager

  • Monitor changes in customer sentiments with social listening and analysis tools. 
  • Respond to individual reviews or messages to resolve questions or complaints. 
  • Create social media posts to promote content for company events, ad campaigns and other marketing initiatives. 
  • Attend live events to connect with promising leads and spread brand awareness.

Community Managers Within a Company

As a mid-level professional, the community manager is often part of a company’s marketing department, in which case they may report to a director of marketing . This hierarchy may look different for each company, however. For some companies, the community manager may be part of a product , growth or communications team.

Importance of Community Managers

Community managers increasingly play a pivotal role in helping companies build and maintain strong relationships with new and existing customers or users. Successful community managers help raise the image of a brand in the eyes of online audiences, as well as encourage customers to become word-of-mouth advocates for the brand.

What Skills Are Needed to Be a Community Manager?

Qualifications to be a community manager.

  • Experience facilitating or leading online communities.
  • Knowledge of various social media and community platforms.
  • Track record of engaging with customers or product users.
  • Ability to lead events and webinars.
  • Knowledge of marketing principles and strategies.

Community Manager Prerequisites

  • Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications or a related field. 
  • One to three years of marketing-related work experience. 
  • Community manager courses and certifications (not necessary, but can boost skill set and increase job opportunities).

Community Manager Hard Skills

  • Marketing and branding expertise. 
  • Written and visual content creation skills. 
  • Familiarity with social listening tools like Sprout Social and Hootsuite.
  • Research and data analysis skills. 
  • Knowledge of social media best practices. 
  • Sales and customer service skills.

Community Manager Soft Skills

  • Enthusiasm for the brand’s product or service.
  • Ability to organize events.
  • Strong empathy, conflict resolution and active listening skills. 
  • Creative thinking and problem-solving skills . 
  • Quick decision-making skills. 
  • Business savvy.

Tools and Programs Community Managers Use

  • Community management tools like NapoleonCat and Sprout Social.
  • Forum software like Zendesk and WordPress. 
  • Social listening software like HubSpot and BuzzSumo. 
  • Social media platforms like Instagram, Reddit and Twitter.
  • Survey tools like SurveyMonkey and Google Forms.

How to Become a Community Manager

Community manager education and experience.

Community managers typically complete a bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, communications, journalism or a related field. Community manager roles typically require one to three years of relevant experience, and aspiring professionals can round out their resumes through entry-level roles like marketing coordinator, social media specialist, inside sales representative , copywriter or graphic designer. Gaining experience in marketing, design, writing, sales and other related areas is ideal for a community manager role.

Community Manager Certificates and Courses

  • Courses in related areas like content marketing and sales . 
  • Design courses on tools like Adobe products.
  • AMA professional certification programs . 
  • Certifications in social listening tools like Google Analytics .
  • Social media marketing certifications in platforms like Meta.

Community Manager Career Path

Community managers often start out in entry-level roles like marketing assistant, PR specialist or social media specialist. Once in a community manager position, professionals may have the opportunity to advance to more senior roles, such as director of community or VP of community, which require anywhere from five to eight years of management experience. If these roles are unavailable, community managers may choose to move into other higher-level roles like marketing or communications director.

Community Manager Salary and Job Outlook

Data for marketing managers suggests the community manager position may be on the rise. Job growth for advertising, promotions and marketing managers is expected to rise by 10 percent between 2021 and 2031.

The full compensation package for a community manager depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average community manager salary.

Careers Related to Community Manager

Latest marketing jobs, companies hiring community managers, most common skills for community manager, related marketing careers.

Community Managers: What They Do & How to Be a Great One

Corinne McGinley

Published: November 17, 2023

X (formerly Twitter), with its 237.8 million daily active users , is a platform with a ton of potential for companies to increase awareness and build their brand personality. In recent years, big names like Netflix , Wendy’s , and Taco Bell have become X famous for their witty commentary and personable interactions with their followers.

community lead gets likes on a picture

But how can companies build their reputation as original, relatable, and dependable while still maintaining their unique voice? Social media has transformed the relationship between individuals and organizations — which is why the community management role is now so vital.

Download Now: 3 Community Management Templates [Free Kit]

But what exactly is a community manager, anyway? Here, we’re going to explore what a community manager is and — if you’re applying or starting out in the role — how to be a great one.

Table of Contents

What is a Community Manager?

How to become a community manager, community manager job description.

  • Community Manager Job Responsibilities

How to Be a Great Community Manager

Community manager job outlook, community manager org chart.

A community manager acts as the liaison between an organization and its audience. They act as the voice, tone, and moderator of the brand through community support, content distribution, and digital engagement to build brand presence and trust, both online and in-person.

If you ask Krystal Wu, HubSpot’s Social Media Community Manager ( @hellokrystalwu ), the most critical part of the community manager role, she’ll say it’s simply “having one.”

The community manager position builds brand personality and consumer trust, which can ultimately lead to increased awareness and company performance — making it a critical component of your marketing strategy.

introduction community manager

Community Management Templates

3 templates to help you build, grow, and connect with your community.

  • Community Member Journey Map
  • Community Member Profile
  • Community Launch To-Do List

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Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Community managers come from a variety of backgrounds — anything from recruiting to journalism to engineering — because being successful in the role relies more on a set of skills than a degree.

First, it’s important for community managers to be knowledgeable about and across the business. Community managers should be able to rely on their experience with their organization to confidently address their audience or tap into internal resources to appropriately handle any issues that may arise.

Beyond a working understanding of the business, managers need to build productive, professional relationships both internally and externally in order to be more authentic and reliable brand ambassadors.

introduction community manager

From interesting articles and industry news to scheduling events or webinars, community managers who build content marketing into their strategy can increase engagement levels and improve brand sentiment.

Brands are increasingly recognizing the importance of effective community management, whether it’s across social media channels or dedicated platforms and support hubs.

Community managers bring a human touch to a brand’s online presence — one that is appreciated by both consumers and organizations alike.

In fact, 83% of consumers on Facebook prefer brand personality. And, according to Sprout Social, 21% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that are accessible via social media.

From the organizational side, the support for community management roles is similarly robust. According to a report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of social and community managers is expected to grow by 12% between 2021 and 2031.

While the rapid advancement of AI tools is likely to bring a level of increased automation to community management, anyone on this career track should rest easy.

As a role that requires a diverse skill set (including an emphasis on soft skills), it’s likely to be a role that evolves alongside AI rather than one that will be completely replaced.

Community Manager Salary

  • Average entry-level community manager salary: $41,748
  • Average early-career community manager salary: $48,673
  • Average mid-level community manager salary: $51,428
  • Average manager-level salary: $60,413
  • Average late-career community manager salary: $72,000

Community management can sit within and across different functions and teams.

It all depends on the unique internal set-up of an organization. In general, however, community management sits within a dedicated community function or within the social media team.

Here’s an example of where community management commonly sits in a social media org chart:

introduction community manager

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Community Manager: Job Description & Key Responsibilities

Community managers are the all-stars responsible for fostering engagement, building relationships, and maintaining the integrity of online communities.

cover image

Table of Contents

We get it: no one likes to put labels on things. (Though… that is your girlfriend, right?) But it’s pretty important to define the important role of community manager on your marketing team.

In the mile-a-minute world of social media, they are the crucial bridge between brands and audiences.

And while community management may not always be the easiest task, it’s an impactful one that brings value both to brands and the people who love ‘em.

So it’s time to clearly define, explore, and, yeah, celebrate the humble community manager label. Today, we’re breaking down exactly what a community manager does (and how they differ from social media managers ), and what the future holds for this thrill-a-minute position.

introduction community manager

Download our Social Media Career Report for stats on social media manager salaries, benefits, job satisfaction, mental health, and more.

What is a community manager?

A community manager is the caretaker of a brand’s online presence, the “digital custodian,” if you will.

Community managers are responsible for curating and nurturing communities around a brand, product, or cause. They’re the party hosts with the most, there to strategically make sure everyone’s having a good time.

If you’re here on this social media strategy blog, you’re probably most interested in community management for platforms (like Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter/X), but online communities can also live on forums or blogs.

Wherever your fan community hangs online, a skilled community manager understands the interests and needs of that community, engages with members, and ensures that it remains a positive and productive space . In other words, community managers are guardians of the vibe.

What does a community manager do?

A community manager is in charge of responding to comments and DMs on social media. They’ll provide answers to questions and offer customer support .

They may also be proactive about fostering a sense of community on a social media platform: crafting content that prompts responses or conversations, coordinating contests, or producing other interactive content.

The goal, overall, is to build both the engagement rate and your customer loyalty. (No pressure.)

The less fun aspect of the job is moderating and dealing with any issues or troublemaking trolls — in a polite and professional way that upholds your brand’s values, of course.

Community manager vs. social media manager

Community managers and social media managers work side by side to make a brand’s social media presence the best it can be. But their focus is pretty different.

A community manager’s focus is to build relationships within online communities . They create, curate, and moderate content specifically designed to engage followers.

@disney Check the comments to see if you got them right! 👀 Catch these familiar voices and new ones in season 2 of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder now streaming on @disneyplus #BlackHistoryMonth #proudfamily #gueststar #tvedits ♬ original sound – Disney

Community managers answer questions, review comments and DMs, and resolve issues to keep the community vibrant (and ideally harmonious).

On the other hand, a social media manager will concentrate on executing the overall content plan . That means crafting and scheduling posts, advertising, and analyzing metrics to enhance brand awareness on social platforms.

Key skills for community managers

A successful community manager will possess a variety of skill sets, such as…

Excellent communication

Are you responsive and talented at expressing the right tone? Are you known for your top-notch communication skills? This might just be the job for you.

You’re gonna be typing up a storm in this role, so the ability to clearly express yourself (and the voice and values of the brand) is absolutely essential.

Starbucks Instagram comment reply pumpkin cream chai tea latte sweet vs spicy

But communication isn’t just an important skill to have to connect with the community. You should also be able to clearly communicate with the internal team about what exactly is happening online at any given moment.

Problem-solving

A community manager doesn’t just spend all day swappin’ memes and running contests . Sometimes, they have to deal with issues and conflicts (uggggh).

Having the ability to problem-solve effectively and efficiently is super important. You’ll have to navigate all sorts of surprising situations with grace and professionalism and be adept at finding solutions that satisfy community members and align with the brand’s values.

Bonus: Save time and download 20 free, customizable Instagram DM templates for your brand , including greetings, partnership requests, FAQ responses, replies to complaints, and more.

A good community manager is patient and kind. After all, the job really is about being a good pal and making your followers feel both welcome and heard. Understanding the needs, concerns, and emotions of community members is crucial for building trust and rapport.

Skittles limes versus mustard flavours

As important as it is to be a shoulder to cry on, sometimes, a community manager needs to lay down the law.

introduction community manager

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Some of these “skills” are definitely on the softer side, but having an analytic brain is important for successful community management, too. What’s working? What’s not? How can success be quantified? Community managers should be able to thoughtfully analyze engagement metrics via tools like Hootsuite Analytics in order to refine their strategies and measure their impact.

Community manager job description

Obviously, a community manager’s job description can vary wildly, depending on the industry and company size. That being said, a community manager’s role typically includes responsibilities like:

  • Developing and implementing community engagement strategies
  • Moderating discussions and content
  • Responding to community inquiries and feedback
  • Collaborating with marketing and support teams
  • Analyzing data to assess community engagement

If you’re creating a community manager job description for a job posting, you might want to seek out a candidate with an education in online marketing or marketing communications, but a degree certainly isn’t necessary for success in this role. It’s more important to find someone who can demonstrate skills like communication, problem-solving, and analytical thinking.

Community manager salary

Like any position, the salary for a community manager varies by location, work experience, and industry. According to Glassdoor , in the United States, entry-level community managers can earn anywhere from $41,000 to $65,000 per year.

Of course, professionals with more experience or those working for large companies could earn even more, with some online community managers on Glassdoor reporting annual salaries of $115,000.

Community manager performance metrics

To evaluate a community manager’s performance, consider the following metrics:

  • Engagement rate (likes, comments, shares)
  • Growth in community size
  • Response time to community inquiries
  • Net promoter score (NPS) from community members
  • Sales conventions

Ultimately, a community manager should be evaluated on metrics that align with your brand’s overall social media goals. If growing your community size isn’t important to your business objectives, it doesn’t really make sense to focus your time and attention on racking up the follows, right?

Hootsuite Facebook pages

Community manager role over time

Like everything else in the social media landscape (RIP, Nexopia), the role of a community manager has evolved significantly over the past decades.

Initially, the role of a digital community manager was to respond to comments, monitor social channels for negative sentiment, and moderate content. Today, a community manager is expected to practice strategic planning, customer service, and data analysis, too. It’s about going beyond being reactive and being proactive , intentionally encouraging engagement and building loyalty along the way.

We’re at an interesting time in Internet History, with this new influx of accessible AI technology. The future of community management will likely be shaped by this sort of automation. It’s possible chatbot technology will take a big leap forward in the next few years to provide even richer, multi-platform customer support that goes beyond answering FAQs.

But while AI can absolutely assist in data analysis, common questions, and routine tasks, we’re confident that a human touch will remain essential to quality community management. No matter how convincing AI may get, it’ll always take a real person to foster genuine connections and resolve complex issues for your (human!) community.

In the future, it’s likely the role will evolve, and we’ll see community managers handling the bigger-picture ideas. They might use AI to help with more mundane or repetitive community management tasks and spend their time practicing more strategic decision-making and deeper integration with overall business objectives.

But whether they’re working in the trenches or dreaming big, as technology advances, community managers will always continue to find new ways to connect, engage, and create meaningful experiences for their communities. Um, excuse me, are community managers both party hosts and heroes? The facts don’t lie.

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Stacey McLachlan is an award-winning writer and editor from Vancouver with more than a decade of experience working for print and digital publications.

She is editor-at-large for Western Living and Vancouver Magazine, author of the National Magazine Award-nominated 'City Informer' column, and a regular contributor to Dwell. Her previous work covers a wide range of topics, from SEO-focused thought-leadership to profiles of mushroom foragers, but her specialties include design, people, social media strategy, and humor.

You can usually find her at the beach, or cleaning sand out of her bag.

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What Does a Community Manager Do?

As our world has become more connected, the role of community managers has grown exponentially. From large companies selling their wares to non-profits engaging with their supporters, there is a massive demand for effective community managers.

But what does a community manager actually do?

A subset of digital marketing, community management involves fostering communities of users around a particular product, service, or brand. Community managers work in the digital sphere, managing social media accounts, moderating online forums, and working through other digital channels.

In this article, we’ll explore what community managers do, the essential skills they need, and other topics, such as how to pursue a career in this interactive area of digital marketing.

We’ll cover:

  • What is a community manager?
  • Essential skills for community managers
  • Community management strategies
  • Community metrics and analytics
  • Career paths in community management

Ready to learn all the basics of community management? Then let’s jump in.

1. What is a community manager?

A community manager is a digital marketing professional responsible for building, growing, and managing communities of users around a product, service, or brand. Their role typically includes managing social media, moderating online forums, creating engaging content, reviewing data and insights, and responding to customer feedback. 

While community managers undertake varied activities, these all work towards a unifying goal: fostering a sense of belonging within a community and creating a supportive environment where users can share experiences, feedback, and ideas—not just with a brand but with one another.

But what exactly counts as a community? There are many examples of online communities that brands might manage. These include:

  • Social media platforms: The most common type of online community management involves managing a brand’s presence on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Whenever you get a personalized response to a Tweet or comment, for example? There’s a community manager on the other end!
  • Online forums: Also fairly well-known, community managers will create and moderate discussions on forums like Reddit , Quora, or Stack Exchange . Their aim here is to give users a trusted place to ask questions and interact with one another around their topic of interest.
  • Customer feedback platforms: Some brands manage online communities using a type of software called a customer feedback platform. A couple of examples include IdeaScale and UserVoice . While your average internet user mightn’t have heard of these, platforms like this offer a valuable way for brands to collect ideas, product feedback, and improvement suggestions direct from their community.
  • Branded online communities/ Fan groups: Finally, brands with dedicated followers often create fan groups or branded online communities. Typically delivered via an app or branded platform, this is where fans can share stories and access exclusive content, special discounts, and other perks. Prominent examples of fan groups include Nike Run Club , Lego Ideas , and Harley Owners Group .

To the lay internet user, community management may not be the most prominent or visible digital marketing role. But it’s one of the most important. Online communities offer opportunities to organizations and individuals alike.

For businesses, online communities allow brands to boost awareness while obtaining unprecedented insights into their customers’ thoughts and opinions. Meanwhile, for individuals, community management offers an exciting career path with many diverse opportunities.

2. Essential skills for community managers

Here are some of the essential skills you’ll need to thrive as a community manager:

Communication

First and foremost, community managers need excellent written and verbal communication skills. You’ll have to communicate effectively with customers, social media users, and other team members. For those working in dedicated community management agencies, communication also means working with clients to understand their business drivers and expectations, regardless of their expertise area.

Problem-solving and conflict management

Since you’ll find daily tasks driven by external forces (i.e. community members), you’ll need excellent problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills. Community managers must often handle difficult situations and challenging customers. This requires quick thinking and a cool head to prevent conflicts from escalating.

Another essential skill for community managers is creativity. Community managers must develop engaging content and instinctively understand the kinds of content that will resonate with different audiences. Where instinct fails, you’ll need to turn to data-driven insights to tap into the desires and needs of your audience.

Passion for the topic

It always helps when community managers are genuinely interested in their community topic. You might not put an enthusiastic gearhead, for example, in charge of a baking community (although that’s not to say you can’t love both cars and cakes!) The point, however, is that a community manager with a passion for their topic will connect more authentically with an audience and create content that resonates better.

Technical skills

Finally, community managers need good technical skills, including familiarity with various social media platforms, community management tools, and analytics software. OK, so you don’t need to be a full-blown tech expert here, but a good working knowledge of things like HTML and graphic design software can be beneficial.

3. Community management strategies

Community management strategies are the tactics community managers apply when growing their communities. Although these vary depending on a community’s objective, here are some common strategic steps community managers will take:

  • Establish clear objectives: Before getting started, determine your community’s objectives. Your goal might be increasing engagement, driving sales, or building brand awareness. Or perhaps it’s something more specific, like reducing customer support inquiries.
  • Create engaging content: Community managers must regularly schedule and develop new content. Whether this includes blog posts, videos, or something else, all content should be relevant, informative, or entertaining.
  • Encourage user-generated content: Managing communities single-handedly is almost impossible. Most strategies, therefore, include promoting user-generated content like photos or videos. This reduces the content that managers must produce. A bonus is that users typically consider user-generated content more authentic .
  • Monitor and measure community activity: Like any other digital marketing activity, community management involves measuring engagement to understand what works. We’ll explore this more in section 4.
  • Continuously improve the community: Finally, community managers must constantly seek ways of improving their community. This can involve launching new features, hosting events, or partnering with influencers and other brands.

Naturally, this isn’t an exhaustive list. Plus, strategies constantly evolve with the times. As such, stay attuned to the latest hot community management trends!

4. Community metrics and analytics

In section 3, we mentioned the importance of monitoring community activity to improve future efforts. In this section, we’ll explore this in more detail. 

To determine a strategy’s effectiveness, here are some important community metrics and analytics techniques that community managers use.

  • Engagement metrics: These track how active a community is. Common ones include the number of comments, likes, shares, and other interactions.
  • Reach metrics: These measure a community’s size. Common ones include follower numbers or community subscribers. These metrics help community managers determine if they’re reaching their target audience properly.
  • Sentiment analysis: Sentiment analysis involves analyzing emotions and opinions expressed by community users in their comments, reviews, and other feedback. It helps community managers identify areas where users are dissatisfied so they can take steps to address these concerns.
  • Conversion metrics: These measure how effectively a community drives business outcomes. Typical metrics include website traffic, lead generation, or sales. In short, anything that measures the community’s specific goals.
  • Social listening: This involves monitoring social media channels for brand or product mentions. Doing so helps community managers identify trends they can exploit to improve community engagement.

Tracking and analyzing these types of metrics helps community managers optimize their strategies to deliver better outcomes for their brand and, of course, its followers.

5. Career paths in community management

As you may have already realized, community management offers many diverse career paths. For instance, community managers can work for large corporations, startups, non-profit organizations, or specialized agencies that manage communities for third-party clients. 

Furthermore, some community managers specialize in specific industries (like healthcare or technology), whereas others focus on promoting specific products, services, or interests.

In this dynamic and continuously evolving field, the options for career growth are virtually limitless. Typically, the only prerequisite for most entry-level community management roles is a bachelor’s degree. Ideally, this will be in an area like communication, marketing, or a related field, but any degree will do so long as you can demonstrate enthusiasm and passion. 

Some specific roles in community management include Social Media Manager , Community Engagement Manager, and Content Manager, among others. If you’re thinking longer-term, be sure to research these options further. This will help you consider what steps to take to progress along your chosen career path.

6. Next steps

In this post, we’ve answered the question: What does a community manager do? We’ve learned that the role involves nurturing communities of individuals who share common interests, values, and goals, often to promote a product or build brand loyalty.

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in community management, your next step might include taking a course or certification in digital marketing. You could also gain experience by volunteering to manage a social media account or online community for a local organization or non-profit. Alternatively, you could even build your own online community around one of your hobbies.

Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of networking! Try connecting with other community managers by attending industry events or joining professional organizations like the Community Roundtable . These are valuable ways of meeting other community managers and staying abreast of the latest industry news.

Are you interested in learning more about digital marketing? Sign up for this free 5-day digital marketing short course , or check out the following guides:

  • The Digital Marketing Job Quiz: Which Role Is Right for Me?
  • What Does a Social Media Manager Actually Do? 
  • What Is the Digital Marketing Salary? 2024 Guide

Community Management: What It Is and Why It Matters (Beginner’s Guide)

Community Management: What It Is and Why It Matters (Beginner’s Guide)

Author Image

Since the rise of the internet, and especially social media, a common challenge for many businesses is keeping tabs on public opinion. Word spreads fast, and one poor experience can quickly snowball. For many businesses, strong community management could be the solution.

Community management is the process of diving deep into your audience, interacting with them directly, and bringing them together so they can interact with each other. Along the way, you’ll be able to build loyalty and customer satisfaction.

In this article, we’ll introduce the concept of community management, how it can benefit your business, and when to consider hiring a dedicated community manager. Then we’ll explore five of the best tools to make the job easier. Let’s jump right in!

An introduction to community management

Community management is the practice of building communities for your customers, fans, and even employees. It involves creating an authentic and engaging environment surrounding your brand.

Social media management and community management are often used interchangeably. The former focuses largely on content and marketing initiatives on social networks. On the other hand, the primary purpose of community management is to build and strengthen relationships. Naturally, there is some overlap between the two.

The larger your community is, the more essential managing it becomes. By ‘managing’, we mean how your business interacts and engages with people online, whether through groups, social networks, online forums, or sites such as Reddit .

According to Statista, since the global pandemic over 40 percent of consumers [1] have spent more time on online and messaging platforms. It’s fair to assume that there are now more conversations happening online around your industry than ever. It’s important to make yourself part of that dialogue.

The benefits of community management

There is a wide range of benefits that come with a strong community management strategy. In a nutshell, it can help:

  • Define and strengthen your brand’s reputation
  • Increase engagement among your audience
  • Make it easier to identify and formulate future growth opportunities

As a business owner, you’re likely often focused on growing and expanding your audience and user base. However, it’s important not to overlook your existing customers. It’s crucial to keep them engaged and committed as well – and community management can help with that. Community management also aims to bring people together and create communities where they don’t exist, which can be very beneficial for brand loyalty and awareness.

In addition, this strategy can help you gather feedback and ideas from your actual customers, and be an effective way to gain insight into their needs and expectations. You can steer the conversations away from misinformation and toward more positive outlooks that help keep your brand relevant and credible.

With the right community management strategy, you can enhance customer service by providing real-time, personal support. Social channels give you a direct line of communication with your audience. Plus, the ability to engage one-on-one with users puts you in an ideal position to humanize your brand.

By engaging in real conversations and using emotive language, you can make your brand more trustworthy and relatable than you would if you relied solely on automated responses or chatbots. Ultimately, these kinds of interactions can help you build more meaningful relationships, both on an individual and large-scale level.

Finally, community management can help you increase brand awareness, build product awareness, and improve your brand image among your target audience. This can be especially helpful when you get your employees involved. For example, research has found that employees tend to have 10 times more followers [2] than brands themselves.

Community management: Hiring a manager vs. handling it yourself

Once you decide that community management should be a priority for your business, the next step is to decide how to go about it. The two main options are to hire a community manager or handle it yourself.

Community management can be a tough job. It’s a tedious and time-consuming undertaking to get right, especially if you have a large company. Some daily tasks a community manager might be responsible for include:

  • Replying to comments
  • Handling customer service and representation duties
  • Adhering to and enforcing the brand identity online
  • Monitoring industry trends , stories, keywords, etc.

Community managers also actively search for ongoing conversations about the brand and insert themselves in discussions. Typically, this might be to provide help, clarification, or advice surrounding a certain industry or brand-related topic.

Unless your business is still growing and doesn’t have a large online presence, it’s probably best to hire a dedicated specialist. Social media managers generally have enough to do, and since community management often extends beyond just social media, it can be a lot to put on them. With that being said, whether you plan to handle this yourself or hire a professional, there are some tools to help make the process easier.

Useful community management tools

Leveraging the right tools can make monitoring, interacting, and planning engagements with your customers both easier and more meaningful. Let’s take a look at five community management tools to consider using.

1. Facebook Groups

Master community management with Facebook Groups.

A critical part of effective community management is being proactive and participating in conversations. One of the best ways to do that is to join social media communities, such as Facebook Groups, that make it easy to interact with your audience and become an active participant in the dialogue surrounding your brand or industry.

Facebook Groups also offer a powerful way to humanize your brand. Rather than providing automated responses, you can leverage emotive language to respond to users. Aside from your employees, brand ambassadors can also help with this.

Social groups on platforms such as Facebook are great places to identify “super fans”, or brand advocates who might make strong brand ambassadors or micro-influencers. People who engage with your brand often and share positive reviews, comments, and feedback are ideal members to involve in your community management initiatives. They also present the opportunity for adding User-Generated Content (UGC) into the mix.

If you have customers or influencers who feel a strong, deep connection with your brand, they can help spread awareness and even answer customers’ questions or concerns online – whether that be through their own social platforms or online forums and comments sections.

Facebook Groups can also aid in social listening. It’s one of the tools you can use to figure out what your audience and customers are saying about your brand and/or industry.

If you don’t already have your own Facebook Group, we recommend joining a few that are relevant to your industry. You can find them by navigating to Groups from your Facebook Business page, then clicking on the Discover tab. You can sort by industry/topic or search by keywords. Once you’re ready to take it to the next level, you might consider starting your own Facebook group .

The Discord website homepage.

In case you’re unfamiliar with it, Discord is a relatively new text-and-talk platform that offers brands an effective place to engage with customers and prospects. While it started in the gaming community, it has expanded into nearly endless industries as an avenue where businesses can connect with consumers. In fact, in its first three years alone, the platform amassed over 130 million users [3] .

Not unlike Facebook Groups, Discord lets you join in ongoing conversations and take part in conversations that are relevant to your brand. However, the way it functions is quite different.

Discord is comprised of topic-based channels. Within these channels, users can share and converse about the topic as a group or through one-on-one side conversations. You can also use this feature to create communities of any sizes, and leverage member access and moderation tools. The casual, interactive nature of the platform presents an opportunity to build deeper connections with your customers and establish trust.

To use Discord, you can download it for Windows or access it virtually via your browser. After clicking on Open Discord in your browser , you can simply enter your username and agree to the Terms and Conditions to get started.

Slack website.

Internal engagement is another important part of community management. Keeping your employees, partners, vendors, etc. active and on the same page is crucial.

Platforms such as Slack can help streamline communication and collaboration among your team. Using this tool can strengthen internal relationships, establish a sense of community and support, and ensure that projects and planning go as smoothly as possible.

Team coordination and brand leadership are key components of community management. It’s important to know who is responsible for which tasks, and to establish clear guidelines for how to conduct, delegate, and monitor the performance of your initiatives.

Software such as Slack offers a way to communicate more clearly and efficiently than you would if you were, for example, relying solely on email. In addition to chat, it also offers features such as video calls, topic-based channels, workflow builders, and more.

If you’re new to the platform, consider testing out the free trial . Simply visit the Slack website and click on the Try for Free button to get started.

4. Google Alerts

Use Google Alerts to help improve your community management

A major part of effective community management is active social listening. Of course, cutting through all the noise can be difficult. Fortunately, tools such as Google Alerts can help make it significantly easier.

This free service provides a simple, straightforward way of monitoring the internet conversations that are relevant to your brand. In turn, this enables you to answer, address, and stay in the know about any relevant stories or conversations that involve your business almost immediately.

You can set up Google Alerts (as many as you’d like) for relevant words, key terms, names, etc. That way, you’ll be updated on any mention that relates to your industry or company.

When you’re actively listening, you can proactively respond. For example, an alert about an unhappy customer’s complaint gives you chance to turn it into a positive customer support story. Plus, being notified means that you can promptly respond as necessary, which is incredibly important to customers today.

To get started, navigate to the Google Alerts website and sign in to your account. In the text field, type the word or phrase you want to create the alert for:

The option to create a Google Alert.

When you’re done, click on the Create Alert button. You can also select Show Advanced Options to further define the alert. For example, you can choose how often you’ll receive notifications, as well as the type of sources you’ll get them from.

5. Hootsuite

The Hootsuite website.

Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool that can also be incredibly helpful when it comes to community management initiatives. The platform lets you centralize a variety of social channels in a single dashboard, so you can seamlessly schedule posts from multiple accounts.

The ability to manage multiple feeds from one place is important, because the conversations you need to keep tabs on likely aren’t happening on one platform. Using a tool such as Hootsuite makes it easier to and more efficient to curate and monitor content from various channels across the internet.

It also provides you with analytics and reporting features, including social Return on Investment (ROI) tools. Even better, you can leverage its monitoring options for identifying mentions of your brand.

There are a few different plans to choose from. If you’re a small business just starting out, you might be fine with the free plan . However, if you’re a larger organization, you may want to consider opting for a premium plan .

Whether your business is new and you’re looking for growth opportunities, or you’ve been around for a while and want to take loyalty to the next level, community management can be a huge help. This strategy involves monitoring and steering conversations online to provide support and build trust and loyalty.

To help you get started with community management, we recommend trying these five tools:

  • Facebook Groups to easily participate in discussions relevant to your brand, as well as boost awareness and engagement.
  • Discord if you want a casual, interactive way to establish trust with your customers and demonstrate your expertise.
  • Slack for communicating and collaborating with your team and partners more effectively.
  • Google Alerts to keep you informed on trending topics, stories, and conversations about your industry and brand.
  • Hootsuite so you can keep all your community and social media management solutions centralized in a single dashboard.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the options, start with just one of these tools. You can always add more to your community management toolkit later.

What’s the most important thing to successful community management? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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By John Hughes

John is a self-taught WordPress designer and developer. He has been working with the CMS for over a decade, and has experience operating as a freelancer and as part of an agency. He’s dabbled in everything from accessible design to website security. Plus, he has extensive knowledge of online business topics like affiliate marketing.

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Presentation, what we will do during the course, u2: functions and responsibilities, what does a community manager do, daily tasks of a cm, digital glossary, u3: understanding the digital ecosystem, types of community managers, not all networks serve the same, content types, u4: your brand, competition and content, knowing your competition, where are the conversations in your category, gap analysis, how many profiles do you need, u5: content planning and production, content calendar, opportunities in real time, generation and curation, planning, publishing and management tools, scaling protocol, faq and crisis control, u6: metrics and final recommendations, qualitative reports, quantitative reports p1, quantitative reports p2, security and copyright recommendations, crowdsourcing, final project.

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What does a community manager do (tips and best practices), share this article.

Learn what community managers do, including core roles, how they relate to other community jobs, and qualities of great a community manager

Can you recall your favorite brand? 

Maybe you love it because of great customer service, excellent quality products, witty ads, or because your friends love them. No matter the reason, there’s a whole community of people who admire that brand too. 

Communities may be the new buzzword but they’re a game-changer because they increase brand awareness and enhance customer loyalty. 

79% of organizations believe that investing in communities has had a positive impact on their objectives. 

Think of brands like Apple, Lego, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Sephora, Red Bull, PlayStation, or even Rod Stryker. Red Bull, for example, attracts a community of athletes, adrenaline enthusiasts, and sporting spectators. 

If not for strong communities, these brands wouldn’t be as successful as they are. 

In the context of brands, online communities came into existence because their primary goal was to serve their customers. 

Today, communities help build genuine relationships, understand customers’ interests and pain points better, educate them, and— of course— listen to their needs to eventually deliver better products or services. 

However, some communities today simply exist to bring together a set of people who are passionate about similar ideas—like the NFT communities. 

Whether you are an entrepreneur, an online tutor, or a niche expert, investing in community-building efforts will give you an added advantage in a hyper-competitive ecosystem. 

Let’s take another example of Harley Davidson . Back in 1983, Harley Davidson went bankrupt. 25 years later, it was listed among the top 50 global brands and had a whopping valuation of $7.8 billion. When asked, it attributed its success to building a community, “a group of ardent consumers organized around the lifestyle, activities, and ethos of the brand” as HBR.org puts it. 

Fast forward to today, it has been discovered that 76% of internet users participate in an online community. 

Data cannot lie. People love being part of a community where everyone shares similar passions. (And that community could be yours too!)  But managing communities is not child’s play. That’s where a community manager comes in. 

In the ever-evolving digital space, the role of a community manager is evolving too. 

This article discusses what a community manager does, and enlists qualities that make for a ‘good’ community manager. 

Related: How To Build An Online Community

Who is a Community Manager?

Roles and responsibilities of a community manager, difference between a social media manager and a community manager.

  • What Does a Community Engagement Manager do?

Community Management Best Practices

Qualities of a good community manager.

Community managers are the middlemen or women who are responsible for building and maintaining genuine relationships between the brand and its customers.  They are the voice of the brand and moderate and grow the community by supporting, and engaging with customers. Eventually, their goal is to turn customers into loyal fans by offering them immense value, and an inclusive space to foster relationships. 

While there could be a bit of variance in the roles and responsibilities of a community manager depending on the industry—here’s what it generally entails;

  • Ideate, and implement community-focused  campaigns and strategies
  • Create snackable and engaging content like daily/weekly product updates, short videos, group discussion topics , or other types of content as required
  • Respond to customers and be valuable, all in friendly and a timely manner
  • Monitor and track metrics and report them on feedback and online reviews
  • Boost brand awareness by organizing and managing events and  webinars 
  • Liaise and coordinate with other departments like marketing teams, communications teams, customer support teams, sales teams, development teams, and content teams
  • Build relationships with industry experts and invite them to collaborate 
  • Stay up-to-date with digital technology trends and explore innovative ways to engage the community
  • Lays down strict community guidelines to promote an inclusive and safe space. (check out a community guidelines template here )
  • Plans and executes community-engaging like giveaways or contests 

Related: Successful Online Community Examples (+What Makes Them Great)

Sure, there may be a lot of responsibilities that overlap between a “social media manager” and a “community manager”. But the role of a community manager doesn’t revolve around acting as the brand and promoting its products or services on social media. It is much broader. Because their specialty lies in understanding the community as a whole. 

Community managers need to track down the ideal customer persona, understand how they speak, who they follow, what interests them, what their pain points are, and find ways to fit the brand in that equation. Community managers need to be active on the platform where the community is hosted, be it Facebook or Slack groups.  Furthermore, a community manager always manages the community from their own accounts, not the brand’s.

What Does a Community Engagement Manager do? 

Community Engagement Managers are often hired by large businesses and they directly report to the Executive Director. Unlike a community manager, a community engagement manager’s role is external facing, like overseeing fundraising activities or brand engagement efforts towards local or regional communities. Ideally, they need to be well-versed with public policy. 

Related: How to Build a Community Around Your Brand (+ Brand Community Examples)

  • Create an ICP (ideal customer profile). Coordinate with marketing teams to understand the audience thoroughly. For instance, their likes, dislikes, pain points, podcasts they love— basically, everything under the sun that will help build a community that’s more about them and less about the brand. 
  • Decide where you would like to host the community . Today there are plenty of platforms to choose from. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Slack, Discord, or even Reddit. Identify where your target audience hangs out the most (or a platform they prefer the most), and establish your presence there. If you want it to be an invite-only exclusive community then Slack groups are a good option. Or if you are looking for a platform where anyone can join with ease, then open Facebook groups are a good way to go. And online educators, for example, can host a community on Thinkific. 
  • Set posting schedules. Plan and establish posting schedules so that your audience always knows when the next post will be up. Set certain days for certain types of announcements. For example, AMAs on Wednesdays with industry experts, and product updates on Thursdays. 

Additionally, a community manager needs to always maintain a brand voice to make sure that the essence of the brand is never lost. 

Related: 30+ Community Engagement Strategy Ideas

Building long-lasting relationships lies at the helm of community building. But efforts need to be put in from day one. Here’s a list of skills that will help a community manager build successful communities; 

  • Passionate about communities. Community managers need to have an inherent passion for communities. Their role is to create a safe space where the members can foster genuine relationships, and interact in a hassle-free manner. Passion for people is requisite because only then you can make sure that each person involved has a positive experience with your brand. 
  • Be the go-to person for the community members. Gone are the days when 1:1 communication between brands and their customers was a rarity. Today that happens almost instantaneously. A community manager needs to establish a rapport of being the go-to person for queries, or any help in general. That can be built by offering value. 

As Cierra Loflin, the Community Manager and Content Marketer at Superpath puts it ‘being a community manager is more than just being a friendly face. You need to dedicate a certain amount of time every week (or even every day) to post thoughtful replies to topics you feel qualified to answer. Try to share helpful articles or tools when you come across them. “

  • Good communication skills. Community managers are a brand’s ambassadors. Anything they say directly affects the reputation of the brand. So strong communication skills are a must. More importantly, they need to have a knack for empathizing with the audience. They need to be efficient at relaying information, creating crisp and engaging content and have the know-how to tackle any conflict or crisis that may occur within the community.
  • Ability to make data-driven decisions. A community-centered brand still needs to generate revenue, and a community manager needs to be wary of that. 

Either on a quarterly or annual basis, it is important to establish KPIs and plan efforts accordingly. What’s the eventual goal of the community? 

A few questions to ponder upon are;

  • Do you want to increase engagement? 
  • Do you want to educate?
  • Do you want to upsell? 
  • Do you want to drive more sales? 

A ‘good’ community manager understands the brand’s goals and analyzes data generated from the community to evaluate what’s working and what’s not. While a lot of day-to-day decisions would require personal judgment or gut feeling, in the end, those decisions should be optimized to reinforce business objectives. 

  • Niche expertise. A community manager who understands the ins and outs of your industry, in general, will always outsmart a generalist community manager. It is safe to say that they are the eye and the ear of your brand. Online communities give brands real-time insights about industry insights. In fact, communities prefer to interact with a community manager who has a solid understanding of the brand’s product or services, and—of course— the industry in general. 
  • Valuable . A community manager should always focus on providing value more than anything. You need to reassure your community members that you are there to back them up. But you don’t have to have all the knowledge in the world. 

Share simple things that you feel would be of value to your community. 

“Quite recently I shared a Text-to-Speech tool that I use to proofread my articles in the final editing stage, and the post got lots of engagement—so hopefully, it was helpful for other people too. 

Managing a community means being active in that community, and sharing tidbits of knowledge consistently”, says Cierra.

Looking to build a powerful community of your own to educate your audience or help them with ongoing queries? Thinkific lets you create a community in super-simple steps.  Try it today ! 

Colin is a Content Marketer at Thinkific, writing about everything from online entrepreneurship & course creation to digital marketing strategy.

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Community Manager

A community manager plays a crucial role in managing and engaging with an organization's online community across various social media platforms.

What is a community manager on social media?

Community managers focus on building and maintaining relationships with followers, fans, and customers in order to foster a sense of community, enhance brand loyalty, and drive engagement. Here are some key aspects of a social media community manager's role:

What are the roles and responsibilities of a social media community manager?

Community managers create and curate engaging content that resonates with the target audience. Below are aspects social media community managers are responsible for:

Relationship building

Community managers work on building relationships and rapport with followers and customers. They proactively reach out to individuals, acknowledge their contributions, and foster a sense of belonging within the community. This can involve personalized responses, direct messaging, or highlighting user-generated content .

Social listening

They keep a close eye on social media conversations related to the brand or industry. This involves monitoring mentions , hashtags, and relevant discussions to gather insights, identify trends, and understand community sentiment. Social listening helps community managers stay informed and respond appropriately.

Crisis management

In the event of negative feedback, or complaints, community managers play a vital role in managing social media crisis situations . They address concerns promptly, offer solutions, and manage public relations to protect the brand's reputation.

Analytics and Reporting

Community managers analyze social media metrics, such as engagement rates, reach, and follower growth, to assess the success of community-building efforts. They generate reports, identify trends, and provide recommendations for optimizing social media strategies.

Advocacy and brand promotion

Community managers act as advocates for the brand, promoting its products, services, or values. They collaborate with influencers or brand ambassadors, organize contests or giveaways , and leverage user-generated content to amplify brand awareness and loyalty.

A social media community manager is responsible for nurturing and engaging with an organization's online community, managing relationships and content, and promoting the brand through social media platforms.

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For any business, an engaged online community can be of great value. But creating, engaging, and growing these communities can be a challenge.

There are, however, several courses you can attend to learn the secrets of community management. Below, we’ve listed down the seven best courses for community management.

1. Meta Community Manager Online Courses

meta blueprint screenshot

Meta has an e-learning program called Meta Blueprint that makes it easier for everyone to learn digital marketing. The courses here are free, so anyone and everyone can enroll in them.

For community management, Meta Blueprint has eight short courses on different aspects of community management. These include building communities, creating strategies, making a solid content plan, and engaging and moderating them.

Moreover, these courses will teach you how to analyze the performance of your content, build brand partnerships, and keep your community safe from hate, harassment, and misinformation.

Related: How to Use Facebook's New Moderation Tools to Manage Your Groups

After completing courses, you can also get certification from Facebook to become a certified community manager. Moreover, you can join the Facebook Community Manager Certification Learning Group and interact with other community managers.

2. The Community Roundtable Training

screenshot of The Coumminty Roundtable Academy website

The Community Roundtable was founded in 2009 to equip professionals with necessary community management skills. They conduct training and events and provide the necessary resources to help community managers.

The Community Roundtable has eight online courses available on its website. These teach students about the basics of community management, its models, and community management for associations. Moreover, they offer training for internal and external community management.

Only the Community 101 | Community Frameworks and Models course is free, while all others cost either $495 or $995.

If you’re serious about community management, you can join The CR network for around $2000 per year to get access to a huge library of resources, including these courses, and network with other community managers.

3. Introduction to Online Community Management ( Udemy )

introduction to online community management course

Introduction to Online Community Management is an hour-long course available on Udemy. This course has been created by Standing on Giants, an online community agency.

This course covers the basics of online community management. So whether you are an aspiring community manager or have just stepped into this field, this course can surely help you in your goals. This course has three instructors: Kristie, Elisa, and Toby-all experienced community professionals.

This course will inform you about the role of a community manager, share tips about engaging your community, and teach you how to get through tricky situations.

Related: The Right Way To Grow A New Online Community: Examples

With a 4.5/5 rating on Udemy, Introduction to Online Community Management has positive reviews. For $30, you get lifetime access to this course, a certificate, and a downloadable workbook. For anyone willing to start a career in community management or upskill, this course can be helpful.

4. FeverBee Courses

feverbee screenshot

FeverBee is an online community consultancy that provides advice, insights, and training to businesses for building better communities. Moreover, it offers multiple online courses on its website.

The different courses available here help you understand the psychology of a community, build an engaging community, and create advanced strategies for managing it. More than a thousand community managers have enrolled in FeverBee courses.

If you struggle engaging people in your community, you can enroll in the Advanced Engagement Methods course. You can view the details and the course content of each course to understand exactly what you’ll be learning.

Related: The Best Tools to Analyze Social Media Performance

FeverBee also has courses on community management in the German language. The price of these courses varies drastically, from $300 to nearly $3500. Considering their experience in this field, these courses can surely teach you the lesser-known community management tactics.

5. CMX Academy Courses

CMX community courses screenshot

As a network of community professionals, CMX aims to help businesses grow by developing communities. There are tons of resources on their website, including the CMX Academy.

CMX Academy currently offers two training programs to help you build and engage communities. The C2C Event Program Playbook is a beginner-level course that teaches how to host events for your communities.

The Community MBA is designed for beginner and intermediate community professionals. David Spinks, the founder of CMX, is the instructor of this course. This course covers different aspects of building communities and using them to grow businesses. Along with the on-demand videos, CMX provides worksheets and activities to make learning engaging.

The price for each of these courses is nearly $500. But CMX also offers full or partial discounts through its scholarship program and makes its training accessible to all.

6. Build an Engaged Online Community ( Udemy / Skillshare )

build an engaged community course Udemy page screenshot

Build an Engaged Online Community is a beginner-level yet comprehensive course by Phil Ebiner on community management.

This course covers building, engaging, and growing your communities. Phil also guides you on the best types of posts to engage your community, how to create them, and how to automate posting. Best of all, he recommends free tools and apps to make your job easier.

This self-paced course has 14 videos that take around 100 minutes to complete. Moreover, it lets you download a workbook for community building. Since it’s a beginner-level course, there are no prerequisites other than a willingness to learn.

Related: The Best Free Bulletin Boards to Set Up Your Own Forum

This course has great ratings and reviews on both Udemy and Skillshare. Phil Ebiner is a top-rate instructor on Udemy with over 2 million students, a 4.6 instructor rating.

The course costs around $100 on Udemy, but if you have a Skillshare subscription you can take it there too.

7. Social Listening and Community Management ( eCornell )

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Cornell University also offers online courses on a variety of subjects, including community management. Titled Social Listening and Community Management, the course teaches you to build a social listening system and take an organizational approach to community management.

The course is developed by Rob Kwortnik, associate professor at Cornell University, and Stephanie Cartin, co-founder of Socialfly. Social Listening and Community Management is a two-week-long program. This course is an instructor-led one, which requires a commitment of three to five hours per week.

The course is ideal for anyone in marketing, especially social media. This single course costs $770. But if you’re interested in social media management as a whole, you can enroll in its certificate program, having six related courses for $3600.

Build, Engage, and Grow Online Communities

Online communities are on the rise, and engaging and growing them can be challenging. However, these courses can teach you tried-and-tested strategies for community management.

Whether you’re looking to pursue a career as a community manager or want to build communities for growing your business, these courses can help you.

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Community Manager job description

This Community Manager job description template lists the responsibilities and competency requirements to help you identify the ideal candidate to advocate your brand. It’s also easy to customize to meet your specific job requirements.

Christina Pavlou

An experienced recruiter and HR professional who has transferred her expertise to insightful content to support others in HR.

Community Manager responsibilities include:

  • Setting and implementing social media and communication campaigns to align with marketing strategies
  • Providing engaging text, image and video content for social media accounts
  • Responding to comments and customer queries in a timely manner

community manager job description

Want to generate a unique job description?

Looking for a job.

We are looking for a qualified Community manager to join our team. If you are a tech-savvy professional, experienced in social media, PR and promotional events, we would like to meet you.

Our ideal candidate has exceptional oral and written communication skills and is able to develop engaging content. You should be a ‘people person’ with great customer service skills and the ability to moderate online and offline conversations with our community.

Ultimately, you should be able to act as the face and voice of our brand and manage all community communications.

Responsibilities

  • Set and implement social media and communication campaigns to align with marketing strategies
  • Provide engaging text, image and video content for social media accounts
  • Respond to comments and customer queries in a timely manner
  • Monitor and report on feedback and online reviews
  • Organize and participate in events to build community and boost brand awareness
  • Coordinate with Marketing, PR and Communications teams to ensure brand consistency
  • Liaise with Development and Sales departments to stay updated on new products and features
  • Build relationships with customers, potential customers, industry professionals and journalists
  • Stay up-to-date with digital technology trends

Requirements and skills

  • Proven work experience as a community manager
  • Experience launching community initiatives (e.g. building an online forum, launching an ambassador program, creating an event series and writing an email newsletter)
  • Ability to identify and track relevant community metrics (e.g. repeat attendance at events)
  • Excellent verbal communication skills
  • Excellent writing skills
  • Hands on experience with social media management for brands
  • Ability to interpret website traffic and online customer engagement metrics
  • Knowledge of online marketing and marketing channels
  • Attention to detail and ability to multitask
  • BSc degree in Marketing or relevant field

Post this Community Manager job to over 200 job boards at once.

Related job descriptions.

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Related Interview Questions

  • Social Media Manager interview questions and answers
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Related Topics

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  • How to advertise jobs on Facebook
  • Best job boards: The ultimate job sites list for 2021

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Community Manager Job Description

This Community Manager description template has all you need and can easily be customized. 

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Community Manager Introduction:

Do you enjoy engaging in meaningful conversations? Love doing research and keeping on top of news and trends? Do you understand the value of social media for marketing great products? We’re looking for someone like you for our Community Manager role. This role isn’t about selling, selling, selling…though we need you to understand how it relates to sales. The Community Manager will lead and participate in industry conversations and help to educate potential and current customers about their industry. We’re looking for someone to help us establish ourselves as subject matter experts, and to be trusted resource when it comes to ___________________. We want to increase our brand recognition, not just of our products but also the way we lead and educate in our industry. Community Manager Responsibilties:

In this role, you will report to our Marketing Manager. Duties will include;

  • Planning and implementing social media strategies to further our brand recognition
  • Researching to keep an up-to-date knowledge of the industry and competitors
  • Monitoring our social media accounts and responding to questions and concerns
  • Alerting our customer service team of any technical issues or concerns noted on social media
  • Supporting customer service team with relaying notices and updates of technical issues
  • Growing our social following through various strategies
  • Engaging in online conversations with prospective and existing clients about our topics in our industry, products, and brand.
  • Planning and hosting t-chats and other online events on industry topics
  • Providing insights to our marketing team about industry, competitors, and relevant topics found online
  • Planning and leading offline events
  • Creating branded content to support marketing and customer service needs
  • Representing our brand at events and trade shows when needed

Community Manager Qualifications:

  • Completion of a Bachelor’s Degree or relevant college diploma (Business or Marketing concentrations are considered an asset but not required)
  • 1-2 years experience in customer service, sales, or marketing would be considered an asset
  • Ability to discern, communicate, and uphold online community guidelines
  • Experience using social media and digital savviness are both required for this role

Community Manager Core Skills:

  • Corporate social media
  • Event planning
  • Online forums
  • Professional writing
  • Content creation
  • Friendly personality
  • Interpersonal communication skills
  • Video creation
  • Presentation skills

Alongside Pro Tip:

Community Manager is a relatively new role, born out of the need for organizations to have a strong online presence as well as online sales and marketing strategies. Community Manager positions vary in responsibilities, based on company size and needs. For example, a Community Manager for X company may manage social media accounts. Company Y may have a Social Media Manager as well as a Community Manager. Some roles are entirely remote, while others require event planning or cooperation with customer support. Adjust this template to create a job posting that reflects the responsibilities and requirements of your marketing team.

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A subreddit dedicated to those who practice the art, lifestyle, and vocation of online Community Management.

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT.

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COMMENTS

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  6. What Does a Community Manager Do?

    A community manager is a digital marketing professional responsible for building, growing, and managing communities of users around a product, service, or brand. Their role typically includes managing social media, moderating online forums, creating engaging content, reviewing data and insights, and responding to customer feedback.

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  13. Learn About Being a Community Manager

    A community manager develops and maintains their company's voice and image. This professional helps build brand awareness by handling tasks associated with social media management, communications, public relations and marketing. This position is ever-evolving as strategies for effectively reaching and communicating with consumers change.

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    Launching an online community may be one of the most important things you do for your business or brand. If you've never embarked on this…

  15. Community Role Profile: Community Manager

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    A strong online community can be a powerful asset to your brand. Here are some of the best community management courses.

  17. Introduction to Online Community Management

    Learn the basics of Online Community Management and get a head-start to your new career.

  18. Community Manager Job Description [+2024 TEMPLATE]

    This Community manager job description template lists the responsibilities and requirements to help you identify the ideal candidate to advocate your brand.

  19. Community Manager Job Description

    This Community Manager job description is fully customizable and provides you with the introduction, responsibilities, and requirements for the job.

  20. New Community Manager Introduction!

    Community AnnouncementsNew Community Manager Introduction! New Community Manager Introduction! Hello THWACK Community! My name is Brett and I am a new Community Manager here at Solarwinds in Lehi, Utah! I am SO excited to meet everyone in this great community! Just a bit about myself…. I am originally from Northridge, CA.

  21. INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT.

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