What a Community Manager does

Categories: Community MarketingPosted on November 16th, 2006

There’s a lot of misconceptions of what a Community Manager does, most think they’re the customer or even company advocate. While that’s true, the bigger role is to listen and inform.

Today I was telling some colleagues what a Community Manager does, I’m transitioning on, so I’m trying to share what I’ve learned, here’s just a few things that I’ve learned. Part of the Community Managers role is to:

Listen: Use listening tools like Technorati, Talkdigger, read blogs, forums, wikis, to find out what customers are saying
Respond: Depending on what’s being said, respond quickly when appropriate
Inform: Tell the right stakeholders in the company what’s happening, this can range from Engineering, Product Management, Product Marketing, PR, Marketing, Bloggers, or forums moderators.
Shut up and sit back: One of the most important jobs of the CM is to connect the right internal people with customers and let them work it out, stay out of the way if you don’t understand the problems.
Listen more: Keep on listening, responding, informing, and connecting the right folks. A community manager is an odd looking being, big ears and eyes, and a small mouth.

From Jeremiah Owyang, Online Community Manager at Hitachi Data Systems (well at least for another 1.5 weeks)

Update: Nathan of the Net-Savvy Exec Blog lays out very similiarly what he envisions a Community Managers does, a slightly more functional role called Social Media Relations, very nice.

Share This Post:

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 9:58 pm and is filed under Community Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

#5- an odd looking creature indeed:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11765756@N00/300254389/

Posted by daniela barbosa on November 18th, 2006 at 12:28 pm

Ha! Good one. As if the subject matter wasn’t odd enough as it was in the first place!

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on November 18th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

[...] What a Community Manager Does [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Community Manager Resources on December 7th, 2006 at 5:51 pm

[...] What a Community Manager does [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Understanding the Technology Evangelist Role, a few of my Favorite Folks on March 26th, 2007 at 10:03 am

Even my mom can understand that…

Many thanks !

Posted by easyduke on September 6th, 2007 at 7:29 am

easyduke

Thanks! that’s the point!

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on September 6th, 2007 at 8:20 am

[...] με τον Jeremiah Owyang είναι τα [...]

Posted by Community Building | Socialize It on October 15th, 2007 at 1:02 am

I *love* this! It sums up so nicely what we do

Posted by Shino on October 15th, 2007 at 9:36 pm

Very short but usefull since i’m starting my CM role next week.

Posted by Nico on January 27th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

[...] recently that most certainly didn’t exist 5, probably not 1 year ago - and that was for an “Online community manager.” The role of this person is to do just that, create and manage the businesses online personality; [...]

Posted by lucindigo » Google It: Digital Media +Business on March 3rd, 2008 at 8:43 pm

[...] They may even start a community for the business. To learn more about this Web 2.0 career, visit this post from Jeremiah Owyang at the Web Strategy by Jeremiah [...]

Posted by The New Web 2.0 Careers on March 18th, 2008 at 12:02 am

[...] Jeremiah Owyang put it like this: Part of the Community Managers role is to: [...]

Posted by Damien Mulley » Blog Archive » Community Managers - Room for them in Ireland? on April 15th, 2008 at 4:20 am

I would also add two things :
- think.. think a lot…
- negotiate
pretty much what we do

cheers,
Arvind Juneja
GoldenLine.pl , Community Manager

Posted by Arvind Juneja on April 24th, 2008 at 4:42 am

[...] Brogan posted on the responsibilities a “Community Manager” for a company would have (here’s a good idea of what one does) and I believe that building the community is key to the adoption of [...]

Posted by Colin Walker » Social Media Marketing - it’s not about the hard sell. on April 30th, 2008 at 4:28 am

[...] issue is that of the Community Manager. Jeremiah Owyang has a great little tidbit about what a Community Manager does for a typical [...]

Posted by Christian Community Managers | human3rror on June 2nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm

[...] and tools such as Twitter. He’s originally from Minnesota and recently started his new job as the Community Manager for Seesmic, a company founded by Loïc Lemur that has been described as the “Twitter of [...]

Posted by FoF: Dydimustk, community managment and Seesmic | Manitou Heights on June 6th, 2008 at 8:18 am

Huh, now i will search one Sr. Community Manager in China, who will be interesting about this opportunity please let me know. You can reach my email: william.yu@wrc.com.hk.

Posted by William on June 20th, 2008 at 2:20 am

[...] http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2006/11/16/what-a-community-manager-does/ [...]

Posted by Rollen, taken en skills binnen online community management | MartinKloos.nl on July 1st, 2008 at 10:02 pm

Posted by Gestor de comunidades « Netcrash on September 5th, 2008 at 1:51 am

[...] You’ll find the rest of his article at http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2006/11/16/what-a-community-manager-does/. [...]

Posted by Starting in a new job: Community Manager at Play It Forward « A Community Manager at Work on September 6th, 2008 at 3:29 pm

[...] área, en el caso de los “social media” también se hace necesario y con la figura del “Community Manager”. Es difícil imaginar acciones de este tipo sin que exista un “controlador” y sobre [...]

Posted by Algo que hacer » Websites, campañas y social media on October 7th, 2008 at 11:33 am

[...] if fans are engaged they are going to buy more. She also said that every musician should have a community manager. This is a great tip. Musicians, or someone they delegate the task to ideally (so the musician can [...]

Posted by SanFran MusicTech Summit 3: Albums Die, Social Media Kicks Ass, and Songs Find a Home « .Evolving Music. on October 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm

[...] Owyang (@jowyang), Sr Analyst at Forrester Research, has a great community manager job description and it looks like Matthew Phillips will be following it fairly closely, at least as described by [...]

Posted by Kwippy Names Community Manager | Microblink on October 23rd, 2008 at 7:36 pm

[...] met al luister, praat mee en reageer op datgene wat er in je community [...]

Posted by Hoe lanceer je een enterprise online community? | MartinKloos.nl on October 28th, 2008 at 10:01 pm

[...] come across happens to be from Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy Blog. In his post on “What a Community Manager does,” Jeremiah claims it’s about (among other [...]

Posted by The qualities of a successful online research community moderator | PluggedIN on October 31st, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Posted by Lanceren van een enterprise online community - Frankwatching on November 20th, 2008 at 4:01 am

[...] the web, which would be Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategist blog. In his 11/16/2006 post, What a Community Manager Does, he describes the five top things a Community Manager can do (listen, respond, inform, shut up and [...]

Posted by Elliance: Community Manager » Blog Archive » Community Manager - What’s That? on December 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am

[...] How to staff for social computing [...]

Posted by Online community management - Frankwatching on December 13th, 2008 at 4:57 am

[...] the day to day blocking and tackling to push to overall strategy forward. Jeremiah Owyang’s community manager is too passive a title for my [...]

Posted by Social Media News » Blog Archive » Blocking And Tackling In The Word Of Mouth Economy on December 30th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

[...] taster in a brewery or mattress tester in a bed factory. The fantasy is far from the reality. An online community manager should be setting goals for your company in how you market and brand yourself online, taking your [...]

Posted by Online community manager - a real job? « BRASSmedia on February 24th, 2009 at 7:23 am

[...] So, what are the common mistakes people do when hiring a community manager? [...]

Posted by How to pick a community manager? « Helena Makhotlova’s blog on March 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

[...] manager” has developed and has been explored by Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) HERE and HERE (way back in 2006), by the Community Strategist - Connie Bensen (@cbensen) HERE as well as Chris [...]

Posted by Social Media, Community Development + Content and Why You will Care | Comet Branding Blog - Progressive Milwaukee-based Branding, PR and Social Media Agency on April 1st, 2009 at 7:36 am

[...] invertir su tiempo, me quedo con la entrada del mes de noviembre de 2006 de Jeremiah Owyang: What a Community Manager does en el que se avanzaban cinco puntos [...]

Posted by Community manager on April 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 am

[...] Gerente de Comunidades [...]

Posted by Serendipidade - Blogando descobertas por acaso desde 2005 » Post » Novo conceito pede novos perfis e especialidades on April 7th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

[...] is a person who works at building, growing and managing a community around a brand or cause. Jeremiah Owyang, an online community manager at Hitachi Data Systems believes that the role of involves listening, [...]

Posted by Moderators - Community Managers - Technology Stewards | learnE on June 1st, 2009 at 5:17 am