Community Manager Resources
I just got off the phone with a friend that didn’t hear about my recent job change, he had questions wanting to build a community around his company. Funny thing is, he didn’t realize I’m now a consultant at Podtech and this is my full-time job.
Drawing from my experience at Hitachi Data Systems, I told him how I created the role of Manager of Online Community Marketing (I even got to write the job description). Different companies call it different things but the common title is Community Manager.
The role of a Community Manager is to engage the community around a company and it’s products, to be a company champion, and most importantly, a customer advocate. Sometimes this means putting the customer before your selfish corporate needs, and reccomending other solutions than yours. You put customers before your company.
Being a Community Manager is a pretty interesting role. At first, I thought this was just going to be an ‘online’ role but I quickly learned that online life spills over to real life.
Here’s a few posts I wrote about my experience (and observing the experiences of others) in the realm of community.
Community Manager Role:
- What a Community Manager Does
- Can Community Managers Really sit back and shut up?
- Product Managers, Product Marketing, MarCom and Community Marketing, what’s the difference?
- Social Media changes Product Manager and Product Marketing roles
Community Focused Events:
Blogger Relations:
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I couldn’t agree more with you, Jeremiah.
Just a couple of additional thoughts… I believe every community manager should be…(you guessed it right:) a true evangelist. Here are some of the characteristics (apart from the LARGE ears & small mouth!), that I think are important for a community evangelist:
1. 2-way brutal honesty with the users and with the company
2. Passion to improve the product and make the users’ life easier
3. I agree with you that “Shut up and listen” is an important trait but I do believe that “Speak up WHEN necessary” is equally important
4. Apart from listening, I think the evangelist also should be an agent of change, and that’s a great way to show that you’re listening to your customers.
One thing’s for sure, community evangelism is NOT just a JOB, but a way of life! It’s something that marketing should be doing all the time.
You have definitely set a great example with your “practice what you preach” approach. Kudos, buddy!
Wow awesome Mario, thanks!
[…] Anyways, in the spirit of being a good Community Ambassador, what is your thoughts and feedback on the Podtech site or it’s shows? What suggestions do you have for us to be a better company? Please back up any of your observations with some potential solutions. […]
[…] Just last week, we discussed how Community Manager roles are emerging at many companies. I put together this list of resources around the emerging Community Manager role. Last month respected thought leader Josh Hallett also observed a gap in companies cultivating community and social media skills, you can read one real life example in the comments written by Mark. […]
[…] 4) Provide multiple points of contact. As a Community Advocate/Manager (here’s some resources on becoming a Community Manager), your job is to listen to the market and line up the conversations with the right people in your company. You’re more of a traffic cop rather than a person can answer all the questions. Besides, it’s likely that you’re not an expert at every technical aspect of your product, find those that know and teach them to interact with bloggers in your industry using the same tools, or some of these responses that Nathan recommends. […]