Community Manager

The Community Manager is essentially responsible for creating and managing the community of web users. They control and evaluate the conversations on the platforms in which they operate (websites, social networks, blogs); they search for stakeholders, which can be the Influencers; and they help to strengthen the relationships between the members of the virtual community. They put into practice a strategic plan for community management; they analyse trending topics, their weak and strong points; and they monitor the results.

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Whatsapp, etc.) are social tools that people use, through an internet connection, to share texts, images, audio and video with other users.
In the social platforms in which they decide to operate, the community manager:

  • Publishes content, reports events, dialogues with users, monitors online conversations, and intervenes in the event of a “crisis” that could threaten the reputation of the brand or the client for whom they work.
  • Promotes new topics of conversation to attract the interest of stakeholders (Influencers).
  • Takes care of the brand, using appropriate language and the most suitable target audience to address the messages to.
  • Uses tools for creating content and monitoring it: Canva, Photoshop, video editing, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck.
  • Creates periodic reports that allow to correct future errors and increase the community qualitatively and quantitatively.

A community manager must know:

  • The language they will use on social networks, what they are and how they work;
  • Analysing data and organize online events;
  • Communicating effectively and mediate conflicts;
  • Using tools for editing videos and photos;
  • Editing texts on the web.

If the community manager works in an online marketing agency or in a company, they interact with the social media strategist, who creates the strategy for the different social networks that the community manager will have to put into practice; and also with the web content specialist, the reputation manager, the web analyst to delve into technical aspects and with the copywriter to create messages that stimulate the interest of users

How do you become a community manager?

Studying marketing, digital communication, through online or face-to-face courses, reading books, getting to know social networks and how they work.
To learn the job of community manager, you can start with a blog for example. In wordpress.com, or in blogger.com you can create it for free, without having specific knowledge and without the help of an expert.
Then you start writing, putting copywriting techniques into practice, paying attention to the titles, the keywords of the topic to be treated. And gradually you can plan the strategy to adopt to make yourself known on the social networks most suited to the content of your blog.

How does a community manager earn their own salary?

If the community manager is employed in an online marketing agency or they are hired by a company, the community manager will have a fixed and/or variable salary, (if established in the contract), based on the results.
If the community manager is a freelancer, they will have a standard rate, which can increase depending on their experience or the amount of work to do.
If you want to start working as a community manager, consider the idea to let you know through social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, Xing; to share your knowledge on the various platforms, to be proactive and to get noticed for your preparation and availability.

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