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What is a community manager? Find out more about this role and how they bridge companies and their customers in this comprehensive guide.
So, exactly what is a community manager? They’re the person who gets the first line of feedback from a user base. With strong communication, empathy, and adaptability skills, they help bridge the gap in understanding users’ pain points to improve their online experiences.
In this insightful guide, we explain the multifaceted community manager role and why their expertise is critical in helping you create a thriving digital community for your brand.
A community manager serves as an invaluable bridge between a company and its audience. They embody a brand’s voice and tone, moderate conversations, and distribute content to nurture a vibrant digital community. But this digital marketing role extends beyond simple online engagement — they’re guardians of brand presence and trust.
Community managers work hard to offer community support and foster dialogue between brands and their audiences. They go above and beyond to enhance brand perception and customer experience. As true brand ambassadors, they build relationships to ensure their client’s values, mission, and persona resonate clearly and consistently across their brand community.
A good community manager plays a crucial role in representing and promoting their organization. Their responsibilities span various domains, from social media marketing to content creation and marketing, brand monitoring, and more.
A community manager’s job description may include the following responsibilities and skill sets:
A community manager is a customer-facing role, and these individuals are often the first point of contact for leads and customers. They interact with power users (people who wholeheartedly love your product), new users, and people who have trouble understanding how your product works.
Here are a few ways a community manager can help your business:
Community managers use the information they’ve gathered from your community and curiosity and empathy to identify why users love (or hate) a particular feature or function of your product or service. They also learn about your customer’s pain points to improve their experience. Community managers digest the good, the bad, and the ugly to fuel future iterative strategies, initiatives, and features.
No matter the product or brand, a community manager is your community’s most prominent advocate. They’ll work to keep your community engaged and excited for future product updates and empower each community member to create their own network. With positive reinforcement and encouragement, community managers build and maintain positive relationships with users who love your brand, helping guide them to the finish line.
💡 At Contra, we manage some of our highest-engaged users in Slack. This is where the magic happens: We get to deepen relationships with members of our community while learning about their pain points while they use our product.
Within every community manager is a strong understanding of your brand’s mission and voice. Community managers are living, breathing representations of your brand’s vision and are responsible for maintaining and enhancing your community. They also clearly reflect the internal culture within your team.
The decision to hire a community manager often depends on several factors, including the size of your audience, the complexity of your brand, and your overall marketing strategy. It might be time to hire for this role if your digital community is expanding to a point where the interactions are challenging for you (or your team) to manage.
Here are a few other signs it’s time:
Every community manager differs in experience, but a few skills are non-negotiable. (Similarly, you must have certain skills to interact effectively with Independents.)
Here’s a rundown of what to look for in a community manager:
Ready to build a thriving online community for your brand? Contra is a commission-free hiring platform that connects you with the right community manager for your project. Handle hiring, contracts, and bonuses easily in one place. Start by posting your first opportunity on Contra today!