7 Skills Every Community Manager Should Have
You might be asking yourself, “What exactly is a Community Manager?” Or maybe you’re currently a Community Manager and just trying to improve your skills. Either way, I’m going to tell you the seven most important skills that every Community Manager should have.
What is a Community Manager?
First off, if you’re wondering what a Community Manager is: The role of a Community Manager is to do just that, manage a community. People in these positions act as the voice of the brand, both online and offline (McGinley). Community Managers interact with members and spark conversation, ask for and receive feedback, and engage in active and passive listening.
So… What are the skills that you need to be a great Community Manager?
Communication
A Community Manager must be able to communicate with the members of their community, as well as media outlets at times. Community Managers act as the voice of the brand or community, and must be able to have communication skills in order to get that voice across accurately and effectively, and relay information appropriately.
The people in these positions may also be tasked with recruiting new members into their community, and must have the communication and interpersonal skills in order to achieve this task.
Using the correct language, maintaining a consistent brand voice, and articulating a confident, professional and positive attitude will go a long way.
Listening
Teja Bitra, the founder of Freelancing Mindset, said it best:
‘Listening is not just hearing’. It is more about understanding what your members are saying and asking them the right questions at the right time to make them comfortable so that they can tell you more about them.
Being able to listen to what the members of your Group are trying to communicate to you is key. As Bitra says, listening is more than just hearing, it is understanding what they are saying. Being able to listen and understand your community will allow you to learn what your members want and need, and allow you to properly respond to feedback (Pundir, 2020).
Just by listening to your community members, you will be able to create a relationship with them. By really listening to your community and reacting appropriately, your community will begin to trust you and feel more safe and comfortable contributing to community discussions.
Organization
One of the responsibilities of a Community Manager is to plan and curate content. People in these positions have strict deadlines to meet, so it is important to be organized and stay ahead of schedule.
Community Managers should also create and follow a content calendar, so that they can keep track of what platforms they need to post on, what content they need to post, and when to post this content. As you can see, this position requires lots of patience, organization, and structure.
Creativity
Being a Community Manager comes with the responsibility of curating content for social platforms in which you are in charge of. With that responsibility, creating graphics and shareable content is crucial for growing and expanding your community, and keeping your community engaged.
Communicating with your community members may force you to get creative at times in order to increase the amount of engagement on your posts. Communicating outside of the internet may force you to find creative and different ways to present information, or even to invite new members to join your community.
Engagement
In my opinion, the success of a community comes from the level of engagement that is had throughout. If you have fifty members interacting on one post, that encourages conversation, builds relationships, and provides entertainment. Sometimes a Community Manager has to drive those conversations by creating a post that members will be able to interact on.
Finding what works best for everyone in the community stems from asking questions, accepting feedback, and making adjustments where needed.
A tip that I can provide is to stay up-to-date with conversations, trends, and breaking news in order to encourage conversation and engagement within your community. Hot topics will be fresh on everyone’s minds, and I’m positive that people will want to talk about it in their communities.
Knowledge
Point blank, you need to know what you’re talking about. It’s important to be cognizant and knowledgable about what your community is all about. It would be helpful to have a background in the topic at hand, and if not, do your research. If a community members asks a question, you should be able to answer it. Have facts and data to back up your claims.
If you want to increase engagement within your community, sometimes the Community Manager has to spark the conversation, and having the knowledge and experience about the community will help form that content.
Empathy
Understanding how the members of your community feel will take you far. If you care about how the members of your community react to something or feel about something, you will be able to communicate with them in a way that they feel comfortable expressing their feelings openly.
If you were to put yourself in the other person’s shoes, you will be able to assist them better because you know the type of assistance that you would want if the roles were reversed. Your community wants to feel like they are talking to a human, not a computer, not a business, but a person who actually cares about them.
Show your community that you care. Tell your community that you are there for them. Respond to comments with love and compassion.
References:
Bridge, R. (2021, May 6). The 9 skills every community manager needs to succeed. CMX. Retrieved September 30, 2021, from https://cmxhub.com/the-9-skills-every-community-manager-needs/.
Hart, D. (2021, June 18). The Complete Community Manager Guide: Tips, Tricks, and Tools. ThePowerMBA. Retrieved September 30, 2021, from https://www.thepowermba.com/en/social-media/community-manager.
Pundir, P. (2020, February 21). 9 skills every community manager should have. Medium. Retrieved September 30, 2021, from https://medium.com/community-folks/9-skills-every-community-manager-should-have-82c9d93e33e3.
Reslinger, M. (2015, May 13). 6 skills every community manager should have. Potion. Retrieved September 30, 2021, from https://potion.social/en/blog/community-managers-skills.
Top 10 skills every efficient community manager should have. QuestionPro. (2020, February 19). Retrieved September 30, 2021, from https://www.questionpro.com/blog/top-10-community-manager-skills/.
