We know. The functions of the Community Manager have been a recurring theme for the last ten years in the online marketing sector, and although many think that there is nothing left to say, we believe that it is essential to reconsider the perspective of the experience that we bring to our shoulders.
The vast majority of marketing strategists and consultants today have started out as online community managers., something that has allowed us to have a very important background in the tactical part to make the leap into the world of strategy. And it is that, we cannot forget that an Inbound Marketing strategy, lead capture, content marketing or digital marketing in general, is much more than actions, resources, analytics, social networks, advertising, KPIs, target audience… One of its elements Fundamental, on which its success or failure may depend, is the human team that puts it into operation, that is, the Social Media team where the Community Manager should have a special relevance.
Having said this, we hope that you have banished from your usual practice (we have all done it at some point) hiring interns or people with minimal training to be the Community Managers responsible for applying your online marketing strategy. This is one of the biggest mistakes made in years, thinking that the task of the Community Manager is easy and anyone can carry it out without any supervision. Eye! With this we do not mean that we cannot give opportunities to the new generations, far from it. We are sure that today’s young people are well prepared to assume the functions of Community Manager of a project, and they can even be a breath of fresh air for our strategy. But what is certain is that the figure of the Community Manager assumes more responsibilities than we often imagine, and for this reason, it is necessary that this position be filled by a person with experience, or else, have some support and advisory.
«A community manager is the person in charge/responsible for sustaining, increasing and, in a certain way, defending the company’s relations with its clients in the digital field, thanks to the knowledge of the needs and strategic approaches of the organization and the interests of customers» – Spanish Association of Community Managers (Aerco) | Source: Fundeu
The 12 functions of the Community Manager
There will be those who think that I am exaggerating, but in reality it is only necessary to think a little or do a simple search on Google to find a large number of Community Manager errors that have led to major reputational crises for the brands or companies they managed. And it is that, the responsibilities and functions of the Community Manager have much more importance than many give it. Furthermore, depending on the size of the project, the functions of the Community Manager vary considerably. In large projects we can have, for example, a Community Manager exclusively dedicated to a communication channel for a few hours a day, monitoring it, while other colleagues are in charge of content production, the blog and other chores. However, in small projects or startups we will find the figure of the multitasking Community Manager who not only deals with social networks but also performs the functions of webmaster, SEO, etc.
Next, we list and describe one by one the functions that a Community Manager can assume in a project:
- Monitoring: Trends, news from the sector or regarding the company/brand/competition, the social networks of the brand and the competition, what our followers and clients say, interactions with users, opinions on the Internet… are some of the important elements that all Community Managers must take into account when carrying out its monitoring function. But there is still more. A Community Manager with a certain tradition and experience will know how to add even more value to the company by finding opportunities and threats in the market, identifying prescribers in the network and acting immediately to participate in the conversation regarding a trend or stifling comments that could lead to crisis.
- Production of content for social networks: Images, videos, texts, GIFs, downloadables, stories and any other content that you can think of to boost social networks, are generally produced by the Community Manager itself. Although, on many occasions there is support from an external company that can take care of the recording and editing of videos, or the design team of the company or advertising agency with which you work, they provide support in this area.
- Dissemination and programming of content on social networks: The contents produced will have to be disseminated in the different social networks in real time, or by programming them, being very important to choose the right moment for it. In this sense, you will also have to take into account the tone of communication and jargon to use depending on the brand, which is why it is not recommended that the same Community Manager manage various social media accounts.
- Management of email marketing campaigns: Email marketing has become an essential part of online marketing due to its great efficiency, which is why in small companies it is often the Community Manager himself who is in charge of managing it. Creating landing pages, attracting subscribers and sending campaigns are some of the actions that you can take.
- Website update: The Community Manager, on many occasions, acts as a webmaster and even a web designer. Currently, many websites are based on CMSs that are easy to use, such as WordPress itself, which is why the function falls on this figure.
- Content creation for blog: The blog is generally considered as another online communication channel, and although many companies are looking for specialized editors, external bloggers and highly relevant collaborators in the sector, it is usually the responsibility of the Community Manager to organize the content plan, write and disseminate blog posts. brand blog.
- SEO: Search engine positioning is a very important element in digital strategies that is not always given the attention it requires and many times it ends up being the work of the Community Manager out of pure curiosity to get their blog posts or web content to get more relevance. In this sense, we always recommend having an SEO consultant or expert who can advise, even occasionally, the Community Manager for whom these functions could be too great.
- SEM: Another of those functions that in small projects can end up in the hands of the Community Manager. It basically consists of advertising in search engines based on some keywords, a budget and a bid. Google itself offers free courses to obtain the AdWords certificate through its exams.
- Lead capture: Creating sales funnels on the Internet is another of the tasks that tends to fall on this figure when he becomes the manager of the entire presence that a company or brand has on the Internet. Increasingly, demonstrating that the work of the Community Manager has some results depends precisely on getting clients, and that is why they have to apply their own actions to attract leads.
- Online advertising: In the social networks themselves we can carry out advertising to make our content get much more visibility. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other networks offer us an intuitive and simple system to configure our advertising campaigns, a responsibility that, as it has a lot to do with the content plan, often becomes one of the functions of the Community Manager.
- Analytics: Knowing that the strategy in social networks in particular, and in the network in general, is following its course and reaching the objectives set depends on a good analytical approach. Establishing some KPIs and choosing the appropriate tools to monitor are functions that may depend on a more strategic figure, but at this point the task of preparing the reports and doing the daily monitoring of evolution falls to the Community Manager.
- Identification of prescribers: With his presence in social networks, talking with users and looking for news and initiatives related to the sector, company and products, the Community Manager is positioned as the best figure to identify bloggers, influencers and other personalities present in the network who are related to the brand.
More than 100 Community Management tools
To complete this post on the functions of the Community Manager we have made a complete Glossary of tools that every Community Manager should know more than 100 tools to optimize your work in social networks that you can download completely free of charge on our Academy of Consultants website.
In this document you will find:
- Programming tools in Social Networks
- Analytics and metrics tools
- Project management and productivity tools
- Email Marketing Tools
- CMS Tools – Content Manager
- Image/video creation and editing tools
- automation tools
- SEO Tools
- other tools