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How to manage a social media community that is successful

Social media marketing is not a job for one person. Social media marketing is now a team job. This includes designers, analysts and writers. And, of course, there are community managers. What does a social media manager do? How can you manage a social media community that is successful?

Let’s first define what we mean.

What is a Social Media Community Manager?

A social media community manager works for a company as a brand ambassador.

This person engages a brand’s communities using their profile and their own name. They are active in forums, community discussion boards and social media pages to promote positive conversations and support the brand.

Example of a job description to be a manager for social media communities

Here’s how it works on the Blizzard gaming community boards.

This example shows that a social media community manager will display a Blizzard logo beside their name in forums and discussion boards to help them identify themselves. Below is an example of when a community manager is participating in a thread.

This will allow the community manager to have a deep understanding of the company, its games, tools, as well as the challenges that players face.

Community managers may interact with each other on game-specific discussion boards, as well as on other forums such Reddit or Quora.

What is the Average Salary of Social Media Community Managers?

Salary.com estimates that you could earn between $46,600 to $76,600. Like all jobs, compensation is based on your experience, skills, company size, and your capacity.

Managers of social media and community management for large brands will likely be at top of this list. Below are the salary ranges for Coca-Cola. You can see that community managers make around $74K and social media managers about $100K.

What is the difference between a Social Media Community Manager and a Social Media Manager?

Manager of social media

A social media manager, to simplify the matter, is the promotor of the brand’s products and services.

Manager of social media communities

Managers of social media communities are often disguised as people, but they interact on pages, groups and forums as the brand.

The community manager must be present on the platform where it is hosted. They will manage the community using their own accounts and not the brand’s.

These roles will have different interactions with their audience. The community manager is the brand while the social media manager represents the brand. Social media managers are often more focused on metrics. Social media managers are usually more focused on metrics, such as brand awareness, engagement, and social media ROI. They will plan content, coordinate images and videos, and get posts up on social networks. The community manager is responsible for the discussion and comments section. They will also be responsible for providing feedback to the development team about any issues or concerns. If the company is smaller, a social media manager will not do this. Social media managers and community managers will communicate closely and provide support, feedback, and suggestions to each other. You’ll see community managers more often in forums and discussion boards than on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

The below illustration shows that Waitrose, a supermarket chain, responds to comments on its Facebook page as the brand. It is most likely that they have a social media manager. Social media managers are now used to adding their name after authentic messages.

People who answer on Facebook pages aren’t usually moderators, or community managers. Brands have been the victims of sabotage by individuals using their logos to support their pages in recent years. The official blue tick is one reason you should be looking!

What skills should a socialmedia community manager have?

Sectors will have different skills.

Contentworks Agency, for example, is heavily involved in marketing financial services. This requires in-depth knowledge of the stock market, financial products and the compliance rules. If you have never worked in this sector before, it can be difficult (but not impossible) to learn.

This would also apply to community managers who work in the gaming industry. A working knowledge of games and their mechanics would be a plus, maybe from being a gamer. It is important to be familiar with the terminology and jargon used in your community, as it will be used daily by members of the community.

Apart from the industry-specific skills, there are many skills that a social media community manager should have.

Skills required to manage a social media community

Excellent writing skills, grammar and punctuation. A good understanding of social media spaces, including chats and forums. A calm and friendly demeanor to handle angry or rude fans. An understanding of consumer loyalty and trust. Familiarity with Agorapulse which allows you monitor comments and conversations. (More about this later. Excellent communication skills are essential for interfacing on social media and for communicating with colleagues and for escalated feedback. A good sense of humor is also a plus. A good balance between professionalism and humor can help to diffuse tension and create a friendly community.

What does a Community Manager do?

Reputation management assistance

A community manager can help de-escalate heated threads by offering solutions and reassurance. This will prevent the complaint from being taken to court or resulting in compensation. They may also respond to articles using tools such as Viafoura, IntenseDebate and Disqus. This allows for positive comments to be seeded under high-ranking articles.

Prevents trolling or unpleasantness

We value opinions, banter and interaction in communities and threads. People are free to hold strong opinions.

A good community manager will keep them from becoming abusive, trolling, or hostile. Community managers can remove people who are not being respectful and help maintain a positive community.

Reddit has a community rules section. Moderators can take down rule-breakers, regardless of whether they are associated with companies.

Keep threads on the topic and guide discussions

There are specific topics and subtopics for community forums. Sticking to the topic is important so that other users can understand what discussion you are participating in.

A community manager can guide online conversations or suggest alternative groups or threads to avoid off-topic chats.

Get excited about new products and releases

While a social media manager may create the first post, a community manager can participate in the discussion. They can offer additional information, behind the scenes tibits, or insider tips.

Maintains authenticity

Community managers have the advantage of being more authentic than social media managers, who can effectively be the brand. Edelman reports that 73% of Gen Zs support authentic brands.

A community manager

Can share their pain pointsCan have a name and a picture. Provides workable solutions.

Your community can create unique opportunities

To make your community feel valued, there’s nothing better than a discount, coupon, or release. Many community managers are given exclusive content or giveaways to encourage loyalty. These are a great way to encourage people to join your community.

Tip for a community manager

A good community manager won’t hover over comments like an aviator. This can lead to a sense of isolation in the community.

They will instead be alert to the conversation and join in if they have any value.

IKEA’s community managers are great at managing their forum. You can see how genuine and helpful the replies are. It is important to only step in when it is necessary and to take ownership of the problem.

Overview of Community Management Best practices

Be a good member of your community by setting rules and guidelines. It means liking, upvoting and appreciating other people. It can be difficult out there!

How can Agorapulse help a social media community manager?

Agorapulse should be used by both social media community managers and managers. Social media managers will appreciate the content calendar, reporting, and scheduling features. Managers of social media communities will love the templates responses and social media monitoring. They’ll also appreciate insights about brand ambassadors and their responses.

Let’s take a look at these community management tools.

Replies saved

Agorapulse’s automated response templates will be a hit with social media managers. You can create as many responses as you wish and you can edit them for each one. These save community managers a lot of time by answering frequently asked questions quickly.

Verage response time

You can also see the performance of your community managers and team leaders. You can see how many people have replied to your posts and what their average response times are. This information is important for companies who want to better understand forum flow, assign more representatives, or reward outstanding work.

Tip: As a community manager, keep these reports in your files and present them to the employer when you are seeking a raise. (Or a new position!)

Monitoring media

Agorapulse allows you to see all comments and respond to them if your social media group is on Facebook (pages or groups), Twitter (personal and pages), LinkedIn (personal and pages), Instagram TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter. They are all available in one location, which is even better! This means you can respond quickly to keep your community engaged and happy.

The quick response from HM customer service (not even my tweet handle) shows that they are monitoring conversations.

Ambassadors for brands

Agorapulse’s dashboard will identify brand ambassadors as people who interact positively with the brand’s pages. These users are valuable to a community manager, who can reward them, negotiate a user-generated material agreement or offer them a position as a moderator.

Final thoughts on social media community managers

76% of branded communities have dedicated community managers. This can increase performance by as much as 12%. With more social media communities being created and brands shifting away from phone support, we know that the need for community management via social media will increase.

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