Community Managers are not just Social Media Marketing Managers

Engagements on various mediums is the call of the hour. Engagement is when, like a surreal song, the audience starts to sing along, they start sharing it, they start referring to and defending it, it’s when your voice becomes theirs. Promoting tonnes of content on various platforms doesn't gives you a following, it happens when there are connections, when there is communication (the two way types), it happens when there is a community.

Having said that, a Community Manager (Champion) or CM, is like the member of a huge joint family under one house (the brand), who knows exactly what to say, whom to say and how to say it. He\she knows exactly which string to pull to result in a particular buzz or, grievance, for that matter. It’s a game of People (Human) management. When human evolve, stakes are on all the senses- from emotions to tones, from words to appearance .

A Community Manager can do wonders to build a brand, driving content and engagements, he/she is the nervous system of a product/service on both online and mediums.

Here are some facts about Community Managers :-

Myths

Community Managers are Social Media Managers

A very common confusion around the exact profile of CMs is that they are assumed to be only social media managers. It’s not 100% correct. Social Media platform is one of the most prominent tools used by CMs for engagement as it is definitely a power to be exploited.

Community Manager is a minion's post

This very astonishing and false estimation of this role. They are not minions, in fact, they are the decision makers, who can decide on various aspects of engagement types and flows and can also turn the entire marketing campaign around.

Community Managers are Geeks

No. CMs are not geeks, they are the smartest, most extrovert, and most jovial people ever. They do have life beyond their work.

Community Managers are masked entities

Not necessarily. On the flip side, they are the brand ambassadors who drive the force to identity management.

Community Managers are less analytical

Contrary to the belief, CMs are very analytical in terms of mapping the effectiveness and return of any campaign, as that's how they strategies their next step.

Community Managers are less paid

With the amount of awareness and engagements CMs can drive for a brand, it is one of the best paying jobs in the market today.

Some Fun qualities of Community Manager, one should look for:

• Best Listeners and Interpreters.
• Great communication! An extrovert.
• Highly Empathetic values.
• People person.
• Most Naughty and funny characters.
• Highly charged up batteries.
• Social media and relationship enthusiasts.
• Good at Strategy Games.

 Why become a Community Manager:

• Its pays to be a social person.
• Want to get paid well?
• Location independence.
• Chance to go to lot of events.
• Social media and PR is your passion.
• You like working on campaigns.
• You want to build a brand.
• You don't crib.

Why Indian brands need to emphasis on Community Managers:

• It’s a blue ocean.
• We are a social community.
• We love to talk and get addressed.
• We like to take as many suggestions and references on any purchase or association we make.
• We are smart enough to understand a small seasonal campaign from a long term engagement campaign.
• We are busy and we don't like to undertake a lot of research.
• We are always on the lookout for a single point of contact.
• We are going to be a huge Internet savvy people very soon.
• We are very interested in what's trending.
• We do get lost in emotions.

So, if brands want to play on these realities of our community (let’s face it- branding is not all clean and clear, we do play with emotions), a community management can definitely be of great help.