Community Manager: When Are You A Real One?

Short answer:

When it’s hard to think about anything else.

Long answer:

This past spring, I left a job where I had dedicated great energy to building an online community. Upon leaving, I was excited about the future and prospect of new clients. But why couldn’t I stop thinking about the organization’s social media accounts?

To my surprise, it was hard to unplug from the role of community manager. Until I left the job, I didn’t realize how often I checked in to my online communities at all hours of the day. I had no idea how frequently I had ideas that caused me to run to my computer while thinking, “I have to tweet that!” or “Oh! This is a perfect Facebook post!” I missed all those little profile pics next to the names of customers I had gotten to know.

I am a communications consultant now. I advise clients on community management, teach them how to do it, and provide community manager services. I am very happy to have community management in my skill set, but I miss the delicious feelings of knowing the ins and outs of an online community and helping it grow.

I cared about all the people who followed the organization where I worked, and yes, it was hard to think of anything else. The way I see it, the heart of customer service comes down to caring about your audience while knowing what they want and need. And that, my digital friend, goes hand in hand with effective community management.

Photo credit Kevyn Jacobs

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About the author: Heidi Zwart Healy

Heidi Zwart Healy is a communication professional with expertise in marketing, public relations, crisis communication, social media, internal communication and a raft of on-the-job writing. She thinks community management is the bee's knees.

4 comments

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TaraBurghart

So true! I attended the Social RevUp conference for bloggers in Chicago over the weekend, and much of the discussion centered around social media -- when you use it, how you use it, and the importance of sometimes forcing yourself to take a break from it! Of course that's easier said than done ... there's something about thinking in terms of Facebook updates and Twitter posts that is quite addictive. Since the audience was bloggers, there was a lot of talk about creating your own "personal brand." But I wonder if that's not good advice for everyone in the general field of communications .. so that even if you leave your community manager role behind for a certain business or organization, you still have your own role as community manager for yourself to attend to! The broadcaster @NancyLoo was on one panel; she's now with WGN-TV, but she talked about how when her contract was not renewed with WFLD-TV, she was still able to take her "social media army' with her, and that audience is valued by her new employer.

AdamBritten

Couldn't agree more - I was an intern at a large retailer last summer, and since their social media department was only one person, I was effectively their Community Manager for a few months. After I sent my last tweet, I still found myself wanting to interact with the customers that I had gotten to know over the past few months. I checked the company's Facebook page way more than I am willing to admit, and even searched for @mentions so that I could monitor what people were saying, even though I was no longer responding. It took a while before I calmed down and was able to let that community go.

tamcdonald moderator

@AdamBritten @mentions I still see the mentions, emails and FB updates for SMC Chicago. I don't act on them, but it's still difficult not too. After running the community for 3 years, you feel like it's part of you. Every day it gets a little easier to let go. Soon, I'll be able to remove the notifications.

Latest blog post: Community Manager Job Roundup: July 23

Heidi Zwart Healy

@AdamBritten @mentions I completely understand, Adam! I am so glad I am not the only one who had the same experience. In my case, I had to remind the the primary site administrator to remove me as an admin so I could move on mentally.

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About the author: Heidi Zwart Healy

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