The Community Roundtable

Empowering global community leaders with research-backed resources, training, and tools.

  • Who we are
    • Our Values
    • Our Team
    • Our Clients
      • Client Success Stories
      • Member Advisory Board
    • Community Leadership Awards
      • Community Leadership Awards 2021
      • TheCR Awards 2020
      • TheCR Awards 2019
      • TheCR Awards 2018
      • TheCR Awards 2017
    • Careers
  • What we do
    • Benchmarking and Audits
      • Community Performance Benchmark
      • Community Readiness Audits
      • Community ROI Calculator
      • The Community Score
    • Models and Frameworks
      • Community Maturity Model™
      • Community Engagement Framework™
      • Community Skills Framework™
      • The Social Executive
    • Research
      • The State of Community Management
        • SOCM 2022
        • SOCM 2021
        • SOCM 2020
      • Community Careers and Compensation
      • The Community Manager Handbook
        • 2022 Edition
        • 2015 Edition
      • The Social Executive
      • Special Reports
    • Training and Events
      • Upcoming Events
      • TheCR Connect
        • TheCR Connect 2022
        • TheCR Connect 2021
      • Customer Community Summit
        • Tech Thursdays 2021
        • Community Solutions Showcase
      • Training
      • Resource Bundles
    • Resources
      • Vendor Resource Center
      • Community FAQs
      • Community Management Podcasts
        • Community Conversations
        • Engagement That Scales Podcast
      • Community Management Jobs
        • Job Board
        • CMGR Profiles
      • Community 101
        • Community Management Glossary
        • Community Management FAQs
      • Case Studies
      • Community Webinars
  • Who we serve
    • Resources for Community Managers
    • Community Program Owners
    • Community Executives
  • TheCR Network
    • Member Login
    • Join TheCR Network
    • Roundtable Call Library
  • TheCR Library
    • Subscriber Login
    • Subscribe to TheCR Library

The three career paths of the community professional

November 24, 2015 By Shannon Abram

By Ted McEnroe, Head of Research, The Community Roundtable

One of the target goals that we had for the Community Careers and Compensation survey in 2015 was to be able to shed more light on the skills of community. That’s why we undertook a significant review and revision of the Community Skills Framework, growing it from 37 to 50 skills overall. We also changed the lens for how we looked at those skills. In 2014, we wanted to know if you had a skill and/or responsibility for that skill in your role. This year, we asked how much value each skill had to you.

The difference is subtle but significant. You may have a skill. You may even be responsible for using it. But you may think it’s not really valuable for your community role. For example, a Director of Community may know how to moderate. They may even have titular responsibility for moderation in the community (because they oversee moderators). But the ability to moderate is not something they might use on a daily basis.

Looking at the skills framework in this way, we saw something interesting happen. We started to see a connection between some of the skills people valued most and their compensation.

Take business skills. Those who said business skills had the greatest value for them in their role earned an average of over $97,000 per year, compared with our overall average of just under $85,000. Those who scored strategic skills highly benefitted, too. They earned an average of about $91,000 – a slight but noticeable bump over the overall average. Both of those results fall into the “noteworthy but not surprising” category: those who most highly valued business skills were more likely to be Directors of Community, and those who valued strategy were more likely to be community strategists (and make higher salaries in those roles.)

But a third set of skills also generated value. Those who valued technical skills in their jobs earned a premium over the average as well, but they weren’t any more likely to be higher up the org chart. Our tech specialists parlayed their skills to an average salary of over $92,000.*

CCC_FunFact3_2015.png

What does it all mean? It highlights three types of career paths for community professionals.

  • An upward path – where a community manager sharpens their business skills and moves into a Director of Community role overseeing a community program, for example.
  • An outward path – where a community manager focuses on a specialty and builds that out across a number of communities as a community strategist, for example.
  • A skill-based path – where a community manager parlays an interest in a specific (often technical) skill into a more important role, whether or not they move up the organizational chart.

One reason this technical path exists is the nature of technical skills. Unlike content skills, which are more-or-less universally beneficial to community team members, you don’t need everyone on your team to be understand data manipulation, API creation or UX design. But having one team member with those skills is a huge benefit, and not always easy to find or keep.

Needed + in demand = more highly paid.

That’s great news for community professionals. We don’t just see a single way up the career ladder, we see three possible options that allow people with different strengths to grow and succeed.

And that can pay great dividends for communities in the long run, giving them opportunities to retain a wider range of talent.

*-These numbers have been updated with new data we have received since the data deadline for the CCC report. The original numbers were $96,000 for business skills, $90,000 for strategic and $89,000 for technical skills. 

Want to learn more about the skills that matter for community professionals and the career opportunities that await. The full Community Careers and Compensation report is only available to survey participants and members of TheCR Network, our network of community professionals. Take the survey at http://the.cr/ccc2015survey, or learn more about the exclusive programming and benefits of TheCR Network!

About Shannon Abram

I love dogs, drinks, and the oxford comma. Writing from the great commonwealth of Massachusetts, I almost definitely need a nap.

comments powered by Disqus
Community best practices

Resources for the people who build online communities.

ABOUT US
Our Values
Our Team
Our Clients
Careers

RESOURCES
Vendor Resource Center
Podcasts 
Job Board
Community 101
Case Studies
Webinars
Upcoming Events

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Benchmarking and Audits
Models and Frameworks
Research
Training and Events

RESOURCES BY AUDIENCE
Community Managers
Community Program Owners
Community Executives

QUICK LINKS
Blog
Newsletter
About TheCR Network
About TheCR Library
About TheCR Academy

LOGIN
TheCR Network
TheCR Library
TheCR Academy

Contact
Support
Partnership
Inquiries
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter