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Community management salaries are on the rise

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Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day, everyone! We enjoy CMAD as a chance to recognize the hard work thousands of community professionals do every day. But thank yous don’t pay the bills. That’s why this year for CMAD, we wanted to see how salaries for community professionals were trending.

So we seized on a unique opportunity.

In November, we reached out to a group of community pros for whom we already had a lot of data – the 403 respondents to our Community Careers and Compensation 2015 survey. We asked them for five minutes of their time, to update us on their salary and career path. It was a challenge – people who have moved around change email addresses, others decline to be contacted, and others don’t take part. When all was said and done, though, we had gotten year-over-year updates from more than 110 community professionals. The great news is captured in our new infographic.

Salaries for experienced community managers are rising. Sharply.

Quality community professionals are in high demand, and that means higher salaries. Salaries and bonuses for our survey group jumped an average of almost 10 percent between 2015 and 2016. Some folks boosted their income by changing jobs or roles. Others got raises by proving their value. The bottom line was this – the average community manager compensation in our sample approached $80,000. Community strategists and community directors are regularly earning over $100,000. Those numbers won’t hold true for everyone in every industry, but the broad trend of rising salaries was clear and pretty consistent across use cases and community types.

The average community manager compensation in our sample approached $80,000. Community strategists and community directors are regularly earning over $100,000.

Community pros are a mobile bunch.

One way to boost your salary is to change jobs, and community professionals live that fact. One in four survey respondents changed organizations from 2015 to 2016. Some were merged or acquired into new roles, but most made the leap on their own.

And they’re moving UP.

Community managers, in particular, aren’t just moving around – they’re moving up into management. About 20% of our respondents who defined themselves as community managers in 2015 had risen to a strategist or director role in 2016. And across the board, our sample was reporting to higher levels of their organizations. Forty-five percent of the overall sample said they reported to a Vice President, Senior VP or C-level manager, up from 36 percent in 2015.

Other high-level trends:

There are a few other trends that were in evidence, but not strong enough to be statistically sound. They’re all on my list for the next full Community Careers and Compensation survey!

  • Geography: Our coastal respondents, particularly those on the West Coast, saw the highest salary spikes, which could suggest high demand. We saw positive salary trends in every region, though.
  • Experience/Community Size: There was no evident correlation between salary change and years of experience or community size.
  • Industry: High tech and software community pros got the biggest bump in our sample, but neither the difference or the sample size was enough for us to send people running into the tech sector for a big raise.

Enjoy and share the infographic – and happy Community Manager Appreciation Day! You deserve it.

Community Careers and Compensation update january 2017

Download the infographic. 

Looking for more resources to help you in your community career?

  • How Do I Find a Community Manager Job? – Community management is a profession of relationships – use your network to discover your next role. Most community jobs are not currently found through traditional job listings.
  • 50 Skills of Community Management – The Community Skills Framework represents the five skill families and top 50 skills that are required to build a successful community program.
  • How To Win That Community Manager Job – As organizations begin to increasingly recognize and reward the value of good community management the market for jobs has begun to heat up. While at any given moment there are literally dozens of interesting community jobs open around the country (and truly, the world) the competition for these roles is getting stiffer. How can you set yourself apart?

Throwback Thursday – Getting a Community Management Job

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By Shannon Abram, The Community RoundtableCommunity Skills Framework TheCR

Job hunting can always be stressful. Add to that the stress of finding a job in an emerging field like community management and your stress can double. No fear! We’ve compiled best practices for finding and getting a community job. We’re also highlighting the Community Skills Framework. The Community Skills Framework showcases the 50 skills essential to community management. You can use the Framework to access your strengths and identify places for growth!

This week’s #throwbackthursday focuses on the best practices for getting a community management job.

  • How Do I Find a Community Manager Job? – Community management is a profession of relationships – use your network to discover your next role. Most community jobs are not currently found through traditional job listings.
  • 50 Skills of Community Management – The Community Skills Framework represents the five skill families and top 50 skills that are required to build a successful community program.
  • How To Win That Community Manager Job – As organizations begin to increasingly recognize and reward the value of good community management the market for jobs has begun to heat up. While at any given moment there are literally dozens of interesting community jobs open around the country (and truly, the world) the competition for these roles is getting stiffer. How can you set yourself apart?

  • For TheCR Network Eyes Only: Community Careers and Development Group – Are you a member of TheCR Network? Check out this group inside TheCR Network where members share job postings, hiring advice and best practices for landing the community jobs of your dreams!

Want even more #throwbackthursday action? Check out all our throwback posts!

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Kirsten Laaspere on Prioritizing Her Community Career Journey

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podcastWelcome to the latest episode in our community management podcast series, “Conversations with Community Managers” featuring Kirsten Laaspere, Community Manager at Akamai.

Join TheCR’s founder and principal, Jim Storer and director of marketing, Shannon Abram as they chat with community managers from a variety of industries about a variety of community topics, including:

  1. What’s your best advice for someone just starting out in Community Management?
  2. What are your best practices for increasing community engagement?
  3. How can you survive the zombie apocalypse? (Ok – they might not ALL be community questions…)

Episode #40 features Kirsten Laaspere, Community Manager at Akamai. Join us as we chat about how to prioritize her community career journey, her advice for people who want to break into community management, best practices for launching a social collaboration tool, and more!

Check out episode #40 featuring Kirsten Laaspere here: 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

available on itunes—-

Did you know you can subscribe to “Conversations with Community Managers” iTunes? You can!

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About Conversations with Community Managers*
To better reflect the diverse conversations our podcast covers we’ve changed the name of our long-running series to Community Conversations.
Community Conversations highlights short conversations with some of the smartest minds in the online community and social business space, exploring what they’re working on, why they do what they do, and what advice they have for you.
These episodes are a great way to begin to understand the nuances of community strategy and management.
Each episode is short (usually less than 30 minutes) and focuses on one community management professional.

Why Community Management Is Ideal for 20-Somethings

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By Georgina Cannie, Community Manager at The Community Roundtable

With the influx of recent grads flooding the job market, I’m surprised more of them haven’t caught the community bug. Community management is an ideal space for millennials to dive into the work world and, 20-somethingsspoiler: it’s not just the free PBR and office foosball tables that make it such a good option.

Start Up City
While online communities are not new, they are only just stepping into the organizational spotlight. As such, new-school start ups have been quick to adopt them as methods to business success. This means that many community initiatives are manned by newly-formed and open-minded teams with horizontal structures- where a millennial can fit right in.

Tech Generation
Who grew up taking “computer class” in elementary school? If your hand is in the air, you’re a millennial. Technology is second nature to this group, who are well practiced in using it as a primary form of inter-personal connection. Not only are they already familiar with many of the apps in the community manager’s toolbox, they are fluent in the subtle language of online communication – a serious leg-up in the community market.

Millennial Values
Community is, by nature, transparent, collaborative and decentralized – each of which millennials push for and value according to Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant in their research on“When Millennials Take Over”. The way community functions aligns quite nicely with how 20-somethings wish all organizations were run in general.

People vs. Products
Millennials grew up assaulted by marketing campaigns on every screen they laid their eyes on. They are acutely disenchanted with product-centric organizations and have a knack for seeing through sales ploys. Community provides them a safe haven from consumerism by offering human connections and consumer-to-consumer interaction.

20-somethings2-Hour Commute? No Thanks.
Most 20-somethings I talk to are utterly flabbergasted to realize the reality of a 2-hour commute through traffic (talk about an opportunity cost). But community has a fix for that too – The Community Careers and Compensation research conducted by TheCR found that nearly 45% of all community professionals work remotely.

Make a Career and Your Rent
Speaking of the The Community Careers and Compensation, the 2015 research found that the average salary for a Community Manager is close to $70k. A community professional can climb all the way to a Director of Community job title – a gig that boasts and average salary of $113k. Take that, student loans.

Make a Difference
If you have spent any time on a college campus or reading HuffPost, you will know that the new world of work is all about an organization’s vision – Even your local burger joint is on a mission to improve the planet these days. But community is no cheesy gimmick – millennials working in community have the opportunity to connect people in a meaningful way and help accelerate collaboration in every industry.

Are you a 20-something exploring a career in community management? I’d love to hear your perspective!

Four key takeaways from The Community Careers and Compensation 2015 report

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CCC2015_Cover_ShadowTiltWhat are the most valuable skills for a community manager? What is the career path? And how much can one make? Those are among the key questions being answered in the Community Careers and Compensation 2015 report, which we released today at The Community Roundtable.

It’s the second year we have done the survey –called the Community Manager Salary Survey in 2014 – and more than just the name changed for this year. We expanded the skills in the Community Skills Framework, introduced questions about where community and community professionals sit in the organization, and looked more closely at the training needs of community professionals.

So what did we find?

Key finding #1: Strategy is everyone’s job.

Community strategy development was the most valued skill of the 50 we asked about in the CCC survey, for each of the three job roles we examined in detail – community manager, community strategist and Director of Community. It was also the highest-value skill among the full survey population.

What it means: Your team sees the value in being a part of the strategic plan. You should, too. Treating strategy as a thing handed down to your managers makes them less effective – and cripples your community management.

Key finding #2: Business, strategic and technical skills are rewarded.

We split up business and strategic skills in this year’s survey, and added – and it shed some new light. Community professionals who placed high value on business, strategic and technical skills made more money than their peers. Strong business and strategic skills were more likely to be found among community strategists and directors – but technical skills were scattered across roles, suggesting a technical specialty is a way to increase earning without taking on managerial responsibilities.

What it means: Three possible growth routes for community managers – up the ladder to Director, out to a wider audience as a Strategist, or deeper into a skillset in any number of specialized roles like community architect, community data specialist or UX expert.

Key finding #3: Community pros are “movers and shakers.”

Community professionals are taking advantage of new opportunities to improve their salary and role. While 60% had four or more years of community experience, nearly ¾ had worked in their current role for three years or less. And more than half of those we surveyed with over five years community experience were able to make more than $100,000 per year.

What it means: Successful community professionals get rewarded for their efforts – and networks play an important role in building bridges to new opportunities.

Key finding #4: Communities are everywhere. Communities can be found throughout organizations to serve a wide variety of goals. One sign of their growing credibility – more than 80% of Directors of Community report to vice presidents or C-suite executives. But communities’ flexibility can be a challenge – because they fit everywhere, they can be marginalized or misunderstood because they don’t fit neatly into a department or org chart.

What it means: Communication is critical – those outside the community ecosystem may have limited or incorrect information about what you do, and there’s no textbook definition of where communities fit.

Salaries are strong – and positive signs for teams.

Salaries for community professionals are again strong – ranging from an average of about $55,000 for community specialists to $70,000 for community managers, $100,000 for community strategists and $113,000 for Directors of Community. Years of experience and the number of direct reports correlated with higher salaries, and external communities tended to pay less.

And there was another striking thing about this year’s sample. Few of them worked alone. Only about 1-in-7 said they were truly “lone wolf” community managers – working as the only person in their organization on community. Community team size averages ranged from four full-timers for internal communities to five for external and seven for communities with both internal and external facets – and overall, 56 percent of those surveyed said there were two or more full-time people in their community team.

These numbers just scratch the surface of the report, which is being released in two forms – as a 20-page summary for the general public, and a full report that looks in depth at the roles and skills of community for TheCR Network members and those who contributed their data to the survey.

To get the summary report – click here!

To get the full report, you can complete the 10-minute survey now at https://the.cr/ccc2015survey. (If you took the survey this year check your inbox for the download link!)

We’ll also be digging into the data in blog posts over the coming weeks. Watch this space for that – and download the report for further exploration.

 

Community Management Career Profiles from The Community Manager Salary Survey

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.


Two weeks ago we released our latest infographic “Community Management Career Profiles” sponsored by Jive Software. This is the first research released from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014. Subtitled “The Career Path Of The Community Professional – Insights From The Community Roundtable’s Community Manager Salary Survey 2014” the infographic provides some great stats for community professionals, hiring managers and the community industry as a whole.

Without further ado, here are the initial findings from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014.  You can view the full infographic here.

THE ROLE, COMPENSATION AND CAREER PATH OF THE COMMUNITY PROFESSIONAL.

For the purposes of the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 infographic we focused on three of the most common community titles:

  • Community Manager
  • Community Strategist
  • Director of Community

View the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 infographic here.

AVERAGE SALARY

Key finding: Research from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 showed that community professionals who work with internal employee facing communities earn more than their externally facing peers.

  • Community Manager
    • Internal Community Manager Average Salary:$69,887
    • External Community Manager Average Salary: $74,939
  • Community Strategist
    • Internal Community Strategist Average Salary: $85,075
    • External Community Strategist Average Salary: $90,400
  • Director of Community
    • Internal Director of Community Average Salary: $106,356
    • External Director of Community Average Salary: $113,263

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Key Finding: In the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 we found that directors of community who work with external market facing communities have the most community management experience and the average level of work experience was over 10 years, countering the assumption that community managers are typically younger employees.

Percent of total work experience in community management:

  • Community Manager –
    • Internal Community Manager: 39%
    • External Community Manager: 30%
  • Community Strategist
    • Internal Community Strategist: 48%
    • External Community Strategist: 29%
  • Director of Community
    • Internal Director of Community: 45%
    • External Director of Community: 44%

Average years of community management experience:

  • Community Manager –
    • Internal Community Manager: 4.2 years
    • External Community Manager: 4.7 years
  • Community Strategist
    • Internal Community Strategist: 6.9 years
    • External Community Strategist:5 years
  • Director of Community
    • Internal Director of Community: 7.4 years
    • External Director of Community: 7.1 years

Average years of work experience:

  • Community Manager –
    • Internal Community Manager: 10.8 years
    • External Community Manager: 10.6 years
  • Community Strategist
    • Internal Community Strategist: 14.3 years
    • External Community Strategist: 14.3 years
  • Director of Community
    • Internal Director of Community: 16.4 years
    • External Director of Community: 16.2 years

TOP THREE PRIORITIES FOR COMMUNITY PROFESSIONALS

Key finding: Data in the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 clearly showed that business and strategic skills become more important in senior community roles.

Top Three Priorities For Community Managers

  • Monitoring activity and listening
  • Communication and editorial
  • Curating and sharing content

Top Three Priorities For Community Strategists

  • Monitoring activity and listening
  • Developing the community strategy
  • Measuring and reporting community performance

Top Three Priorities For Directors of Community

  • Developing the community strategy
  • Developing community policies and guidelines
  • Advocating for the community

COMMUNITY PROFESSIONALS WORKING REMOTELY

Key finding: working remotely does not hinder career progression for community professionals

  • 24% of community managers reported working remotely most of the time
  • 24% of community strategists reported working remotely most of the time
  • 41% of directors of community reported working remotely most of the time

Key finding: directors of community are 71% more likely to work remotely than managers and strategists, suggesting individuals with those skills are scarce and can negotiate for more flexibility.

WORK ENVIRONMENTS FOR COMMUNITY PROFESSIONALS

Key finding: through the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 we found that community strategists are three times more likely to work for agencies than community managers.

  • 80% of community managers work in corporate environments.
  • 6% of community managers are freelancers.
  • 8% of community managers work at agencies.
  • 6% of community managers work in a different environment.
  • 62% of community strategists work in corporate environments.
  • 24% of community strategists work at agencies.
  • 11% of community strategists are freelancers.
  • 3% of community strategists work in a different environment.
  • 79% of directors of community work in corporate environments.
  • 5% of directors of community work at agencies.
  • 7% of directors of community are freelancers.
  • 9% of directors of community work in a different environment.

COMMUNITY PROFESSIONAL: AN EMERGENT CAREER PATH

Although Community Manager is the most common job title among professionals surveyed, other roles are emerging.

Among the survey sample of the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014:

  • 55% had the title “Community Manager”
  • 13% had the title “Community Strategist”
  • 17% had the title “Director of Community”
  • 13% had the title “Community Specialist”
  • 7% reported they had another title

Key finding: 36% of professionals surveyed in the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 reported being promoted within community management.

LOOKING FOR A PROMOTION? WORK ON YOUR SKILLS.

In the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 we found that advanced community professionals, including community strategists and directors of community are more likely to have these key skills:

  • Program management
  • Building a community roadmap
  • Developing executive support and coaching executives
  • Creating, purchasing or delivering training
  • Hiring and managing community team members, contractors, agencies
  • Internal consulting

LOOKING FOR A COMMUNITY JOB? GET CREATIVE ABOUT FINDING YOUR NEXT ROLE!

Through the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 we found that the majority of community roles are not sourced through formal HR processes. In fact:

  • 39% of community professionals were approached by or introduced to the hiring manager/team
  • Only 27% of community professionals found their role through an external job posting
  • 20% of community professionals defined their own new role

View the infographic and find more community career resources at communityroundtable.com/cmss14

Brought to you by Jive Software.