The Community Roundtable

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

Community Role Profile: Community Strategist

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Community Strategist

OVERVIEW OF ROLE

​ The community strategist role is an expert role dedicated to what the title implies – community strategy. Typically, strategists are individuals with community management experience who have particularly strong strategic skills; analysis, community architecture, business models, and the ability to understand the interdependencies between different parts of a community ecosystem.

​ RESPONSIBILITIES
​ Community strategists are most likely to work in professional service firms or as part of a centralized community program office that provides internal community consulting to business units and other groups within large organizations. They are more likely to be individual contributors, and they act as subject matter experts within their ecosystem supporting and auditing a portfolio of communities.

​ MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE COMMUNITY ​

Community Strategist

Strategists have a special knack for understanding community performance and the levers that impact it. Successful strategists work with community managers to ensure their strategies and approaches will yield successful shared value and keep the communities productive.

Community Strategist

To learn more about the Community Strategist Role, and view Community Strategist Job Descriptions download our Community Careers and Compensation report – now available for free download.

Community Role Profile: Community Manager

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Photo of Man Holding a Book

OVERVIEW OF ROLE
​ Community managers often oversee more processes than people and are the generalists of the community field. Although some community managers manage moderators or specialists, many work with other teams as the voice of the community. A community manager can be an entry-level role in some companies but on average they are mid-level professionals with over a decade in the workforce and six+ years in community.

​ RESPONSIBILITIES
Community managers are the face and voice of the community. To make the community successful, they work with members to help them find value while ensuring organizational sponsors also receive value.
Community managers balance tactical engagement and programming activities with more strategic responsibilities like planning and reporting. In small organizations, they are likely responsible for everything related to the community, while at larger organizations they may have direct reports, work on a larger team, or have the support of outsourced resources.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE COMMUNITY

​ A community manager’s special gift is empathy – a knack for understanding members and their motivations, their needs and goals, then connecting them with other members, content, and programs that help them achieve their goals.

Community Manager Role

To learn more about the Community Manager Role, and view Community Specialist Job Descriptions download our Community Careers and Compensation report – now available for free download.

Online Community Professionals Emerge as Transformational Leaders

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As organizations evolve, community managers provide leadership and engagement models to suit a new era of work.

January 23, 2020

Boston, MA: The recently released Community Careers and Compensation 2020 report from The Community Roundtable reveals that online community professionals are uniquely situated to lead their organizations into the future of work. According to the research, 63% of community professionals were promoted in their roles in the last year, suggesting they will have an outsized impact on the organization’s success in the coming years.

The Community Careers and Compensation 2020 report explores how online community roles are evolving to meet the needs of an evolving workplace. Based on a survey of 325 global community management professionals, the report provides a research-backed snapshot of trends in community roles, responsibilities, team structures, and compensation, and includes a comprehensive index of community job descriptions.

Individuals that participated in the research represent a diverse set of employee and customer community programs that span industries, organizational size, and use cases. These community programs range in age from pre-launch to a handful that have been operating for over 20 years.

“Over the last decade we’ve seen the career path for online community professionals grow, and we’ve now reached the point where organizations realize how critical the role is to overall organizational success,” said Jim Storer, Principal at The Community Roundtable. “Still, only 19% of organizations with communities have a defined career path and only 17% have an approved and resourced community roadmap. Now that communities are poised to provide immense ROI for their organizations, it’s time for HR departments to focus on how to best recruit and retain seasoned community talent.”

The Community Careers and Compensation 2020 report is designed to help community professionals, and those that hire and manage them, get a better understanding of emerging trends and develop a strategy to ensure community teams are properly resourced to maximize organizational value.

About The Community Roundtable: The Community Roundtable is the leading, global resource for the community management industry. The Community Roundtable helps organizations from Fortune 500s to start-ups and associations recognize, define, and leverage the power of their communities. Through the industry’s only comprehensive community management research, The Community Roundtable provides training, events, and consulting to help companies recognize real ROI from their community programs. TheCR Network – the world’s premier resource for community professionals, connects hundreds of community practitioners worldwide for networking, professional development, and support. Learn more at communityroundtable.com