The Community Roundtable

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

How do I get started in community management?

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

To celebrate the launch of our first ever community manager salary survey we’re going to spend July and August focused on community management as a career. (Haven’t taken the survey yet? Please do – it is quick and your responses provide invaluable insight into the real world of community management!)

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This week we’re discussing what it takes to get started as a community manager. Whether you’ve just graduated and are looking to dive right in, or making a mid-career move into the world of community management you might be unsure of what the best plan of attack is.

Just like last week I asked the TheCR team, members of TheCR Network and our Twitter network what their best advice would be for someone looking to get started in the world of community management.

Several members of the TheCR team have  worked as community managers and they had some great advice to give:

Jillian Bejtlich: My best advice is to make sure folks understand what they’re getting themselves into. It can be one of the most rewarding and demeaning jobs all at the same time. Try to aim for communities you’re naturally passionate about (for example, mine is technology, animals, and the outdoors). You’ll find it’s easier to be yourself and a CM at the same time!

Jim Storer: Join a Fortune 500 company’s public forum, preferably for a product you use and/or are familiar with. Become an active member and connect with that Community Manager. Develop a public Twitter list of CM’s and actively read what they share and interact with them.

Next, I opened up the question to TheCR Network. I had a fantastic chat with two community managers from a Fortune 100 telecomm company. They each had some practical advice for new community managers:

  • Should be knowledgeable and comfortable with all kinds of social media, not just the Forums
  • Should understand the importance of Social in today’s world, how customers want to be able to talk to companies on social media and get their issues resolved,
  • Should understand how companies want to be able to engage with their customers on Social Media to promote their products and build loyalty
  •  Definitely learn to double check any post before you hit “send.” Lots of vultures swirling around waiting for a social media faux pas to screen cap and send all over the internet!

I think every blogger and social media practitioner needs to take that last bit of advice to heart!

For my last bit of research I asked our Twitter friends and as usual got excellent advice from the crowd:

Getting Started #6

Getting Started #1

Getting Started #2

Getting Started #3

Getting Started #4

Getting Started #5

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point any potential job seekers in the direction of our resources. You can always find our annual State of Community Management research here and it’s a great starting point to see how community management is evolving and what skills to focus on. Our community manager profiles and community manager spotlight webinars provide exclusive inside looks into the lives of other community professionals.

Oh, and don’t miss our Community Management Fundamentals deck to get some great ideas.

Are you looking for your first community job?  What are you focusing on in your search? If you have tips for fellow job seekers please share!

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Have you taken the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 yet? Your insights into your role are invaluable as we document and define community manager best practices across industries. The survey is short (15 minutes) and we’d love to hear from you. Take the survey now.

Infographic Thursday: Seven Criteria for Hiring Community Managers

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

We’ve already talked about the traits to look for when hiring a community manager this week – so you can imagine our delight when we saw this awesome infographic from our friends at DNN titled “Seven Criteria for Hiring Online Community Managers.” In addition to the top seven traits they suggest you look for when hiring for a community manager the accompanying post includes a great list of potential interview questions for community roles . Their top interview questions for community managers include:

Q1: Describe your most stressful moment as a community manager, along with your solution for reducing the stress.

Q2: How do you know what’s happening in your community and what do you do with that information?

Q3: Do you interact with some community members differently than others – and if so, how?

There are four more great interview questions in the original post over on the DNN blog. Check it out and let us know what your favorite interview question is for community manager roles – we might even feature it in a new post!

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Have you taken the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 yet? Your insights into your role are invaluable as we document and define community manager best practices across industries. The survey is short (15 minutes) and we’d love to hear from you. Take the survey now.

 

What is the most important trait when hiring a community manager?

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

To celebrate the launch of our first ever community manager salary survey we’re going to spend July and August focused on community management as a career. Whether you are just getting starting in the community management field or have been actively practicing community management for years we have something for you.

CMGR Job Roles - SOCM 2014

Recently we’ve been thinking more about what it takes to be a great community manager. Certainly you have to love people – but what else makes or breaks a successful community professional? In the SOCM 2014 we highlighted the many (MANY) roles and responsibilities that a typical community manger is tasked with.  With everything from creating content and monitoring community activity to managing and recommending technology there is a wide array of skills that a community manager needs to have, but is there one special trait that a hiring manager looks for when filling a community role?

I threw the question out to TheCR team, TheCR Network and to our Twitter friends and wanted to share their responses with you.

First I asked the other members of TheCR team to weigh in. We’re a small but diverse group, some are currently community managers, or were in a past life. Other have participated in the hiring of community professionals. Here’s what they had to say:

Jillian Bejtlich: The ability to communicate in a variety of scenarios and tones. The same person needs to have the ability to be awesome, humorous, authoritative, potentially harsh, and empathetic.

Maggie Tunning: I have a few in mind but going to go with empathy – to be able to understand, respond to, delight, etc members. Not sure if  it always plays out this way, but empathy may also help them be adaptable/flexible.

Rachel Happe: Diplomacy (and the even temper that goes with it). If you over-react, under-react or get into fights it’s just going to be a disaster.

Next, I opened up the question to TheCR Network. Two long-term community professionals weighed in with different, but excellent responses. The first shared this list of skills – it’s hard to narrow it down to just one!

  • Teaching , especially online
  • Writing or general communication
  • Business strategist — big picture
  • Event organization
  • Collaborative
  • Creative
  • Inclusive
  • People-oriented
  • Ability to manage up and down the organization

And the second provided this great insight:

“As I am developing various skills the one I find hardest to share with others as the roles grow and expand is finding the voice we want to present to our community. So finding that ability in someone to be the voice or continue as the voice would be an asset.”

Finally, I asked our Twitter friends and received many awesome responses. Here are some of my favorites:

Hiring Advice #1Screen shot 2014-06-27 at 10.25.36 AM

Screen shot 2014-06-30 at 1.58.14 PM Screen shot 2014-06-30 at 1.58.45 PM Screen shot 2014-06-30 at 1.58.59 PM Hiring Advice #5 Hiring Advice #2 Hiring Advice #3 Hiring Advice #4

Do you hire community managers? Is there a special skill or trait that we missed? Are you a community manager and want to weigh in? We’d love to hear from you!

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Friday Roundup: Goodbye May

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

TheCR team up to no good at LiNC 14 in San Francisco.

TheCR team up to no good at LiNC 14 in San Francisco.

If April comes in like a lion, and out like a lamb, what does May do? It’s beautiful here in Boston today, but I hear rain is on the way. Either way, we’re still looking forward to a weekend of yard work, BBQing and relaxing. This week we shared a new Faces of Community Management post and a sneak peek into TheCR Network for any interested non-members out there. Rachel also took part in a great webinar with our friends at DNN – you can find the archived version here.

This week we have lots of great links for you, an invitation to a don’t miss webinar with Ian White from Rackspace, and of course new community and social media jobs from around the web.

  • Webinar: Community Manager Spotlight with Ian – If you’re considering, implementing or managing a community-based support model this is a don’t miss webinar. Join Ian White, Manager of Support at Rackspace, as he discusses his award-winning customer support tactics.
  • 56 Lessons From 20 Years of Online Community Building – Ever wonder what it takes to succeed with online community strategy and operations? Here are 56 lessons learned culled from 20 years of online community building experience.
  • Mary Meeker’s Big Deck On Key Internet Trends – Mary Meeker, a partner at VC firm KPCB and one of the legendary observers of the Internet industry, is presenting her annual outlook on the industry this week at Code Conference put on by Re/code.
  • The Evolution of Online Communities – Do you remember VHS tapes from the ‘80s and ‘90s? Home video was a game-changer back then, giving movies a second life and another chance at turning a profit. Then came DVDs, high-definition Blu-ray discs, and now we have on-demand Internet streaming from cable and over-the-top providers. With each step in the evolution, quality and accessibility improved.
  • Disciplined Clarity About Culture – Jack Dorsey, one of the Twitter Founders and now CEO at Square, sent a quick memo to his employees (that he also posted publicly on Medium) about something that may sound somewhat unimportant: using other people’s names to push ideas.
  • Digital collaboration goes deeper, gets lightweight and intelligent – Two tracks seem to be emerging with today’s enterprise collaboration tools. Either they’re becoming full-sized suites with the kitchen sink, or they’re focusing making a few core features work better than anyone else.
  • Building Customer Communities Is the Key to Creating Value – What are your customers telling their friends and colleagues about your business?
  • Who Manages The Community Manager That Manages Your Community? – Community management is among the fastest-growing job areas in recent years. The increasing popularity of the social networks means that companies are ever-mindful of the need to have a presence in an environment where being absent means the conversation is taking place without you, and so have cast their nets in a bid to hire community managers with a wide range of profiles.

Community and Social Media Jobs

  1. Senior Manager, Online Community Management Consulting at Socious – Mesa, Arizona
  2. Russian Community Coordinator at Playstation – London
  3. Communications Officer, Community Manager Generalist/Digital Strategist Job at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Seattle, WA
  4. Community Manager at Purina – St. Louis, MO
  5. Senior Community Manager at GREE – San Francisco, CA
  6. Associate Director, Social Media at iCrossing – New York, NY
  7. Senior Community Manager, Emerging Products & Services at Autodesk – San Francisco, CA
  8. Digital Community Manager at WGBH Educational Foundation – Boston, MA
  9. Community Manager at Beats By Dr. Dre – Los Angeles, CA
  10. Community Manager at digitalundivided – New York, NY
  11. Community Manager Intern at Disqus – San Francisco, CA
  12. Senior Community Manager – Agriculture, Food and Beverage at World Economic Forum – New York, NY
  13. Content and Social Media Manager at Luxury Link Travel Group – Playa Vista, CA
  14. Social Media Community Manager at mzl – Austin, TX
  15. Cloud Evangelist / Community Manager at Netuitive, Inc. – Reston, VA
  16. Community Impact Manager at Google – Phoenix, AZ
  17. Assistant Community Manager – Weekend Specialist at GameStop Texas Ltd. – San Francisco, CA
  18. Social Media Community Manager at OtterBase 2 reviews – El Segundo, CA
  19. Community Manager at Needle – Bluffdale, UT
  20. Manager, Corporate Communications at LinkedIn – Mountain View, CA
  21. Social Media Strategist at Pearson Education – Lakeland, FL

Have a wonderful weekend – we’ll see you in June!

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Looking to take your career in community management to the next level? 92% of members agree that TheCR Network supports and advances their personal and professional goals. Learn how our research, access to peers and experts, targeted content and exclusive concierge service can help you achieve your goals. 

 

 

Friday Roundup: The SOCM 2014 Edition

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

SOCM 2014 SponsorsAfter months of surveys, number crunching, chart perfecting and copy editing the State of Community Management 2014 was finally released this week! It feels a little bit like our baby bird has flown the nest – but we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you. We’ve already seen a few interesting articles analyzing the data – and we’d love to hear from you. If you have a perspective on the data or the findings please share it with us and we will feature it in a Friday Roundup post!

This week was understandably SOCM heavy for us, but there are some other great links from around the web and of course – the latest and greatest community and social business jobs we could find.

 A few SOCM focused articles from around the internet: 

Other great links: 

And as always, the coolest community and social media jobs available this week: 

  1. Director of Community Solutions at Small World Labs – Austin, TX
  2. Online Community Consultant at Small World Labs – Austin, TX
  3. Social Media Community Manager/Editor at DoctorDirectory.com – Asheville, NC
  4. Senior Community Manager at Reputation.com – Redwood City, CA
  5. Community Manager – at Firebase – San Francisco, CA
  6. Technical Community Manager at Famo.us – San Francisco, CA
  7. Community Manager, Turkey New York at Foursquare – New York, NY
  8. Global Community Manager atUBM – New York, NY
  9. Online Community Manager at National Institute for Children’s Health Quality – Boston, MA
  10. Social Media Community Manager at Creative Circle – Dallas, TX
  11. Manager, Community Mgmt at DigitasLBi  3 reviews – Illinois
  12. Director of Social Listening/Community Manager at Freeman Leonard – Dallas, TX
  13. Senior External Community Manager at Jive Software – Palo Alto, CA
  14. Senior Community Manager – Internationalization at Mozilla-  Remote, OR
  15. Sr Community Manager at CA Technologies – Islandia, NY
  16. Community Manager, Design Focused – Chicago at Uber – Chicago, IL
  17. Digital Analytics and Community Manager Job at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – Seattle, WA
  18. Content & Community Manager at eCommerceFuel.com – Bozeman, MT
  19. Senior Director, Community Operations at deviantART – Los Angeles, CA
  20. Principal Community Management Associate Social Media at Capital One – McLean, VA
  21. Social Media Strategy Manager at Kforce – Plano, TX 

 

Have a great weekend – we’ll see you next week with a news Faces of Community Management profile, the monthly Network recap with Hillary and a new Community Fact poster!

 

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Looking to take your career in community management to the next level? 92% of members agree that TheCR Network supports and advances their personal and professional goals. Learn how our research, access to peers and experts, targeted content and exclusive concierge service can help you achieve your goals. 

 

 

Friday Roundup: Happy Anniversary to Us

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

2/3 of TheCR Team

2/3 of TheCR Team at The Anniversary Happy Hour

This week we were lucky enough to celebrate our fifth anniversary! We gathered with good friends and members at the Summer Shack in Cambridge, MA (the site of some of the very first TheCR Lives!) and shared cupcakes, beer and memories. You can check out pictures from the party on our facebook page.

All month we’ve been looking back at the last five years in the community world and honestly, it’s ok to get a little teary. We’re so proud of the friends we’ve made, the companies we’ve collaborated with and the community managers we support every day. Ok, enough mushy stuff.

This week the links are heavy on community jobs – 20 in fact!  There are so many cool opportunities out there for community and social business professionals right now – it’s definitely an exciting time to be in the space. Have an awesome job not listed here? Add a link in the comments, or tweet it to us and we’ll be sure to share it!

    1. Director of Community Operations at Meetup
    2. Social Media Communications Specialist at BCBSNC
    4. Global Community Manager at UBM
    5. Instagram is looking for a #CMGR
    6. Social media community manager job at @Shutterstock
    7. Internal/Yammer Community Manager role at Macquarie Group
    8. Specialist, Community (Small & Medium Business) at Facebook
    9. Social Media Community Manager/Analyst at GYK Antler
    10. Senior Community Manager at Reputation.com
    11. Community Manager, Boston at HERE, a division of Nokia
    12. Community Manager at Mirrorball
    13. Community Manager — Social Media at Lumentus 
    14. Social Community Manager at DigitalOcean 
    15. Social Media Community Manager at Verizon 
    16. Community Manager – Unreal Engine at Epic Games
    17. Community Manager (Social Media Manager) at POSSIBLE
    18. Community Manager at Passenger 
    19. Social Community Manager at HTC
    20. Community (On-Line) Manager Job at Thomson Reuters
    21. Social Business Community Manager at VCE, the Virtual Computing Environment Company
    22. Global Director of Social Media at BlackRock USA

Have a wonderful weekend! We’ll be back on Monday with the final installment of the Retrospective podcast series with Rachel Happe and Jim Storer and we’ll be releasing the State of Community Management 2014 on Tuesday!

 

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Did you know that TheCR Network members work with all kinds of communities? In fact, about 25% work in either internal or external communities and 50% work with both! No matter what kind of community you work with membership in TheCR Network will save you time and improve the quality of your work by connecting you with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining TheCR Network can improve the work you do. 

Friday Roundup: Five Year Anniversary Edition

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By Shannon DiGregorio Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

The First TheCR Live - Five Years Ago

The First TheCR Live – Five Years Ago

Yesterday we shared this picture via twitter in honor of #tbt (throwback thursday) of Rachel and Jim at our very first TheCRLive, at the Barking Crab in Boston, MA. It’s hard to believe that was five years ago. This month we’ve been looking back at those five years though interviews with veteran community practitioners (so far we’ve chatted with Heather and Nigel), a podcast series with our founders and a fun infographic of our favorite milestones.

You can catch up on any content you missed in our links, find new community jobs, and more!

We’ll be back next week to share one more week of anniversary content before we release the 5th annual State of Community Management 2014 report on April 22! Stay tuned for the final two parts in the founders podcast series, another interview with a community manager and a podcast with a very special guest!  Have a great weekend!

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Did you know that 95% of TheCR Network members agree that the content and peer input improves the quality of their work? It’s true! Membership in TheCR Network saves community and social business leaders time and improves the quality of their work by connecting them quickly with peers, experts and curated information. Learn how joining TheCR Network can improve the work you do.

Friday Roundup – Building Value for 2014

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Image via SmilingTreeToys at Etsy.com

Image via SmilingTreeToys at Etsy.com

As we head into the new year we’re paying special attention to building  value in our communities in 2014. Over the last week week we looked at resources you can use when you’re building a social or community program, the value of social business and how to articulate the power of community management.  We’re already looking forward to next week when we’ll tackle the idea of building reputation in community management.

Our favorite links this week include two exciting social jobs, a lively discussion on community participation and some great advice from an industry expert. We’re also excited for some upcoming events and would love to hear where you plan on learning and networking in 2014.

As always have a safe and happy weekend. We’ll see you on Monday with some fun blog content from expert guests!

Hiring A Social Media or Community Manager?

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We recently had a member call on Hiring for Community Management and also discussed the topic at last week’s #TheCRLive. It’s a hot topic for a variety of reasons.  There is growing interest in the field and growing demand for community managers. Our members’ had some additional perspectives:

  • Community an social media management job descriptions vary widely with little consistency
  • There are a number of business functions and processes that community managers can support but often the specifics are also inconsistently articulated in job descriptions
  • Expectations of community manager roles and compensation are not very well aligned
  • Hiring organizations don’t necessarily know what is reasonable to expect from different levels of community managers or are not always able to identify the level of experience they need
  • The attributes of community managers are often more important than the skills or experience but that is not the way most organizations hire

Because Community Roundtable members like Rachel Makool, Dawn Lacallade, and Amber Naslund have more experience than most with regards to hiring community managers we think there is an opportunity to work with our members to develop baseline job descriptions and salary ranges for the following positions:

  • Social Media Expert
  • Moderator
  • Community Manager
  • Director of Community
  • VP of Social/Community

Like any other type of organizational role, as the position becomes more senior, more strategy/planning/management responsibilities are included and compensation should rise accordingly.  We see a lot of job recs being posted that are looking for people with 1-3 years of experience compensated for at that level but also wanting those people to own the social strategy, policies, and internal evangalism.  The effort to find a good match for that rec is likely to be frustrating – while there are plenty of young and ambitious potential employees that understand social software tools very well and are eager to take on an organization’s social initiative, they may not have the management and organizational experience needed to effectively champion and execute the strategy. Those young people who do have the skills to build and execute a new organizational strategy are like their more experienced peers in knowing that it deserves a higher level of compensation.

There are two problems causing even further frustration. The first problem is that many social initiatives right now are pilot or new initiatives that just barely have the funding for one junior position who may not have the business and management experience necessary to be successful.  This is a chicken and egg problem – without an experienced community manager, the initiative may not be successful but the organization can’t afford an experienced person until the initiative is successful. The second problem is that for those organizations that realize they need a mid-level to senior person to develop and execute an appropriate social strategy, there is a fairly small group of individuals with that experience and very often not in the location needed.

There are a few ways organizations can manage this situation:

  • Hire consultants. Many experienced community managers have become consultants (Rachel Makool, Sean O’Driscoll, Jake McKee, Janet Fouts, and Dawn Foster are examples) and are in demand for helping companies navigate the transition from pilot to operational communities.
  • Outsource moderation and/or community management. eModeration, Tempero, LiveWorld, Fresh Networks, and Impact Interactions all offer some combination of moderation and community management. These services can help companies who are starting out, exploring, and experimenting. In particular, moderation is often outsourced completely as needs often fluctuate significantly over time.
  • Spend time seeking out and investing in understanding the most effective use of human resources. Human resources are critical to the success of a social initiatives but if the role and responsibilities are not clear and appropriately aligned, it can lead to a lot of frustration on both the part of the organization and on the part of employee. The more the hiring manager understands, the better off the outcomes will be. Consultants, training, and services like ours can help tremendously with understanding how to effectively hire and use community management.

Are you looking for a social media or community manager?  While we are not a recruiting agency we do hear from a lot of hiring managers and individuals looking for jobs and it’s gotten too much to manage in an ad hoc way. However, if you fill out the form below we can match it relatively easily with a growing database of job seekers and are happy to make a connection.

Oops! We could not locate your form.

Hiring for Social Media: Part 1

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Dawn Headshot[This post is the first in an on-going series of posts by a members of The Community Roundtable,  highlighting the voices of experienced community managers. It is cross-posted at Dawn’s blog, Under The Hood]

This is part one in a series on hiring a social media person or company.

One of the most challenging parts of this field I love is finding experts.  I have seen people that look great on paper, but when you talk with them, their knowledge is only paper deep.  I am going to tell you a story about John.  John was absolutely fascinated with social media and worked at a company that did some in the space.  He managed to get to work on a project!  He listened and absorbed.  In his next career move, he elaborated on his resume.  Perhaps he was not just a participant on that single project.  Perhaps he was the mastermind.  Sure he knows all he needs to, he lands a position as a strategist for a medium sized company.  Now that he is in the position, he is struggling because he is not the social media professional the claimed to be.  There are plenty of “Johns” out there.  Beware.

Ok, so at this point, you are like, ok Dawn. So how the heck do I know?  Well let’s start with what kind of social media professional you are looking to hire.

Part 1:  Strategist

Part 2:  Faceman

Part 3:  Moderator

Part 4:  Technologist

Part 5:  Vendor/Company

Community Strategist

This is a professional position that will manage the strategies, implementation and projects for your community.  This person needs to be a seasoned professional with demonstrable successful projects to share with their resume.  Ask for examples.  When I say samples of their work, I am not meaning a personal blog where they explore their expertise area, but actual projects on behalf of a company.  While a personal blog in the area of expertise might be a way to demonstrate their knowledge, it doesn’t show success.  I could do enough research to have a medical advice blog, but that doesn’t mean I am capable of actually practicing medicine.  Some of the people in this industry that I admire most are almost completely behind the scenes.  The high participation members of their communities will know them, but from a passing glance, you would not necessarily.  This person does not need to, necessarily, be an expert in your business area.  You will have experts within the business.  This person needs to be an expert in communities.

You should research this person.  Look carefully at their implemented sites and see if they are actually successful.  Are people participating?  Is the site itself nicely done?  Is the company participating?  Use this research to drive questions for the interview.  Ask to see the scorecard from there existing community. (there will be a future post on scorecards and metrics)

Other skills attributes and abilities: (in addition to the Social Media/Communiy skills above)

  1. Organized with Project Management skills
  2. Passion for Social Media/Community
  3. Process oriented
  4. Manages up well- comfort talking with, selling concepts to, etc.
  5. Can lead a team from various departments that may or may not actually report to you.
  6. Diplomatic
  7. Creative thinker.

Interviewing questions:

Use the interview to do a deep dive into the sites they have done before.  Ask the hard questions.  If no one is participating… ask why,.  Ask why they chose the tool that they did.  Ask about corporate support for the effort.  Ask what the budget was.  Ask about the technology vendor.  If you ask specific enough questions, even “John” should stumble and show his true colors.

Give a real life scenario that is currently happening at your company.  Like say you are trying to engage a new audience and are not sure where to start.  Ask how they would begin and the first several actions.  It will give you a window into their skills.

Ask a scenario question (you make up) about an exec that doesn’t buy into the social media effort and the candidate has to convince them to join the movement.  See if their ideas are close to your corporate culture and if the candidate has the right thought processes to sell and idea.

If there is no current social media program, ask them where they would start to create one.  If they answer with a tool (before they even found out the corporate goals) this should be a big red flag.

Ask how they keep up with social media.  If they don’t list several of the industry blogs and books, be concerned.

Finally and critically important… check the references carefully.  I have found that while many companies don’t want their managers to recommend people, they will still verify the role and scope.  I had a conversation recently about a candidate with a manager that readily told me he couldn’t talk about performance of the person.  I asked if he would just verify the magnitude of the role.  It turned out that when I read the role description from the resume, it was grossly over stated.  The manager was HAPPY to tell me that.