The Community Roundtable

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

What are the skills of a community manager?

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The online community management space has come a long way, but the Community Manager role still has the widest variation in responsibilities, compensation and reporting level.

Community Managers in the Organization

Community managers in our research work predominantly for corporations vs. agencies or as independents — suggesting that organizations see the value in investing in community management for the long haul. Community managers often work with communities scattered around the globe, giving them the opportunity to work remotely — a benefit that accrues to both internal and external community managers.

skills of a community manager

Community managers typically report to someone at the director level, with only about a third reporting to a vice president or higher. Despite the manager title, most community managers don’t manage anyone. Only about a third have direct reports, either employees or volunteers.

Community Manager Skills and Training Needs

Community managers’ top five most valued skills get to the heart of the tactical day-to-day monitoring and management of communities. Their most desired areas for training suggest an interest in digging deeper to drive engagement and understand what specific elements lead to community success. These training needs also suggest an opportunity for community professionals to develop into community specialists such as Community Architects, Community Analysts, and Community Strategists.

Highest Valued Skills of a Community Manager

  • Community Strategy Development
  • Community Advocacy And Promotion
  • 
Listening And Analyzing
  • Writing
  • Measurement, Benchmarking, And Reporting

Biggest Community Manager Training Needs

  • Gamification And Behavior Change
  • Data Collection And Analysis
  • Community Advocacy And Promotion
  • Ux And Design
  • Community Strategy And Development

Community Manager Performance Evaluation

While community metrics are part of the evaluation of a community manager’s performance, the voice of the community is rarely part of the process. Just 5% of community managers say a review from the community is part of their performance evaluation — versus 91% who say they receive a manager assessment and 72% who submit a self-assessment.

Explore the Community Skills Framework:

community manager skills community manager skills
community manager skills Community Skills Engagement

 

Building A Skill-Based Community Manager Job Ad

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Community Manager Job Ad

A quick search on LinkedIn finds more than 1,000 jobs with “Community Manager” in the title at any given moment. Subtract the ones about property management, and add in “Online Community”, “Community Specialist” and a dozen other terms and you are left with several hundred job descriptions — not two of which have the exact same requirements or expectations. As we have noted on many occasions, many current community management job descriptions are not well balanced and tend to be misaligned in one or more of the following ways:

  • Hiring organizations want more experience than they can get for the compensation they are offering.
  • They expect more specific expertise than is reasonable for the general years of experience required.
  • They ask for more advanced skills than are required for the role’s responsibilities.
  • They have too many responsibilities listed for one individual to reasonably be able to handle.
  • The traits they are seeking are misaligned with the work environment (i.e. agile in a big bureaucracy).Community Manager Job Ad

Enter The Community Skills Framework

Using the Community Skills Framework to craft job descriptions based on the skills you value, and aligning those skills with the appropriate roles and compensation can do a great deal for talent acquisitionand retention. A simple exercise can help. On the Framework, check off the skills you value and need for your team. Those skills can form the basis of a job ad.

Then ask yourself some questions:

  • What level of individual (i.e. — a moderator, manager, strategist, etc.) are these skills most applicable for? Set the right title.
  • Is there a reasonable expectation that I can attract the skills I want, with the experience I need, at the compensation I can offer?
  • Am I seeking a unicorn? (A person with such unique qualifications — such as a business model expert who can code APIs — that I’ll never find them, and would be better served with a narrower focus or two hires.)

The best job ads take into account not only the skills you value, but the experience you need and the traits you desire in your next hire. By making sure your expectations are realistic and your compensation competitive, you can find talented community professionals — and keep them.

Community Jobs Round-Up 4/28/17

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Best practices for getting a community management jobEvery week we share a list of new community management and social media jobs – usually everything from community coordinators all the way up to director level positions (depends on what we can find each week).

I also wanted to share some of my favorite community reads from this week:

If you submitting for a Lithy, a TheCR Connect Award or any other type of recognition program Jillian Bejtlich shares some great advice.

Do you think community management is on the right track? Marjorie Anderson does and shares her perspective.

Looking for some new community folks to follow on twitter?

Know of a great community opening that we’ve missed? Let us know and we’ll add it to the list!

Best practices for getting a community management job

  1. 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.
  2. 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?

Join TheCR Team: Community Management Fellow Wanted

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Are you interested in the emerging field of community management?

Maybe you studied psychology, politics, sociology, journalism or communications and are wondering how social media and social networking technologies are changing how organizations communicate and collaborate. Maybe you’ve had a role in social media management but are looking to make a pivot into are area of deeper engagement and value. Maybe you started your career in a different field and have discovered that your true passion lies in connecting and supporting people so they can be their best, most productive selves.

About Us

TheCR Team celebrating a great 2013 at our end of the year meeting.

TheCR Team celebrating a great 2013 at our end of the year meeting.

The Community Roundtable (TheCR) was founded in 2009 to help organizations navigate and take advantage of this new networked world we live in. We publish ground breaking research and work with over 150 organizations who are transforming the way they work and interact with their customers, including CA, Steelcase, Merck, AAAS, EY, H&R Block, PMI and more. We are a small but mighty group of professionals that love to work hard – but also understand that to be our best selves, we need to balance work and rich personal lives.

As a community management fellow at TheCR, you will spend time learning both community management and building relationships with our clients, giving you a deep understanding of both the community manager role and the context in which community professionals work.

Are you ready to join TheCR team and become a skilled community manager? We are thrilled to announce that we are hiring a Community Management Fellow for 2017.

Why a Fellow?

Fellowship positions at TheCR are an opportunity to learn and work simultaneously – they are a training role with a stipend. The Community Roundtable has hired a number of fellows over the years because it is a unique opportunity for both an individual, TheCR and TheCR’s ecosystem to benefit.  Our fellowships are intended to last 12 months and give individuals a strong background and network with which to find a permanent community manager position at its conclusion.

What you will learn:

  • Engagement Tactics: The role is steeped in the day-to-day activities of facilitating our online community – TheCR Network. This includes a lot of admin, content curation & creation, and member outreach.
  • Community Operations: You’ll learn how keep our online community running smoothly and engaged, through management and reporting activities. Our systems and approaches are fluid, giving you the opportunity to help us iterate and improve.
  • Community Strategy & Theory: Not only do we run an online community of community professionals, but we also publish community management research and training. You will have access to our training and research and our team will act as mentors to help unpack what it means for the industry, for organizations, and for individual community practitioners like yourself.
  • How to work collaboratively: At TheCR, we try to work the way we coach our clients to work – iteratively, collaboratively, respectfully and with constant feedback. We don’t micro-manage and we expect everyone to be an adult, giving and taking feedback from everyone on the team so that we can each be as good as the entire team. This work style is a big part of our culture and benefits those who work best when they are constantly learning.

 We are a lean, fast-paced, transparent and collaborative team that has a bias for action and as little overhead as possible.

What that means for you:

Hillary Boucher, TheCR Network

Fun fact: our current Director of Networks, Hillary Boucher, started as a Fellow.

  • We expect you to be self-sufficient. While you will work alongside our network team and be given specific challenges, we expect all team members to be responsible and accountable for their own progress and proactive about seeking solutions. We don’t micro-manage.
  • You will work virtually. We meet in person as a team quarterly, but otherwise all of our communication is done online using collaboration tools, video conferencing and the phone. If you are not comfortable learning new technologies this is not the role for you.
  • You need to be available during the traditional work week. There is some flexibility, but in general the team stays in touch M-F during business hours.
  • You’ll need your own computer that is in good working order and is up-to-date, as well as a strong, reliable internet connection.
  • You will get out of of this fellowship what you put into it. We are looking for a team member who not only is interested in the role as we’ve described it, but someone who brings their own passion, skills and curiosity to the team.
  • There is a lot of opportunity if you choose to seize it. As a small team, we all pinch hit for each other and there are always opportunities to get involved in the work of the organization, if you are interested.

You might be our next community management fellow if you:

  • Have excellent written communications skills.
  • Have experience using social networking and social media tools and are active online.
  • Have experience with content creation. Bonus points if you have any of the following skills or interests: data analysis, video or audio editing, graphic design or multi-media content creation.
  • Understand the basics of the social sciences.
  • Are organized, self-sufficient and have good project management skills.
  • Care about your work and the people with whom you work.
  • Bring your best effort to every project and can leave your ego at the door.
  • Enjoy the flexibility – and responsibility – of working virtually.
  • Want to learn more about community management – you will work closely with our Community Manager and must love the internet, people and building community.

Do you have what it takes? Are you excited by what we could do together? Please tell us more about you! While not a requirement for the right candidate, preference will be given to people within commuting distance from Boston or Ithaca, NY.

 

We are no longer accepting applications for our 2017 fellow. Thank you to everyone who took the time to apply. 

You can sign up here to be notified of new roles at TheCR. 

New Research: The Emerging Career Path for Community Professionals

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By Rachel Happe, Principal and Co-Founder, The Community Roundtable.

Community Management Skills Framework

It’s a great time to be a community manager. Companies big and small are starting to recognize that is a critical skill to help transform their organizations for a digitally connected world.

Our mission at The Community Roundtable is to advance the business of community and research has always played an integral part of that – helping people understand the dynamics and management approaches that build successful communities. We’ve made great strides at the macro level with our State of Community Management report and our Community Maturity Model framework – so much so that we can now benchmark the maturity of an organization’s community management approach.

It is time to take the same research approach to the role of the individual community professional and we are excited to announce the publication of our first Community Manager Salary Survey, made possible with support from Jive Software.

This research is becoming increasingly urgent due to a variety of trends we see:

  • Lack of recognition of how critical the community management discipline is to digital transformation and the future of work. We believe community management is the future of management and a critical component to enabling the future of work.
  • Community professionals are increasingly frustrated because of poorly defined roles and lack of advancement opportunities.
  • There is very little data about community management roles, making it challenging for hiring managers to define well constructed job opportunities.

So what did we find?

  • While there is still a lot of variability in skills and compensation levels in community management roles, there are distinct roles starting to emerge – specialist, manager, strategist and director. 36% of community professionals have been promoted within their role; an encouraging sign that organizations value the role and want to enable a career path.
  • At the executive level – community management is strategic – responsible for strategy, governance, program management and ensuring communities meet business objectives.
  • Performance measurements for community managers are still evolving – there is no one dominant measure being used to evaluate the performance of community professionals.
  • Organizations are still largely not supporting formal professional development resources for community managers like membership in professional development networks, training and coaching.

Along with this research, we also published the Community Management Skills Framework, designed to:

  • Provide a common framework for understanding the skills required for community management.
  • Give community managers a tool to evaluate and develop their own skills.
  • Support hiring managers and HR teams as they define formal community management roles within their organization.
  • Look at and compare the skills of community teams so gaps can be addressed and existing skills can be leveraged.

The full report contains specific data for internal (employee-facing) and external (customer and market-facing) community professionals – including average salaries, percent who get bonuses, profiles of skills and responsibilities by role, performance criteria and professional development resources.

Download the Report Now >>

We would love to hear from you about what surprised you, what you think is missing and how you will use this data to further your own development.

 

 

Introducing the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014 Infographic

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By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.Jive Webinar: Deep Dive on The Community Manager Role

If you’ve been reading our blog for the last year you know we love a good infographic, which makestoday’s post extra exciting. We are thrilled to share the first data from our newest research platform, the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014, via this new CMSS 2014 infographic: Careers in Community Management.

We surveyed more than 350 internal and external community managers, strategists and directors for this first-ever survey, asking them to share information including their salary, their expertise and responsibilities, their experience, and their career path. The infographic was released Wednesday night during JiveWorld14. (Jive Software is sponsoring the infographic and upcoming publication of the survey data.)

The infographic represents the first research results from the Community Manager Salary Survey 2014. It highlights the salary range for internal and external community professionals, and illustrates the demonstrable career path for those who want to use their skills and experience in more strategic roles. Rachel shared her perspective earlier today:

“The new research highlights a number of what were unproven truths in the community space and adds new insights. It makes clear that community management as a discipline has matured to the point where not only are there great, well-paying jobs to be had, but there is also a clear career path for career professionals.”

You can head over to the official CMSS 2014 Infographic page to download the entire high-res infographic and sign up to be notified when the full Community Manager Salary Survey is released later this year.

Careers in Community Management

Careers in Community Management

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Free Jive Webinar

Join The Community Roundtable and Jive as we dig into the community manager role.

Deep Dive into the Community Manager RoleEvent Date: Tuesday, November 18thEvent Time: 10am PT/1pm ET

The Community Manager Salary Salary research aims to bring more awareness to what community managers can expect in their career and what hiring managers should know to grow effective community programs. This new research from The Community Roundtable takes a comprehensive look at community manager roles.

Learn more >>

 Register Now