Hiring or Applying?
You’ll do well to check out chapter 15 in the social media/PR 2.0 book I’ve been reviewing — Putting the PUBLIC Back in Public Relations by Brian Solis and Dierdre Breakenridge.
Who OWNS the responsibility of managing social media conversations for an organization?
Brian and Dierdre conclude that “every facet of a business is responsible for its channel of social monitoring and interaction,” and strategies and tactics for each department can best be directed by a community manager — or one of several other titles:
- Community Advocate
- Brand Ambassador
- Social Media Specialist
- Social Media Evangelist
- VP of Social Media
- Chief Social Officer
- Community Relations Manager
- Community Builder
The socialization of the corporate marketing infrastructure isn’t a matter of IF it should happen, but instead WHEN it will happen.
Marketers in every industry are agreeing with a core social media concept that People Do Business with People, not Entities: “Brands don’t engage with people — people engage with people.”
The dynamic of listening to and engaging in everyday dialogue is often referred to as the conversation.
The conversation is between the the organization representatives and the new influencers which comprise customers, peers, employees, partners, enthusiasts, bloggers, reporters, and analysts.
What is it that you learn by listening?
Whether the online conversations are positive, neutral, or negative, the insight garnered from listening and observing will reveal opportunities not just for engagement, but also for gathering real-world intelligence
— the type of information that is “ear to the street” and that you can feed back into your organization to improve the existing service, product, and management infrastructure.
The authors included a discussion of the Four Tenets of the Community Manager by Forrester social computing analyst Jeremiah Owyang:
- Community Advocate: represents the organization.
- Brand Evangelist: promotes events and products.
- Savvy Communication Skills: shapes editorial and mediates disputes
- Gathers Community Input: gathers and shares comments from marketplace conversation
Here’s a definition of the role of the community manager by a community manager — Connie Bensen:
A community manager is the voice of the company externally and the voice of the customers internally. The value lies in the community manager serving as a hub and having the ability to personally connect with the customers and providing feedback to many departments internally.
Community Managers: Please feel free to add your experiences and tips for organizations looking for individuals to fill this role AND for communications specialists seeking these positions.