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In my last post, I discussed the value of community management and the big picture objectives of the job. This job blends cross-company and cross-functional leadership, big-picture strategy and vision, and a laser focus on execution -- requiring a blend of business acumen and understanding of interpersonal dynamics.
As job descriptions differ across types of communities and their maturity, so do traits and skill sets -- most notably in external vs. internal communities. Regardless, at a high level, a community manager’s job is to help people access each other and resources they need, in an environment of mutual trust, shared purpose and ownership. To do so, the community manager must be:
While other skills can be learned, passion is innate – you either have it or you don’t, and it makes or breaks the community. Passion helps you stay the course in changing deeply entrenched behaviors (which is often what you’re up against) and gather the right momentum and resources. Passion provides an authentic connection and builds trust with community members – it’s contagious and it helps people think bigger. This helps move the community from transactional (I go when I need something) to sustainable (I go because it’s part of who I am). Passion also brings the community manager to the cutting edge of the industry.
Community is ultimately about people. If you don’t want to interact with people or be helpful, you'll have a hard time, because you will be the resource for the entire community for continued support. Treat service as a badge of honor vs. a nuisance, giving personalized attention, while answering boring and interesting questions with the same aplomb. Avoid the “Groundhog Day” effect though – deflect tactical, repetitive questions through proactively posted content and building up an scalable expertise capability.
A passionate community manager is going to step into a de-facto leadership role, but must fight the impulse to overengage. You have to step back and let the community be a community. Dependence on one person creates bottlenecks, which grind a community to a halt. A sustainable community will remove bottlenecks by allowing people to self-organize. The job of the community manager is to help create a trusted environment that allows just that. Control freaks with a fear of letting need not apply.
Whether you are building an internal community of employees or an external one, the community will only create business value if it’s designed to meet a business goal -- or risk being a silo and staying on the periphery as the “intern’s job,” failing to get the investment and respect. To that end, the community manager needs to understand the business, the marketplace, what’s important to the organization and members. You must have a general business savvy and understand marketing, sales, operations, P&L, product, business process and customer support fundamentals – and what role community has in each of these.
While in the long term you need to build systems that can help people connect without your involvement, you have to do some explicit connecting when necessary. Know when to step back and when to get involved to loop the right people into a conversation to stoke the fires, or light new ones. In a fledgling community, you have to inspire early members to take a leap of faith with you. Knowing these early members – and helping them know each other -- is critical, because it's these early dynamics that influence the community culture later.
All human interaction is messy, and any community is guaranteed to have its good moments – and bad ones. How you react under fire is the true test of a community manager. You need to know how to resolve an issue, while allowing parties to leave the situation and “save face.” Being firm, yet tactful, will allow you to influence people, while letting them know where the line is.
It’s much more effective to help people change little by little vs. attempting a wholesale transformation. The community manager as a change agent will get further and faster by leading people gently to the proverbial water so they can drink – instead of making them drink. To create an environment that catalyzes people, you want to keep a light touch, but realize that a “free for all” cacophony will disengage people. Work with your early members to create light structures (i.e. groups, etc) to deliver a curated experience, and encourage the community to keep creating. Member ownership is really important, so don’t stifle it by being too involved.
Because you are the community advocate, you need to be that "guy/gal you'd have a beer with." This doesn't mean being a pushover -- boundary setting is effective. The community manager knows where the line is drawn, is fiercely protective of the community's health and is empowered to take action when necessary - a policy is no good until acted upon. Outside of major infractions, the community manager should remain vigilant and ensure overall happiness and productivity.
Success in a community takes strategy and execution, as well as a dash of serendipity and creativity. How will you launch your community or celebrate its birthday? Will you do anything special for your 1000th user? How will you reward desirable behaviors? Predictable is boring! Let your imagination run wild and take some chances. As online choice abound, you need to stand out and become a destination that members choose among so many other choices.
The fast-changing landscape of social technology necessitates faster action and adaptability to course-correct. It's absolutely crucial to commit to community programs and stay with them in the long term. However, it's just as important to remain flexible and nimble, to continue to bring value, even if the way you do it changes. You must be comfortable with constant change and taking risks.
To say that today's world expects real-time is a platitude at this point, but a community manager must know how to weigh perfection vs. taking action. When creating content, for example, ship an MVP and ask your community to help you perfect it. When making decisions, a community manager can't wait for directions, and decisiveness is key. Leading change, building something from nothing, setting and executing strategy, sometimes in the face of internal skepticism, are not easy tasks.
Whether you are internally or externally focused, you will play the role of the community’s advocate, representing the interests of the community to the company, vice versa. The two goals should reinforce each other, and while the big picture goals should never diverge (what’s good for the customer is good for the employee and is good for the company), they may diverge in the short term. In those cases, getting people to see eye-to-eye is a delicate dance, but of course you can do it, because you are awesome, tactful and firm!
What personality traits and skills are helping you run your community? Or if you don’t run a community, what are you seeing as success traits in others?
Image via: Evan Leeson
