With the proliferation of social networks, there is no company to date that has not been raised to join them. Most are, but to be there, you have to do it well and make sure that management is professional. And for this, there are the so-called community managers or marketing specialists in social networks. Here, we going to tell you about the community manager, his functions, and about his salary.
What is a community manager?
It is a professional who is in charge of building and managing the online community around a brand. Its objective is to create a community and energize it, in addition to interacting with customers and with any user who for one reason or another is interested in the company or the brand.
In these times, many might think that managing a community of users on the Internet can be a breeze. After all, we all have a profile on social networks. As you can imagine, being a Community Manager means managing a brand and doing so with the rigor of a qualified professional. Yes or yes, you have to have great skills, and furthermore, it is essential to train to learn how to create strategies, grow the community, manage crisis situations and, logically, know how to use certain tools that make daily work much easier.
What does a social media expert do?
A Community Manager must create, care for and energize a company’s community and for this reason, he has many tasks ahead of him throughout his day. One of the most important: create content, inform and entertain. And this is not usually done only on social networks, but in general, it is the professional himself who can also be in charge of managing a corporate blog, which will help him to nurture the company’s social networks.
Another of the tasks that a Community Manager must carry out is to manage and create content. And for this, there are tools that serve to identify the best time to publish that content, what type of publications and formats manage to connect best with the community to reach their target audience. To the monitoring of the publications made, the interaction with the community and the analysis of the performance of all this work, we must add another task that should never be overlooked: that of being forewarned and informed. If you want to be a Community Manager, you have to be up to date with current events & trends, as well as all those dates that are vital for the sector in which the company is located and that, therefore, can become an opportunity to connect with the community.
What skills should a Community Manager have?
Knowing how to use Facebook or Twitter is not enough to start managing an online community. Just because you have thousands of followers on your social media doesn’t mean you’re already a qualified professional. Being a Community Manager, apart from training, requires a good number of skills. Your success will largely depend on these:
- Empathy : Understanding and putting yourself in the place of others is a practical skill that is very useful for life in general, but if you want to be a Community Manager you must have it sharpened. If you understand, understand and know what your community needs, you will be able to provide it.
- Attitude : Without attitude there are no good results. For me, a good Community Manager must be optimistic, innovative, open, constant, empathetic, humble and transparent. An infinite number of ideas must emerge from a Community Manager to help the company succeed.
- Active listening : Without active listening, there is no worthwhile management. This is one of the true keys to identifying the needs of the community, understanding their behavior, offering interesting content and, ultimately, set the course according to the changes and new trends in the sector.
- Ability to measure results : Measuring results is a part of the Community Manager’s job that cannot be ignored. Being able to perform the necessary measurements is useful to know if the work we do is having an effect or if, on the contrary, a shift in strategy is necessary.
- Persuasion . It is the objective that any organization pursues with its message or its brand, so it is important that a Community Manager has the ability to influence the community to connect with their messages. To achieve this, you will need to unite several of your superpowers and work your message conscientiously.
- Communication : It is your daily job. A Community Manager spends the day communicating with others, so it is important that you have skills in this regard and know how to express yourself fluently, both through your texts, images or videos. At the same time, you must be skilled in responding and interacting with your community. And for this, a good dose of ingenuity and creativity never hurts.
- Emotion : Emotion is life. And it is also a passion for what you do. If you are able to get involved in the project and get excited about it, you will be prepared to transmit it to others.
- Responsibility : For a Community Manager, social networks are not a way to pass the time. It is important that you know the objectives of the organization and have a good roadmap. That is why a high dose of responsibility is necessary to manage day-to-day well and be able to analyze the results when it comes time to take stock.
Also read : Most in demanded skills by companies
What salary does a Community Manager have?
There are still many companies that do not sufficiently value the profession of Community Manager. This means that some of the salaries offered do not fully correspond to the workload and responsibility that a good professional in the sector must assume. Fortunately, there are companies that do offer good salaries for Community Managers and you can also find different projects to run different communities as a freelance.. In this case, the rates are usually set by the professional, although it is also possible that, within reason, you must adapt to the budget set by the company to start with. Be careful, this does not mean that you should give away your work. Please remember how important it is to make your work count. With this you will value yourself and, far from losing opportunities, you will ensure that the projects that come to you are of a higher quality.
Reviewing the Community Manager job offers, the average Community Manager salary is between 18,000 and 25,000 euros gross per year.
How should a Community Manager be formed?
As in any other profession, a Community Manager must be well trained. That “as I know how to use Facebook, I can now do it” is not worth it. Not that way!
With the profession consolidated, in professional training centers and universities there is a wide variety of courses related to Community Management , including postgraduate training, as a specialization within the areas of communication and online marketing.
Tools for Community Managers
The life of a Community Manager can be very busy. Some people manage a single social network, others manage all the social networks of the company and there are others who have different clients in their portfolio, so they manage many social networks. That is why it is important to have useful tools to optimise your time on social networks.