Whats My Line: Community Manager?
Those of us who are interested in working in Social Media Marketing might go searching various keywords on job boards online, including Community Manager, Communication Coordinator or Social Media Professional. However, I do not like these titles. I would like to see a new term being used to described these members of the marketing team.
The whole point of Social Media networks is for the participants to create content, engage and get into the 2 way nature of the communication. So do they want to be managed? I doubt it. I think most of us register on the various platforms because we want to have a conversation about something we are interested in and we want to find others who are interested in the same thing. We want to share information or our thoughts or experiences. Do we want some “Social Media Professional” poking their nose in and directing us to products or services they are trying to push? I do not think so.
Now this “Community Manager” or whatever, may be quite welcome if he or she is solving problems, answering questions and providing valuable customer service on their sites in which case there may be an argument for calling them by that handle.
However, I rather like to think that the person who works for the organization is also a person who just likes to talk about what they like and share information from the point of view of just another group member. So my vote for the most common professional title to use would be “Community Participant” or “Social Media Participant”. What do you think? Do you have another title that fits?
Written by Sheila Gregory
May 8, 2012 at 2:49 pm
3 Responses
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Right after this post I found a Tweeter who calls herself a “Conversation Agent” and to be honest, I think I like that title best! Her name is Valeria Maltoni & here is her site: http://www.conversationagent.com
Sheila Gregory
May 8, 2012 at 7:51 pm
I think the following quote actively describes why these Community Managers should be referred to as Community Participant or Conversation Agents.
“(Cindy) Gallop says marketers should approach their relationship with clients on social media the same way they’d do it in real life. “When you meet someone you like, you want to know about them, so you ask them and you tell them things about yourself,” she says. “You reach a point where essentially on both sides you’re saying, ‘I want you to know me.’ That’s the relationship you want to reach with consumers.”
See the article by Todd Wasserman appearing on Mashable: http://linkd.in/JfvrM8
Sheila Gregory
May 9, 2012 at 9:56 am
Here’s another idea: How about “Community Organizer 2.0″? It’s also the name of Debra Askanase’s blog which is where I found the phrase.
Sheila Gregory
June 27, 2012 at 11:15 am