For me, the idea of helping a company and a community interface more effectively and efficiently was a huge draw. I really enjoyed the idea of communicating with the masses to let them know that their voice was being heard, and making sure that it was. Others enjoy the marketing aspects of being a Community Manager, as the job does require a fair bit of skills in this respect, as well as networking, advertising, communications, and more.

One of the reasons that I didn’t stay a Community Manager was because my marketing skills were still very basic, and I didn’t always enjoy that facet of the job. I have always valued transparency, but sometimes transparency can give “the masses” the wrong idea about certain things going on in a company, and the last thing you want to do as a Community Manager is give out information that would go against the goals of the company employing you.

What draws people to community management positions? Is it the balance between networking, communications and marketing? Is it the thrill of helping promote a product, service or company? If the failures and issues of the company you are working for can be a burden to a Community Manager, do the successes then reflect positively as well?

Even though, I no longer work for PicApp, each time they enact one of the suggestions that the community gave them, I still feel a bit of pride. I know that they are listening to their community, and that makes me very happy.

What made you interested in becoming a Community Manager and if you aren’t one already, then is there anything about the career opportunity that interests you?

What it Takes to be a Great Community Manager

Managing a community requires a fair bit of understanding regarding the product, service, or company in order to properly manage the related community. It also requires a personality that can be charismatic, and lead by example, as well as someone that can constantly network and organize.

The best community managers are those that can balance the needs of the company to market themselves or their product with the needs of the community, all the while trying to find avenues to improve the company or product and increase the size of the community.

It can be very difficult to balance everything effectively, and it requires constant communication.

Community managers have to be able to express themselves in the medium that the community prefers. For PicApp, this was almost all text based, and so I found it in line with what I was used to, having been a professional blogger before hand.

I was also lucky with PicApp because I believe that the product/service that PicApp offers fills a need, and in doing so, it made my job easier. We were also fortunate to have some great relationships with various people using the service.

Community managers really need to be experts at a variety of communication, marketing, business strategy and technology skills to effectively manage a community.

Difficulties of Being a Community Manager

One of the hardest parts about being a Community Manager is taking what you learn from the community, and distilling it into useful information that the company can use, and then waiting for a response from the bureaucracy. The smaller the company, the faster the turnaround, and the more likely they will be to listen to their Community Manager. There are companies that have Community Managers as a public relations arm, rather than creating a two way communication channel, they hope only to build up a following and push out information to various “fans”. This can be hugely detrimental over the long term, and if the Community Manager is trying to push changes in the company that aren’t happening, this can be exasperating.

I didn’t experience this during my Community Manager stint at PicApp, but I know of some people that used to have this issue, and were unable to be happy with their role in the company.

Leaving My Community Manager Position

Why did I move on from being the Community Manager at PicApp? It was a great opportunity, and a great company, but they weren’t really in need a Community Manager. The various people involved in the company were deeply involved with the community, and understood where the shortcomings in their product were. They were all so passionate, and listening intently to feedback that I was nothing more than a reminder of things that they already knew. Also, at the time, I didn’t really understand enough of what makes a good Community Manager and wanted to do too many things outside the scope of my role that stopped me from effectively leading the community that they had created and were already leading in the right direction.

Some companies don’t need Community Managers, despite having the position available, while others don’t have Community Managers, and need to hire someone desperately. Doing due diligence in your research, will help you figure out if the company you are interested in working with actually needs your services as a Community Manager.