As social media becomes an increasingly important part of how companies do communications, marketing and sales, one of the key positions is community and social media managers – people who monitor the social media landscape, and engage in conversations with customers, partners, investors, suppliers and employees.
From the outside looking in, being a community manager looks like a glamorous position because you’re in the middle of the action – and getting paid to use social media tools all day long.
But the reality is that being a community manager is a lot of work that involves a lot of unglamorous blocking and tackling. Many community managers spend all day in front of their computers, trolling the social media landscape for mentions about their company, products and markets.
And the expectation is you’ve got to respond right away – waiting a few hours to respond and engage is seen as bad form.
So rather than being glamorous and exciting, being a community manager can be intense and a grind. It’s a position that plays to someone whose digital engaged with a willingness to do what it takes to meet internal and external expectations – even if it means long hours.
“My day starts on Twitter and it doesn’t really end,” said Alicia Dantico, who handles Twitter for Garrett Popcorn. She told Associated Press that she keeps her BlackBerry all the time so can be on call for her followers in different time zones. “It’s driving my family crazy, but that’s OK.”
The time commitment made by Dantico is pretty typical of community and social media managers for large and small companies. Given social media is such a new activity, the people who are being paid to do it still need to justify their jobs so working long hours is part of the gig.
What I wonder about is the life span for community and social media managers. How long can someone be that digitally engaged before you come down with a bad case of digital burnout?
For now, it’s still the honeymoon period for community and social media jobs but there may come a time pretty soon when the novelty wears off. Then, what?
Note: It’s also my belief that community and social media managers play an important part in a company’s marketing and communications because they work in multiple areas: communications, marketing, business development, customer service and sales.
2 Comments
I sort of disagree, I've been a community manager for a little over a year in two different positions (now I'm actually manager of marketing AND community!) and from my own experience, the type of people who thrive in these positions absolutely LOVE it. Yes I feel like I'm on call 24/7, but I've always been that way with work and more than happy to do it. I don't feel like it interferes with my personal life, (but I'm young and w/o a family, so maybe I just don't have enough of one).
I think in any position, the bottom line is if you *love* what you do, it doesn't feel like work and therefore long hours don't really matter, as long as you're happy doing it.
I'm really passionate about helping people and solving problems, so while others may see these tasks as a pain, I totally embrace it. So it definitely *is* a glamorous job, so long as it's really what you want to be doing.
I don't think I'll burn out as a community manager, but perhaps as I get older and priorities change, my outlook may change as well. (I do doubt that a little though)
Hi Mark,
I think the key is that as companies start to understand the impact of having positions like this, they'll scale that with more people and resources dedicated to similar jobs, and we'll see the idea of "community" or "social media" get more integrated into the entire company so it doesn't rest on the shoulders of one tireless person.
As a community director, in many ways I also see it as my job to affect the INTERNAL evolution that's so important to long term immersion in a community mindset. It's about setting the attitude that everyone should be a community steward, not just people with community in their title. And if you build a culture of customer care, those same customers are amazingly patient with their demands for your attention because you've established trust, and the expectation that you WILL take care of them.
It's not just my job that's "unglamorous". Sure, I have lots of behind the scenes work. But I'd challenge you to find one person in ANY job that thinks their work is all glitz and glam, and not a lot of heavy lifting.
I, for one, am loving the hybrid nature of my job and all the areas of the business I can impact through my work. It suits me perfectly.
Thanks for the post!
Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
@ambercadabra
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