Community Manager: 4 Responsibilities of Community Managers

A community manager acts as a brand ambassador to help bridge the gap between a company and its community. Community managers utilize online marketing channels—social media platforms, job boards, and online forums—to engage with a company’s community, post content, and find new customers. The community manager is part of a company’s marketing team and reports to the marketing director or digital marketing manager.

A social media manager is in charge of consistently posting content to a company’s social media accounts, whereas a community manager focuses on creating a friendly and approachable brand voice, responding to users, and answering questions. Some job descriptions for social media managers include an element of community engagement, but a dedicated community manager’s primary responsibility is responding to comments and building community. A community manager might interact with the community with their personal account or the brand account.

A community manager has many tasks and responsibilities as they work to develop a larger audience for a company. A community manager helps:

1. 1. Create content: The community manager helps brainstorm and develop content for social media campaigns, though they spend less time on content creation and more time moderating and responding to customer feedback.
2. 2. Develop strategies: As part of the marketing team, the community manager works with the social media manager and other colleagues to develop strategies to grow the company’s customer base. As part of the team, they test the digital marketing strategy using analytics tools to track key performance metrics.
3. 3. Engage with the community: The main job of a community manager is to keep a brand’s community active and engaged. The community manager frequently posts on social media to ask questions or reply to comments to show that the brand cares about its online community.
4. 4. Find new customers: A community manager tries to grow a company’s audience. They run initiatives like contests or plan partnerships with influencers to increase the number of community members.

Community manager job descriptions require a few core skill sets, like experience with audience engagement and soft skills like creative thinking. If you want to pursue a community manager role, look to develop your:

1. 1. Communication abilities: Strong communication skills are critical to building a digital community. You must know how to speak and interact with others respectfully and empathetically to build relationships. Using your interpersonal skills to create connections with people in online forums or your social media community is key to building a loyal customer base for your company.
2. 2. Digital marketing experience: Understanding social media marketing is critical for communication managers. You need to know how to use analytics to develop a strong social media strategy and create engaging content for customers that builds brand awareness.
3. 3. Public relations skills: Often, a community manager will be the one to respond to customer feedback or criticism. You must develop strong conflict resolution skills and learn how to engage with customers productively and patiently.

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