What do you think? A person who is responsible to post on behalf of your brand on social media is also responsible to create an active social community around your product? The answer is NO.
Managing a social presence on the Internet is in itself a lot of work. You are not only crafting some amazing posts, but you are partially fulfilling your duties as a banner designer and a brand evangelist.
Over the course of time, the evolution of social media has introduced a few interesting roles. For instance, community managers are individuals who are responsible to create a community around the product. And when it comes to community building, social media plays quite an interactive role.
If you are a business aiming to expand yourself socially, adding a few extra roles to your expanding social media team isn’t going to harm your business. But don’t get confused who fulfills what purpose.
Here are some signals to help you differentiate a social media manager from a community manager.
The Major Difference
When we talk about social media managers, they are the people who create a voice for the brand. They are the people who speak on behalf of the brand, communicate as the brand to assist the users.
Unlike social media managers, community managers hold the freedom to respond as themselves. They are associated with the brand but they are not bound to it. They may take part in discussions, but their major focus is to solve the problems of the individuals. By solving problems and with their knowledge, they tend to convert visitors into potential customers. Their consultancy promotes them.
The Community manager finds new and innovative ways to engage with the audience. They are often classified as advocates of the brand. They can be the people who can give you an inside look of the brand. The tasks of a community manager are a little different than that of a social media manager. It is not necessary that a community manager should use the company’s social accounts or his own to promote the business to users. In fact, community managers can use a separate social account with the brand name in the username section. They can create an individual voice to engage as a member.
How does a Community Manager fit in a Business Goal?
Social media managers and community managers are both an integral part of the marketing department. They both work online and can report to the social media or marketing director. They both also work with the social media strategists to ensure that their content and posting are pushed forward in the right direction. And in good firms, the social media community manager is pretty much in the same position as the social media manager. But, they both have different responsibilities.
You will often find a community manager having a strong discussion with the strategists. They discuss ideas and share strategies that may involve engagement opportunities and recruitments to expand. It is a common observation that most community managers go beyond the screen and meet people in person which makes them a representative face of their respective brand.
They can create many social media accounts in different places and can shut them down as per their requirement. Are you on a LinkedIn Subscription plan? Learn how to cancel Linkedin premium.
A social media team requires both individuals, the community manager, and the social media expert to work with each other simultaneously. For example, if a community manager fails to report to the questions asked frequently by the target audience, or if it happens to be that he answers them incorrectly, the social media manager is then responsible to clarify the issue as he is the one who gets contacted. Hence, it is important that community managers should do jobs with full responsibility.
What are the Responsibilities of Both the Managers?
Speaking of social media managers, the important tasks of a social media manager include:
- Every content type which involves social media.
- Everything that includes listening and engagement.
- Social media strategy and analytics on the brand.
Every social media manager works around two things; firstly, they decide what type of content they should publish, and in which pattern and at what time should they publish the content. Secondly, they decide how to source the content, listen and engage with the market accordingly.
On the other hand, the daily tasks of the community manager focus less on the brand’s social pages. A community manager is tasked with the following responsibilities:
- Finding new users and answering their important questions.
- Increase engagement by replying back to community members.
- Strategy building in order to develop a more interactive community.
A community manager is all about interactions. He’s the guy who goes out at large and interacts with the digital community across the Internet. They are highly skilled individuals who are tasked with engaging new and old audiences who are using any product/service related to your product/service.
Interacting with clients/customers associated with the brand outside the virtual world is also a part of their work gimmick. They carry themselves around in full swag so people can enjoy their company.
Their work strategy mostly involves listening to the people and finding ways they can reach out and meet them. Some community managers give voucher codes and other bonuses to create goodwill.
Conclusion
Depending on your organization’s requirements, you need to decide whether you want a social media manager for your business or are looking for options to promote your brand. They both might operate under a single platform, but their responsibilities and tasks differ greatly from one another.
Hope this article helped you in learning both the roles in-depth and with clarity.
