#general
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What does "community management" mean to you?
I'm asking because I feel like the concept of "creating a community around your brand" is something that I've seen a lot about recently (new buzzword?) but a lot of the open roles called "community manager" or the like on LinkedIn are solely related to organic social media management... which to me isn't the only component of it.
But at the same time I'm not sure if the idea of a branded community or forum (which is one of the things I associate with "community management") is super outdated in 2022 😂 so I'd love to hear what other people think too!
@Tatiana Morand I feel like when the business world discovered the word "community" they immediately watered it down to a euphemism for "our customers." When social media came to prominence, it evolved to include "anyone who follows us."
I'd agree that creating organic content is a far cry from managing a community.
The thing about REAL communities, online or not, is that they're typically built bottom-up. Geeks who are interested in a thing (be it the area where they live or a video game or whatever) congregate, use communication tools that suit their needs, develop norms, self-police, create in-group/out-group dynamics, etc. Superusers appear as champions out of passion and a sense of ownership.
Trying to force a top-down community by slapping a tagline on a forum rarely works.
I don't think the idea of the power of community is outdated at all in 2022. Online communities drive tons of culture and create revenue... but brands are not really in control of them. Legit community creation as a business strategy involves serious long term vision and a buttload of resources to patiently foster bottom-up growth, with high chance of losing control (kind of the point, actually). But of course, executive mentality is easily addicted to short-term, cost effective, top-down execution. Hence "community management" devolves into "post stuff on twitter and get more followers" (an approach that I would say is outdated but I guarantee some aging execs will still "discover" and think is totally cutting edge, for years to come).
In sum, true (online) community is:
• Driven by a passionate interest among geeks
• By extension, it creates superusers (1% of the community that contributes ~50% of the content)
• Self-policing
• Organically creates norms
• Chooses its own communication tools
True community management would involving fostering this kind of organic growth and/or making sure the brand has eyes on what's happening in a community that's relevant to them.
Yes! Love this explanation. Thanks for putting this into words.
Cheers!
Maybe I am old school but every time I see postings or companies using "community manager" as a job, it takes me back to the early internet era days when people used to run online forums and chat servers. Also Kudos to @Jordy Fujiwara for a well throughout explanation!