Roles & Responsibilities

Roles are the positions team members assume or are assigned - the part that each person plays in the organization.

There is no guaranteed success. “If you build it, they will come,” they say. Well, they are wrong. It should be, “If you build it, take a strategic approach, train and integrate your team tightly, carefully review results, modify your approach, and operate on a clear cadence, they will probably come.”

Your goal is to keep the business vision and community mission front and centre in people’s minds. Just like company values, vision and missions are like trees: they need oxygen to stay alive, grow, and thrive. They need to play a daily role in your team members’ lives. They should be plastered all over the walls of your office. They should be reinforced in staff meetings and company seminars. They should be the basis of your performance reviews: did the team really have an impact on your broader business vision and (not or) your community mission? You need to define this and constantly remind people of these values on a day-to-day basis.

Data Driven Community Manager

An online community manager plays five roles.

  1. The friend: engages people individually. He participates in an online community, he messages lots of people to get them involved, he takes the time to cultivate loosely interested members into regulars.

  2. The recruiter: persuades people to join the online community. He finds people that have something to contribute and builds relationships with them to join and invite others to do the same. He ensures steady supply of members to replace those that leave.

  3. The enforcer: The enforcer keeps things clean. He removes the naughty posts, scolds the bad members and ensures nothing gets in the way of members participating in the online community.

  4. The editor: Implements much of the community strategy. He solicits content, decides who/what matters. He has the power to shine a spotlight on members of the community and reward positive actions. Whenever you want the community to do something, he motivates them to do it.

  5. The entrepreneur: is to an online community what a business development manager is to a business. He looks for opportunities to add value to the community. Creates alliances, advocates on behalf of the community and generates the income.

Here are some online groups and forums, where community managers hang out online.

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