Do You Have the Skills to Be a Social Media Community Manager?
If you are here right now reading this, you are probably wondering if you are a good or great social media community manager. Maybe you are looking to hire someone in this role for your company or organization.
Look no further as I am going to provide you some key skills that your social media community manager should have. So, take out your notepad or open notes tab on your computer because here we go!
#1 — Empathy
You do not want to come across that you know everything or come off condescending to your followers. If your followers are having concerns, listen to them. If you want to become more genuine, be empathetic. This means putting yourself in the shoes of your customers or followers. By doing this, you are taking a step back and looking at things from their eyes. Learning what their concerns may be, you can then create content and communicate to their needs. Doing so, you act more as a family member instead of an organization account. Showcasing empathy can have followers feel that they are communicating with a real person and not a robot with auto responses.
#2 — Positivity
People will get upset. If you are working for a sports organization, upset may be an understatement. Reassure the direction of the organization and team. If you acknowledge things are going downhill, it will be like you are accepting defeat. Take youth sports for an example. A team may lose in the championship. Communicate to the parents that your club is proud of the development and accomplishments of the entire team. It takes a community effort to get to a National Championship. Even with a loss, this is still a great accomplishment. This will mean more than saying we lost with a score of 2–0.
#3 — Engaged
As part manager, engage with the people who want to have a conversation. This may mean communicating in the comments, answering Direct Messages, and continuing posting content. Even if you don’t have anything to post, reshare something that your followers shared as user generated content. This can pay huge dividends as 1) They see you are looking at content they share and 2) Make them feel important by sharing something they created.
The list can go on which skills a social media community manager should have. By the time we would get through them all, it will be time for me to head back to work. Are you ready to implement these few skills into your role? Do you have some more ideas on what you may be looking for someone as a potential hire? If you are just getting into social media, these will be even more important as you start to build a following and make sure that your followers trust you. At the end of the day, being true to who you are and acting as an individual rather than an organization will help increase growth within your community as you continue to foster engagement.
