Are you thinking of hiring a community manager?  Here’s a sample community manager job
description for you.

But wait! You need to think about a few things first.

For example: Note that the position can be more or less administrative/operational, more or less technical, and more or less publicly visible. You may want your community manager to be someone behind the scenes who quietly ensures the system is running smoothly and questions get answered – or you may want your community manager to be a very visible and active part of the community, posting discussions, responding and conversing with members, being a public resource. Do you need more of a people person?  Or do you need more of a technical help-desk administrator?  Should your CM also be a subject matter expert, someone from the industry you serve? Should your CM be responsible for creating and curating lots of content, as well as marketing the community outside the community itself?  And how does this position differ from your social media manager (or how does it relate to the activities your SM manager does?    Make sure you have addressed these questions before you hire the wrong person.

Once you’ve thought these things through, here are some general CM responsibilities you can use to put together the right description for the person you need.

SAMPLE JOB DESCRIPTION: ONLINE COMMUNITY MANAGER

• TECHNICAL/HELPDESK/ADMIN:
  • Oversees all technical and system administration aspects of the community. This includes working with the community platform vendor to address, resolve, and communicate any issues related to the features and functionality of the community;
  • Provides technical support to members and staff;
  • Manages and troubleshoots regular platform upgrades;
  • Recommends and implements new community features as appropriate.
• COMMUNICATIONS/MARKETING/PR/CONTENT:
  • Works with Communications Manager to develop and implement community promotion and engagement strategies and tactics as they relate to the communications division and the organization’s strategic goals.
  • Coordinates with Marketing/Public Relations, Communications, Education, and Foundation and other divisions’ staff to ensure successful coordinated campaigns for communication, fund-raising, and education.
  • Works with Social Media Specialist, Membership, Marketing, and other divisions to coordinate community postings as appropriate across the organization’s other digital channels.
  • Communicates and promotes new community features or procedures to members and staff.
  • Contributes to related communication vehicles and ensure the integration of community for promotion and awareness building.
  • Promotes and evangelizes community activities internally.
• MODERATION/MONITORING & RESPONDING:
  • Creates/manages the moderation and terms of use policies.
  • Monitors discussions, responds in a timely fashion where appropriate (or ensures relevant responders are “nudged” to respond)
  • Alerts Communications Manager and appropriate staff as issues arise and work with staff to resolve issues.
  • Maintains a Responders List of members and/or staff who can be reached quickly to respond to specific questions.
  • Networks with community members and identifies Community Champions.
  • Works behind the scenes to ensure engagement.
• TRAINING:
  • Develops and maintains community training resources, guidelines, and policies.
  • Trains other staff on how to participate and engage in the community.
  • Provides internal and external community training as necessary.
  • Trains and empowers Community Champions to participate on a more significant engagement level.
• REPORTING:
  • Monitors and measures the success of community engagement (i.e. number of power users, number of discussions, etc.), and provides reports for Communications Manager and executives.
  • Identifies and reports on community trends to internal teams and advises on potential opportunities or risks.
  • Tracks KPIs related to Social CRM goals such as recruitment, retention or outreach goals.

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