More often than not, when people talk about a community manager, they’re mostly talking about somebody who just puts crap on Facebook and Twitter. Every once in a rare while, we have someone who does the job so well that reminds us that community managers can be so much more than some order taking college kid with a mouse attached to their hand.
I recently came upon a post on Gizmodo, that highlighted one such individual.
Community Manager of the Year (so far): Dan, from Optus.
Dan showed us the best in community management. That your community manager is more than some person just who throws memes, and cat videos, and other crap on your Facebook page. There is a link between your brand and your customers and how your community manager handles both the positive and negative, when done correctly, really defines how a brand does social.
We often hear horror stories about the community managers who “do it wrong.” These are the ones who attacked the customer, lose their temper, or otherwise make the brand look badly.
If you look at the way Dan handles all of this dissent he does it with grace and class never once intending to make the customer feel badly.
Job Opening: Entry Level Position to Represent Our Brand Online
So yeah, most companies will probably still think of community managers is some entry level position they can just pass off on the nearest college kid or millennium. And yes, most companies will never face this level of backlash or negative criticism. The best most brands hope for is that people talk to them at all.
Yet interestingly enough most companies don’t even consider how much power the community manager has to shape brand perceptions.
The point is: community managers can be much more then what we currently think of them as, and Dan is a shining example.