Christie Fidura 10 September 2015

Categories Content, Social Media, Strategy & Operations

2 Tips For Novice Community Managers

To add to Amanda's fantastic Community Manager tips, here are my top 2 tips for novice Community Managers.

Amanda Foley

just published a great post titled 4 Lessons I’ve Learned as a Community Manager. Amanda’s been working as a Community Manager for 4 years now, so she really knows her stuff. To summarise her top points:

1. Be Adaptable

2. Follow Up!

3. Plan Ahead

4. You Really Gotta Love It

(Told you she knew her stuff!)

Amanda’s post was published the same day that I was asked to share my ideas for what I wish I had known when I started as a Community Manager for an upcoming e-book. So to add to Amanda’s fantastic list, here are my top 2 tips for novice Community Managers:
 

1. Learn how to listen. Practise with your friends, your annoying brother, or even better, your mother. Try to separate the key themes the person is discussing from the way he says it; in other words, remove his emotion from his statements. Once you understand those key theme(s), you can respond appropriately, ensuring your feedback has a greater resonance. It also helps you establish an action plan for how to repair the situation. And, as a side benefit, it makes you a good person.
    

2. Prove the value and preach it. It’s up to you to act as the internal evangelist of your community to all your stakeholders. If you can’t prove that the community is valuable, the community is already on its death march. The organisation will have no choice but to eradicate an invaluable resource so don’t give it the chance. Talk to your stakeholders, find out what is important to each, and figure out how to show/prove/demonstrate that the community is helping with the delivery of those same goals. And never stop talking about the community’s value to everyone in your organisation.
    

So come on, fellow Community Managers - what can you add to mine and Amanda’s lists? Tweet me at @cfidurauk and Amanda at @_AmandaFoley!

Original Article

Find out more on the future of Content Marketing at our DLUK - Trends briefing on the 24th September 2015