We recently had a member call on Hiring for Community Management and also discussed the topic at last week's #TheCRLive. It's a hot topic for a variety of reasons. There is growing interest in the field and growing demand for community managers. Our members' had some additional perspectives:
- Community an social media management job descriptions vary widely with little consistency
- There are a number of business functions and processes that community managers can support but often the specifics are also inconsistently articulated in job descriptions
- Expectations of community manager roles and compensation are not very well aligned
- Hiring organizations don't necessarily know what is reasonable to expect from different levels of community managers or are not always able to identify the level of experience they need
- The attributes of community managers are often more important than the skills or experience but that is not the way most organizations hire
Because Community Roundtable members like Rachel Makool, Dawn Lacallade, and Amber Naslund have more experience than most with regards to hiring community managers we think there is an opportunity to work with our members to develop baseline job descriptions and salary ranges for the following positions:
- Social Media Expert
- Moderator
- Community Manager
- Director of Community
- VP of Social/Community
Like any other type of organizational role, as the position becomes more senior, more strategy/planning/management responsibilities are included and compensation should rise accordingly. We see a lot of job recs being posted that are looking for people with 1-3 years of experience compensated for that level but also wanting those people to own the social strategy, policies, and internal evangalism. The effort to find a good match for that rec is likely to be frustrating - while there are plenty of young and ambitious potential employees that understand social software tools very well and are eager to take on an organization's social initiative, they may not have the management and organizational experience needed to effectively champion and execute the strategy. Those young people who do have the skills to build and execute a new organizational strategy are like their more experienced peers in knowing that it deserves a higher level of compensation.
There are two problems causing even further frustration. The first problem is that many social initiatives right now are pilot or new initiatives that just barely have the funding for one junior position who may not have the business and management experience necessary to be successful. This is a chicken and egg problem - without a experienced community manager, the initiative may not be successful but the organization can't afford an experienced person until the initiative is successful. The second problem is that for those organizations that realize they need a mid-level to senior person to develop and execute an appropriate social strategy, there is a fairly small group of individuals with that experience and very often not in the location needed.
There are a few ways organizations can manage this situation:
- Hire consultants. Many experienced community managers have become consultants (Rachel Makool, Sean O'Driscoll, Jake McKee, Janet Fouts, and Dawn Foster are examples) and are in demand for helping companies navigate the transition from pilot to operational communities.
- Outsource moderation and/or community management. eModeration, Tempero, LiveWorld, Fresh Networks, and Impact Interactions all offer some combination of moderation and community management. These services can help companies who are starting out, exploring, and experimenting. In particular, moderation is often outsourced completely as needs often fluctuate significantly over time.
- Spend time seeking out and investing in understanding the most effective use of human resources. Human resources are critical to the success of a social initiatives but if the role and responsibilities are not clear and appropriately aligned, it can lead to a lot of frustration on both the part of the organization and on the part of employee. The more the hiring managers understands, the better off the outcomes will be. Consultants, training, and services like ours can help tremendously with understanding how to effectively hire and use community management.
Are you looking for a social media or community manager? While we are not a recruiting agency we do hear from a lot of hiring managers and individuals looking for jobs and it's gotten too much to manage in an ad hoc way. However, if you fill out the form below we can match it relatively easily with a growing database of job seekers and are happy to make a connection.
- Name*
FirstLast
- Email*
- Hiring Company*
- Hiring Company's Website*
- Link to Job Description
- Job Location*
- Is a remote/virtual hire acceptable?*
- How many years of community management experience is required?
Please enter a value between 0 and 20.
- Reporting Structure*
Who does this position report to and in what functional group?
- What level position are you looking for?*
- Individual contributor
- Manager
- Director
- VP or above
- What is the salary range for this position?*
- 1) Strategy: Does this role have strategic planning responsibilities?*
- Yes, this role owns the social strategy
- Yes, this role contributes to the social strategy
- No
- 2) Leadership: How will this role interact with executives?*
- Collaborate with them
- Present to them
- Evangalize to them
- Listen & research for them
- Ghost tweet/blog for them
- None of the above
- 3) Culture: What role and responsibilities with this person have with regard to internal evangalism/cultural change?*
- 4) Community Management: What community management responsibilities will this role have?*
- Membership management
- Member engagement
- Moderation & policy enforcement
- High volume moderation (using tools)
- Social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
- Collaboration
- Metrics & reporting
- Policy/guideline development
- Survey development
- Tool selection & management
- Coaching/training
- None of the above
- 5) Content & Programming: What content responsibilities will this role have?*
- Blogging
- Microblogging
- Podcasting
- Online video
- Program planning
- Webinar planning
- Event planning
- Newsletter development & management
- None of the above
- 6) Policies & Governance: What will this role be responsible for?*
- Writing legal policies
- Contributing to legal policies
- Writing guidelines (not legal documents)
- Contributing to guidelines
- Enforcing policies & guidelines
- Working with authorities on violations
- None of the above
- 7) Tools: Which tools will this position be responsible for?*
- White label community or social software
- Blogging software
- Wiki software
- Podcast device, editing, and publishing tools
- Video device, editing, and publishing tools
- Content management solutions
- Content management solutions
- SEO/SEM methods or tools
- Web analytics
- Listening
- Enterprise search
- None of the above
- 8) Metrics & Measurement: What tracking & reporting will this position be responsible for?*
- Activity tracking (Web Analytics)
- Conversation tracking (Text analysis)
- Social network analysis
- Influencer tracking
- Systems dynamics or behavior modeling
- None of the above
- Anything else you are looking for in a candidate?
Also feel free to tell us what your hiring priorities are.
- May we share your contact information with candidates who have the experience for which you are looking?*
We will share your name and email address with candidates.
Cross-posted from: Link to original post
The Community Roundtable is a peer network for community managers and social media practitioners