Uncover what character traits you need as a community manager to stay at the top of your game in 2014 and beyond.
Social media is evolving rapidly, its goalposts are shifting on a month-by-month basis. In order to stay ahead of the curve, the successful community manager of the future must exhibit the following key characteristics:
The Advocate
The savvy community manager knows that social media engagement isn’t about trying to directly influence people. It’s actually about encouraging customers to influence one another. Here’s a useful analogy:
…knows who everyone is talking to + steers the conversation + doesn’t dominate it
=
Everyone ends up feeling connected; sharing, talking and most importantly, having a great time.
They then tell everyone else about your ‘party’ afterwards.
The most exciting thing about social media – and its biggest challenge?
The party never ends.
A host with the most guests? Think about the major e-commerce sites and how they reward prolific reviewers, empowering some to become official spokespeople and, in the process, legitimising their social media channels in the eyes of their customers.
Facebook posts with photos…
$1.1 billion
…is what Yahoo! paid for image-powered Tumblr in 2013.
12%
boost in website traffic when infographics are deployed.
It all adds up to one thing – the community manager of the future needs to get visual.
Think
Instagrams and Vines
…for bite-sized content.
Infographics and Video
…for awareness articles.
Slideshares and Uberflips
…for more rich, in-depth postings.
More and more consumers are accessing social media via their smartphones.
So the savvy community manager must:
Think mobile
…creating rich content, optimised for whatever size screen it appears on.
The social media world is in a state of constant flux.
The smart community manager knows not to stick to hard and fast rules, but to keep an ever-vigil eye on existing and emerging social media channels – ready to embrace fresh opportunities.
Community managers can adapt quickly with this attitude – making the right content deployment calls while embracing new channels, platforms and styles of storytelling.
Most importantly, the community manager will ensure their team is constantly creating a pool of content, so the manager has resources to call on for any eventuality or market shift.
The modern community manager doesn’t think…
…sell, sales, cold call, in-your-face…
…when reaching out to consumers or prospects. Instead, they think…
…entertainment, help, value, engagement, shareable, interactive.
To be able to engage with consumers, the community manager must know what the customer of the future wants. In 2015, shoppers will…
… always be connected.
…have opinions and want to share them immediately.
…want authenticity from their brands.
…demand immediacy and transparency.
The savvy community manager understands that in a constantly evolving social media world, you need software tools in place to enable the organisation, collaboration and deployment of your ever-changing strategies, tactics and content.
A hub to house all your social media channel plans.
Be open to changes and evolution within the social media world.
Engage with customers – but don’t dominate them.
Embrace mobile – or be left behind.
Deploy visual-driven content to engage consumer interest.
Learn who your customers are; study and reevaluate your marketing personas regularly.
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