Whether you are either looking for a community management job, or looking to create one for your business – it’s not easy due to the lack of one solid defined way of describing everything digital. That’s where we come in.

If you want to do community management and not just social media management, there are a few key things that should be covered in the description.  At the same time, if you’re creating a position make sure to understand the differences between social media management, web producing, technology, community management, marketing, support, and PR.  I recently saw two job descriptions that were so off the mark I almost felt bad for them.  The first was for a “Web Producer Community Manager” which was primarily an IT gig, and my favorite, a “Community Producer.”   Communities cannot be “produced” but that’s a separate post entirely.

Accurate Community Management Job Description Details

The description must say that the goal is to connect people with people. Period.

Define the Who:

• Community Building can be internal or external at a company (are you connecting employees for a very large corporation or are you connecting users?).
• Community Building can be B2B or B2C (are you connecting to businesses in your industry or are you connecting your customers).
• Should focus on the retention of those people, and the support of that community.  This can happen on social media channels, but isn’t limited to just those platforms.

Define the Metrics:

• CMs must go beyond reporting on simple social media growth.  The number of twitter followers or facebook likes does not equal engagement metrics.   (TCM recently ran a 3 part series about community metrics, check out 1, 2, and 3 here)
• Job will measured on what?  Lead generation? Retention stats? Event participation? This is entirely up to the organization, but it should be able to accurately reflect a healthy & engaged community.

(^Editor’s Note: This section has been added to the post since it’s original publication)

The description must provide clear responsibilities related to connecting people with people.

• Activities geared towards connecting users  (Newsletters, Ambassador Programs, Engaging Bloggers, Event Planning are all common examples).
• Mention use of where the community building will take place.  (Owned properties like Blogs, Forums, Website Portals, or Unowned Properties like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc.)

The description can define the background of an ideal candidate and should focus on communication/support (but doesn’t need to be limited to those areas). 

• Anywhere from 2-10 years experience in customer support
• Writing Samples of Blog Posts, Newsletters, other written content
• Experience in designing customer experiences
• Experience developing ambassador programs
• 2-10 years experience in communications
• Examples of community building efforts either using social media or other platforms

The description should NOT include the following:

• “Able to develop a marketing strategy.”  —  Community managers can be strategists (Directors of Community, usually).  They should be able to develop a strategy that enables a business to reach their goals.  However, to task a community manager with an overall marketing strategy falls outside of their purview.
• “Able to grow social media accounts.” — Community managers generally are not tasked with lead creation or finding new users.  A social media marketer will be the person for this job, and a community manager is tasked with metrics based around engagement and retention.  The two positions go very well together as a team, not in one job description. (This isn’t to say community doesn’t happen on social media, it does).
• “Lead troubleshooting of technical issues.” — Leave this to a tech or product team.  A community manager should know this team well, but is not usually part of it.
• “Oversee web planning & development projects.” — Leave this to a tech or product team.  This is what a web data analyst would also come in handy for.

Community Management Job Description Examples

Excellent Examples:

LiveFyre (Paid Internship Position):

– Interacting with the coolest community of bloggers and commenters on the planet
– Writing blog posts and sharing your insights on Community Management
– Join in on dozens of awesome conversations every day
– Meeting other Community Managers and building a network of resources
– Learning how to critique and execute an awesome product pitch
– Developing strategies to increase engagement and interaction
– Eating waffles on Wednesdays and falafels on Friday
– And oh so much more

Huffington Post:

– Work closely with the Lifestyle editorial teams, attending editorial briefings and strategy sessions, and work with them to build content designed to create passion and grow the community on and off the website.

– Get your hands dirty every day writing content, getting to know the communities on each platform and being the face of your vertical and community.

– Keep editors and writers up to date on the best voice, platforms and tools on-site and on social media.

– Work with the moderation team and social team to identify the best community members across social media platforms and the site.

– Measure, analyze, measure some more, and report.

CVS Caremark:

Operations and ensure optimal engagement, social impact and enhanced corporate reputation.
• Design and implement creative communication and field management engagement techniques that drive optimal participation in local philanthropic activities
• Identify, develop and foster relationships with key local and regional nonprofit organizations which fall within the company’s areas of giving focus. Cultivate relationships that drive impact through support of organizations’ social missions. Develop partnerships that are meaningful and drive awareness of our CSR in markets we care about.
• Provides consultation and technical support to leadership in the establishment of community relations goals, objectives, and strategies and develops/ communicates plans to meet established goals.
• Leverage tracking strategies to monitor and evaluate impact of programs in market; develop reports on program effectiveness in market and makes recommendations for program enhancement and improvement
• Manage a budget within community relations cost center, in conjunction with the Senior Director and SVP. Ensures expenditures are within established parameters, emphasizing cost efficiencies.
• Develop innovative programs and strategies through collaboration with business units in field.
• Must perform administrative duties such as data input, product orders. Position requires performing other duties and special assignments not specifically stated.

Not so excellent examples:

Company A:

• Participate in management and moderation of online community to facilitate constructive interaction and member success
• Manage communities located in social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and other similar social media outposts.
• Generate compelling editorial content for community and social media
• Work with internal resources to ensure steady flow of engaging, useful and accurate content for online community and web sites
• Collect and document business requirements, develop execution plans, and project manage the implementation of web projects
• Lead troubleshooting of technical problems
• Develop information architecture, wireframes, and content strategy
• Oversee web planning and development efforts, incl. management of external agencies.
• Gather and report on metrics and insights from online activity
• Stay current on and actively explore emerging online communication tools and facilitate adoption where appropriate

Company B:

• Setting the content strategy and developing and curating content for our social sites including our blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, and others. Includes writing content, helping develop the company’s point of view, and reviewing all content for SEO.
• Owning the project management of everything community related, including building an editorial calendar, managing agencies, and sourcing authors and content.
• Developing the reporting and analysis for social – experience with social monitoring and listening tools, ability to articulate key metrics, and measure, analyze and report on qualitative and quantitative community usage. Work cross-functionally to define metrics and determine impact on business results.
• Participating in the creative development of digital marketing campaigns, marketing collateral, and interactive design. Input on creative concepts and materials for all marketing channels. Should have a keen eye for design, be genuinely enthusiastic about kids and family technology products, and follow buzz worthy campaigns.
• Assisting in market research, including outlining objectives, establishing screening criteria, developing stimulus, fielding research, and presenting findings.
• Have a solid understanding of marketing and be able to participate in marketing plan development including positioning, media plan evaluation, PR plan integration, and local marketing programs.

Company C:

A Social Media Community Manager leads efforts of the planning, development and implementation of social media strategies, editorial calendars, and tactical plans, ensuring that all social media messages, measurement and content are relevant to both the target audience and the departmental objectives.