By now, I think most of us have an idea of what the role of the Community Manager entails.

Of course, as the role is still constantly evolving and changing it requires us to be on our toes 24/7.  As a community manager you have to take a good look at the company you’re working for and assess your true needs for the position. Depending on whether you’re at an agency or a start-up, the needs of the roles may include many different tasks and duties.

Communities will always differ wherever you find yourself working. That’s why personality makes up a huge part of the Community Manager role for each brand.

Do you have the right personality?

Take a look at the community you’re going to be working with before you take a position. The hiring manager should be well versed in understanding the needs of the open position because with whoever they hire, it needs to be a perfect fit.

Sometimes a person can adapt to many types of communities, but this doesn’t always hold true. The Community Manager for a liquor company is going to have a completely different personality than one for a healthcare company or a family oriented product. Then of course, you might be the face of a fictional cereal character, such as with my own experience, and it turned out it wasn’t the right role for me.

The mix of the CM’s personality and the brand’s persona is very important. If there isn’t a balance, it might not work out for either side.

If you’re assessing a new job opportunity, and are tasked with creating a balanced personality for a new brand, you need to look at language, tone, attitude, and many other aspects. You don’t want to find yourself saying the wrong thing and offending community members or the company you represent. Like the saying goes: “Loose lips sink ships. It’s a lot easier to sink a ship than to raise it from the muggy depths.

Especially if your personality as the CM is a bit different then that of the community you’re managing, you need to be careful about what you say. There have been perfect examples with those behind the accounts for The Red Cross and Entenmann’s. Slips do happen.  All you can do is be honest, apologize and hope for the best.

Remember, it’s the community that matters first and foremost and you want to be able to talk and engage with them in the best way as possible. If the community manager is speaking in a language the community doesn’t understand, it probably wont work out.