Different Types of Community Managers

Maximize your professional results by working out what CM category you fit into

Different types of community managers have different roles. Understanding this is essential, according to Ana Marín (@anamarinen)–a creative strategist with over a decade of experience in advertising and working with digital and creative agencies. She has also won more than 50 awards in Latin America and is a leader in her field at McCann Worldgroup.

Discover the different objectives these roles have and identify your strengths so that you can offer effective solutions to your clients.

For Ana, this is the easiest way to work out what type of community manager (CM) you are:

Brand CM

Their job is mainly creative, and their role focuses on increasing engagement and interacting with the public, generating conversations, and assuring that all messages fit the brand’s tone of voice.

Basic characteristics of this type of community manager:

–They form part of an agency’s creative team
–They are in constant contact with those who are in charge of developing a campaign strategy
–They know the brand values inside out
–They set out to interact with the public using the voice of the brand and its language
–Not just experts in social media, they are also experts in product

Customer Service CM

They interact with consumers and guarantee that the company’s services are working efficiently and follow up on feedback.

Basic characteristics of this type of community manager:

–They are in permanent contact with customer services and call center areas (technicians, sales, distribution, etc.).
–They follow predetermined scripts (sometimes they develop decision trees to create bots that attend to customers in a personalized manner, making the processes more efficient).
–Their job is less creative and more focused on immediate reactions to established processes.
–They document their interactions to register problems and FAQs.

Locating yourself on the map

On a daily basis, every community manager uses tools for managing their workflow, publishing posts, and planning. However, the role will depend on the type of activity the CM is carrying out and their objectives, which is why you need to define the latter to work out what CM category you fit into.

To do so, you must understand the client’s needs as well as your own strengths and professional interests.

“What do I like, and what am I good at?” is one of the first questions you should ask yourself in order to work out what type of CM you are. Ana recommends that you reflect on which side of the role you are more suited to. If it’s the strategic and creative side of the job, then you’re probably more of a brand CM. If you prefer to be involved in dealing with complaints, doubts, and customer service, you are more suited to the role of a service CM.

Essential skills

No matter which category of community manager you fall into, this role means being a representative of a brand. That’s why it’s essential to have mastered the following skills:

–Excellent grammar and spelling and experience in producing written communications in different formats
–Emotional intelligence that enables you to face conflicts in an assertive way
–Experience in managing social media tools
–A curiosity that catapults you into constantly learning and updating yourself about new trends and tools for digital platforms, as well as software and editing

If you want to learn more about the art of managing social media and becoming a voice for a brand, sign up to the course, Introduction to Community Management, and discover how to execute a successful content plan: from terminology to essential tools.

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