My Best Community Management Blog Posts

I was trying to find a blog post I wrote about community management 2 years ago, and realized that I really had to search to find it. So, I decided to write a blog post that consolidated my best blog posts on this topic to make it easier for me (and my fans) to find these posts.

Adding Gamification to Your Community

This post discusses how to apply gamification and game mechanics to a community site.  It is interesting to see gamification now being applied in a marketing/website/community context, because many marketers and community managers have already been using these techniques to build engagement for several years.  I am more than willing to jump on the gamification bandwagon if it helps push the boundaries for other marketers and community managers.

The Importance of Active Community Management – Proved With Real Data

This post is probably my most popular community blog post and it proves what happens when a community goes from active to passive (or no) management. Using real before and after statistics from the Catalyze community, the statistics are a compelling look at why active community management is so important.

Community Managers and Quarterbacks

In this post, I compare the importance of quarterbacks to a winning football team to the importance of an A+ community manager to a successful community – and ends with the question of “So are you willing to accept mediocrity for your community manager?”

Looking for An Example Community RFP?

In the spirit of social media transparency, I have attached an example of the actual RFP that I used 2 years when I started the community process to develop what eventually became the Catalyze community. One of the vendors who responded to our proposal noted that it was one of the most complete and comprehensive proposals that they had seen.

I made a couple of slight updates to the the RFP, but for the most part I would use this same RFP if I were looking for a vendor today. Feel free to use the example as a template or to give you some ideas for your own request for proposal. I have left blanks where there was proprietary information, but for the most part the template is generic.

Four Community Ideals

I was asked to participate in an interesting collaborative project called the Project 100 which was started by consumer marketer Jeff Caswell.

My four community ideals include:

1. Be transparent
2. Be personal
3. Be compelling
4. Be omnipresent

So, What Do Community Managers Make?

I participated in the Forum One Online Community Compensation Survey in July2008 and wrote this post with the results. While the post is more than 3 years old, the content and insights are still relevant today.

My Social Media Job Description

This is a follow-on blog post that is my most popular post and it provides what would be my ideal social media position. I think the responsibilities should be stated in fairly broad terms without getting into specific tools or techniques. I also don’t like job descriptions that specify a number of years of experience. Instead, a social media expert should be able to point to his body of work – through his blog, his Twitter feed, his LinkedIn profile or Facebook page – and that should be sufficient proof. Finally, a list of key attributes is essential to get an understanding of the candidate’s personality.

While this post does not relate specifically to community management, the person you want to fill your community manager position should have these same characteristics.

The Importance of Regular Community Communication

One of the most important tasks that a community manager needs to do is to regularly communicate with his members. When I was managing the Catalyze community, I accomplished this by sending out an email newsletter every 2 to 3 weeks.  The frequent contact is important from many different angles.  It keeps the community in the front of each member’s mind and reminds them that there is value in the community.

What Are the Characteristics of a Great Community Manager

This post summarized a live chat hosted by The Community Roundtable and introNetworks from August 2009 and included these panelists:

• Jim Storer (@jimstorer) from The Community Roundtable
• Rachel Happe (@rhappe) from The Community Roundtable
• Howard Wahlberg (@howardw) Member Services Director for the National Science Teachers Association
• Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra) Director of Community for Radian6
• Mark Sylvester (@marksylvester) CEO of introNetworks

Is There a Disconnect Between Social Media Job Descriptions and Compensation?

A less-than-satisfying experience with a recruiter for a social marketing/community manager opening at a $1 Billion+ retailer got me thinking this week about social media job descriptions and compensation this week.  I also noticed that the blog post with My Social Media Job Description continues to be my most frequently viewed post.  Plus, I happened to see the summary of Forum One’s 2009 Social Media and Community Compensation Study.

So, a perfect storm of coincidences led me to this conclusion:

For many companies, there appears to be a disconnect between the experience and expertise they seek and the compensation they are offering.

Let’s begin with my first experience this week.  The $1 Billion+ retailer that got me started on this rant is looking for a combination social marketing and community manager.  And this company is not just looking for any old social media “joe”, they want to hire a social media guru who can:

• build a social media and community plan
• execute innovative campaigns
• position key company players and partners as experts
• manage blogs and other social media channels
• collaborate with other departments
• be responsible for customer relationship marketing and segmentation
• have knowledge of ecommerce, content management systems, customer service software and best practices
• create a community central hub
• present the brand online
• stay on top of social media trends and viral technology

Of course, they want a candidate who has excellent verbal and written communication skills,  has a passion for social media and has a demonstrated experience in a wide variety of social activities.  The kicker is that the target salary range for this company is just $50k to $60k per year – which is at least 50% lower than what I would rate the position for a company of this size with a well-known brand especially when the company is lagging in their use of social media.

Next we’ll move to the latest social media community compensation study from Forum One.  The Forum One study is good as it presents some interesting data points in an industry where there is a lack of good data and presents an average salary of $81k.  On the other hand, just looking at the salary averages and median in the report is misleading.  As noted in the excerpt below, there are peaks on both the high end (more than $150k) and on the low end (< $25k).  For medium to large companies and established brands, the peaks on the high end make definite sense.  The peaks on the low end are for non-profit and other volunteer-run communities and should not be included in the averages.

Here is an excerpt from the 2009 Forum One Compensation Report executive summary:

The average salary of the research participants, $81k, is the same as last year. The mean was $77.5k, which is $10k higher last year. As in 2008, there were peaks on both the low ($0-$25k) and high ends (more than $150k). There were also peaks and dips throughout the salary spectrum for 2009, including peaks for the following salary ranges; $50-55k, $65-$70k, $90-$95k and $100-$105k.

Several respondents mentioned feeling like they were being inadequately compensated because of lack of data available regarding community and social media salaries, as well as lack of understanding of community and social media ROI relative to their organization’s activities.

For comparisons to the 2008 report, check out my blog post “So What Do Community Managers Make?”

The entire 2009 40+ page report is available from ForumOne for $99.

From Forum One 2009 Social Media Community Compensation Survey - Average and Median Salary by Region

With that, here is my advice to companies who are in the market for a social media and community people:

1. Broad experience is critical – Social media crosses many corporate silos and in addition to strong social media credentials you should expect your candidate to have experiences in marketing, strategy, product marketing, press and analyst relations, business development, technology, sales, project management and quantitative analysis.  The candidate will need to use all of their vast experience to bear in order to be successful in planning for and implementing social media across your organization.  And by the way, the social media credentials are pretty easy to validate – by just looking at someone’s blog, Twitter stream and LinkedIn profile, you can get a pretty good handle on how someone uses social media in their day-to-day life and how they would use it in your company.
2. Strategy and planning experience is very important too – Social media is not another channel, it is a strategy for listening to and interacting with customers, partners and prospects.  In many cases, the candidate will need to develop and sell the social media strategy internally before embarking on an implementation plan.  And quickly dismiss candidates who have not shown that they are able and willing to roll up their sleeves to implement their social media programs.
3. Look for maturity – The question is: do you really want to trust your social to a 25-year just a couple of years out of college and who has not really been around the block yet?.  I’m not saying that the 25-year old can’t do a great job, it’s just that it’s a risk I wouldn’t take.  In many cases, the candidate will become the external voice for your company and brand, and you want someone who has done this more than once.  The candidate is also going to have to work with people from throughout the company from the C-level executives down to people who actually ‘touch’ the customer so it is important for the candidate to be able to be credible at all of these levels.
4. There are only a so many social media gurus and rockstars – If you specify that you are seeking a social media guru or rock-star, then expect to pay a premium as these people are rare and they have many options.  If you are not willing to pay for this type of expert, then don’t use these descriptors in your job posting.  To further illustrate my point, check out my Spend It On Beckham blog post which includes a discussion of productivity between the best (rockstar) and worst (mediocre) software developers.
5. Be realistic with the salaries – Or as my wife reminds me, “don’t get cheap”.  Getting cheap or settling for second or third string talent when hiring for a social media position is not going to get where you need to go.  In fact, it could even set back your social media efforts by 6 to 12 months or longer.  Check out my blog post on Community Managers and Quarterbacks to see why.  There may not be an comparable salary for this position in your company because you are seeking both a broad generalist who has specific experiences in driving social media programs.  This also means that companies will need to triangulate the salary by comparing positions in several parts of the company and coming up with a hybrid salary model.  This also means that companies will need to triangulate the salary by comparing positions in several parts of the company and coming up with a hybrid salary model.  If you are a medium to large firm with an established brand, you should also try to match your comp ranges to companies in your peer group.

Please share any other ‘disconnect’ experiences so collectively we can educate all companies who will be hiring in the near future to beef up their social media efforts.  I look forward to your comments.

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11/12/09 Update – I just Amber Naslund’s excellent post titled “Hiring for Social Media: The Ugly Side“.  Amber outlines 5 missteps that companies take when putting together social media and community job descriptions.

Without giving away too much, here are 5 missteps that companies make with their job descriptions:

1. Heavy focus on tools
2. Assuming that anyone can do this job (and cheaply)
3. Neglecting engagement
4. Thinking content is inherently valuable
5. Making social media synonymous with traffic or lead generation

Amber’s entire post and extensive list of comments are worth reading too.

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11/13/09 Update – Amber did a follow-up post called “Hiring for Social Media: Good Moves“.  Amber outlines the good moves that several companies are taking and she backs up her recommendations with real excerpts from social media job postings.

Interestingly, she calls out Medtronic ((Social Media Marketing Strategist – Medtronic) in Good Move #1 for their understanding that social media is part of a larger strategy and something that should be woven into business goals.  I found the Metronic job posting last month and thought it was really good too.  And then I realized that it borrowed heavily (and verbatim) from my Social Media Job Description blog post.  It’s a small world…

So, What Do Community Managers Make?

I participated in the Forum One Online Community Compensation Survey in July and the results were just emailed to me last week by Bill Johnston who coordinated the survey.  The research was sponsored by Mzinga, Solution Set and the Online Community Research Network.

Here are my take-aways from the report:

Wide range of salaries - The survey showed a wide range of salaries for community manager positions.   The low-end represents volunteers, part-time staff and people in start-up environments working on developing communities.  While people earning more than $125,000 represent only 16% of total respondents, my sense is that this is the sweet spot for companies that are serious about social media and community strategy – and recognize that these are the salaries that the people filling these roles will command based on the depth and breadth of their experience.  (see my Community Managers and Quarterbacks blog post for more information on that topic.)

Derived from Forum One Aug. 2008 Report on Community Compensation

Disparity of experience levels – The report pointed out that people with less than 3 years of experience accounted for 34% of the total, people with 3-5 years of experience accounted for 19% and people with more than 5 years experience accounted for 47% of the total.  The Forum One conclusion was that “the body of respondents generally represents a senior and seasoned body of practitioners. The dip in responses in the 3yr to 5 yr range likely represents the general waning of interest in online community during the 3 years after the Internet bubble.”  I also think that the large number in the under 3 year category represent employees who are getting involved in community at companies that are just entering the experimentation phase with community and social media – and that these employees had related jobs in marketing, but not specifically community jobs, before getting involved in community.  That is definitely my situation.  I was involved in various product marketing, product strategy and consulting roles before getting assigned a project to develop and launch the Catalyze community.

Variety of job titles – There are a wide variety of reported job titles in the survey including:

CEO, Managing Partner, Community Manager, Director of Community, Director of Product Management, Manager, President, Community Host, Intern, Moderator, Intranet Coordinator, Professor, Social Media Strategist, Social Media Manager, and VP of Community & Social Media, VP of Interactive Development, Director of Knowledge Management, Executive Director, Head of Communities, Social Media Evangelist and VP of Marketing

This may be a self-serving comment, but I think we’ll be seeing more titles like the VP or Director of Social Media and VP or Director of Social Media Strategy as the space matures.  These titles describe how social media is the overarching description of what’s going on and that online community is just a component of a larger strategy.  There will always be community manager roles, but they will report into the Social Media and Social Media Strategy positions.

The entire Community Manager Compensation report can be purchased for $295 from the Online Community Research Network.  You can also download some free research from the Online Community Report website.

BTW, I am in the market for a “sweet” social media strategy and management position.  Check out the About Tom Humbarger tab above if you want to hire an A+ social media person.