Looking for Community Manager Hiring Tips

[Kevin Long]

I am interviewing candidates for a Copywriter and Community Manager
position at CrowdCompass.
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/wri/2865884596.html

I am checking for:
1) Writing skills
2) Social media engagement skills
3) PR skills
4) Pitching skills

What other areas should I be evaluating?

[missburrows]

Hi Kevin,

We appreciate you asking for help. Community Management is a
misunderstood profession and the more clarity we can bring to it, the
better. From your job description I would say that you are looking
more
for a writer/social media marketer than a true Community Manager
(Where
is your community?). If this is true, I would write more about what
social media channels they would be responsible for: Twitter, Facebook
account, etc. so that they (and you) would understand the full scope
of
the job.

In addition, I see nothing about the big E: Engagement. Social media
and
content works best when it is a two way street. Just pumping out
information without engagement won't get you the brand evangelists you
crave.

To recap:
If this is really just a copy writer/content creation job you should
name is thusly.
If you are seeking a social media marketer, ask them about engagement
and poise under pressure.

Hope this helps! Good luck. -- Lia Hollander

--
Lia Hollander

On Feb 24, 10:18 am, Kevin Long <kl...@crowdcompass.com> wrote:
> I am interviewing candidates for a Copywriter and Community Manager

> position at CrowdCompass.http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/wri/2865884596.html

[Ben Fowler]

Hi Kevin. Agree with everything Lisa is saying. More on the segregation (and intersection) between online community and social media marketing can be found on my blog here. 

Regardless of the type of community (external/social media marketing or internal/customer support/collaboration), I think another area to evaluate would be plain old fashioned customer service. Whoever is in the community manager driver seat needs to be extremely empathetic and responsive to your customers or stakeholders. 

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[Chuck Kisselburg]

Hi Kevin.  Great advice from both Lia and Ben.  One item to consider is the classic intersection of how Community Management and Marketing/PR interact -- or don't.  My point is a Community Manager role should engage and foster the growth of a community.  "Trust" is what needs to stem from the root of this position.  Successful community management means the Community Manager "should" be seen as an internal advocate of the community being served.  In turn the community should view the Community Manager as their person on the "inside".  Because of that the Community Manager needs to walk a diplomatic line in communicating between the community and the company.

The potential for conflict arises when the Community Manager is asked to take on more of a marketing/PR role.  While marketing/PR is designed to provide content, news, informational updates external to the company, it does so in the best interest of the company.  The "community" can detect an honest conversation over a message designed to highlight the organization only.  With that said if the message which comes from the Community Manager is more (or fairly often) "PR-speak" there's the potential for the Community Manager to loose the trust of the community.  The community (and I will over simplify this example) needs to feel that if they feel something about sucks about the company, product or a specific product release, the Community Manager should be able to openly say, "Yeah, I agree.  We messed up on that one.  Thanks for pointing this out and here is what's being done about it.... I will keep you informed on updates and potentially enlist the community's help on testing." 

For this to be successful upper management needs to embrace this concept and ride the wave.  If allowed to do so a fiercely loyal community can develop.

My fear is if a company is looking for someone to fill a Community Manager position, where the various job duties conflict, it may be setting the Community Manager up for failure.  Just thinking out loud here.....  Might you wish to explore someone on the Dev./QA/Support teams as taking on the Community Manager position for now, leaving a clear distinction between the Community Manager and the Marketing/PR side of the house?

Chuck