Starting out in community management? Looking to make a career change and pivot into a community manager job, though you’re not entirely sure how to go about it?
We can help! In this guide, we’re looking at what the role of community manager entails, as well as your would-be responsibilities and salaries.
Use this as a roadmap to a fulfilling role. 👇
“[Community-led growth] is about providing value to your community. Their behavior and feedback drives the company in product development, event planning, acquisition, and more. Customers are the main force behind the growth of a business, so it’s about making sure they feel valued and heard.” —Christina Graham, Community Manager at The Alliance
The community manager role
Being a community manager means overseeing, engaging, and growing a community around a brand, product, or interest. The role requires many different skills, especially in communication and customer service, but it’s not unusual for certain roles to require marketing skills.
After all, community managers play a vital role in building relationships between an org or brand and its audience.
So, here are the overall skills and responsibilities you can expect to find in a community manager role:
Key skills
- Communication: Community managers need to have great written and verbal communication skills. This helps you to engage with community members and convey your company’s messaging in the most effective way.
- Interpersonal skills: This is all about the ability to build relationships, manage conflicts, and build a sense of community.
- Content creation: As a community manager, you’re expected to create engaging content, including writing.
- Analytical skills: How else to measure the success of your community strategies than by taking metrics into account and being proficient with analytics tools?
- Organizational skills: Community managers wear a lot of hats, so you must be able to organize your time and manage several tasks at once, from events to member interactions.
- Adaptability: The ability to adapt to changing trends, tech, and community needs is an important skill for community managers.
Key responsibilities
Community engagement
Community manager jobs include interacting with community members, including responding to messages, comments, and questions, whether on social media, on your own platform, on forums, etc.
You’re also expected to encourage conversations and participation among the community members.
Hannah Wesson
Content creation
This is a skill for a reason. Many community manager roles will require you to develop posts, blogs, newsletters, and other types of content that engage the community.
You may also have to curate existing content, from articles and videos to user-generated content.
Moderation
Community guidelines must be followed in order to ensure a healthy and vibrant community. As a community manager, you must ensure that conversations adhere to these rules and that the environment remains respectful.
Another important responsibility is addressing and resolving conflicts, as well as managing negative interactions with diplomacy.
Monitoring trends
Community manager jobs tend to include looking for relevant trends, influencers, hashtags, keywords, and more, allowing for the community to reach a wider audience (and grow).
So, a big part of your role would be to understand what’s trending, what your competitors are doing, what members want to see in the community, etc.
Analytics and reporting
You’re also going to be expected to track metrics (engagement and growth, for example), as well as other key performance indicators.
On top of this, you must also provide feedback to your team about community trends and suggestions.
Strategy
As a community manager, you’ll probably have to develop and execute strategies and campaigns with the goal to further engage the community.
For this, you can use feedback from members to inform your decisions.
Event management
Planning and managing virtual and in-person events, webinars, and meetups is part of a community manager’s repertoire.
And, of course, you must also build up the excitement in the community by making people aware of the events and promoting them.
Aligning with business goals
It’s part of a community manager’s job to create a plan or strategy that helps their org achieve their goals, by aligning the community’s objectives with those of the business.
For instance, if your company wants to increase the number of customers they have for a product or service, you must find ways to use the community to reach that goal, such as collecting emails and sending out newsletters.
Safe space
It’s crucial that online communities remain a safe and inclusive place, so, as a community manager, it’s your job to make that happen. This starts with the onboarding process by sharing helpful resources, for instance.
Jade Warne
Gamifying the experience
While not all communities will have gamification aspects, there’s no denying this can lead to incredible results.
Think about some of the most popular communities, such as Reddit—gamification elements include an upvoting system. Other communities have badges that recognise members, and you can even create leaderboards that showcase the top participants in the community (encouraging others to contribute).
Finding advocates
As mentioned, community managers must spot top contributors in the community, as well as influencers, which can help you to curate a group of advocates who can help you to champion your community (and help it grow). Advocates can create content, host events, etc.
“Every company has its own advocates. Even a heating oil company in the B2B SME sector or a debt collection company in the financial services sector have advocates.
"According to Jakob Nielsen's "90:9:1 rule", 1% of all customers are potential advocates, i.e. 1% are willing to actively promote the company of which they are a customer, 9% do so occasionally, and the rest follow passively. For companies, this is an important asset that is worth using systematically – preferably with a strategy.” – Alexander Meili, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Business Development at Cornèr Bank
Assistant community manager job description
But what if you’re a newbie who doesn’t want to jump straight into managing their own community, but would rather start as an assistant to get a lay of the land and learn the basics? What would you need and how much would that position pay?
In essence, your responsibilities would include:
- The day-to-day management and admin support of the community
- Engaging the community (responding to questions, getting feedback from members, facilitating discussions, identifying key influencers in the community, etc.)
- Content creation, such as newsletters and blog posts.
- Planning and executing community events, both online and offline, like meetups and webinars.
- Growing the community by assisting in implementing strategies for engagement, as well as analyzing metrics and spotting areas for improvement.
Qualifications tend to include:
- Previous experience in customer service, social media, or community management.
- Strong written and verbal skills.
- Great interpersonal skills.
- Proficiency in social media platforms.
- Creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Strong multitasking and organizational skills.
Agita Jaunzeme
Community manager salary
Let’s get one of the most important things out of the way—what are community manager salaries like?
We’ve put together the average yearly salaries (according to Glassdoor) for this role across different countries and regions, to help you get a sense of what you can expect—and help you to make your case for more.
- In the US: $61,068
- In the UK: £36,239
- In Canada: $54,654
- In India: ₹7,00000
These are averages, meaning community managers with more experience can make a lot more.
For example, the salary for community manager jobs at Google can range from between $73,000 to $131,000. The same role at LinkedIn can pay anything between $93,000 and $164,000, while a Community Manager at Discord may make between $51,000 and $82,000.
Where to find community manager jobs?
There are many places where you can find your next community manager job, such as:
Job search sites
- Indeed
- Reed
- Monster
- TotalJobs
- Google Jobs (aggregate)
Glassdoor
While not exactly a job search platform, you can still find listings with company reviews and salaries, which can give you good insights into a specific org you're considering.
Company sites
- You can apply directly in the career pages of companies you're interested in, since many list job openings on their own sites on top of listing them on job boards (and, sometimes, before that).
- Many large tech companies, such as Google, often have dedicated community manager roles, so make a habit of checking them to see what's open.
Professional networks
- Industry events where you can network, such as conferences and meetups. Often, you'll find potential employers there and learn about job openings.
- Participate in online forums and communities about community management, such as the Community-Led Alliance channel.
Your Guide to Customer and Community Engagement is a great companion to those wanting to nurture and grow their communities, so get your free copy for insights into how to best engage people.
Jade Warne
