It’s an exciting time when your community starts to grow so much to the point where you need to bring more people on board, such as a community manager. That’s when you know you’re on your way to starting a movement. Who do you look to when soliciting help though?
Megan Abell, the Deputy Director of Mobilization at Common Sense Media, who has organized millions of people—from consulting for the ACLU to Obama’s 2012 campaign, is an advocate of the snowflake model and commitment curve when looking to hire additional managers for her communities. “The idea of this is that rather than you trying to communicate to the entire community, you communicate to key stakeholders and they communicate to their community,” she explains.
When key stakeholders are ready to take responsibility, the next step is to write a job description—even for members who are promoted to a community manager. You can also recruit a new manager from outside of your community, the job description will remain the same.
First, what does a community manager do?
According to Mediabistro, a community manager “helps build, grow and manage a company’s or brand’s online communities. Using analytics tools to monitor social media outlets, online forums and blogs, a community manager finds out what people are saying about a company or brand. A community manager also engages with customers and fans, and uses social media and live events to help increase brand loyalty.”
This is a good high-level view and description of the job role. The job description varies for each industry though.
How to Write a Community Manager Job Description
Step 1: Write Down Every Task
The first step is to brainstorm every task your community manager will do. If you need help, speak to other members who have leadership roles in your community.
Step 2: Prioritize
The next step is to prioritize these tasks based on skill set. Ask yourself: What’s most important for your potential community manager to have? You won’t find a unicorn which is why it’s important to prioritize the desired skills and responsibilities.
Step 3: Select Key Responsibilities
Once you’ve prioritized, narrow the list down to the top 8-10 tasks that sum up the job.
Step 4: Identify Key Requirements
How many years of experience are you looking for? What experience with specific softwares are you looking for? List 4-5 key requirements in this section.
Step 4: Write Intro
Use this as an opportunity to summarize what you’re looking for, and how many years of experience. You can also use this space to describe your community, and give candidates more information about it. Feel free to make this fun and capture the vibe of your community.
Step 5: Rewrite the Job Description to Reflect Community’s Voice
Finally, once you’ve written the job description, take another look at it and make sure it truly captures your community’s voice.
Here’s an example from Insightly:
And one from Qualys:
