Okay, maybe that’s going too far. I don’t really recommend firing your marketing r. I do however believe that most companies will eventually need to hire or contract with a community r, if they haven’t already. A recent BusinessWeek article called describes social media as a booming industry which has caught the attention of corporations everywhere, and suggests the role of a “social media director” and what that person should do. I’d like to dig a bit deeper into why this core function is necessary to create to what’s becoming known as social engagement. I’ll call the role the community r.
A community r actively monitors, participates in and engages others within online communities. These communities can be on Twitter, Facebook, message boards, intranets, wherever groups of people come together to converse and interact with each other. A traditional marketing r is likely to have little experience with this function. Historically, community ment developed outside marketing, in areas such as community organizing (politics) or in niche verticals such as the video game or software industry, which are no strangers to digital outposts such as message boards.
A community r acts as an ambassador for your organization, whether that person is an employee or contracted to your social web presence. A good community r gives a human form to the faceless corporation. On Facebook Whole Foods, for example, community rs have created a forum that impels customers to respond to its posts. They also often informally engage their customers in the process.
A community r must be a good or great communicator. He or she of course needs to be social, and understand the social mores of the communities served, and have a strongly developed sense of ethics. He or she should know, for example, when deleting a member’s comment is wrong or justified and be prepared to explain why. Enthusiasm is also required. Finally, a good community r will be well connected, forming relationships with the right people in your communities, the individuals and groups you want on your side.
No doubt companies are flocking toward non traditional job descriptions like community r. If I were building my my all-star business team, I’d think about how community ment works and why I might need a few good ones on my roster.
David Armano is a Senior Vice President at , the interactive arm of global communications firm Edelman. He is an active practitioner and thinker in the worlds of digital marketing, experience design, and the social web. You can follow him on .
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