What does a community manager actually do?

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Of the many newer professions that have emerged with the advent of the digital era, community manager has attracted a lot of interest, but also ridicule. This time we talk about what are the characteristics of this profession and what knowledge and skills are needed to become a community manager.

community manager

What is community management?
The terms community management and social media whatsapp number management are often used to mean the same thing, although they are not initially synonymous. In our region, these terms refer to the process of creating, placing and promoting content on social networks, with the aim of increasing brand awareness , sales and researching the target group and market.

A community manager is usually someone who is responsible for managing social media profiles dedicated to a specific brand or company, if it's an individual company. If it's a person employed by a marketing agency , they're usually responsible for managing profiles for various companies and products.

Other duties include:

responding to comments and messages, as well as encouraging interaction,
paid advertising and budgeting for it,
content creation,
publication planning,
analytics tracking,
reporting.
Working hours and daily duties
Although a community manager usually has set working hours (4am, 8pm), their workday is actually endless, because the truth is that the online community never sleeps . It is necessary to respond to comments and messages in a timely manner , as this improves the visibility of posts and increases engagement with followers.

Given that the number of social media users is constantly increasing, it is certain that community managers are the first to be targeted by followers , and sometimes the perception of a brand by the target group to whom content is marketed through social media depends on them . For this very reason, this profession also requires some basic knowledge of psychology and sociology.

An average workday consists of implementing a publishing plan , responding to comments and messages, creating new content, implementing a paid advertising plan in accordance with the budget, monitoring analytics and analyzing the movement of the most important parameters. It is especially important to react quickly in critical situations such as negative PR , events of importance to the wider audience (big sports victories, trends, viral content current on other pages, etc.).
community management

Required education and skills
Although there are educational institutions that have marketing studies in their programs (usually faculties of economics and FON), you cannot get complete and applicable knowledge in this field there. You can only educate yourself and acquire at least the theoretical basis of this business through informal education in the form of courses and webinars . However, the best way to learn is through practice. What can be of great use are foreign and domestic expert blogs , case studies and comparative analyses, where you can see what is advisable and what is not, using a concrete example.

The most important skills are the ability to communicate and work with people, an analytical and strategic approach to problem solving, working under pressure, creativity , and an "eye for detail". Excellent knowledge of the grammar of the language in which you write is also appreciated . You will also need some technical knowledge , as well as an understanding of the functioning of social networks and the specifics of digital communication channels .

Keep in mind that this, as part of digital marketing, is an ever-growing field, and you will need to continuously educate yourself and stay up to date with trends and new aspects of using social media.

Auxiliary tools and collaboration
The following technical knowledge and tools will be useful to you:

working on CMS platforms,
HTML i CSS,
working in Adobe programs such as Photoshop , Illustrator , Premiere ,
working on platforms and with SaaS tools intended for marketing automation (Mailchimp, Buffer, Hootsuite),
Google Analytics,
link shortening tools (the most commonly used are Bitly and Google URL Shortener ).
In terms of collaboration, community managers collaborate almost on a daily basis with:

graphic designers,
web designers,
programmers,
copiers .
The list of collaborators and required knowledge changes depending on the industry in which the company for which the social media presence is being created operates.