What community managers should know and do

For an internal bit of work at Learning Pool, I was asked to contribute to a list of things that would need to be a part of the role description for a community manager – a position we might be recruiting for in the near future.

I quickly threw together a list and emailed it round, but then thought it might be something worth sharing here.

So here’s my list – this is in no particular order. What would you add?

1. Network well online – either have or be able to build reach and influence online
2. Has established online presence and regular use of online communities in either personal or professional capacity
3. Ability to think strategically about the needs of the community, and of the products they support, and design the development of the community around those needs
4. Draw up appropriate community guidelines and ensure adherence to them
5. Encourage new members to join the community
6. Write high quality, engaging online content
7. Spread the reach of the community using a range of social tools
8. Provide regular updates to community members through regular email newsletters etc
9. Know and understand the community – be able to identify which members would be interested in, or have answers to, certain issues
10. Good mediation skills and ability to defuse online arguments and tensions
11. Ability to moderate content and manage difficult members an promoting good behaviour
12. Has a good understanding of the technology and culture of the net
13. Ability to measure and track analytics and membership stats and develop strategies to improve them
14. Ability to identify technological improvements that would improve user experience and make the community useful for the company
15. Proactive approach to interacting with the community – this is not a 9-5 Mon-Fri job
16. Knowledge of the rest of the organisation and the ability to identify the people who need to be involved in responding to issues
17. Good knowledge of the issues involved in the community and the ability to respond to topics in a knowledgeable fashion
18. Ability to find and share useful related content to the community from elsewhere on the web
19. Ability to identify key community members, and work with them to help promote and manage the community