I had the HUGE pleasure of meeting today with a group of 10 community managers along with Rachel Happe and Rawn Shah from IBM!  Read this great piece of work by Rachel on 2011 Community Manager report! http://www.slideshare.net/rhappe/the-2011-state-of-community-management

The bottom line is I believe firmly before of the important of Community Management and now am unquestionably sold on it!

Big quotable quotes!

   *  Everyone is a Community Manager!

   *  A Community manager is like a party planner!

   *  Community management is like a cultural translator!

 

We dished on  Three Major topics!

A)  Types of skills that made a GREAT community manager!

 

  • Relationship skills
  • Energizer
  • Social Skills
  • Coaching
  • Facilitation
  • “Event” management skills (This came from Jamie thinking about this role as a party planner — getting the wall flowers to enjoy the party, making it fun but valuable, etc!)
  • Business skills
  • Host or Hostess

B)  How many community managers do you need? 

  • The answer we came to is “it depends”  On what?
  • Complexity, size of community, and goals
  • In addition to community manager you need support from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
  • Can be done with part timers 3-5 people who spend 10-20% of their time

 

C)  Where do you find them or how do you grow them?

  • Mentoring
  • Recommendations
  • New curriculum that offers certificate?

The bottom line is this is now a new skill that is emerging and will be a critical success factor for any Social Business.