10 Hats a Start-up Community Manager Needs to Wear

Just yesterday, while I sat on the sofa at another office, where my brother was appearing for an interview, a handsome looking guy walked up to me and said, “Hey, I think I have seen you somewhere”. Me being me, just let it pass with a smile and decided to focus on my phone which displayed my twitter account. While I thought the person would have walked away after seeing my reaction, instead sat opposite to me and the next statement he made changed the way I looked at my job!

He mentioned about reading my blogs, through my company’s website. Now that was interesting! Hearing this, I decided to change my mind and speak up. After all, I am a Community Manager at Simplify360 and my job revolves around socialising. How clearly I defined my job, “It’s about socialising”, but is that it? And, right after I was done contemplating in my head about what work I did to earn a living, came the most obvious question from the guy sitting right across the table. “So, what is your designation? It reads community manager in your description, and it sounds like an interesting job! Could you explain what your job role involves?”

For a good two minutes I remained silent trying to collate all the thoughts that came to my head. What I explained to him, obviously seemed to be a hocus-pocus of words, but after I left the office I realised how only a few people understand what a Community Manager really does. So,

Here’s a list of 10 things that I need to do, being a Community Manager at a Start-up.

1. Social Media is My Life: My job is fun! I spend a huge chunk of my day on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and more. Don’t get me wrong, it is a requirement that my job demands. Being a pro in social media, is a necessity considering I represent my brand. Whether it is replying to a question on Twitter or posting interesting updates on Facebook, doing good marketing for the brand is my first in line duty.
2. Think. Write. Upload: Sometimes (read most of the times), things get serious and I need to indulge in serious writing. Be it about the company’s endeavours, the disciplines my company deals with, the reports generated by my company and more. In short, I write blogs, articles, newsletters, social media content, communication related content and more.
3. I Love Research: Even if I don’t, I sure need to master the art of researching the right things at the right places. For that matter, research almost becomes a part of life. The latest trends, the talk of the day on twitter, the most social posts and more! Well, it’s research and trust me it HAS NO END.
4. Job Timings- 9 to umm: My job has no pre-defined timings. It is possible that an angry industry expert might be questioning an article I wrote during the day; while he sits in the US and does so, it might be the middle of the night for me! You do not want to wake up, but well, it is about the reputation of your company!
5. Deal With the Media: Some Community Managers are lucky to have a dedicated Public Relations team in house. However, when it is a Start-up, it is their responsibility to make sure all media are responded to, emailers, PR mailers and others are sent out at the right time to the right genre of people. Well, the good side of this being, you build a lot of media connections!
6. Talk to Customers: Customer support is one of the core functions of a Community Manager. Actually they are the first point of contact as well as the face of the brand; therefore whether it is through a mobile phone, computer, iPad or any device that supports social media, he/she needs to provide instant replies to questions, queries and complaints. For example, I reply to messages not just from the brand’s profile but also from my personal profile and recognise myself as the Community Manager at Simplify360.
7. Analytics also: If you thought analytics is a separate job profile and only few are designated to generate reports based on deep analysis, well let me tell you, I DO IT TOO! This can actually be fun sometimes. Analysing interesting topic related information, topics of the day and more. The most fun times are when a company is trying out real time marketing and even the analysis needs to happen on a real time basis, the process is fast yet fun at the same time.
8. Strategy and More: It is not enough to be able to write and disseminate content, it is also highly essential for Community Managers to be able to plan out a strategy. I here at Simplify360 plan out every week and keep adding to the plan framework as the week progresses. It is only when the master plan is framed right, do the other things (read content, research reports, emailers and more) fall into place.
9. Buying and Selling: It might sound like a bit too much, but yes, the community manager does need to make pitches for clients or prospective clients. They are equally involved in sales as the actual sales guys are. Considering the world is going social and the Community Managers live their life on Social Media, the first point of sales happens to be them! Too much said?
10. Cheerleader: It wouldn’t be wrong to say that if it is a Start-up, the community Manager is quite the life of the entire office! They drive events, internal communication, and strike conversations in the office. In short…Makes the office fun and a lively place to be in! P.S. the number of employees is pretty less.

No wonder I LOVE MY JOB…it’s so much fun!