Image by: OiMax
Today’s post appears in honor of Community Manager Appreciation Day
One of the most frequently asked questions we get about online communities is, “In what department of our organization should our community manager be working?”
Here’s the short answer: It doesn’t matter a whole lot, but we prefer to see the community manager in either the membership or communications departments.
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Far more important than the community manager’s department is their enthusiasm for the work. We’ve worked with some terrific community managers who work in IT, communications, marketing, membership, and even human resources. The attribute we see in all of the best community managers we’ve worked with is passion.
That being said, we’ve seen a correlation between community managers who sit in the communications or membership department and better community outcomes. This seems to be due to the expected outcomes for these departments.
- The membership department is expected to provide service to members. This expectation is manifested by a community manager who’s responsive and willing to ensure member needs are met.
- The communications department is expected provide content to members. This expectation is manifested by a community manager who consistently posts original content and proactively manages the community.
We’ve also seen a correlation between community managers who sit in the marketing or IT departments and some suboptimal outcomes.
- The IT department is expected to ensure that technology systems are reliable and secure. This expectation is manifested by a community manager who prioritizes adjusting security settings, configurations and performing other technical tasks over the important routines of community management.
- The marketing department is expected to generate sales of products, services and events. This expectation is manifested by a community manager who prioritizes activities that will generate revenue, like posting advertising messages.
Again, enthusiasm for being a community manager matters a whole lot more than what department she works in, but we have seen better results when she reports into the membership or communications departments.
