10 Top Skills Needed for a Community Manager Position

Are you aware about the work of community managers? This is a job that exists even today. Skilled Community Managers have never been in more demand as companies recognize the importance of nurturing a passionate online community.

Many organizations have great difficulties finding such professionals, as managing such specialized communities requires a wide array of skills.

Few job seekers and employers trying to fill these positions understand what makes a successful community manager jobs stand out from the multitude. 

In this post, we will show the 15 skills that every community manager must have in order to keep up with the competition. The ability to communicate effectively as well as proper use of various social media channels stand out as the most important skills needed to engage the members of the community. 

10 Skills Need for a Community Manger Job

This guide serves as an exploration for those seeking a Community Manager role, a community manager vacancy, or looking to advance in the community manager profession, because it outlines the reality of employers’ expectations.

1. Excellent Communication Skills: The Heart of Community Manager Skills

A community Manager serves as the interface between the community and the brand, and thus, needs to communicate the brand's message properly. Whether users interact with the business via social media posts, emails, or forum discussions, clear verbal interactions will build brand credibility. 

This skill also involves listening: community managers have to appreciate users’ concerns and answer them sensitively. How a community manager communicates has a significant impact on how the community, the brand, and the members relate with each other.

Effective communication is essential for managing both pleasant and unpleasant issues. Community managers are usually the first responders when users are unhappy or have complaints to make. 

How they handle these problems determines how the brand is viewed. 

In addition, good communication skills help in keeping the community engaged and resolving issues in a way that enhances the reputation of the brand. 

A community manager should always endeavor to make sure that every communication, answer, and engagement with the company increases the value of the experience to the community and stays true to the company.

2. Social Media Expert

As a community manager, it is important to have knowledge of all the relevant social media platforms and the current trends in each one for optimum performance. 

A community manager is required to have insight into the different social media tools available such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Their knowledge on how to modify content to suit different platforms and audience types enables the manager to enhance participation. 

Every social media network has its unique algorithm, user, and type of content. A community manager with skill must know how to deal with all of these differences in order to fully utilize social media. 

Additionally, being socially savvy means knowing the activity of the community on the specific platforms. A community manager should know what will work for their audiences and change their strategies as needed. 

If it calls for designing more engaging posts on Instagram Stories or featuring professional articles on LinkedIn, the manager has to understand what works best for every channel. 

This skill involves tracking the buzz, interactions, and even changing the content in order to keep the community engaged and interested.

3. Conflict Resolution Skills

This is also the department of a community manager that is prone to the greatest amount of debate, as it concerns the community and the brand. The community members can clash and it becomes a challenge for the community manager to mediate.

Negative comments, like every other complaint, have to be dealt with professionally and with tact. Being able to take control of a situation before it escalates out of control is crucial for an active community.

The best community managers always preemptively work on potential conflict issues. Letting them grow too large is risky. Cooperation, empathy, and judgement are equally important when accomplishing this responsibility.

The more difficult and challenging aspect of this role is seeking out opportunities and making chances to change negative experiences into positive ones. Complaints, when dealt with in the right way, become an opportunity to build trust and serve the brand’s objective of decent customer service. 

For example, a community manager should not rest after receiving a complaint about a product from a customer. A primary response during a discussion has the capability to deal with such a situation effectively. This transforms what would otherwise be a disaster into an opportunity for enhanced engagement with the community.

4. Refined Organizational and Project Management Skills

A community manager has to manage many different projects simultaneously. This can be simultaneously running a campaign, scheduling posts, and interacting with followers along with attending to community issues. In order to effectively balance these multiple responsibilities, a community manager must possess excellent organizational and time management skills. 

Community management can be very overwhelming without effective organization in place. There are various missed chances, misplaced communication, and very little engagement. A community manager must possess strong work organization skills so that they are able to prioritize and foresee requirements of a task and meet deadlines. 

Apart from routine tasks, community managers are required to implement long-term campaigns or initiatives in specific time frames. Such projects are complex in their design and require organized execution. 

Setting strategic objectives, managing content calendars, and coordinating various cooperative team members are all responsibilities of the community manager and, therefore, great project management skills are crucial. 

While working towards a new product launch or even planning a large community event, proper organization is key to ensuring every detail of the project is fully taken care of. Project Management can greatly benefit from the use of Trello, Asana, or Monday.com, as these tools make organization much smoother and overall productivity increases.

5. Analysis plus Think of Data as a Resource

For community management to be successful, a community manager must be able to analyze data and metrics. Tools such as Google Analytics, social media engagements insights, and participatory metrics help community managers analyze the effectiveness of their strategies. This data would be able to help modify campaigns and content to better fit the expectations and needs of the community.  

Community managers must have an idea of which metrics matter most to the success of the community. It could be engagement rates, feelings, growth of the community members, or a combination. They will be able to fuel the community's growth and success through informed decisions by monitoring these metrics.  

Also thinking in terms of data enables community managers to pay more attention to details as well as look for patterns and insights that would be harder to discover otherwise. A talented manager can anticipate emerging trends, content preferences, and popular community pain points by scrutinizing and analyzing the activities within the community.  

These kinds of emerging trends are integral to strategies for the accounts and make improvements. Instead of guesswork, a community manager can substantiate their course of action with quaint data incorporating actions undertaken and the expectations from the community members. 

They can take decisions ensuring that actions taken are in accordance with the needs of the members. This approach can immensely help boost the engagement and overall satisfaction of community members.

6. Content Creation Skills

Creating content such as writing blog articles, developing social media captions, and designing community resources is challenging yet important work of a community manager. They have to come up with content that speaks to the audience and meets the brand objectives at the same time. 

A community manager has to possess not only writing skills, but also the ability to develop accompanying graphics and videos. This requires knowledge of content creation tools such as Canva, Adobe Creative Suite and even basic video-editing programs. 

They must also know how to maintain the community by producing high-quality, engaging content to keep coming back for more.

Also, content creation for community managers requires sensitivity to the different types of content. A blog article is different from a social media one, so the tone and style must differ in some way. 

The manager is expected to come up with content that grabs attention and triggers participation while taking care of the community's interests. 

From creating educational material to posting engaging questions and user-created content, community managers need to be creative to keep the community active.

7. Empathy and Emotional Intelligence

Understanding the community that a manager attends requires a different level of emotional intelligence. Empathy is crucial as it helps the community managers understand what the community members feel and care about. 

With emotional intelligence, a community manager can reduce stress, engender loyalty, and build an environment where people feel appreciated. 

Being empathetic does not mean attending to issues but rather understanding the emotions and reasons behind the actions. This makes it possible for community managers to resolve issues in manners that gives the individual the feeling of being appreciated and understood. 

As mentioned, empathy contributes a lot in ensuring there is safety, inclusiveness, and positivity in the community. Community managers who understand and care remove barriers and build a strong sense of community which is most needed for the loyalty of the members in the long term. 

When community managers listen to members attentively, show empathy, and does things that are aligned with the community’s principles, members feel free to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Such emotional attachment is what makes most online communities loyal and active.

8. Crisis Management Skills 

Anytime there is a public relations issue or any problem that has the likelihood of ruining the brand’s image, the community manager must respond swiftly and efficiently. Managing a crisis, controlling agitated community members, and reframing the situation positively are some of the highly sought after competencies in community management. 

A number of issues can give rise to a crisis, including faulty products, blameworthy remarks, and unflattering social media activity. The community manager is usually consulted and is responsible for the communication surrounding the issue. Solutions must be implemented, but equally important is the maintenance of the brand’s image in the adverse circumstances.

In addition, effective crisis management must demonstrate some level of hindsight. A good community manager would anticipate crises and plan on how to manage them. 

This approach could be aimed at putting in place an effective system for receiving and responding to community issues, training staff to handle negative information, and ensuring consistent messages among the corporate spokespeople. 

9. Willingness to Change 

The world of digital marketing is perpetually changing. It is crucial for a community manager to possess change management skills. New social media sites and changes in algorithms require community managers to be agile and make changes to their plans accordingly. 

As an illustration, the permissive culture of TikTok has forced companies to pivot to short form video content. A flexible community manager can proficiently learn new tools and apply them into their community management practices so that the business stays current. 

Change responsiveness also includes a willingness to explore unconventional ways of community engagement. There is a constant type of change in the nature of interaction online, and so community managers should be reactive to changes in the kind of content, the level of interaction, and the tools used. 

A community manager needs to refine and refresh their approaches over time, whether through monitoring popular content and creating similar posts or finding innovative methods to encourage participation.

10. Knowledge of SEO and Content Optimization

SEO is important to every position, and a community manager is not exceptional. A community manager can ensure that any posts, blogs, or other resources created by the community get as much visibility as possible with the help of content optimization. Using keywords, metadata, and other means can attract numerous users to a community and improve its engagement rate. 

Engagement is of concern to everyone in a community, so having knowledge about SEO enables a community manager to ensure their content is appealing to new members while retaining existing ones. As mentioned, community managers can utilize the right strategy and reach more people with their content on multiple platforms. 

SEO is not limited to ranking; it also deals with meeting the audience’s needs in every way possible. With an understanding of SEO, the community manager will recognize which themes, interactions, or issues are “hot“ inside the community and make relevant topics accordingly. 

Engagement can be enhanced alongside brand visibility when a community manager merges community needs with content that is focused on SEO.

Final Thoughts:

Like any other industry, digital marketing keeps changing and having the right set of skills can be highly productive as a Community Manager. Good communication, for instance, along with crisis management and many others, are very important skills to have for community management. 

If you are newly beginning your community manager career or want to build on your skills, knowing the scope along with these skills will help you get ahead of the competition in the job market.

For those interested in looking for community manager jobs opening or delving into other community manager positions, remember these skills as you work towards them. 

With proficiency in these skills, you will not only succeed as a community manager but contribute to the preservation of digital life of brands and audiences.

FAQs

What do Community Managers do?

A community manager is the brand online representative that is responsible for the management of online communities and positive engagement with the community members. They have to ensure brand visibility on various platforms.

What do I need to qualify for a Community Manager position?  

To become a Community Manager, many employers prefer candidates to have a background in marketing, communications, or any other relevant field. Social media and customer service experience may also be helpful.    

How do I hone my Community Manager skills?  

Community Manager skills can be improved over time. You can enroll in social media, content marketing, and analytics courses to help build a baseline. Moreover, practical activities and engagement with industry contacts will help hone skills.  

Which tools do Community Managers use?  

Community Managers utilize a variety of tools for social media marketing, data management, and content development. Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, Google Analytics, and Canva are just a few of the more well known ones.  

Where can I search for Community Manager positions?  

You can get a Community Manager job by looking at job boards, networking on LinkedIn, or going directly to the company pages. A lot of companies offer community management positions and they post them frequently.