Employers want a community manager that can effectively guide them through the entire process of building and managing a community as quickly, cheaply, reliably, and successfully as possible.
They want someone that can take full responsibility for developing the platform, growing membership, and keeping members highly engaged.
They want someone that is reliable and someone they don’t have to worry about.
These community managers are rare.
The Known Name Problem
I recently visited an organization that wanted help with their community efforts.
Their community manager, a known name, had done everything wrong.
He had facilitated a big launch, he had spent a five figure sum developing a content-driven platform, he hadn’t build any relationships prior to the launch, he hadn’t analyzed his audience, nor identified key topics of interest, he hadn’t applied proven social sciences to get people engaged and participation – and he had charged $80k per year for his ghost town.
This is someone whom, on paper, looked impressive. He had worked with a large number of communities and organizations. He had a considerable online following.
Yet this is someone whom, despite his considerable experience, hadn’t mastered our advanced domain of knowledge. He hadn’t acquired the right resources, he hadn’t understand the social sciences behind our work, he hadn’t refined his skills. He didn’t have a clear set of templates he could use to develop the community.
This story is too common
This happens far too often.
We can’t tell the difference between those that know how to build and manage communities and those that have simply worked with successful communities in the past.
We have no idea who actually has the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to build communities, and who got lucky once, or had a free ride with existing teams.
As employers, we don’t know who can guide our organization through the entire community process and who talks a good game.
It’s not typically the community manager’s fault, most fall into this role without any professional training.
Compare this with those that take our course and have gone on to develop numerous successful communities.
These people have a reliable process for growing and managing any number of communities. I’d have no hesitation recommending them as the best in the field.
If you hire and promote one of these people, you know what you’re getting.
This is something we aim to change
We’re going out on a limb to solve this problem.
We’re issuing certificates to those that take our course.
If we provide participants with the skills, knowledge, and resources to build communities – we also want them to have a certificate that separates them from the rest.
We want their employers to have a peace of mind that they’re up to the job.
Perhaps it will become an industry standard, perhaps not, but it’s a standard that we can refer to when people ask how to hire or become great community managers. It’s a standard that we can be proud of.
If you want to train yourself, or your community managers, to this level you can enroll for our next course that begins on May 6th.
Click here for more information:
We look forward to welcoming our next batch of recruits.