You probably wouldn’t let an intern have responsibility for your biggest clients.
Community MVPs can easily be worth more than your biggest clients.
So why would you let junior staff be responsible for them?
A single antagonistic comment, a perceived lack of respect, an inconsiderate request, taking too long to reply to questions or simply failing to maintain a strong relationship can wipe out millions of dollars in community value.
I’m continually staggered by how many community professionals are hired on the basis of a short job interview and then given responsibility for one of the company’s most lucrative assets.
Three simple tips here.
- Don’t hire junior people to do what’s clearly a senior person’s job.
- Review any recruit’s contributions to a past community carefully. Do they engage with empathy, understanding, and tackle different challenges well?
- Include MVPs on the hiring loop. Get feedback on who they would like to see as their point person in the community process.
Changing community staff members can be as delicate (and expensive) a process as changing community platforms.
If you’re moving on from (or moving into) a community role, get opinions from your top members in the process.
