What Should Paid Community Managers Know, Have, and Be Able To Do

It pains me that most community-related
discussion can be boiled down to: 

1)  
Be nice to members

2)  
Don’t lie to members

3)  
Remove the bad stuff

Community management is a complicated topic
that spans technology, data, marketing, and a range of social sciences. When we
dwell too much upon the softer side, we do no favours to our profession, our
communities, nor our own personal development.

About 1/3^rd of the people
reading this are passionate hobbyists building communities in their spare time.
The remaining 2/3rds of you are paid professionals.

If you’re a paid community manager, I think
you have a duty to master a body of knowledge, work to develop a specific set
of skills, and bring with you a growing playbook of successful case studies. 

When we shift the conversation to what that
body of knowledge should be, how to further refine and improve the set of
skills, and bring more case studies in the arena, we all get better at what we
do.  

If we don’t take this profession seriously,
no-one else will.