Community Manager

“Community” as a term is something tossed around in conversation frequently, but few folks have thought to consider what it actually means. Good community talent will have their own opinions and theories and will be able to provide a succinct definition off hand. Red flag answers will include vague references to social media and content — and community management is not the same as social media.

Your interviewer is asking this question to see if you can demonstrate your understanding of what a community is and what it means to belong to one. We’re all part of many communities throughout our lives. If you’re an active commenter on BuzzFeed and know the other commenters there, then you’re part of the BuzzFeed community. If not online, maybe you were a member of an after-school club or local charity. Be capable of talking about a time you contributed to a community in some shape or form.

Engaging, keeping, and attracting new users are goals for most (but not all) communities. Be prepared with two or three ideas to achieve these goals. Don’t worry about presenting original ideas here—you’re interviewing for a job, not providing free consulting advice. Just show the hiring manager that you have ideas. If you suggest ideas they’ve already tried, well, that shows you’re on the same page.

Dealing with people with a certain entitlement or just being rude.

Many community manager roles involve elements of customer service. After all, you’re interacting with people daily and will often encounter someone who is reaching out to you with an issue that needs solving. Let your interviewer see that they can trust you to be the face of and voice for the community.

Making decision to give gate pass for free or charge for it.

I’d expect more than just a Twitter/Facebook answer here. A few niche examples suggest they are capable and aware enough to identify the right places to promote your own community and grow your audience. They are also more likely to have been exposed to different management styles which will help them craft something for your community, rather than blindly rehashing something they read in a book or blog (yes, including this one)

Wake up, read theSkimm, check email, check Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, then walk to the office listening to TED Radio Hour or This American Life.

A Community Manager who doesn’t know which metrics are relevant to their community and doesn’t know how to measure the success of their engagement initiatives will soon run into trouble. A star performer will have some ideas that are pertinent to your community by the time they meet you for an interview. It’s even better if they ask you who will be viewing the report and devise a custom answer based on that.

You’ll find a real-world example to be extremely telling of their social media management experience to this point. Remember, an ideal candidate is a fantastic story teller, so you may be assigning bonus points for a candidate who presents an exciting story.

The best way to answer this question is to pull from examples of how you’ve built communities in the past. If it wasn’t with a business, that’s OK. Maybe it was a book club, or writing club. The important thing is to take the interviewer step-by-step through the process of how you’ve created, and maintained, a community.

Many consider this question to be a loaded gun – dangerous in the hands of the inexperienced. Often times, an interviewee will start talking salary before they’ve had an opportunity to illustrate their skill set and value making any sort of leverage valueless. Here, knowledge is power, as salary often comes down to negotiation. Do some research into your industry to establish base rates of pay based on seniority and demand but keep in mind – your employer is hiring you for what they believe you are worth, and how much benefit they feel you will provide.

Measuring community success can be a little tricky at times. It depends on what your community goals are, but there are basic metrics you can keep track of such as member growth, communication engagement rates, and number of members interested in joining. If you’ve managed a community before, share how you’ve measured success in that role, and how it contributed to future success of the community.

It’s a common misconception that a social media manager is the same as a community manager. However, being a community manager often involves creating content and interacting with users on social media accounts. Simply being a personal user of Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is not enough to show that you can manage a brand or business social media presence, if that’s part of what the role you’re interviewing for asks for (many will ask for this, many will not– this is why you need to do the research).

In my experience delegating responsibility and authority is crucial. A team needs to be able to develop and grow as individuals and a whole, not be held back by low expectations or ego.

I believe in building a team. Each member of the team should be clear on their role, know where they fit in and feel as though they can depend on one another. I also believe in real-time feedback. If you do something wrong you should know it immediately. Regardless of right or wrong, the further removed feedback is in time, the less effective it is.