There is no doubt about it, measuring your social media activities is a critical element of your overall plan, strategy and tactics. Without measurement, you are basically flying by the seat of your pants and you’ll never know whether your efforts are meeting the needs of your online community or accomplishing the goals of your organization.
As the practice of social media engagement has exploded, so have the metrics that we are able to track and analyze. On the objective front, there are hard numbers that include friends, followers, tweets, retweets, shares, and a host of other data based on activities. The objective numbers, however, are actually the easiest ones to measure.
The more difficult metrics are the “soft” or subjective ones that come from the day-to-day interactions with the people that make up your online community. How do you measure the value of a conversation with a customer who had an issue, but was able to work with your community manager to solve it? What is the angry-to-happy conversion ratio?
One important “soft” metric you may have missed is the satisfaction – and the excitement level — of your online Community Manager. Engaging with online communities is a tough role and continued passion for serving the community is critical, so community manager burnout can be very costly to an organization.
Why? If your Community Manager isn’t at the top of their game, your customers won’t get the top-notch engagement that they are expecting. And if your community isn’t getting what they need, they tend to raise their voices, creating more discontent and adding to the workload of the Community Manager. If this situation isn’t addressed quickly, it could spiral into a social media crisis.
Here are three things you can do to keep your Community Manager at the top of his or her game:
1.) Look for signs of frustration, overwork or fatigue and most importantly, address it with your Community Manager! Keep an open dialogue going to stay ahead of a building burnout crisis.
2.) Groom a backup for your Community Manager. Many companies may have only one person devoted to working with a community, which means the Community Manager often feels like they can’t take a vacation without abandoning the online community. Training a backup is a win-win. It will allow the community manager to take a well-earned rest while building more internal capacity for social media.
3.) Don’t pile on extra duties without considering the time commitment required. If you are asking your Community Manager to take on extra duties like social media training or creating internal social media policies, consider the level of effort required. Make the deadlines for extra tasks manageable to keep them from interfering with the important daily work of managing communities.
We have a saying around my house: “If Mom isn’t happy, no one is happy.” The same truism applies in social media! If the Community Manager isn’t happy, the Community isn’t happy!
Sean R. Nicholson is the Director of Social Media for a digital marketing agency for the pharmaceutical and health care industry. Sean blogs about social media at www.socmedsean.com and you can follow his updates on Twitter at @socmedsean.
As a community manager, it sure is nice to see it written about from this angle!
Glad you enjoyed it, Eric! Community Manager can be a demanding role at times, but it’s also hugely rewarding.
Cheers!
–Sean
Great post! For all of the ‘social’ in social media, this is the first mention I’ve ever seen of taking care of the community manager. It’s incredibly important – they’re often the one to give the first impression of your brand to a new potential customer.
And I love your comics – keep them coming!
I completely agree, Leah! Taking care of the person who is the “face” of your company as a representative to the online community is an importance element in any long-term social strategy.
Glad you enjoy the cartoons, more coming soon
Cheers!
–Sean
Very good points, Sean. Another area where this applies is in voluntary communities where the pressure to maintain the momentum of the community is considerable yet other pressures – work, family, health, etc – can make this quite draining. Managing this and spreading the responsibility is just as important as in a commercial organisation.
So true, Robertz!
Even volunteer contributors to communities experience burnout sometimes. Sometimes it’s good to take a break, recharge your batteries, and then come back to the community with renewed energy. The challenge is to make sure that the energy of the community doesn’t rest solely on one person so each contributor can take a break when needed.
Thanks for the great comment!
–Sean
Great post – so true re: “If the Community Manager isn’t happy, the Community isn’t happy!” Simple example regarding two airlines that I follow. British Airways and Iberia are part of joint alliance but their social media activities are managed separately. I’ve reviewed them both in blogs pertaining to to their social media initiatives. The difference being: BA not only responds to my initial review- every time I send out an updated RT – their social media managers always tweet me back with a TY. Unfortunately I cannot say same for Iberia, and this is most likely due to a social media manager who is not engaged, either due to lack of interest or limited positive reinforcement for his or her superiors.
Most companies are still trying to figure out what approach is best for them. Hopefully, both companies will see your comments and understand that the more interactive method is better for their customers
Cheers!
–Sean
Very pertinent perspective – who coaches the coach ? similarly important to manage the manager who might otherwise “umanage” him/herself out of the job !
LOL Abhijit! Well said!
–Sean
To be honest, I didn’t know quite what to make of this post.
While I agree with metrics and tangible results, Community Management/Manager is not really something that needs measuring in my opinion, because, if you are doing something right, then all your other metrics will be showing that!
A successful Community Manager should not be that busy.
Why? Because most communities self-regulate/police and the Community Manager should only really step in and moderate personal abuse, spam etc.
They can also act as a “host” and welcome new members, or start discussions to fuel the community.
In the community I co-founded, Property Tribes, we have appointed “Community Ambassadors” who are long-standing members and they take over some of the management. We can go away on holiday, and have done, without looking in on what is going on. We don’t need to.
We try and empower our community, not control them.
Good community management is about listening, knowing how to diffuse arguments and personality clashes, leading by example, empowering others, and generally helping set the tone and standards of the community.
The Community should also be a lot bigger than the Community Manger. If they are that important that they can dictate the happiness in the community, then they are the wrong person for the job. There is no “me” in social media and you don’t see Mark Zuckerberg hanging out on FaceBook and having an opinion. If a community becomes about one person, or is there for the benefit of the company or organisation supplying it, and not for the community, then it will fail.
If it’s a full time job that is burning you out, then you’re doing something wrong!
I understand what you’re saying, Vanessa, but the role of “Community Manager” has sooooo many meanings right now. I work with a lot of different corporate clients and at one client, the role might be just as you described it.
However, one of my biggest clients has a community manager who is also “content developer”, “content promoter”, “SEO analyst”, “channel analyst”, “Analytics analyst”, “social media trainer”, and “social media evangelist”. I think if you ask most community managers, you’ll find that their job duties go waaaaay beyond just interacting with the actual community. That’s where the issues arise.
I think most community managers would reall appreciate their companies taking a closer look at their work and meausuring the duties and the workload. As social grows, so will their needs.
I hope that makes sense. Thanks for sharing your POV!
–Sean
Typically as the leaders go, the group follows.
As a community manager x4, it was truly refreshing to read this post! Your tips are awesome to be sure no community manager ever gets overwhelmed!! Thank you!!