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👋 Community Padawans!
Here we are to connect one more dot.
I have been thinking about the best way to share the best content. Shorter publications, like community “nuggets”, and do it more frequently or keep publications a little longer and continue to make it weekly?
What do you think?
As I mentioned in one of the publications, this project serves mainly to contribute to my learning journey as a community manager in progress 🚧, to give my contribution to the creation of more content about this industry and try to give you the best content, covering some topics and answering to some of the essential questions for someone who is starting their career.
Lately I have been asking myself: do I have what it takes to be a community manager? What skills make part of the profile/DNA of anyone that manages communities? You may have already thought about this as well.
This is the topic of today's publication, hoping that in the end you will feel like: “I have what it takes!” or, even if you don't have it (yet), keep this idea in mind:
What you need is to be the best version of yourself for the community you represent.
Close your eyes, deep breath. This will be amazing journey. Ready? Let’s go!
Your Community Padawan ⚔️
Francisco
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Yeah, I know you're thinking about the same song as I do and, yes “I was born for this (…) take me to the top I'm ready for whatever it takes”. 😉
We are going through a period in which, fortunately, a lot is being said about the potential of communities, where more companies invest or plan to create strategies that lead to the creation of their own communities. Because of this, two things happen:
❌ 1- most of us have experience creating relationships and, therefore, believe that it is enough to say: “I can create "communities";
✔️ 2- But, to manage communities much more is needed, than your intuition, experience of having a group, for example, on facebook and…duct tape. Companies, to succeed on this, will need an expert on the topic, someone with real experience who invested already lots of time and that knows some of the strategies and best practices.
So, WOW, what an incredible moment for the community managers and everyone who also wants to invest (for real) on being a community manager.
⚠️Warning: This takes time! But, let me tell you, it is a hell of a journey! Personally and honestly, I know that I have a long journey ahead of me but I am willing to give each and every step towards the goal: I want to be a community manager!
Now, question is: what it takes to be a community manager?
I think the answer might be very simple: time, drive, patience, passion… What I mean by this? Just like we talked on last week’s podcast with Brian Oblinger, the starting point to be a good community manager is your soft skills, you need to have certain soft skills:
Now you may think: There is a MATCH! 🎉
Perfect. But this is where things get more interesting and the more technical skills are mandatory. You also need to be/have:
a strategist;
a good executor;
multi-tasking to manage the various tasks you will have;
Content creator, specially, writing;
an organized person;
ability to learn to deal with different tools and data;
You lack some of the skills mentioned above? My fellow community padawans, I am with you! We are together on this, so don’t worry. If you really want this, having the soft skills is an huge step. Regarding the technical skills, practice makes progress, makes perfect.
Talking about practice, and before we finish today’s post, what you can do to start learning more about the industry and work on all your skills? Below you will find 4 tips that I got from a conversation with Carrie Jones during an Instagram Live + two extras tip that I am putting into practice:
Get yourself involved in different communities;
Follow the lead of other “super users” and engage as much as possible. Do your own analysis, see what works and what not;
Inspire yourself reading about so many case studies of incredible communities/companies: Build with Users is great for that;
Learn from the best on the industry: Noele Flowers Blog, Brian Oblinger Resources, Community Weekly by Anna Grigoryan or, the one and only, RosieLand from Rosie Sherry.
Read job descriptions for community manager roles. You will get to know what you might do in the future and work on specific things;
(Optional): what I'm doing at the moment is creating my own community. Why not? Learn by doing!
Like communities, we are made of experiences and actions. So, "surround yourself" with the best, stay as close to the action as possible and I guarantee you, you will be the next community manager of an incredible company.
That’s it for this week’s Connect Dots. Thanks so much for being part of this journey…connecting dots!
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