Why does Community management matter?
I am lucky (and old enough :) to remember the times before social media when communication activities were measured by vague KPIs such as the number of mentions in traditional media. I was finishing my Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”. The programme is also UNESCO's official Chair of Public Relations meaning that I was getting the best-in-class education in PR. And it was! The only issue was that I started asking questions such as “How do we know people understand the message?”, and “How do we ensure the right people engage with our messages?” These questions brought a bit of anxiety among both my professors and fellow students. I did not receive any answer simply because at that time no one really thought of the crazy idea of connecting with communities.
From where did Community Management come?
When social media came into prominence and more companies and organisations started to settle their presence on Facebook and Twitter most of them missed one crucial fact. Being on social media meant that they are now among ordinary people and had to talk to them. Mr. Zucerberg and Mr. Dorsey did not create free publishing space for companies, as I assume many thought that way at the time. The core idea of social media was to provide a discussion arena for people, and people with companies and organisations.
Why your organisation needs Community Management?
Communities on social media will form with or without your organisation. the best you can do is to jump into the conversation and use the opportunity to build an authentic image of your company/ organisation, take care of your reputation and make these audiences work for your institution. It does require a long-term effort, however, direct benefits are to be seen much faster than the use of traditional PR.
What could happen if you don’t have proper Community Management in place?
In 2019 I was hired as a Social Media Community Manager at Internovus - a group of companies in the area of FinTech. They were offering their services and products in India, Latin America, South Africa, etc. The company was entirely dependent on PPC and social media ads. Suddenly all their campaigns were stopped by social media platforms. Why? Because they didn’t have community management and at some point, the algorithms marked these ads as “spam”. Without fresh new leads, the company was about to close soon. For 6 months I managed to solve this problem. Moreover, I made the architecture and internal guidelines in several languages and for several markets on how to effectively manage the issue. As a “side effect” of my activities and proposed action plan, the company generated an additional profit of 1 million dollars for a year.
An example of community management or how to get in real time contact with users I did during my time at Internovus for one of the FinTech brands operating on the Spanish market. Source.
Sound unrealistic? It’s not. I just know social media well enough.
Drop me a line at daniela.ignatova (@) gmail.com if you want to start using community management in your social media or need some help with it.
