Social Media Managers Reached the C-suite: Will Community Leaders Follow?

When businesses first began leveraging social media, most underestimated its significance and potential for impact. From “tweet-ahead” reservations at local restaurants to “like this, get this” lead generation, social platforms circa 2010 served to complement existing strategies rather than drive core business opportunities. And the way businesses hired for roles reflected this sentiment. Many hired recent grads as social media managers, entrusting these young digital natives to manage the company’s entire social presence. 

Fast forward ten years, and most companies consider social media a key component of their business strategy. Businesses launch major news over social media, making it the origin point of a campaign or announcement. Brands also leverage social channels to develop and solidify their voice and company “personality.” Senior leadership roles in social media strategy that never existed before now are strategic staples of the digital marketing and communications plans of every kind of company, from tech to consumer to enterprise businesses. And the execution of a business’s social media strategy requires immense expertise, empathy, and finesse. By cultivating these skills, former social media managers have moved into leadership rolesOpens a new window , including global head of social media strategy, chief content officer, or even chief marketing officer. 

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Today, another manager-level role has emerged that promises similar, if not greater, potential to both drive business impact and give employees the skillset to grow into company leaders: the community manager. 

Enter the Community Manager

Community managers are the quarterbacks of their organizations’ relationship with arguably their most important asset — their community. It is important to recognize that a company should view its “community” as anyone engaging in conversation with the brand and not just a single user group, forum, or Slack channel. It should include all an organization’s users, customers, developers, champions, contributors, creators, and partners. 

Community managers are charged with a range of tasks, including cultivating user groups, engaging with members, collecting insights, and understanding how businesses should adjust their products and practices to meet the needs of their most passionate champions and users. Tactically acting on those responsibilities, these community leaders identify and welcome new community members, nurture champions, author educational content, organize community events, capture and circulate product feedback, measure community health, and so much more.

Company leaders who invest now in their communities and the people charged with running them will have a major competitive advantage to drive growth for their businesses. Many leaders may not realize it now, but strategic engagement with relevant online and offline communities is increasingly vital to success. Communities wield immense influence over everything they engage with, from businesses and products to institutions and regulations. 

This shift is a part of the greater “bottoms up” approach to business, also called “product-led growth.” In the case of software, it is increasingly being adopted rather than sold, making communities an influential place to identify and drive business growth. This model is practiced by some of today’s fastest-growing companies, like Atlassian, dbt Labs, and Figma, which are powered by robust communities of end users rather than traditional top-down selling.

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How To Take Advantage of Opportunities in the Community Era

To thrive in this environment and drive rapid growth, organizations need to learn from, communicate with, and give back to these communities that are so imperative to their business. Companies aiming to take advantage of the opportunities of the “Community Era” — this time in which communities are increasingly important in decision-making — will need a community leader overseeing their engagement strategy. And to do this effectively, that person will need a holistic view of what matters most to their community across online and in-person channels like GitHub, Slack, Discord, Discourse, Reddit, MeetUp and Twitter.

This individual — or better yet, team — can be viewed as a driving force within the company to bring community insights to the entire organization, like feedback to product teams, support questions to documentation and support teams, and real-time routing of user need to the relevant customer-facing teams.

With the right tools, these teams can tie community engagement and growth back to tangible business ROI like new business, retention and customer support deflection. The community managers on these teams who can meet the needs of a company’s community and drive business impact will quickly distinguish themselves as critical company leaders who can help steer the organization into and through the Community Era. 

In today’s new environment, community leaders are poised to become tomorrow’s C-level executives by driving growth via community-led strategies. As organizations try to understand the impact of community on their businesses, companies need to capitalize on these professionals’ emerging expertise now. By providing community leaders the right support and resources to understand and act on insights from the community, company leaders can implement more informed strategies that transform how their businesses grow in the Community Era. 

What steps have you taken to leverage the growing importance of community to drive business growth? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .

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