Five months ago, I got my first job out of University as a Junior Community Manager. Before finding the job, I had some knowledge as to what Community Management was but a very limited understanding of the intricacies of working among the world’s harshest critics: social media users. In five months, I’ve learnt a lot more than five things; however, for the sake of brevity (and a catchy headline), I’ve picked what I deem the five most significant things.
1. Followers vs Community: Follower Flakery
Firstly, your followers are not your community, they are as the description suggests – followers. Brands may think that because they have over 100K followers on Instagram, it directly translates to loyal community members who will consistently engage with and view their content, but, unfortunately, communities are earned and not given. In fact, your community is far more complex than just followers – your community are die-hard lovers of the brand. You may have thousands of silent followers, but your true community consists of those who comment on your posts, answer your polls, and engage in direct message conversations. Engaging with these fans through interactive content, personalised responses and fostering a sense of belonging can help convert passive followers into community members. A community is not just about likes, and so managing that community is just as much about growing it as it is about maintaining it.
2. Speed Demons: The Need for Social Media Speed
Being fast is important for outreach but this speed can be difficult to achieve. Being the first to comment on something will always give your comment more visibility, potentially leading to page visitors and – hopefully – growth. But being fast is also challenging – when working on many accounts at once it can be easy to miss things and only see possible outreach posts an hour or two into them going live. This may ostensibly seem fast, but in the world of social media, people may have already moved on. Putting on post notifications or checking back in throughout the day can help keep you informed as to what’s happening in your community and what conversation you can get involved in, however, even this isn’t a surefire way to stay on the pulse. The comments that perform best and create the greatest growth are always the timely ones. So being there when people care is central to successful outreach.
3. Digging for Gold: Mining for Meaningful Relationships
Creating meaningful relationships with your community is central to ensuring engagement and longevity. By building relationships with those who frequent your page, you create a space where they feel listened to and appreciated by the brand. For fans, this is like gold dust. These relationships are mutually beneficial – they receive validation from brands they love and, in return, we receive consistent engagement, UGC, and even free promotion. Replying to their DMs and comments, adding them as Close Friends or even just liking their posts helps to create these vital relationships. It could be the same handful of people commenting, responding, and engaging, but these people are central to having a reliable and positive community to build from.
4. Dodge the Drama: Handling Volatile Audiences
Managing a community with a volatile audience is a minefield. Whether it’s knowing what to hide and how to moderate or even knowing what you can and cannot outreach on to, dealing with volatile and potentially aggressive community members is stressful and complicated. My learnings so far, though I’m by no means an expert, are to always weigh up risk vs reward. Is this outreach comment worth risking huge backlash – the answer is usually, no. If it feels risky, it probably is. Having a clear understanding of what is and what isn’t acceptable can be helpful to provide clarity, but there is still always a grey area in which you may have to use some personal judgement.
5. The Clone Wars: Why Most Brands Look the Same
Finally, most brands aren’t doing Community Management well. In these five months, I’ve done various audits of various industries – using SHARE’s CAOS model – exploring who is even doing Community Management, and if they are, assessing how strong it is. My findings from almost all these audits are that brands are missing the mark. Admin culture has fostered an environment where speed and relatability are prioritised. As a result, many brands are starting to look and feel the same, losing their unique identities and becoming homogenised. Here are some ways brands can stand out:
- Your TOV is your Superpower: Your Tone of Voice (TOV) isn’t just how you say things; it’s the personality of your brand. Nail it, and your audience will feel like they’re chatting with a friend. Whether you’re quirky, professional, or somewhere in between, consistency is key to building trust and recognition.
- Be Selective: To avoid this lack of differentiation, brands should focus on commenting only on relevant posts instead of whatever is trending. What is not overtly relevant to the brand is likely not relevant to their audience – keep it focused.
Currently, if I were to hide the account name of the most successful outreach posts from brands I see in a day, you would only recognize it as a ‘trendy brand’ without being able to identify which brand it is. This raises the question: how can brands maintain their unique identity while still gaining traction online? Consumers gravitate towards trendy brand communication, so you can’t knock brands for wanting to get involved themselves. However, brands must strike a balance to ensure they maintain their distinctive identity when deciding which trends to jump on.
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