The Best Community Managers Have These 5 Traits

A community manager’s role covers a mix of customer service, marketing, PR and brand evangelism. As part of their mini-series on community management, Brandwatch outlines the traits a community manager needs to have in order to get a handle on the brand, the community, the product and the newest trends.

According to Brandwatch, here are the top five traits of the best community managers:

1. Empathy

Call it compassion, emotional intelligence, or ‘how not to be a jerk’, everyone seemed to agree that community managers must have the ability to understand and share in the feeling of their communities.

2. Communication

Empathy is great, but in order to achieve the greatest impact, you’ve got to master the lingo of your audience.

3. Passion

In an ideal world, all community managers are driven to their jobs through an undying love of the brand. However, that’s not always the case. False, half-hearted passion tends to show, driving the community toward disenchantment. You need to show how you love your brand.

4. Thick Skin

As community manager, you’ll be the first to hear your community’s ‘constructive criticisms’. Often, as the internet is a harsh place, that might take the form of abuse. Passions can run high, and you can feel the brunt of product dissatisfaction. Patience is a key factor to be a great community manager.

5. Creativity

A great community manager should be able to create witty, smart, and personalized responses. Using images, vines and other media are crucial to keeping your community excited and engaged.

Brandwatch also notes attention to detail, flexibility and good time management as useful characteristics for the best community managers. To check out the rest of the useful traits, read the full piece from Brandwatch here.