I’d like to sum up some lessons learned thourgh the discussions that followed by post about “the Community Management Bible“. As a matter of fact we can endlessly discuss about community managers, their role, worry about possible excesses and irrelevant uses, but it’s useless if we don’t talk about the same thing. We are forced to admit that beyond technical points, the concept of community manager varies depending on the local context.
What I can see is a dual and localized understanding of what community management is.
• USA (and maybe somewhere else) : the community manager is a business relay, he drives a strategic system that serves the enterprise and its goals.
• France (and maybe somewhere else) : it’s the person in charge of the day to day life of a community.
In the first case it’s a manager that drives a system, in the other its a cool activity leader who “likes to speak in the mike”. The difference is obvious when you look at the job description and the attributes of the people that are hired to do these jobs.
Of course, both are needed in a global approach, one being the ground relay of the other. But reality is often different, the strategic dimension often lacks here, systems are poorly consolidated and animation is often the only focus to the detriment of grobal steering.
Is the the proof that French businesses actually pay less attention to this issue that they say ? That it’s considered as a bulge of internal or external communication that doesn’t deserve a dedicated high level manager ?
In fact we’re making a big mistake by calling everything “community management” while others get the difference and think about the respective roles of community managers and social media managersx positionnements The fact is in many French companies (I’m talking of what I know…I’m sure it’s the same in many other countries), people think of social media management and overlook the true community management.
The question is still open but I’m convinced that the rocket still lacks one stage. Unefortunately, that’s the cockpit one.
Communautés, community management, community manager,social media manager,social media management
