Tanya McGinnity

Connie Bensen a community strategist who has been blogging and working in the community space for some time has a superb series of posts around the job description/ responsibilities and roles of a community manager.
I’ve found this list most helpful in describing what I do to my mother who for the longest time has been giving out the stock answer of “My daughter works with computers.”

It’s also very helpful in my role as a new Community Manager to help set up goals and milestones both for myself but also for the product I work with, the people I work for and the community we are inviting to share with

Kevin Marks (who is an uber genius in my eyes) recently wrote a post on his blog with the very descriptive title of “Here Comes Everybody – Tummlers, Geishas, Animateurs and Chief conversation Officers help us listen

***(Big thanks to Sylvain Carle for directing this post to my attention ** disclosure ** I work for the company Sylvain helped to found – Praized Media)

Now you may think that what Kevin Marks is saying in his post is purely semantics and a rose by any other name would smell as sweet as an online community being tended to with the loving and attentive care of a Community Manager, Chief Conversation Catalyst, Community Gardener – or any other title you could place upon this role.

I usually believe that most titles are irrelevant or don’t fully describe the title-holder’s core competencies as most people truly wear many hats (especially in start ups). The title of Community Manager is a deceptive one as you don’t really ‘manage’ a community. Communities are organic, vibrant, self-existing entities requiring collaboration in order to thrive. The ‘community manager’ is essentially a facilitator – solving problems, encouraging conversations, asking questions.. Now how do you really create a title around something so dynamic?

This is the question I’m asking and hope you can help well in time for the printing of my business cards! Who better to ask – but the community?