Online Community Management For Dummies®

Chapter 17

Ten Essential Community Manager Tasks

In This Chapter

• Wearing the many community manager hats
• Providing content for your community
• Embracing your public role

I'm going to assume that this book isn't the only resource you're using to find out more about being an effective community manager. If you're reading up on what it takes to be a community manager or attending classes or lectures on community management, you're probably hearing a lot about the many hats worn by today's online community managers. The hat-wearing thing is a common metaphor because community managers aren't sitting at a desk handling one task at a time.

Even with the ever-changing roles, most community managers can expect to fulfill some core tasks.

Handling Community Correspondence

Being a community manager means being an effective communicator. Though there may be times you dread checking e-mail, know it's an important an essential part of your job.

You're going to handle a lot of e-mail. When word gets out that you're the one community members come to with questions and concerns, your inbox is going to be flooded. Though some days, e-mail is minimal, expect more days when your inbox seems almost bottomless. To make matters worse, your coworkers are going to forward e-mails that they feel fall under your department's jurisdiction, so be prepared to receive lots of inquiries, complaints, and stuff that has nothing to do with you at all. Also, you're going to find that the same questions are asked ...