I had never really heard of the term and never really knew there was much difference between a social media manager and a community manager. To be honest, I thought it was part of the social media manager role and had not really heard of the term community manager.
Now that I am providing social media support to small business owners, I am more aware that these are two quite different roles.
Social Media Manager
A social media manager is responsible for being the brand on social media. There are many tasks that they can do which include creating social media content and graphics, dealing with Facebook and Instagram Ads, creating engagement, responding to comments, answering questions and much more as the business.
Community Manager
A community manager is responsible for advocating a brand on social networks. They create their own social persona and actively go out within the online community to connect with potential customers and advocate accordingly. Community managers typically deal with those who may or may not have heard of the business they work for and boost awareness for the brand.
The community manager role also appears as a Facebook group community role. I assist as either an admin or moderator in some Facebook groups. I can see how these roles deal with the community and represent the business that owns the group.
While the two roles may seem identical, social media managers essentially act as the actual brands. Community Managers represent themselves on behalf of the brand that they are promoting. Having said that, for many businesses, there will be one person who is probably doing both roles in some capacity.
Have you enlisted the help of either a social media manager or a community manager for your business?
