The difference between a social media manager and a community manager might look the same/similar. However, although community management is frequently incorporated into social media management, it’s important to recognize that they have distinct roles.
Do you need clarification about the difference between a community manager and a social media manager? This blog will help you understand the difference better
Who is a social media manager?
A social media manager takes care of a company’s social media accounts on different websites. They share stuff on social media for a brand or business and also handle complaints and deal with tough situations when they come up. The social media manager writes posts in a style that fits the brand. It might be more formal or more casual, depending on what the brand wants.
Here are the key tasks a social media manager might handle every day:
- Monitor trending topics related to the industry and share similar content
- In the event of negative publicity or crises, social media managers play a crucial role in managing and mitigating reputational risks.
- Develop and implement content strategies tailored to each platform, audience, and marketing objectives.
- Oversee paid advertising campaigns on platforms like Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and LinkedIn Ads
- Analyze social media metrics and performance data
- Maintain the brand’s voice through all social media interactions
Who is a community manager?
A community manager takes care of the people who follow an organization online. They talk with them in groups, make sure discussions are nice, answer questions, and share interesting stuff to make the group bigger and more active. They aim to make everyone feel loyal to the community. It involves various strategies and tactics aimed at fostering positive relationships, facilitating communication, and promoting collaboration among community members.
For example, one of Ronel Agency’s community managers regularly engages with the Ronel community by posting updates and replying to user questions:
Community managers like Ronel help grow the brand by engaging existing users while also connecting new users to resources that will help them get more involved.
Apart from getting more people involved, community managers also work on making things better for users. They answer questions and pay attention to what users think about the product.
Here are the key tasks of community managers:
- Finding new users and helping them with their questions
- Responding to and interacting with existing community members
- Planning how to grow and improve the community
Who is a social media community manager?
A social media community manager is usually a combination of the two roles( social media manager and community manager) in smaller companies. In this case, your main responsibilities are creating and managing content while being the first point of contact for social media profiles and online communities. However, more established brands tend to separate the two positions.
The key difference between a social media manager vs. community manager
While social media managers and community managers might share some tasks, they usually have different jobs in a company. Here are some main differences between them:
Purpose
A social media manager primarily focuses on managing the organization’s presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Their responsibilities include creating and curating content, scheduling posts, managing advertising campaigns, analyzing performance metrics, and engaging with followers.
The community manager focuses on building and nurturing communities around the organization, product, or brand. This can involve managing online forums, discussion groups, or other community platforms, fostering engagement, facilitating communication among members, and addressing community needs and concerns.
Platform
Social media managers use social media sites outside the organization to share and talk about the brand, products, or services while engaging with customers or followers. In contrast, community managers work in special online places like the organization’s website or forums, where people gather to chat and share things.
Goals and Objectives
Social media managers care a lot about numbers like how many people see the posts, how much they interact with them, click on them, buy stuff, and how well-known the brand becomes. In contrast, community managers are more interested in how happy and involved the community members are, whether they stick around, feel satisfied, or tell others good things about the community.
Media strategy
Both social media and community managers have plans for how they use online platforms, but they aim for different results.
A community manager’s strategy is about listening to what the community thinks and encouraging conversations between members. On the other hand, a social media manager’s strategy involves finding the right content, measuring how well it’s doing online, running campaigns, and getting people involved on the brand’s social media pages.
What are the abilities required for each job?
Social media managers and community managers need to be good at using the internet and staying updated on different social networks. They also need to be flexible because things can change quickly, especially on fast-moving platforms like Twitter.
Both roles require good communication skills. Social media managers have to write well and in a way that matches the brand’s style. As a community manager, it’s important to be good at talking to people online and knowing how to build trust with customers. Their main job is to help a community grow and take care of it, instead of just trying to sell things all the time.
In conclusion
We hope this helps make it clearer! When telling apart social media managers from community managers, a big question to ask is: Are they speaking as the brand itself, or on behalf of it?
