What is community management?
Also called social media community management, online community management.
Community management is building and looking after the relationships around a brand on social media: replying to comments and messages, starting conversations, welcoming people, and keeping the brand's spaces friendly and on topic.
Why it matters
Posting is only half of social media. The other half is what happens underneath: questions, compliments, complaints and conversations between customers. Businesses that reply and take part turn followers into regulars and regulars into people who recommend them.
Example
A craft supplies shop replies to every comment within a day, asks followers to share what they made with last week's yarn, features one project each Friday with the maker's permission, and runs a small Facebook group where customers swap patterns and help each other.
Community management vs social media management
Social media management covers the whole job: planning, creating, publishing and reporting. Community management is the part focused on people: conversations, relationships and moderation. Publishing is mostly one-way; community management is two-way. In a small business the same person usually does both, but it helps to set aside separate time for replies so they don't get squeezed out.
A daily community routine
Fifteen focused minutes a day goes a long way. Work through the steps below, then use one or two of the ideas after them to start conversations of your own, rather than only answering them.
- Reply to new comments on your recent posts, starting with questions.
- Answer direct messages, or pass sales leads and complaints to the right person.
- Check mentions and tags, and thank people who shared you.
- Like or comment on a few posts from customers, local businesses and partners.
- Note recurring questions to answer in a future post.
- Hide or remove spam, and deal with anything that breaks your house rules.
- Ask a simple question at the end of a post, one people can answer in a few words.
- Run a poll or a this-or-that choice in stories.
- Invite customers to share photos of your product in use, and feature the best with permission.
- Reply to replies: when someone answers your question, answer them back.
- Mark local events and milestones that matter to your followers.
How to handle a negative comment
A calm public reply often matters more to onlookers than to the person complaining.
- Pause before replying. Don't respond while annoyed.
- Acknowledge the problem and thank them for raising it.
- Apologise where you got something wrong, without arguing over details in public.
- Offer to fix it privately by direct message, phone or email.
- Follow up, and if it's resolved, a short public note saying so is fine.
- Hide or delete only spam, abuse or personal information, not fair criticism.
Set simple house rules
If you run a group or get busy comment threads, publish a few rules and apply them consistently:
- Be respectful; no abuse or harassment.
- No spam or unrelated selling.
- No sharing other people's personal information.
- Keep it on topic.
- What happens if rules are broken, such as removal of comments or members.
Common questions
What does a community manager do?
They look after the conversations around a brand: replying to comments and messages, welcoming new followers or group members, encouraging customers to share, moderating discussions and passing feedback to the rest of the business.
Should I reply to every comment?
As far as you reasonably can, especially questions and complaints. A short, genuine reply shows people there is a real business behind the account.
What is the difference between community management and social customer service?
Social customer service solves problems: questions, complaints and orders. Community management is broader and includes building relationships, starting conversations and moderating. Customer service is one part of looking after a community.