While online community management isn’t a new job, it is still a career that tends to evolve out of other positions instead of a career where people have formal degrees in the field. I happen to have a computer science degree and an MBA, but I know other community managers with formal training in marketing, library science, communications, criminal justice, product design, and more. Some of the best community managers I know have a broad background with a diverse job history, which seems to give them a variety of experiences to draw from when managing communities filled with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Great post over at Web Worker Daily. If I was in Oregon I’d go check out the speaker. Community Management will become a huge part of successful online brands in the coming year whether you are a plumber or a president.
Will corporate America realize it before it’s gone? Will corporate America destroy it before it gains roots? Brands that “get it” will survive but brands that “spam” will wonder what hit them. A Community Manager’s position is quickly becoming as important as a well trained designer or programmer on a website.
Will we soon see a degree program in this field? I bet it won’t be long now…
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I pitched this in November of 2007 and was nearly thrown out of the Marketing meeting, to be fair it was only my second month in this position, but no one listened or understood. Now 6 months later one of our Ivy league Directors has to manage all social media in the catch up effort. I will say we do have good exposure through social media outlets, but our audience is tech it seems done almost begrudgingly, but someone should have listened a year ago. When the economic BS straightens out I can see this as a legitimate viable position that will take less than an Ivy Leagues education to hold. Plus I get to pick up the slack and get paid (by the hour) to post and surf around the Facebook.
One of my classmates in http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/mact/“target=”_blank”>MACT just started a new job something akin to this with the provential government of Alberta. We're in a User Centered Design elective together this semester. Last week we talked about http://www.uie.com/articles/branding_usability/“target=”_blank”>Jared Spools research into user experience and brand impression. She had a eureka moment and this week should have some new ammunition at the various meetings she participates in.
I hope your comments support HTML, otherwise those links will look ugly.
Well, that kinda works.
Works for me!
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