Many people tend to assume that the best community and/or social media managers are classic extroverts. While there are certainly some, I believe that the best community managers are actually introverts. Here’s my reasoning behind it.
You see, extroverts can be your classic outgoing types, that love to talk (especially about themselves). This ME-ME-ME outgoing attitude doesn’t always work so well when managing online social channels.
The best community managers tend to have these four traits in common, which I would argue come more naturally to introverts.
Great Listeners
Listening may be the most important skill that any community manager needs to master. There is SO MUCH noise on social media that you need to be able to identity and filter out the social cues to know the best way to react.
Empathy
One of the hardest aspects as a community manager is to deal with an irate customer or community member, who is screaming at your brand. It’s really easy to take that stuff as a personal attack. When in reality, the best thing to do is emphasize with the person, knowing they are mad at the situation and not at an individual person. Well, in most cases. This becomes a critical part of de-escalating a tense situation online.
Analytical
Ultimately, you cannot manage what you cannot measure. You can be the greatest people-person and listener. However, if you don’t know how to report your results to your superiors, you aren’t going to get very far.
Great Writers
Whether it’s crafting 140 character tweets, community emails or blog posts, being a solid writer is a must. You don’t necessarily have to be the next Pulitzer Prize winning author. However, having good grammar and spelling skills is definitely a must.
What skills do you think are necessary for community managers?
