One of my favorite blogs on marketing and communications is Eloqua's engaging, informative and well-written offering called "It's All About Revenue." Today, I was especially struck by Jesse Noyes' take in a post called "What You Must Know About Community Management." The post is a distillation of info and tips from Eloqua's "Grande Guide to Community Management" and highlights a variety of must-haves from those pros who sport "Community Manager" as all or part of their job title. What I like about the take here is the wide-bore point of view that pulls community managers out of the shadows of niche practice and envisions a wider internal communications catalyst role in many organizations. As I also feel about PR done properly, Eloqua believes that a community manager's brief should be to serve as a two-way conduit for information and insight between a company and its influencers, prospects and customers. I know a few current and former Community Managers who likely agree with this perspective. I'd be interested in hearing from them, however, just how widely accepted by company leadership this enhanced CM role is today, as social media becomes further ingrained in the communications blood flow of an organization.
Check out the post and let me know what yo think about the evolution of the Community Manager. By the way, I have zero connection with Eloqua...just a fan of the blog.