Clear job descriptions and workable mandates
The purpose of the job profile is not only to help organizations. Good staff with a clear job description starts with the posting of a vacancy. Too often we see unclear calls appear, in which the word community manager is mentioned, while the requirements and task package do not always have to do with that title. Or that a cheap junior is requested. While such a person will drown in the many different tasks and responsibilities and will get stuck due to a lack of authority in an organization. Something that is desperately needed to be able to sell the value of an online community internally, so that, for example, FTE and budget can be freed up.
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This professional profile has therefore also been developed for recruiters and HR, to provide direction in drawing up job profiles. Organisations gain better insight into who they are looking for for which tasks and professionals apply for clear vacancies. This can then lead to better matches and hopefully to a larger number of successful online communities.
“There are many unclear vacancies where a community manager can be anything: from PR manager latvia phone number list to social media intern,” says Mirjam van Driel, community manager at Myler. “I expect the job profile to provide more clarity about the community manager’s work and the position he or she has within an organization.”
Focus on your work, vision for growth
A professional association represents – how could it be otherwise – professionals who work in that field. That brings us to the third target group; the supporters, the community professional themselves. They often spend a lot of time justifying their position within the organization. Of course, it must be clear what a community is for, what it yields, where you want to go.
But also the mandate that you get as a professional, the opportunity to speak to key people within an organization and to involve them; you are not only busy making the value of the community clear, but also justifying your own position. Because experience shows that for many employees it is still unclear what the community manager stands for and what all those hours are spent on.
Arianne Heij, community manager at T-Mobile: “Working from home is not an option for me. I have to be in constant contact with colleagues, involve them, motivate them and feed them with knowledge that we get from the community. I am at the heart of the organization, I belong everywhere and nowhere. If I am invisible for a while, I have to quickly lobby for the community and especially my own position.”
The aim of the professional profile is therefore also to provide community professionals with clarity about the scope of their work and growth opportunities.
For these three target groups: the organizations as a whole; the HR department, the individual professional, the professional profile is an indispensable instrument. It defines the field and outlines a framework. It is not complete, constantly evolving and certainly not set in stone. But once described, we can get started with a similar frame of reference. The professional profile is an essential development for professional community management.