by Paolo Jose, Social Asset Manager
www.idisaster.wordpress.com
“So, what do you do for work?”
When faced with this question, I tend to draw a blank before rattling off a vague bullet list of what my job entails.
This isn’t to say that I didn’t know what I was getting into, but for Community Managers such as myself, I don’t think there’s a short and simple answer to that question. Each of us take on such varied roles that it almost seems like the scope of the job itself is in a constant state of flux.
But suffice to say, our work mainly revolves around managing relationships with our brands’ consumers via social media– something that, ideally, should go beyond just updating them on the latest developments and/or product releases, answering FAQs and, more often than not, addressing the barrage of complaints that come with certain accounts. All of which, of course, are faced with a smile.
www.pitch.com
Like this, basically.
“Wow, sounds like fun! You spend your 9-5 online and call it a day.”
Well, that and much, much more. Short of actually being Facebook BFFs with our pages’ visitors, we aim to provide them with the sense that they belong to a cool clique when they follow our brands online. A dilemma I find with this, however, – one that I have to assume I share with at least a few of my peers – is how to come across as an actual person and engage folks in genuine conversation. This is especially hard given the impersonal terms we use for the people that visit our pages (e.g. fans, users, consumers, etc.), as well as the way we quantify our interactions with them into a statistical grading sheet. These can in themselves create a disconnect with these very same individuals.
www.quiip.com.au
Our version of bromance.
As such, we perform a delicate balancing act between congeniality and professionalism. Meaning, we should be relatable to our pages’ visitors while still being reliable information-wise.
www.oreillyauto.com
Handling a certain car tire brand, I’ve learned that this bad boy is called a ‘lug wrench.’ You’re welcome.
So in short, how does a CM craft a unique voice in a veritable ocean of promos, ads, and press releases?
One method may be to put a face to the name, so to speak – or to come up with distinctive online personas to serve as tangible spokespersons on the page, rather than just posting and commenting as a big, faceless brand.
I don’t necessarily mean that we should literally post some stock photo model’s face to go along with our pretend identities. Although our pages may actually get a boost from fans thinking they’re chatting with someone who has Piolo’s abs or Jessy Mendiola’s curves…
www.intershapes.com
“Happy Wednesday! How may we help you?”
“So you’re basically a call center agent, but on Facebook?”
Hmm. Let’s try another comparison. To help put this whole custom-made spokesperson idea into perspective, one could compare it with being a radio disc jockey; all these DJs are associated with a given radio station, and yet each has his or her own unique style of rapport, type of playlist, and so on.
Going by this analogy, the brand would be the “radio station” – an entity with a consistent look and feel, whereas the CM could play the part of any number of “DJs” –posting and commenting in the guise of personalities befitting the brand. At the risk of developing a personal identity crisis, a CM can even opt to speak as different characters on the same page on given days.
This may not be the way to go for all brand pages, but any step towards humanizing the social media interaction between the CM and page fans has got to be worth trying.
Oh, and to answer the title question, I do dream of electric sheep. They play tag, like cookies, and byte all the time. Also, they’re friends with Trojan Horses.
http://bit.ly/1dNEEwS
Fellow CMs, how do you define our work? Tell us about it in the comments!
It's So Social 