People don't like talking to robots
May 20th, 2010
7
… Unless they’re into robotics and what not. But people who use social media don’t like talking to robots. A successful social media campaign creates a personal voice for the brand with which they engage the community. This usually comes in the form of a community manager. Hello, I’m yours.
Each community manager adds a little bit of their own persona when creating the brand’s voice. From writing style to loves, likes and dislikes, we’re in there. We also keep in the mind the culture of the company. A lot goes into creating just one voice.
This creates an interesting dynamic as the community manager switches between personal voice and work voice day to day. It can be quite challenging managing these multiple personalities, but if the company brings in the right person, the two can be managed almost seamlessly.
I infuse a lot of my own personality into my community manager role. But I also know the brand I am representing. I know who is behind it and I know who we’re targeting. This information makes it easier to draw a line between my voice and the brand’s voice. I don’t see the point in becoming someone I am not when managing a community. The community will be able to tell if you’re not being genuine. And if you can’t fit in with the community or your brand’s culture, how can you honestly say you’re the best representation of it? I am lucky that I work for a company that not just allows, but encourages me to continue being Jenn.
Don’t get me wrong though. Community management can be a bit of an identity struggle. Community managers are often the first line of defense and do require some armor. So while I am me and can form friendships with our community, I still have to use my brand voice and sometimes bite my tongue or put on a smile when I really want to scream. Me and the brand are not the same person, but some days I have to act like it.
This doesn’t send me into a “who am I?!” spiral into an infinite abyss of internet doom. Like I said, it’s all about finding the right fit for you and staying consistent. Find the right company and the right balance.
I was reading a blog post titled the Social Media Personality Conflict and it touched on the multiple personality issue that sometimes arises in community managers. What stuck with me was one of the comments. A woman attended a workshop where they discussed two brands who were using Twitter effectively:
“One was an entrepreneur who started her own cupcake company and the other was a corporation who produced popcorn. Both of them used twitter to help build their brand by establishing relationships and getting twitter users to bond with them personally. The cupcake business is booming and the business owner says at least 85% of her success if from twitter! The popcorn company was doing extremely well until the person they had running the twitter account took a job at another company… The moral to this comment is, companies cannot ignore social media as a brand strategy! If your brand is not consistent, people will stop eating popcorn!”
It is just as important to develop the personality of your brand as it is the content and information you place on your website. Community Managers, take time to get to know your brand and develop its voice. Brands, don’t try to change who your community manager is. Let their personality shine and infuse your values with theirs.
(image source)
Tagged with: community management, brands
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Jennifer Beese
Jennifer is the Community Manager. When she’s not blogging or tweeting you can usually find her practicing stand-up comedy in front of her bathroom mirror.
7 Comments Leave a comment
I am not so sure that people don’t like talking to robot. The robot picture is nice. All that this robot needs to get on life is a little smile and something interesting to say. I think a social manager is like a writer, you should create an interesting story and human actors.
That’s an interesting way to look at it!
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I think a community manager must evolve at the same time that the community gets its own identity. The difficult part must be giving a sense of direction without narrowing the ability to evolve and change. I think a community is a growing entity, it must be really difficult to find the right way to make it happen.
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