Erin Bury on the Role of Community Manager at Sprouter

What does the role of Community Manager at Sprouter entail?

The online Community Manager role is a growing and developing profession. People in this position are working to build, grow and manage communities around a brand or cause.-Wikipedia.

The Community Manger role is becoming more demanding and I wanted to know more about what that role entails and how important it can be to a startup. So I turned to the best Community Manager I know to pick her brain. Erin Bury is the Community Manager for Sprouter in Toronto. Sprouter is an online network that facilitates collaboration between entrepreneurs globally and has been called the Twitter For Business by Mashable. Anyone who has had the pleasure of chatting with Erin on or offline knows she is very approachable, dedicated and passionate about what she does and she was more than willing to answer all of the questions I had for her regarding her role as Community Manager at Sprouter.

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the role of Community Manager. How would you describe your role at Sprouter? What is a typical day like for you?

One of the best things about being a Community Manager is that every position is different - it depends on the size of the company, the type of community you are interacting with, and the goals of the company. My role at Sprouter is very multi-faceted - I am in charge of social media strategy (including running the Twitter/Facebook accounts and writing the blog, among other things), public relations, community relations & support (running our Get Satisfaction page, responding to questions/feedback), events & event planning (attending events, sourcing speaking opportunities, speaking at events, and organizing our Sprout Up events), engaging with entrepreneur associations around the world, and most importantly engaging with the community on Sprouter - welcoming new members, answering questions, and writing our weekly newsletter that goes out to the community. A typical day is kind of an oxymoron at Sprouter - my job is very different depending on what our focus is that week (public relations, throwing an event, preparing for a speaking event, etc). But I typically arrive at the office around 8:30am, work & meet with local entrepreneurs/associations during the day, and attend entrepreneur-focused events at least 2 or 3 nights of the week.

What in your opinion is the most rewarding part of your job? What is the most challenging?

The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the Sprouter community grow as a result of my efforts, and the efforts of my team. Whether that's through getting a great piece of media coverage, or throwing a successful event, or getting a great response to a speaking engagement. The most challenging part of my job is getting to all the tasks at hand! As you saw above I have a lot of responsibility, so I'm constantly prioritizing and figuring out where to spend my time - I wish there were 40 hours in a day so I could spend more time on certain aspects of my job. Thankfully I have two amazing interns, one helping out with events and one helping with public relations, who make my job a little bit easier.

Why do you think having a Community Manager is important for a startup like Sprouter?

Most startups don't have a ton of budget for traditional advertising and marketing, and it's often not the most effective way to reach an audience. Having a Community Manager allows you to reach people in a genuine and personable way - whether by attending events, contributing to blogs, or engaging with them on your site. It allows you to harness new and inexpensive online tools - and even if you're not an online business you can still benefit from a Community Manager who engages your audience in both traditional (public relations) and non-traditional (social media) ways. The only cost is a salary and some fees like premium accounts on social media sites and registration fees for events - still much less than a cross-platform advertising campaign, and likely more targeted. Also, people are talking about your brand or industry online already - why not have someone who is devoted to responding and engaging with people's opinions? You'd be surprised how receptive people are to hearing a human voice representing a company.

How do you see your role evolving in the future?

As the community on Sprouter grows, I see my role evolving into more of a community support role. Whereas right now we're focused on spreading the word about Sprouter and talking to as many entrepreneurs as we can, in the future it will likely be more about engaging the existing site membership, and providing valuable content through the blog and newsletter. And who knows - maybe we'll have two Community Managers!

What should companies look for in a person when hiring a Community Manager? What experience and traits are crucial?

I think there's a traditional focus on the importance of experience when hiring. Although experience (schooling, work experience, experience with social media tools) should play a role, more importance should be placed on a person's character and passion when hiring a Community Manager. CM's need to be passionate about what they do - this isn't a 9-5 job, nor one you can do in a lackluster way. You need to be willing to devote some nights and weekends to your job, and you need to be as excited about your company as you want your community to be. I think traits of a successful Community Manager can include being extroverted (you need to be able to walk into a room of strangers and strike up a conversation), having good writing skills (if you're in charge of creating content like a blog), having great communication skills (you need to be able to communicate your company's pitch concisely and effectively), and having great time management and juggling skills (you'll likely be working on a multitude of projects at once). Of course having experience in social media is great, but more important than that is someone who is a fast learner and wants to immerse themselves in new tools. When I started at Sprouter I barely knew what Twitter was - everything is a learning curve, and it's people who are open to adopting new tools who will thrive. And the #1 question people should ask themselves when hiring a Community Manager is "Do they fit in with the company culture?" CM's are very common at small startups - and when you're one of three employees (like I have been for the past year) you need to get along with the other employees, and embody the culture and ideals of the company.

Anything else you would like to add?

Community Manager is an emerging title in the workforce - I didn't really know what it entailed a year ago, and now I'm positive that it's an absolutely perfect position for me. I encourage people who are interested in communications, social media, or technology to seek out CM positions and apply (regardless of how much experience you have). It's a position that allows you to learn, grow your network, and contribute relevantly to a company and its presence, both offline and online.

You can follow Erin and Sprouter on Twitter and also be sure to check out Sprouter.com

See other Techvibes posts on Sprouter here and here.

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