Steve, nice little piece defining an evolving role within companies. I might add some more negatives to the list, though. Crisis Management, for one. Maybe this is close to Referee, but there's guaranteed to be some friction in any community. If you're the community manager, internal or external, it's generally a very political position and you're likely to get blamed and pushed around when some issue flashes. Pulling back from a bad post, handling a new, unpopular policy, or fixing some mistake... It's handling those unexpected moments, I'd say, that is an important part of the job.
Authored Comments
Steve, nice little piece defining an evolving role within companies. I might add some more negatives to the list, though. Crisis Management, for one. Maybe this is close to Referee, but there's guaranteed to be some friction in any community. If you're the community manager, internal or external, it's generally a very political position and you're likely to get blamed and pushed around when some issue flashes. Pulling back from a bad post, handling a new, unpopular policy, or fixing some mistake... It's handling those unexpected moments, I'd say, that is an important part of the job.
Jesse Casman
San Francisco, CA