In recent years, there has been a strong rise in the field of online community management. Platforms such as Frankwatching also pay a lot of attention to this 'new' field. Although new? Community management is getting a lot of attention in the wake of social media.
Community managers and social media managers are often used interchangeably (but they are not!). Companies are showing an increasing interest in experienced and professional community managers and are hiring community managers or appointing a head of communities. At the same time, professionals who have been doing good work in online environments for years suddenly know how to give a name to their function. But the function is not as new as we like to believe. There seems to be confusion and a need for clarity.
Community management focuses on (online) contact between people and companies and saudi arabia phone number list between people around a common theme. The function is fundamentally different from that of a social media manager. It is expected that with the increasing attention for the use of online platforms – to facilitate dialogue between people, customers and companies – the attention for community management will only increase.
LinkedIn group CMNL for community managers
For these reasons, Kirsten Wagenaar founded the LinkedIn group CMNL on 24 August 2009 to bring community managers together and share experiences. On the one hand, it had to become a platform where community managers could profile and recognise themselves. On the other hand, the platform had to contribute to further professionalisation of the field. Despite a strict access policy, the group grew to over 300 members in a year and a half and is a nice index of professionals and organisations involved in community management.