Community Management: Behind the Scenes!

In order to get the bigger picture, we need to start with the million-dollar question! What does a community manager do?

Here’s a breakdown: A community manager doesn’t just sip coffee in her/his pyjamas and troll the internet all day! It literally means managing communities … online. But more than that. It’s also about building, growing and obviously, as the name suggests, managing a company’s or brand’s online community. This begs another question. How?

Well, we use analytics tools, live events and social media to monitor, engage and respond to people’s online feedback or concern about a company or brand. In a nutshell, we strive to give users a positive experience through one-on-one interactions in hope of positively impacting the user’s general perception of the company or brand.

Obviously, it requires an eclectic mix of skills. Passion, dedication, great communication skills, multitasking, cool-headedness (obviously) are some of them. And let’s just say that it is sometimes easier than others. Some other times, we end up with a somewhat puzzled look on our face and confused about how to react. That’s when taking a step back and a good dose of diplomacy come into play

So, for pure entertainment value, here are the different types of followers we, community managers, interact with daily:

1. The Passionistas

These people are all about enhancing the social media world and sharing their passion for it. It is a wonderful breed of users, really, because if they share the same vision than your brand, they will more than likely contribute positively to it and even share it as much as they can!

2. The Attention Seekers

These specific types of users are all about themselves. Attention Seekers will share irrelevant stuff and will reveal details about their personal life in order to promote, well, themselves and to share their opinion.

3. The Funny Ones

‘Hey, look at me! I’m a stand-up comedian in search of an audience!’ As a Community Manager, we got ourselves first-class tickets to these one-wo/men show :P This person will say funny things or comment funny GIFs. Very entertaining.

4. The Whiners

The Whiners will keep on complaining, disapproving, criticising or asking questions even though you already sent a lot of details. This type of user is here to argue no matter what and be a smart a** in the comment section (Facebook is for sharing what’s on your mind, right?). What’s worse, those rants are sometimes about issues unrelated to the business. So hello there ranter, after a few failed attempts, please don’t mind my silence

5. The Angry ones

Now, things are getting serious. One bad grape can spoil the bunch and this one is here to argue. The Angry ones usually have a fake profile just to comment on pages and share their opinion (a bit like the Whiners but in a more aggressive way). These people might also use foul language and be discriminatory. As forever unhappy customers, they expect you to respond within minutes before they unleash more fury.

6. The Impatient Jobseekers

Whenever there’s a job advert, some people feel like they should be given the position right away and sometimes even leave their contact details – Hello please contact me on 5***** (seriously?). Don’t forget that there are crazier people out there! Some people also send their CVs as a private message. NO, not as an attachment but as an actual message.

7. The ‘Tester-la-piste’ AKA The Pervs

These here need some serious attention and one might add, some therapy. These followers are the worst type of social media fans your brand can have because … well, you know… (Shhh) These people will either test the waters or ask weird and uncomfortable questions before getting to the point. The point, as you figured, is usually related to either some ‘happy ending stuff’ or worst, they might even just directly send some nude pictures like they are emojis. Welcome to the internet era!

8. The GIF Senders

Extremely creative and always ready for a giggle, the GIF Senders will go out of their way to have a good laugh. Always seeing the silver lining to things, you can count on them to always lighten the mood. In the end, they got the good stuff down because they understood that humour goes a long way! Hail to the GIF Senders!!

9. The Generic Users

The generic users are just like everyday people. They don’t care about what’s happening around. They will react only when you are showing something that triggers their interest and will ask for details in a straightforward, non-emotional comment: ‘price’, ‘how much?’, where is it?’, etc. They are also the easy ones, as they know what they want, and if they want your product, they will buy without any further fuss.

10. The Blind-eyed

When you share something on a specific social media account and everything, and I mean everything, is written in the description, for example, the price, the location, the dates and all the rest. Well, the blind ones will still ask for the price which will follow by other people doing the same thing. Not complaining – it drives more engagement!

11. The Premium fans

These are fans for life and seem to be on constant standby, reacting ‘love’ or #YouRock to everything shared on the page. Genuinely liking every single one of the posts, these groupies or cheerleaders will not only spread the good word about your business but comment with GIFs, stickers to express how they love the project/product/service. Inoffensive, charming and mostly super valuable in boosting your social visibility.

On a final note, those people are quite entertaining and well, you know online or not, it’s just human nature and we get it .Just as in real life, we have come to realise that fans and followers on social platforms all have different manners of communicating. If you start noticing and identifying the different types of fans/followers on your brand pages, you will be able to hit the right note with your posts which will be crucial in getting them to take action and share, like, comment and repost your content. So far, we have seen 11 different types of social media fans and followers. Now it’s time for you to say which type of users that you relate to? And don’t be shy, we’ve seen it all.