The 10 Principles Of Professional Community Management

We've reached the era of the professional community manager.

Those that run communities for organizations will be expected to know what they’re doing, not learn on the job.

I like Seth's definition here. Professionals have deep and broad knowledge of their sector. They know the theory behind their work. They know the case studies of success and failure. They test, measure and adapt. They work to understand what is/isn't working (and why).

In communities, professionals will be expected to excel in key skills. They will be expected to guide their organization through the community development process. They will be expected to prove their value numerically. 

Successful amateurs will still thrive, but organizations will want the reliability of the proven professionals. As part of FeverBee’s Professional Community Management Course, we have developed our 10 principles of professional community management.

We’re happy to share them with Ning:

  1. Professional Community Managers build a strong sense of community amongst a specific group of individuals.
  2. Professional Community Managers work from proven templates to develop their community through the community development process (they are proactive, not reactive).
  3. Professional Community Managers excel at building relationships both with and between members.
  4. Professional Community Managers master their data and use their data to optimize every activity and stage of the membership life-cycle.
  5. Professional Community Managers have deep knowledge of technology, sociology, social-psychology, anthropology, network science, psychology, group dynamics and community development.
  6. Professional Community Managers build internal and external systems to scale their communities without incurring a large financial burden.
  7. Professional Community Managers integrate the community with the organization's systems.
  8. Professional Community Managers excel at stimulating and sustaining high levels of participation per member.
  9. Professional Community Managers excel at conflict resolution and work from proven techniques to resolve potentially detrimental disputes.
  10. Professional Community Managers deliver a clear ROI to their employers (not fuzzy statements concerning engagement).

These 10 principles might change over the next few years, but I think we've made a good start. If you're hiring a community manager, does this sound like the type of person you would like to hire?

 

(Image: Pen, Diary and Glasses, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from generationbass's photostream)

comments powered by Disqus

Every few weeks, Ning invites a leading expert to discuss trending topics and best practices for community management. Watch the recordings here.

More than two million people have built a branded social network on Ning. Many of these customers now enjoy thriving online communities. You can find a few of those success stories here.

Learn what it takes to thrive and see what it is possible to achieve with Ning.


Growing a thriving online community is one of the most rewarding things you can do.

Our goal at Ning is to make building a community dead simple. We provide an incredibly reliable, popular, and easy-to-use platform so you can focus on cultivating your community.

Learn how to start your community in minutes.

Have you considered monetizing your community? Download your free copy of Monetizing Online Forums by Patrick O'Keefe to learn what methods are available, how to implement them, and how you can benefit today.