Like what I mentioned in my previous blog post, I work in social media.
The title on my card reads - Social Engagement Editor. And let me tell you, it was SO difficult trying to explain that to mum... let alone my relatives or friends. An aunt even mentioned (very slowly and carefully) "You know, dear... it kind of sounds like you're a GRO or something."
So what on earth IS social engagement?
Here it is... in the simplest way I can possibly explain.
I take care of Facebook pages for brands. So that includes posting stuff up - be it about the product or just something to entertain you, answering queries such as how much is it/where to buy/I'm allergic to peanuts, and moderating the page - deleting derogatory comments or spam.
I can totally hear someone thinking "Oh that sounds easy... I can do that! I post stuff on my page every day!"
I'll be honest with you, it takes a creativity, a whole lot of patience and a fair amount of keyboard restraining to this job.
Creativity
You'll kinda need an eye for design and editing to create stuff to post. This is where you really need to KISS. The thing that annoys most readers are copy that's way too long, making it too hard to read. After all, we're in the internet generation.
Everything is quick.
Everything is now.
Anything that takes more than 5 seconds of effort is passed on.
Oh and that eye for design, is for the images that goes up with your message. Let's face it, if you have a regular stock picture of a product all the time, then, you lose your audience visually in and instant. Regular stock photos of products look boring and shows that you're not even trying.
Yes I know, companies pay a lot to photographers to create a product library so they can use them in all their materials. But seriously. It's ugly and if I have to use them, I pretty it up. Add a border. Add some text. Give it a background. Duplicate it. Just as long as it's not standing there by itself.
Patience
Now when I say patience, I mean with the brand managers and the fans.
If you're lucky, you'll get brand managers who know what they want, can communicate fairly well what they want and understand the internet culture. Plus they'll be on the same wavelength with their consumers and know what they want so they can tell you what can be done and what cannot be done.
If you're not, you'll get some who has a new idea every 10 minutes or takes forever to respond to you (and finally blames you for not acting faster), or throws a "Wrong" or "I don't like it" on you. Seriously.
If you're lucky, you'll get brand managers who know what they want, can communicate fairly well what they want and understand the internet culture. Plus they'll be on the same wavelength with their consumers and know what they want so they can tell you what can be done and what cannot be done.
If you're not, you'll get some who has a new idea every 10 minutes or takes forever to respond to you (and finally blames you for not acting faster), or throws a "Wrong" or "I don't like it" on you. Seriously.
When it comes to fans, these are the usual suspects
- Real fans
- On-the-verge-of-converting fans
- Non-believers
- Complainers (eg. bought the product and found fault with it)
- Brand haters
- Trolls
The first three on the list are easy to deal with, but you'll really *I stress on the REALLY* need patience with the last three... which leads me to my next point
Keyboard restraint
Keyboard restraint
I've had fans spam an inbox just because they were over excited (about a contest which was still going on), fans complaining they haven't gotten a confirmation email yet (Umm, hello? The contest like JUST ended), fans complaining that the car that they just bought is of substandard material "The door handles look and feel cheap and the sides look like they'll dent in if I lean on it" (Why'd you buy it in the first place?) or even fans demanding that they speak to the CEO of the company.
Not to mention my fair share of smart asses commenting on the pages that I handle. I wouldn't mind as much if they were actually witty.
Your first couple of days of handling these can be quite funny. But after a while, all these can get to you. Especially if the commentor is very linguistically mean or rude.
I mean, that's just really bad press. But ohhhh I can totally feel their frustration and I know why they did what they did because if I had a buck for every time I had to hold back, I should be able to buy myself a pretty bag now! I'm just not agreeing at the way they managed it.
So yeah, I hope I've managed to explain a bit about what a community manager does. Feel free to leave me questions!
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