The success of any Innovation Management or Community platform is very much dependant on the ‘quality’ of the Community Manager (CM) or Sponsor.

RWW provides an excellent overview of the Community Manager role as it applies to start-ups, and I feel that it also relates to any business, big or small, new or established, deploying any Web2.0 strategy.

There are some big companies here in Australia about to toe dip into community collaboration to improve the business and better engage internal and external customers.

I’ve seen it work, and I’ve seen it fail, and I know the success (or otherwise) has related directly to the choice of or priority placed on having access to the right CM.

Based on my experience with community platforms, these are the key attributes of a CM:

  • Passionate about Web.2.0 and the network effect
  • Entrepreneurial and energetic
  • Customer focused
  • Has a solid grasp of user interface design
  • Understands enough of the technical aspects of web design to estimate time/cost of solutions
  • Quickly grasps technical concepts
  • Can translate the business requirement to the developer and developer capability to the business
  • Passionate about and competent with Continuous Improvement methodologies
  • Effective change and stakeholder manager
  • They are agile and can promote/facilitate the shift in business thinking to enable agile development
  • Project Management
  • Passionate about Collaboration, Creativity and Innovation
  • Understands the network effect and the power of collective intelligence and how they can apply to the business need
  • Excellent presentation and public speaking skills

Some of the key accountabilities of the CM are:

  • Quickly identifies the business application/opportunity of new web technologies and can project manage those opportunities or facilitates those who will
  • Manages the relationships between the business and the developers (there are developers out there who are so passionate about the social web opportunities, they will give away some freebies to help the client fully maximise the benefits…and then some)
  • Activley promotes a culture of creativity and collaboration and is (the very visible) ‘Innovation Champion’ 
  • Where able, acts as the ‘on-site’ person during development to facilitate the business engagement required to ensure success
  • Prepares and presents proposals to the client
  • Seeks new business
  • Manages ongoing relationships with clients after the job is delivered and promotes and proposes new opportunities where relevant and as they arise

So it’s not just the startups. A good CM is a critical part of the overall business strategy as it relates to Web2.0, whether that business is the developer or the client.

For businesses that don’t feel the need to have a dedicated in house CM resource, make sure the development team you pay to do your Web2.0 work, has a good CM.