So, you want to hire a community manager to help raise brand awareness for your company and better connect with your consumers. There‘s just one problem: You’re not sure how to hire a community manager.

In the age of social media, most brand communities exist mainly online via social media platforms like Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, or X.

Community management helps you build trust, loyalty, and connection with your audience. It’s also how you make sure your audience gets the most out of what you offer them.

As of 2024, 86% of social media marketers say building an active and engaging online community is critical to a successful social media strategy.

In a perfect world, my car would run on starlight and dreams, fries would taste good reheated, and we would never be asked to prove the ROI of community management.

Matthew Stibbe, CEO of Articulate Marketing, told me, “Community is not the cult of celebrity. It’s a reciprocal thing. It is about building connections, true connections, and developing those connections into relationships.”

If you‘ve seen other posts I’ve written about community management, you know I used to manage a Facebook community for a TV station where I worked as a digital journalist.

When I started thinking about the different types of online communities that exist, I felt like the possibilities were endless.

Brands build online communities around their target audiences.