It cannot be determined if it is “better” that the Community Manager is part of the company or is a professional external to the company or a Social Media agency. As you already know, it depends on the reality of the company, what its current presence is on networks, the resources it has…
In larger companies, there will not be a single professional in charge of managing the company’s corporate profiles, but rather the team that manages social networks may even be made up of hundreds of workers, depending on the needs of the organization.
This reality, and the maturity that the profession is reaching, means that there are different profiles in Social Media departments, depending on their experience, level of responsibility and specialization. They do not exist in all companies, nor are their functions usually perfectly defined, since in practice it is very possible that the same professional will have to assume several of these roles. With this reservation made, you now know which would be the different profiles that could coexist in the same 2.0 team.
Professional profiles in a Social Media department
-Community Manager. It is the best-known profession both outside and inside the field of social media, for being the first to be named at the end of the last decade. A Community Manager is understood to be the professional who executes the company’s digital content strategy. He is the one who creates and publishes the content and who serves as a link between the brand and consumers, energizing the conversation with users and responding to their requests.
-Social Media Manager. He is responsible for the different community managers, his direct boss, who ensures that they correctly apply the social media strategy. He is the person most responsible for its implementation, who creates the short-term content plans and who manages their scheduling. He also usually defines action plans in cases of crisis 2.0.
-Social Media Strategist. It is the professional who is responsible for defining the company’s strategy on social networks, which will subsequently be implemented by the social media manager and executed by the community managers. He always works in the long term and defines the firm’s social media objectives and the way in which it will be measured whether they are being achieved or not.
-Social Media Analyst: He is responsible for monitoring the actions carried out by the company on social networks, analyzing the data and interpreting the results obtained. Prepare reports with strategic recommendations that the social media strategist will use when defining the company’s roadmap in social media.
Other roles and specialization in Social Media
-Content Manager: It is responsible for creating the content that will be published, adapting and optimizing it according to the company’s strategy. They are also usually in charge of selecting relevant information to share on the company’s channels. In large corporations there may be the specific figure of the content curator, but the most common thing is that it is the content manager or the community manager who assumes this function.
-Copywriter. It is the person who is responsible for writing advertising texts for a company and also develops its function on social networks, seeking to persuade the user and incite them to action.
-Social Media Developer. It would be the programmer who develops specific applications for the company’s social media, such as, for example, a contest on Facebook.
-Social Media SEO. It is a technical profile that corresponds to a positioning expert applied to content on social networks.
-Social Media Legal. This is the person in charge of knowing the legal implications of having a digital presence. Protects the interests of the brand and is responsible for guaranteeing the security and privacy of the company and its workers on social platforms.
