Until December 2019 when I was asked to assume the position of a Community Manager in the Digital Marketing firm I worked for, I have never heard of the term ‘Community Management’.
It was a new space to explore and I had hoped that Google would guide me around it but the few SEO-optimized pages then didn’t get me anywhere.
So, I wandered for 6 months with a title I knew nothing about.
During the pandemic (2020), I got digging again and finally stumbled on something helpful- a book on Community Management. That moment was magical, finally there was a guide for me.
This book was my first guide into the Community industry because with it I finally began to understand the concept of community building.
While I was still learning from the book, I discovered CMX Hub (a community for Community Professionals), and became a part of the community.
Slowly I began to blend in and the journey progressed!
But did that do everything for me? Nahhh!
I had to find other community professionals to network with- mostly on Twitter and LinkedIn. I found as many as I could and connected with them excitedly.
In 2020, I volunteered to be a moderator at the CMX Summit and it was an amazing experience for me. After the summit, I had opportunities to work with various persons which was absolutely great.
Lastly, one other thing that helped me was actually building and managing a community. Learning didn’t just cut it, I had to put what I’ve learned into work and I kept learning in the process.
As a newbie in the community industry;
Start with learning the basics and having an understanding of what community management entails
Join communities where industry leaders and professionals are, get to network and learn from the resources shared.
Look out for internship/volunteer positions and begin to practice.
You can even build a community of your own and learn from it.
Learn from the resources available out there (newsletters, blogs, YouTube videos, etc.) I shared some here 👇
📚 Community Resource Hub
In my journey as a community manager, one of the things that continue to shape my path is resources. Learning is continuous and it’s important that you get hooked with resources to stay updated and acquainted with the things happening in the community space.
Just keep flexing those muscles and you'll get better!
It’s important to know that just like every career path, these things won’t happen in 1 week or 1 month, but can begin to make sense if you consistently go about it for as long as it takes. You can navigate faster than I did or take longer than I did but that doesn’t make you or me better, it’s a journey that should be enjoyed not rushed.
Was this helpful?
This is really helpful.