Should I hire a community professional?
Great communities have a strong focus and serve a specific purpose for their participants.
When you’re appointing talent to build or oversee communities, sometimes people opt to hire someone who intimately understands the topic of the community, to effectively realise that purpose, instead of a trained community professional who has worked with multiple types of communities across different industries.
Both approaches are valid, have advantages and disadvantages, and will impact how your community and its management unfolds over time.
We’ve summarised the most important factors to consider below, along with key pros and cons, to help inform your decision.
Subject matter expert
Subject matter experts might be well known individuals within the industry you’re serving, or be a practitioner immersed in the space on a daily basis. They may emerge from an existing community (online or offline) and rise as natural leaders with specialist knowledge of the primary community topic or purpose, such as gaming, design, teaching or crafting.
Examples of subject matter expert hires are:
- An established gamer to manage a gaming community
- A trained accountant to manage a community of financial professionals
- A teacher to manage a community of educators
Pros
They will likely understand the community purpose innately.
They won’t take long to understand members and their needs.
They have existing or deep knowledge about the topic they can immediately use to create content, conversations, shared experiences and other community activities.
They may have intrinsic motivation and emotional investment in the community’s success.
Members will likely recognise and respect their relevant expertise, earning them trust and respect.
They can become an authentic 'avatar' for members, leading as a community ambassador.
By hiring a peer, your organisation shows that it respects and understands what the community values.
They should better understand how to measure success from a member. perspective, especially at the beginning of the community journey.
They may be more affordable in the short-term for your organisation as they are not experienced community practitioners.
Cons
They may not have community management specific skills sets.
The community may initially struggle to form and grow effectively while they build those skill sets.
They will not be aware of regulatory requirements around moderation and risk management, creating risk or legal exposure for you while they upskill.
They may need to work with third parties or experts to fill gaps, incurring additional cost.
They may not initially understand how to measure success from a business or organisational perspective.
They may not be viewed as a neutral arbiter if they have existing relationships in the industry or space the community serves.
They may not be able to access resources and support for community professionals.
They can be difficult to replace if they move on, creating a more significant single point of failure.
Community professional
The online community management industry is becoming increasingly professionalised, with training and qualifications being offered at the university level and within the industry itself. Community professionals will have a combination of training and deep experience growing and maintaining communities of all kinds, and are able to transfer their practices to most contexts. Their expertise is community itself, and they may have specific areas of focus within the field (such as not-for-profits, start-ups, B2B, or enterprise/workplaces).
So instead you have:
- A community professional who has worked on popular communities of interest running a large community of gamers
- A B2B community professional managing a community of financial professionals
- An enterprise community manager managing an online community for a newly hybrid workforce
Pros
They will have specific and refined community management skills sets.
The community is likely to grow effectively from the onset under their guidance.
They are trained in regulatory requirements around moderation and risk management, limiting your risk exposure.
They are less likely to require third parties or experts to fill gaps.
They can define and measure success (including Return on Investment) for the business or organisation immediately.
They are often viewed as a more neutral arbiter in moderation and governance
They can readily access communities of practice and professional organisations to help them succeed.
There is a global talent pool of community professionals who can replace them if they move on.
Cons
They may feel like an “outsider” to members, and need more time to earn trust.
They can take longer to understand members and their needs.
They will take more time to learn the subject matter of the community deeply, and for it inform their community management approach and practices.
They may take longer to pick up on risks and issues unique to that community context.
They may be less affordable in the short-term because of their specialist skill sets.
How to make the call
Think about how important each of these factors are for your community - its purpose and reason for being, its desired culture, its risks and potential issues. You’ll need to make trade-offs with either approach, so you need to rank which pros are the most important for you, and which cons are risks you’re not able or willing to accept.
Both roads usually meet in the middle over time. The subject matter expert grows their community management skills, and may move on to other community roles, becoming a community specialist more generally. The community specialist will learn the nuances of the community topic and member base, and become both expert and ambassador over time.
If your community strategy and scale allows, it’s powerful to have both community experts and subject matter experts on your team. Each brings unique value to the table and can set your community up to thrive over the long term. Community members themselves may be able to fill those expert roles - rewarded and recognised by you with additional status in the community.
If you need help hiring an online community manager and you’re unsure about which direction to head, contact ACM and we’re happy to help.