Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Online Community Manager

🎯 Role Definition

An Online Community Manager owns the member experience across one or more digital communities and platform ecosystems. This recruiter-oriented role focuses on strategy, content programming, moderation, member recruitment and onboarding, community governance, analytics, and cross-functional collaboration with product, marketing, and support teams. The manager is accountable for community growth, engagement metrics, health and safety, and translating member insights into product and marketing outcomes.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Community Coordinator / Community Specialist
Social Media Specialist / Content Creator
Customer Support or Customer Success Representative

Advancement To:

Senior Community Manager / Community Lead
Head of Community / Director of Community
VP of Community or VP Customer Experience / Chief Community Officer

Lateral Moves:

Content Strategist / Content Marketing Manager
Social Media Manager / Growth Marketing Manager
Customer Success Manager / Product Manager (community-focused)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop and execute a long-term community strategy and roadmap aligned with company objectives (acquisition, retention, product feedback, brand advocacy), including platform selection, community segmentation, and success metrics.
Create and maintain a detailed content calendar and engagement programming (AMAs, webinars, monthly themes, challenges, local meetups) that drives repeat participation and deepens member relationships.
Moderate conversations across platforms (Discord, Slack, Reddit, Facebook Groups, Discourse) to enforce community guidelines, ensure member safety, de-escalate conflicts, and maintain a positive, inclusive environment.
Build and maintain community governance: publish and iterate on moderation policies, codes of conduct, escalation paths, and enforcement procedures in partnership with legal and compliance teams.
Recruit, onboard, train, and manage volunteer moderators, community ambassadors, and brand advocates; design incentive programs, run training sessions, and maintain moderator playbooks.
Own member lifecycle programs: onboarding flows, retention initiatives, re-engagement campaigns, VIP or ambassador programs, and referral programs to grow active membership.
Monitor community health and engagement metrics (DAU/MAU, retention, posting frequency, sentiment, Net Promoter Score for community) and produce weekly/monthly dashboards and executive summaries.
Gather, synthesize, and deliver actionable product feedback and user insights from community conversations to product, design, and engineering teams; establish a closed-loop feedback process to show impact.
Lead community growth experiments (A/B tests on onboarding, messaging, platform features) and optimize acquisition funnels, using data to scale high-impact tactics.
Partner with marketing to amplify community stories, user-generated content, and case studies; coordinate cross-channel campaigns that convert social followers into community members.
Design and run onboarding and educational content (how-to guides, FAQs, video tutorials) to reduce friction for new members and minimize repetitive support inquiries.
Plan and execute virtual and in-person events (AMA sessions, workshops, meetups, conferences) to increase engagement and strengthen member relationships.
Manage community budgets, tools, and vendor relationships (community platform subscriptions, moderation tools, analytics vendors, creator payments) while optimizing for ROI.
Implement automation and bot strategies responsibly (welcome messages, moderation assistance, polls) to scale support and improve member experience without eroding authenticity.
Lead crisis and reputation management in the community: identify escalating issues, coordinate rapid response with comms and legal, and document lessons learned.
Localize community approach for regional audiences: manage multilingual moderators, tailor content and events for local cultures, and measure regional KPIs.
Measure and improve community monetization opportunities when relevant (paid memberships, premium tiers, sponsored events, partner integrations) while safeguarding member trust.
Maintain archival practices and knowledge base for community content, decisions, and program history to support continuity and onboarding.
Collaborate with customer support and success teams to triage member-reported issues, surface systematic problems, and reduce ticket volume through community-driven support.
Track competitor communities and industry trends to evolve community offerings, propose innovative features, and keep the community experience differentiated.
Facilitate cross-functional workshops and product discovery sessions that use community data to validate hypotheses and prioritize feature development.
Produce concise executive reports and storytelling assets (case studies, member spotlights) to demonstrate community impact on retention, product roadmap, and brand health.
Ensure community initiatives comply with privacy laws, platform terms of service, and company policies; coordinate with legal on escalations involving harassment, safety, or legal threats.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory analysis to answer stakeholder questions about member behavior, retention cohorts, and campaign performance.
Contribute to the organization's community platform strategy, including migrations, integrations with CRM/analytics, and custom feature requests.
Train internal stakeholders (product managers, marketers, sales teams) on community best practices, moderation etiquette, and how to engage authentically with members.
Create templated reporting and dashboards that automate common insights for leadership and cross-functional teams.
Manage content partnerships and influencer collaborations that introduce new members and add value to the community.
Run membership segmentation and persona exercises to tailor content and engagement tactics to high-value cohorts.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies when community technical work (bots, platform changes) requires product engineering support.
Maintain a repository of community experiments, outcomes, and best practices that inform future strategy.
Support localization and translation workflows for community content and program collateral.
Assist recruiting teams by leveraging community channels to source candidates and promote employer brand initiatives.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven experience managing community platforms: Discord, Slack, Discourse, Reddit, Facebook Groups, Khoros, Vanilla, or similar.
Community analytics and reporting: proficiency with tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Tableau, Looker, or native platform analytics to track engagement and retention.
Social media and content publishing tools: knowledge of Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, or native publishing workflows.
Moderation tool experience: familiarity with content moderation workflows, trust & safety tools, and escalation systems.
Basic data analysis: comfort with spreadsheets (Excel/Google Sheets), pivot tables, and the ability to run cohort analyses; SQL experience is a plus.
CRM and ticketing integrations: experience connecting communities to Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce, or similar systems for support and member records.
Content creation skills: strong copywriting, storytelling, and ability to produce short-form posts, newsletters, and event materials.
Event tooling and webinar platforms: experience with Zoom, Hopin, Airmeet, or Meetup for virtual and in-person events.
Basic HTML/CSS or CMS familiarity for publishing help content and optimizing posts is helpful.
Experience implementing automation/bot scripts (Discord bots, Slack apps) and working with APIs for platform integrations.
A/B testing and experiment design experience focused on onboarding flows, messaging, and engagement tactics.

Soft Skills

Exceptional written and verbal communication: clear, empathetic, and brand-aligned messaging across diverse audiences.
Community-first empathy and conflict resolution: de-escalation skills and an ability to facilitate healthy member interactions.
Strategic thinking with a data-driven mindset: prioritize initiatives that move business KPIs and demonstrate measurable impact.
Strong stakeholder management: collaborate effectively with product, marketing, legal, and support teams.
Leadership and mentorship: recruit and develop volunteer leaders, moderators, and community advocates.
Project and time management: juggle multiple programs, deadlines, and recurring events with attention to detail.
Creativity and content ideation: generate fresh engagement formats and campaigns that resonate with members.
Adaptability and resilience: handle fast-paced changes, platform shifts, and crisis scenarios calmly.
Cultural sensitivity and inclusion: design community experiences that are welcoming and accessible to diverse members.
Coaching and facilitation: run workshops, onboarding sessions, and live events that educate and mobilize members.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in communications, marketing, journalism, social sciences, or related fields. Equivalent demonstrated community management experience will be considered.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Communications, Marketing, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Business, or Sociology with emphasis on digital communities and online behavior.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Communications / Media Studies
Marketing / Digital Marketing
Journalism / Content Strategy
Sociology / Anthropology (community dynamics)
Human-Computer Interaction / UX Research

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years managing online communities or equivalent experience in social media, customer success, or content roles; 3+ years preferred for mid-level roles.

Preferred:

3–5+ years of progressive experience building and scaling online communities across multiple platforms, with demonstrable metrics (growth, DAU/MAU, retention) and a portfolio of community programs and moderation frameworks.
Experience working cross-functionally with product, marketing, legal, and support to operationalize community insights into business outcomes.