Community Management FAQ

Community Management is not really equal to Social Media Management and/or to Content Marketing or Online Marketing. In fact, it’s all of those and then some – combined. Community Management is the art of thinking of the people who you make products and create services for, listening to them, letting them know you are listening to them, making your brand accessible to them and communicating with them. It is the combination of Great, high quality, content that has added value to people, social media and online marketing, customer care (service and relation), Social PR and personal branding. And it is all tied up in a neat package that begins with strategy and then a work plan.

Community Management requires a certain set of skills which can be acquired and practiced. But it also requires a unique character, which you have to be born with. In other words, if you were born to be a community manager, you can learn the tools that will make your work easier and more efficient. But if you weren’t – learning to use the tools will make you a social media manager at best, if that.

Not in the classical view of community management, but yes in my view (the “Community Management +” method). To be a good community manager you have to listen to your community but you also have to let them know you are listening (and seriously considering what they have to tell you). If we’re talking about a real world community, for example: a communal work space with a community of entrepreneurs, then you can really listen with your ears and talk to them with your mouth. Your verbal communication skills are crucial. However, when we talk about online community management, the only way to communicate with your community, is in writing. So yes, as far as I am concerned, a good community manager must also be a great content creator, writer and reader. Reading comprehension is a must have skill.

The “Community Management +”, as the name suggests, is a unique approach to online marketing created by Elinor Cohen, the founder of the Social Fairy. Elinor has a rather rare set of skills not usually found in a single person and her experience in various market segments and niches, working with different types of content- ranging from academic through legal to marketing content and helping different brands hack their growth, has led her to realize that what she does for her clients is more than just content marketing, more than just Social Media Management and in fact more than just Community Management. So she developed a unique way to explore the marketing of any brand, to research its competitors (with the consideration of Community Management in mind) and then create a marketing strategy that taps into all the important actions that must be taken.

Community Management in general is indeed a lot of work. As are Social Media Management and Content creation and marketing. Community Management Plus, is, by definition the combination of the three with some additions so yes, it’s a lot of work. However, what started a “one fairy show” is no longer such and Elinor has been training more community managers in her “Community Management plus” approach and she still overseas and even helps hands-on with every account. Also, depending on the type of business you have and your niche the work can require more hours or less hours in a month to do and the content can be easier or more difficult to produce. There are many factors affecting the amount of work that needs to be done for effective online marketing and Community Management with our approach, and the prices vary.
Still, nothing makes us happier than helping a client grow so much that they need to hire an in-house community manager or even set up a department. In those cases we willingly and happily help the client hire by screening resume and helping with interview if needed, we define the job description and must have skills and we train the newly hired community manager so they continue where we leave off.

That depends on the scope of work you require. We don’t have a price list because our approach is so unique and so personalized that we tailor a strategy and solution for each and every client we work with.
However, no matter how you look at it – even if you require the capacity of a half time job or even more, it will still cost you less to hire us than an in-house community manager, and you’ll get more for it 🙂

We are experienced (and still working) with the following niches:

• Gaming (online, mobile and social)
• Startups – Medical Device, Lifesciences
• Startups – Wearable tech
• Electronics – Consumer goods, Hardware
• Startups – Mobile apps
• Tourism and Travel – Family travel, holiday apartments, Boutique events and journeys
• Alternative Medicine – Chinese medicine, birth guidance
• Art – Jewelers: Spiritual Jewelry, Men’s Jewelry, Goldsmiths, Diamonds sellers
• Healthcare – Dental hygiene and consumer products
• Technology – Accelerator programs, communal work spaces
• Events promotion – high end family events, conferences, workshops, lectures and other gatherings

We have experience working with communities in:

• Israel
• United States
• Europe

Yes we do!
We realize our approach is so unique that many people, when they discover it, want to learn it. We will be offering a complete course in the near future within the framework of “The Social Fairy Academy”. For now, though, we are offering a selection of lectures and workshops.
The lectures are 1, 2 or 3 hours long and covering various topics from online marketing in general, through gamification of your brand and marketing and of course community management for different niches and market segments.
The workshops are given to small groups and are great for training your team in the best practices for a specific social medium or network, learning a specific tool or approach or creating your brand’s marketing strategy for online marketing.
We also offer personal training and social PR and branding sessions for C-levels.