IBM: Companies need more community managers

The exponential growth of social media business use around the world has given birth to a new job post—the Community Manager—which has become one of the "hot new areas" of employment, an IBM executive remarked Tuesday. Community managers, or those who manage the online presence of businesses especially on social networking sites, has now become the top commodity for firms looking to explore the world of social media, said Sandy Carter, vice president and social business evangelist at IBM. Carter cited a study by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. which said that more new job types are now being created by the social media space than by the Internet in the past decade. "[The community manager post], in fact, has one of the highest year-on-year [salary] increases, at about 35 percent annually," she said. With more and more consumers signing up for social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Carter said businesses are hard-pressed at establishing their presence in these platforms lest they have their reputations compromised. "You can't opt out of social. Even if you don't participate in blog, social networking, or any other chatter, things are going to be said about you," she stressed. Citing the same McKinsey study, Carter said that when companies apply a social dimension to one aspect of business, they get as much as a:

• 20-percent increase in time-to-market when applied to product development and innovation;
• 15-percent increase in revenue when applied to marketing or sales;
• 10-percent increase in customer service rating when applied to customer service;
• and 10-percent reduction in costs when applied to human resources management.

This ongoing transition into a "social business," Carter said, makes the job post a necessity now more than ever. "When you go into social media, it's essential for you to have a strong community manager. They will keep the community moving, keep it active and energized, to bring benefits to the business," she explained. But companies shouldn't just hire the next guy on the street to fill their gaps in social media, Carter clarified. "One of the basic qualifications is they must have done it before," she said. To this end Carter said IBM has recently launched—and first in the Philippines—a community manager training program which aims to train would-be managers the requirements of the profession. Through the program, potential managers will be taught the basics of setting goals for their community, as well as provide them an on-the-job experience of managing a community on their own. For businesses looking to adopt a more social approach to doing their business, Carter said IBM has a program called "adoption quickstart," which will "help clients figure out how to adopt social in their businesses." The two offerings are under the umbrella of IBM's "Social Business Adoption Adovcates" service, part of the IT giant's push toward a more social enterprise. —TJD, GMA News