Unlike the more established marketing channels, social media is still in its relative infancy. For this reason, the life of a social media marketer is spent both learning and keeping his or her clients up to speed with the ever-changing social landscape. I believe one of the things that makes a successful as a social media agency is when clients are always asking questions and pushing us to define success for social media marketing, even though our world is still changing almost daily. And good for them! Any smart business person should be asking how she’ll know if she’s successful.

Recently, clients have been asking me how they’ll know if our community managers are succeeding in their craft. To me, that answer was simple: a healthy community.

That means the community manager is doing well, right? Well sort of.

Thanks to some smart thinking and advice from a few industry friends, and great partnership with a few clients who shared input on what they expected from their community managers, I’ve boiled down what it means to succeed as a community manager, taking that analysis beyond the traditional marketing KPIs and incorporating a more traditional performance review method.

Metric #1: Measuring Community Health

The community manager’s role is to get people to talk, share, and react to the brand in the communities he or she manages. Key performance indicators (KPIs) should be set for each community based on the client’s objectives for that community and the community manager’s scope of work. Example metrics of community health (and therefore, the quality of the community manager’s output) are:

• Community Growth Metrics: Net new Likes, new followers, etc.
• Community Attrition Metrics: Unlikes, unfollows
• Brand Mentions on Active Social Channels:Facebook page tags, blog backlinks, blog comments, @replies and @mentions, etc.
• Engagement Metrics: Attrition rate, people talking about this, bounce rate, return visitors, etc.
• Content Analysis: Interaction rates ( [Likes + Comments + Shares] / Total Fans or [@replies + @mentions + RTs] / Followers), click-through rates,  blog posts shares, blog backlinks, etc.

Metric #2: Tracking the Community Manager’s Deliverables

Additionally, there are certian skills and tasks required of a community manager that I can track to ensure that he or she is fulfilling the cope and meeting the client needs. 

I’d recommend tracking all of these over time, rather than holding community managers to a specific goal, because there are many factors outside of their control that could affect results. Examples of scope fulfillment metrics include:

• Volume of content output: Number of posts, number of @replies sent, % of fan comments responded to, etc.
• Speed of replies
• Spam removed
• Escalation paths followed properly

Examples of content fulfillment metrics include:

• Clear CTA
• Matches brand voice
• Relevant to the community
• Includes appropriate tags, mentions, or backlinks
• Proper spelling and grammar (just because you’re posting on Facebook doesn’t mean you can ignore the fact that you are a professional company with some expectation by your customers of professionalism)
• Links are properly tracked and work
• We have permission to use all media (licenses and rights confirmed, waivers collected, etc.)
• Facebook-specific: Title and meta data for links are edited appropriately
• YouTube-specific: Tags, title and descriptions optimized to match keyword strategy
• Blog-specific: All content and images are sourced properly; post is tagged and categorized; post slug is correct; post-previewed and formatted correctly

Metric #3: Alignment with Client Needs

There are also subjective measures that any agency with a focus on client success should care about. I recommend discussing these needs with our clients on at least a quarterly basis and ask our client partners to engage in an open dialogue with us, providing feedback on the community manager’s ability to do the following:

• Provide strategic guidance as it relates to the brand’s online communities
• Grasp and adapt the brand voice
• Represent the community’s point of view
• Provide actionable insights

Social media buzzwords are all around us — Web 2.0, engagement, community, conversation, influencers, and countless others. But have you realized how much social media buzzwords have infiltrated Human Resources? Social media job titles seem to be all the rage, and I’m getting super confused!!

To be honest I’ve used a few of these; Rright now I am the “Social Media Innovator and Online Community Director” at Ideaz Factory. It’s been confusing my clients, so I’ve just been saying “Social media consultant” and sometimes “social media strategist”. But I’m currently a professional blogger (although definitions vary from anyone running a business-oriented blog or getting paid anything at all to blog to those earning a full-time living from blogging — I go with the former definition).

That’s a part of the problem though. We’re at a point where it seems like everyone is defining these social media job titles so differently that in the end they mean little to nothing. Are we simply caught up in social media stardom, or are we more lost in trying to explain what we do? And what are people’s thoughts on some of the more ‘interesting’ (read: ego-centric) social media job titles out there — from czar to guru? Check out the list below to see what kinds of social media job titles are out there and being advertised these days.

1. Analytics Manager
2. App Designer / Developer
3. Blog Editor
4. Blogger / Pro Blogger / Professional Blogger
5. Blogger-in-Chief
6. Brand Ambassador
7. Brand Champion
8. Brand & Project Manager
9. Brand Promoter
10. Client Engagement Manager
11. Client Services Coordinator, Online / Social Media
12. Community Content Outreach Coordinator
13. Community Data Guerrilla
14. Community Manager
15. Content Manager – Strategic Marketing
16. Content Strategist
17. Conversation Manager
18. Director of Enterprise Communications
19. Director of Integrated Media
20. Director of PR & Social Media
21. Director of Social Media
22. Director of Social Media Communications
23. Director of Social Media Strategy
24. Digital Marketing Manager
25. Digital Media Coordinator
26. Digital Media Strategist
27. Digital PR Consultant
28. Digital / Social Media Strategist
29. Ghost Blogger
30. Head of Search Marketing
31. Idea Inventor
32. Internet Media Associate
33. IT & Telecom Consultant
34. Leadership Trainer
35. Marketing Communications Specialist
36. Mobile Social Media Developer
37. Multi-media Communications Specialist
38. Multi-media Journalist
39. New Media Coordinator
40. New Media Developer
41. New Media Specialist
42. Online Community and Social Media Czar
43. Product Evangelist
44. Podcaster
45. Search and Social Media Optimizer
46. Serial Entrepreneur
47. Social & Digital Media Manager
48. Social Impact Manager
49. Social Media Activist
50. Social Media Advocate
51. Social Media Analyst
52. Social Media Attorney
53. Social Media CFO
54. Social Media Community Manager
55. Social Media Consultant
56. Social Media Coordinator
57. Social Media Evangelist
58. Social Media Expert
59. Social Media Guru
60. Social Media Lead
61. Social Media Marketer
62. Social Media Manager
63. Social Media Missionary
64. Social Media Monitor
65. Social Media Music Publicist
66. Social Media Professional
67. Social Media Representative
68. Social Media Rockstar
69. Social Media Specialist
70. Social Media Strategist
71. Social Networks Designer
72. Tweeter / Ghost Tweeter
73. Underground Band Promoter & Event Planner
74. Virtual Worlds Developer
75. Youth Marketing Manager

Ok I give up. But I need to pick one soon before I get my new contract and order those glossy, perdy business cards!!