Inspired by the recent Community Manager Appreciation Day events around the world, we felt compelled to talk about the oft under appreciated Community Manager.

EzyInsights was proud to both sponsor and present at the CMAD event in Finland. Here we had a chance to demo the EzyTool to exactly the kind of people who might use it. One thing that particularly stood out when showing how to get Social Media Analytics from EzyInsights was the ease that people were able to understand it.

We have presented and demonstrated the tool at a number of events, including more general startup or tech based conferences like Slush. Here there are no shortage of people who want to hear about what we do, but to most it is still an abstract concept.

Even though we have the easiest to use Social Media Analytics Tool around, a significant proportion of people don’t understand what we do or why.

In contrast, every person attending Cmad in Finland immediately understood the concept – what we are trying to achieve. They looked at the tool in use and feedback was overwhelmingly along the lines of “that looks easy to use.”

Who knows your customers best?

Another thing that we have noticed for a long time but was again demonstrated throughout CMAD. Community Managers are always close to the fans and customers. They have their finger on the pulse of how the community feels. Trust them, because as well as representing the voice of the company or brand to your fans, they are also the voice of the fans within the company. Not only that, but a filtered, refined voice which is can be impossible to hear without a good Community Manager.

Equip your Community Managers!

You wouldn’t employ a chef and make him use blunt knives and a broken oven – you might get some results, but what a waste of resources. Let your Community Managers use the tools they want to use! We’ve heard countless tales of Community Managers forced to use inappropriate tools, tools with horrible UI and tools that make it a struggle to get the specific metrics out that they want.

Only choose metrics that matter

We will expand on this in future posts, but to sum up – if a metric isn’t influencing what you do, question why you are following it. Vanity metrics are ok when you’re using them to benchmark your performance historically, but otherwise they’re useless.

Don’t waste time tracking, following and recording metrics that don’t tell you anything. At EzyInsights we follow just a handful, focusing on Engagement, Conversation and Ambassadors (your real fans). This allows you to understand your community better, and when you understand them, engaging with them is much easier. Do less, know more.

And listen to your Community Managers!