Online Community Management would be a function that has been in place in the digital world for some time now, stretching back to days of bulletin boards and online forums. Right now this role would appear to be different.

Not to be mistaken with a Social Media Manager, a Community Manager would typically serve as the "voice of the brand" on the social web as well as the voice of the community back to the brand. Functionally, such would translate to social media listening plus engagement but would also involve promotion of brand messaging.

Growth plus popularity of social media has gone full swing and given rise to audience and participation of public online communities, so the need for people who have skills in the art of science and community management has also been on the upswing.

Some Considerations for Community Manager Content Promoting:

The topics. How would the brand want to be known? What would it already be known for? What topics encapsulate the value the brand gives for customers and the community at large? When it would come to being the best answer for questions the community possesses, what topics or keywords describe such questions and answers?

A couple of the topics can be figured out by answering questions and a lot more is to be revealed during the course of working with this community. The beginning point would be, "What will the brand stand for?" and "What would the community care about?" Such topics would be mapped to key objectives for the brand and how involvement with social media or online communities will aid the brand in reaching such goals.

Content sourcing. With a guide on the list of topics which represent the goals of the brand and community, content promotion sources may be spotted and filtered. The Marketing people will be, or should be, feeding the Community Managers with information regarding planned company marketing, PR plus communications events. An over Content Marketing Plan and Calendar could do this in an effective manner.

From a perspective which is tactical, content sourcing for a Community Manager could have a mix of content types, including:

A. Community Content Curating

B. Industry Content Curating

C. Brand Message Promoting

D. Brand Content Curating

E. Crowdsourcing Community Content

There are a lot of sources to locate these kinds of content from utilizing search engines (news, image, blog) up to industry newsletters, to searching social networks for topics which are trending. The most basic plus effective source of content would be the community itself. Make a cycle of asking questions, aggregating answers plus recognizing participation.

Editorial Calendar. Making a planning of the social content would be a mix of pre-determined topics plus content types as well as allowing for spontaneous and dynamic content based on events plus opportunities. A blog calendar template would usually include:

1) Dates

2) Topics

3) Titles

4) Description

5) Target audience

6) Buying cycle

7) Keywords

8) Categories

9) Promotions

10) Repurposing

11) Media types

12) Internal citations

13) 3rd party citations/sources

Hub and Spoke – For a lot of companies, the most practical model for the content and social media where a blog would serve as the hub and social networks would be the spokes. There are other models depending on the social media maturity level for the brand and community, however hub and spoke would be an effective beginning point.

Social Content Optimization – Search would be priceless for making a connection of brand social content with individuals who are actively looking. For the Community Managers, this would mean being armed with keyword research tools from the SEO team. Tools like KeywordSpy will assist you in the phrases which are high in demand. Armed with a list of keywords mapped for brand content and sorted by popularity, Community Managers would make word choices for improving attraction of search traffic without you putting the message at risk.

Social Content Promotion – The best rule of thumb for social content promotion would be to just share what is worth sharing, whether it be brand, community or industry content. When a marketing manager would ask for a lame thing to be tweeted, plussed and posted to a fan page, you have to decline. And you have to explain what would qualify as promotable content which is going to add value to the community. Social content promotion may pose a slippery slope plus brands are just going to reap what they sow.

Creating value initially, empathizing with the community and being creative with brand promotion would be all essential.

Repurposing of Social Content – On a daily basis, a couple of social content like a Tweet could be repurposed on other social networks. A couple may be duplicates. A couple could be longer or more visual representations of the original. What will function for the community would not work for other so test and observe.

Monitoring and Measurement – Goals would drive measurement plus there would be a variety of performance measures for creating and engaging with a community. When it would come to social content promotion, quantitative measures for reach and qualitative measures of engagement would be worth tracking at daily, weekly and longer term intervals. Short term tracking would reveal opportunities plus direct impact. Longer term tracking would aid in identifying overall trends.