Defining the roles within digital engagement
One of the big challenges for the emerging field of digital engagement is to define and describe what it is that we do, and establish roles within teams which can enable it to happen more easily, more consistently and on a larger scale.
It’s no good being prescriptive – the skills and boundaries overlap too much. On the other hand there are some meaningful, common sense distinctions between the different types of activities involved in social media work which could help us move beyond the ‘I’m not techie’ label. Partly, by defining these roles more clearly, we’ll be able to advertise roles and brief recruitment agencies more easily. But by understanding different skills and aptitudes, we might be able to establish happier teams and make a stronger case for scaling up digital engagement within organisations.
I’ve listed out some of the activities which occured to me in the chart above, and come up with five groupings of skills/activities which seem to represent coherent roles:
- Campaign strategist
- Community manager
- Social media developer
- Digital mentor
- Social reporter
Does that cover it? What’s missing? I’ve provocatively reused labels which have existing currency, and that may be a bad idea – I’d be interested to hear what you think.
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13 Responses to “Defining the roles within digital engagement”
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Hey Steph
This is fantastically useful.
Initial quick reflections:
>Is there a space for ‘copy writing’ skills. The developer, community manager, and social reporter are all likely to produce various bits of copy in the interface and content of an engagement strategy – but actually creating clear initial copy (rather than the conversational copy that the community manager / social reporter will produce on an ongoing basis) that explains the engagement opportunity in the right tone may be a really important additional skill.
>I would be interested to hear also in the profiles of staff what ‘Experience’ they may have.
Does a good ‘Strategist’ need experience of using digital engagement tools to be a good digital engagement strategist? Does the social reporter need/usually have experience of working with mainstream media production?
Tim
- You’re right, there are different writing skills needed for the different roles. I think the strategist role needs to be a clear, functional, concise, descriptive writer; the social reporter more of a classic journalist and storyteller; and the community manager/mentor need to convey humanity, warmth and enthusiasm
- Good idea, perhaps a ‘typical backgrounds’ box might help. I think wide personal experience of the tools is perhaps a prerequisite for all the roles, though I’d expect the strategist to have strong case studies up their sleeve. I’m not so sure about the social reporter – especially now that video and audio production is more of a mass participation endeavour, there are some excellent writers and webcasters (Dave Briggs springs to mind!) who I don’t think have a formal background.
Nice slides – I really liked the ‘most and least likely to say’ characterisations, and I reckon those roles would give you a pretty decent team.
If you were operating in an organisation that was producing a lot of content (i.e. in which there were a lot of individual web content creators), I think I’d have a web content team (say a copy writer / editor, a trainer and a graphical web designer) working alongside them – and develop a community to improve the quality of the content as well.
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Great Steph. I’ve been trying to develop something like this with http://socialmediamafia.com
What I miss on the list is working out the business model for using social media.
To get a broader response, I think I will link this to our discussion channel on LinkedIn and ask this question.
Tell us which job you do/or would like to do and if you don’t fit in to one of the boxes, tell us why not.
What do you think? I’ll check back here later tonight and try to catch the weekend attention of LI.
If you aren’t a member of Social Media Mafia, maybe click the request button and I’ll click you in this pm.
Cheers
Jo
Jo – sure, I’d be interested to hear that feedback.
Couldn’t figure out what you meant about joining SMM though?
[...] March 17, 2009 · No Comments Defining the roles within digital engagement at Helpful Technology. [...]
[...] Defining the roles within digital engagement – One of the big challenges for the emerging field of digital engagement is to define and describe what it is that we do, and establish roles within teams which can enable it to happen more easily, more consistently and on a larger scale. [...]
[...] are the skills and roles needed. I really like Steph Gray’s suggestions on digital [...]
I find I’m citing this post a lot … the roles play well in different areas. I’m hoping we’ll get some good discussion on roles at the local communities workshop on September 21 – details here http://bit.ly/nvmcL
Hi Steph
I like the team-based approach and the roles – and the quotes
However I work with community organisations and am wondering what parallels you see which could encompass the sort of digital engagement we are exploring at local level?
For example I’ve just been working with a local neighbourhood project with five or six keen volunteers who run events, attend meetings on behalf of residents, do the fundraising, produce a newsletter and a website, etc
Their existing roles include Chairperson, Secretary, Trasurer and – more relevant perhaps – include newsletter editor, website manager, community development worker and vicar [!]
I can see how the web/social media can help them build their work and bring benefits to their community but this seems a long way from the context you envisaged in your proposal?
On the other hand the underlying principles may still apply – so can you see ways of mapping the roles and skills you have identified here onto that sort of setting?
Mark
Hi Mark (Steph)
Maybe we need a simple framework for thinking about communications and roles
* what is the domain (area) of activity … locality, online community, organisation etc
* what are the activities (fundraising, info exchange, development)
* what sets of skills are needed, and tools
* what roles/hats
This may involve existing roles developing new skills (e.g. community activists getting online), and those with new (online) skills understanding some traditional roles and skills.