The Community Manager Manifesto. Created at SXSW to serve as a manifesto for all community managers and freely shared with any organization or individual. Proudly signed by those who contributed and wished to be acknowledged. Curated by Tim McDonald, Natalie Rodic Marsan and Nick Cicero.

1. THE COMMUNITY
MANAGER’S MANIFESTO
Created Collaboratively at “The Community Manager: Enter the C-Suite”
SXSW Workshop on March 13, 2013
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

2. CONNECTING COMMUNITY MEMBERS, GIVING
THEM VOICE, AND ENSURING A SENSE OF
COMMUNITY BELONGING AND OWNERSHIP
• We must respect that a healthy community is inherently social. Our voice, tone, and influence
are derived from our ability to relate as human beings first, and brands second. We must be
champions of real communication and not surface messaging.
• We must understand the overall purposes of our community and the diverse needs of its
members, and acknowledge that these purposes and needs can change.
• We must create spaces where community members are continually encouraged and
empowered to participate. We must also realize that community design should be a
collaborative effort: community members must have the power to help design their own
communication tools.
• We must curate, recognize, and elevate valuable community-sourced content regularly.
• We must give our community members a sense of purpose and a strong motivation to
connect: we must publicly share our unique vision and “reasons for being” with our
community, thereby giving them a sense of belonging.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

3. MEASURING THE HEALTH OF THE
COMMUNITY
• We must recognize that there are many ways to measure the health of a
community: determining the “right" metrics depends on the
communication platform(s) used.
• We must track our own community health metrics regularly, based on a
deep understanding of our community’s purpose and members’
preferences and needs. These metrics include but are not limited to: overall
engagement and engagement by community segments, community
sentiment, and membership size and growth.
• We must embrace giving and reciprocity: the health of a community should
not only be measured in terms of our own success, but also in terms of
how we provide value to our members.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

4. CURATING AND AMPLIFYING CONTENT
FROM THE COMMUNITY
• We must establish clear standards and criteria for community curation,
giving members the knowledge and confidence to contribute.
• We must build a collaborative and empowering environment that amplifies
community members’ voices and experiences, and also respects each
member’s unique personality.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

5. USING COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE TO
DEVELOP ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY
• We must represent the voices and opinions of our community members
authentically.
• We must acknowledge that community contributions are actionable data:
they are vital to promoting innovation in and providing strategic direction
to our organization.
• We must seek reliable information and use appropriate measurement tools
to validate qualitative and anecdotal community feedback and behavior.
• We must empower ourselves and be empowered to take initiative without
bureaucratic approval - even pivot direction - when community members
offer timely and pertinent suggestions.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

6. TRUSTING THE COMMUNITY TEAM AND
U N D E R S TA N D I N G I T S O B L I G A T I O N S
• We must facilitate a vigorous feedback cycle and conversation: just as it is
important for us to advocate for our community members internally, it is
also important for us to advocate strongly for our organization, our brand,
and our colleagues’ voices and opinions.
• We must secure the trust of our colleagues by sharing our success stories:
as frontline communicators who exist in “two worlds,” we must help our
colleagues understand the calculated risks that we must take to meet and
exceed our organization’s goals.
• We must publish clear and accessible process-, protocol-, and service-level
agreements, based on empirically grounded test-and-learn strategies, and
we must actively educate our colleagues about these agreements.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

7. DEFINING THE COMMUNITY MANAGER AS
EDUCATOR, NETWORKER, AND EXPERT
• We must educate our organization about insights and opportunities
provided by the community, and show our colleagues how they can
contribute directly to its ongoing growth and success.
• We must cultivate close relationships with community influencers—and
motivate lurkers and occasional participants to become influencers—in
order to grow our membership and strengthen our brand.
• We must commit to the never-ending task of growing our own expertise:
we must identify and craft effective community management strategies that
transcend any one marketing campaign or organizational culture.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

8. DEVELOPING A VOICE IN THE 24/7/365
NEWS CYCLE
• We must serve as a key author in developing the brand voice and primary
brand stories of our organization.
• We must be empowered with enough information and relationship-building
opportunities to represent our company autonomously and at a moment’s
notice.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

9. PROVIDING EXCELLE NT CUSTOMER SERVICE
A N D S H A R I N G V A L UA B L E P R O D U C T
FEEDBACK
• We must invite and act on community feedback on an ongoing basis. We
must constantly share this feedback with our own team members and use it
to improve our organization.
• We must respond in a swift, all-inclusive, and complete manner from start
to finish.
• We must strive to make community members feel heard, valued, and
influential.
• We must meet the community’s expectations at a minimum and exceed
them whenever possible.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

10. INTERNAL COLLABORATION
• We must work with internal stakeholders to define our community’s purpose,
develop shared practices and processes, and determine binding communication
guidelines.
• We must collaborate with internal stakeholders to find and build tools,
technologies, and platforms to maximize efficiencies and effectiveness.
• We must update internal stakeholders about key discussions in the community
regularly, and share any follow-up actions that arise from these discussions.
• We must identify key areas where internal collaboration is necessary, and
describe processes for collaborating effectively, including processes related to
legal/PR approvals, compliance and audits, product/service education, and
analytics integration.
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

11. CONTRIBUTORS
Workshop Leaders:
Natalie Rodic Marsan @rodicka
Tim McDonald @tamcdonald
Nick Cicero @nickcicero
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/

12. W ORKS HOP PARTICIPANTS:
 Jessica Masterson @awomanswork  Liz Arroyave @lizign  Rafael Sangiovanni
 Mike Gerholdt @MikeGerholdt  Meghan Krane @meghan_krane  Price Smith
 Nicole Bohorad @nbohorad  Andrea Campbell @andreac007  John Refford
 Raechel Megahan @alphamommie  Melissa Bojorquez  Dean Broughton
 Meghan Murphy @mmurphydc  Lauren Hogan @l_hoges  Ricky Hutchinson @dcricky
 Boyan Shmorhun @boyanshmorhun  Shannon Webb  Jose Leon
 Justine Bloome  Joel De La Garza @joeldelagarza  Kaye Blum
 Dean Schaffer  Joyce Sullivan @joycemsullivan  Tony Dunn @tony_dunn
 Dan Bohm  Jack Pate @arkansas  Jay Bartlett @jay_bartlett
 Allie MacPherson @alliemac01  Sharon Lasure-Roy @sharonlroy  Yunfei Ren @yufeiren
 Jessica Klimczak  Christina Brady @cfgbrady  Phillip Crowe @phillipcrowe
 Kimberly McCabe @kimberlymccabe  Laurie Briggs @lauriebriggs  Mindy Broeren-Martosoedjono @mindymusic
 Keith McLellan  John burgess @work_jb  Kathy Houghtalen @khoughtalen
 Roland Smart @rsmartx  Gina Bollenback @gbollenback  Anna Bacheller @annadaron
 Nikki Serapio @nikkiserapio  Kat Lourenco  Trevor Martin @trevorFmartin
 Carie Lewis @cariegrls  Nikki Lee  Adam Chapman @socialmediatoday
 Alia Mohsen @amohsen  Rachel Cain  Scott Stephens @HotSauceFire
 AMee Tomlinson @amee_tomlinson  Michelle Catin  Jessica Murray @jessicaRmurray
 Jean Scheidnes  Igla Lear Generoso @iglageneroso
http://mycmgr.com/presenting-the-community-
manager-manifesto/