The state of community management in 2020
In 2019, whilst the concept of community management on social media platforms was still relatively ‘young’, I took a snapshot of the landscape' - surveying around 50 UK-based community managers, asking them role-based questions.
I decided to repeat the exercise in 2020, and this time I’d (by some good fortune) managed to persuade over 80 UK-based community managers to complete the survey.
(It’s actually quite tough to get people to complete surveys - especially when I couldn’t offer any kind of incentive.) I must have approached 250-300 people whilst the survey was open, so I was really lucky to get back what I did.
And, to that end, I want to take this opportunity to say many thanks to all who spared some time to complete this for me.
Some quick notes about the results cited in this article
All data was collected via a Typeform survey, sent via direct messages on LinkedIn to UK-based connections currently working in a Community Management role
The survey was identical to 2019’s Community Management Survey, however I added two additional questions relating directly to the global pandemic (because it’s a no-brainer!)
85 respondents completed the survey (between 22nd August and 14th October 2020)
Where possible, there is some comparative analysis below based on the survey results of 2019
To the main findings…
1. The majority of community managers surveyed are still in post, despite the unexpected organisational challenges of 2020
Whilst 86% of our respondents indicated that they were still employed as usual, 10% had unfortunately endured some kind of negative impact on their role; with 8% experiencing redundancy, and the remainder either on furlough, or still working - but on reduced hours.
Qu. What's your current employment situation?
“I had no work during the whole lockdown. I am on call depending in projects, and this particularly hard for me because we had no income.”
2. Only 14.6% of community managers in the UK are earning more than £40k p.a.
Despite the specialist skillset needed for successful community management, and then, on top of that, the unprecedented circumstances this year undoubtedly pushing many community managers to the limits of their capacity, more than a third of respondents (38.8%) are still receiving a salary which equates to less than £30k p.a.
Qu. Would you be willing to share what your salary is?
“Salaries are widely diverse. It would be good to one day reach some sort of parity.”
3. There has been an unmistakable impact on social media management due to the pandemic
I asked respondents whether they found work more difficult since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, and nearly 60% answered ‘yes’.
Qu. Have you found your job more difficult this year?
In a year where the ability of global brands to successfully adapt their social strategies on mediums such as social media really varied, we see this reflected in the below results. Most notably, UK-based community managers said they struggled to lay their hands on enough (of the right kind of) content during the early stages of the pandemic, and I also discovered that receiving a clear brief on messaging from their employer/client was an equally common problem.
Furthermore, nearly 45% of respondents expressed that they were now dealing with more incoming queries on social media, whilst 39.1% had more negative audience interactions to deal with on social, such as complaints.
Qu. Which of the following have you experienced, since the pandemic began?
4. Training opportunities seem less accessible than they were in 2019 - yet more sought after
In the 2019 survey, 38.5% of respondents expressed that they had received some form of external professional training relating to their community management role. This year however, this figure has dropped to a mere 23.2% - a reduction of nearly 40%.
Qu. Have you ever received any external training relating directly to managing social communities?
Qu. If not, would you like some training, if it was offered to you?
Interestingly, of the proportion of respondents who said they hadn’t had any formal training for their role, those saying ‘no’ to receiving those opportunities remained completely unchanged from 2019. However, an additional 20% of respondents said ‘yes, they would like some training’ (62.7%) compared to 2019’s result (52.1%). This may indicate a level of demand based on the new, unexpected ‘micro-pressures’ of managing social this year.
5. Community managers may be enjoying their roles slightly less in 2020
Compared to 2019’s results, the number of survey respondents rating community management as something they enjoyed with a ‘7 or above’ score decreased by 6.4% compared to 2019 (72.5% in 2020 vs. 78.9% in 2019).
Qu. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy the community management aspect of your role?
(Above: Results from October 2020)
(Above: Results from May 2019)
“It’s rewarding, frustrating and hard work, all at the same time.”
“I love community management. I think being able to provide the larger audience with a voice inside large organisations is a plus.”
6. Some organisations may perceive community management to be less valuable to them than in 2019
This was a slightly surprising result. Despite the myriad of extra challenges faced by community managers this year (and surely a greater reliance on them by organisations and businesses), results showed a decrease of nearly 8% in the number of people saying ‘yes, my organisation does value what I do’.
Coupled with this, is the fact that only 27.5% of respondents believed that, if they left, someone else at the organisation could step in and hold the fort (compared to 38.5% last year), meaning that community managers generally regard themselves as possibly more indispensable to their employers/clients this year, despite many organisations not necessarily agreeing the same.
Qu. Does the organisation you're currently working for believe that there is true value in someone managing their social communities?
“It’s a massively undervalued marketing tool! Essential to modern business, but treated as “nice to have””
“I’m not 100% sure if people realise how much work goes into community management. It’s not always glamourous, but when people respond, and you can tell they appreciate a reply, there’s always value in that.”
7. Achieving engagement on social media has been tougher during 2020
Based on the snapshot results I took via the 2019 survey, community managers are enjoying lower levels of their organisations’ social content being shared and positively engaged with in 2020, with an 18% reduction in the number of respondents stating that they’d seen branded content being re-shared on social, and a massive 47.5% decrease in the number stating that their actions had prompted a positive public review to be left for their employer/client.
Qu. Which of the following have the people you’ve interacted with on behalf of your organisation subsequently gone on to do?
8. Most community managers are still working ‘out of hours’ to manage their employer/client’s social communities
Results pretty much mirrored those of 2019 - with only a 1% increase of those people stating ‘yes, I monitor and respond to enquiries/comments from social outside of my normal working hours/during weekends’. There is, however, a positive indication that this extra effort and commitment is not being ‘taken for granted’ as much as it might once have been - with 8.4% more people stating that their organisation ‘compensates them in some way’.
Qu. Do you usually monitor and respond to social community queries/comments outside of normal working hours and/or during weekends?
Qu. If ‘yes’, does your organisation currently compensate you in some way for this extra effort?
“Employers don’t realise or fairly compensate for the hours and expertise required to do a great job.”
“Community management is often a thankless job because so much of our work goes unseen.”
My sincere thanks, once again, to the many community managers who took the time to contribute to this research.
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