Doctor of Community Management, Cmq.
The discussion of education and certification for online community managers is raised today on the blog of the always insightful Jeremiah Owyang. To summarize: the demand for community managers is rising, but no accepted standards exist yet, and while training can be beneficial, hands-on experience is still the dominant criteria for hiring.
Of course, this also echoes discussions being had about entrepreneurship, journalism, and bar tending. The central question in all these debates is, “If the best way to learn a skill is to spend time doing it, why is a school structure necessary?” Usually answered by stating that education is not necessary, but as an individual, your probability of a successful outcome is greater if you have a certificate of study (diploma, master’s degree) than if you don’t. I disagree with that thinking about online community leaders for the following reasons:
1. Empathy can’t be taught. In my experience interacting with customers and users on behalf of brands, empathizing with their experience is key to improving it, or solving their problem. In the same way that software developers thrive on solving puzzles, community developers thrive on solving customer issues. This is a community manager’s greatest asset.
2. Diplomas are like Yelp. A statement of your skills that is true on the day it was posted, but less so with each passing day.
3. Each community is successful in its own way. Driving successful business outcomes will come from understanding what motivates and inspires a community to use a product. There is no formula for this and it has much more to do with #1 than any list of best practices. Pinterest is my favorite current example of this.
Formal education for community managers will come, though I believe it will always be more like business school, which is about the networks and thought process, than law or medical school which is about specific information everyone needs to know.
