The exponential growth of the social media marketplace has caused the birth of a new position of prominence in today’s workplace: the Online Community Manager. The trend of hiring a Manager that is specifically responsible for online content first erupted in some of North America’s largest corporations, but has trickled down into many medium-sized businesses.

If you are a small and medium sized business owner, deciding how best to manage their online community can be challenging. There are a handful of factors that have to be carefully analyzed before making the decision.

1. Hours – One of the biggest challenges for filling the role of Community Manager is having a full grasp of how many hours the position would demand in your corporate structure. That takes understanding how many hours your own staff is currently taking to perform a Community Manager’s roles. But it’s not just the number of hours currently being done either, plans for expansion and re-development must also be taken into account.
2. Internal vs. External – Regardless of how many hours need to be committed to the position, there are definite benefits to hiring someone yourself or hiring a firm to do the work. Having someone in-house allows a person stronger integration with your team. On the other side, hiring an external company provides additional resources for new and innovative ideas for managing your online community. (more…)