THE EVOLUTION OF THE COMMUNITY MANAGER Definition of Community: not a fixed group of people you own and manage but flickering moments of opportunity based on shared passion The role of community manager – equal parts publisher, customer support agent, brand guardian and social media maven – has changed considerably over the years. People often ask me, how do you measure the effects of social media? In the past it was difficult to answer, as the “intermediate” measures (e.g. likes, shares, impressions) were just that – intermediate. Of course, one gold-plated ideal would be net promoter score – quantifying the value of an individual’s recommendations to someone else to try a brand. AT&T developed some interesting work in this area; most notably for their “At Summer Break” program some years back. But systems like these rely on very heavy-duty econometric models, in this case created by management consultants. Unfortunately, they are just not affordable day to day; and as a result have not had wide-scale adoption. But, social CRM does provide an answer. As long as there is a URL, and a tracking and attribution system to follow people around the internet, it is now possible to