Are social media community managers for Facebook still relevant?

As the Facebook landscape changes it's important to be able to navigate your way around and ensure that you are still getting the most out of the platform, and who better to do this for you than the people who have made it their job to know the ins and outs of Facebook? Yup, community managers.

If you are a business and you are questioning having a community manager in your employ, ask yourself what was the reason you appointed them in the first place? For many it's because you don't have the time, resources or skill to manage your community and maximise the platform to its full potential, and even though organic reach is at an all-time low (most pages are only receiving around 6.5%), having someone who knows how to extend your reach on the platform during this trying time is essential for you as a brand.

If organic reach is so low then why post at all?

The only thing that has changed about the way Facebook works is the way that it is delivering its content. The fact of the matter is that your audience is still there using the network, it's now just the "how" to get your content to them that you need to be aware of. This is where having a community manager is crucial in your Facebook life.

By staying on top of all the changes Facebook is making to their algorithms, your community manager will know when they have hit and what effect they have are having on your content distribution. It's their job to know how to cope with these and make sure that your content is achieving their maximum reach.

Let's say you've decided to ditch your community manager and in the last month you've seen a dip in your reach, would you know that it is because of a discrepancy on Facebook's side? Or, if you have decided to start running Ad's on Facebook, would you have known that Facebook has introduced a new feature that allows for in-app virtual goods purchases?

In most cases, these are the kind of things your community manager would alert you of, and have some form of plan to make the most of these situations.

Understanding Facebook metrics

Facebook has made it simple for anyone who has a page to view their insights, but are you looking at the right metrics to discover what is working on your page and what isn't? We're all familiar with the "vanity" metrics (likes, comments, shares) but do you know what you should be looking at to decide if you are actually getting ROI on your Facebook investment?

Having a community manager can help guide you through stats like impressions, organic and paid reach, link clicks and the best times to post to your page based insight and user collated data.

Community integration

For most people and brands, Facebook isn't the only social media network that you will be using. Another important factor that a community manager will be able to facilitate smoothly is the integration between all your social networks through Facebook. Since Facebook has purchased Instagram, are you using the link between the two to maximise your reach? Are you in the hotel industry? Did you know that Pinterest and Instagram are more effective than Facebook in this sector?

Having a well-informed community manager will help you bridge the gap and use these opportunities to grow and improve your Facebook community.

Customer response and reaction

As said above, your community is still on Facebook and often your page will be used as a customer care centre. If you are a brand that often deals with customer questions and enquiries you're more than likely have a community manager who deals with these types of situations - if you decide that having a community manager is no longer worth your time, who will be responding to your customers?

Having poor interaction on your page when it comes to customer support can have a seriously negative effect on your brand as a whole.
In these jittery times, one can never know 100% what is going to happen with Facebook, but having someone on your team that has experience with the platform and has the ability to create a strategy around their changes can have a massive impact for you and your brand.

So to answer the question "Are Social Media Community Managers for Facebook still relevant?" Yes they are, now more than ever.