1. Social Media
Top 15 Rules for Community
Managers
Serge Sergiou
Digital Marketing Professional
January 2013.
eMail: s.sergiou@sky.com

2. Getting Started
Community Management online isn’t an
exact science. - But by following some
specific rules and in most cases a good
dose of common sense, you should help
prevent your community management
backfiring and you will grow your
community.

3. The Top 15 Rules
I have established 15 top rules to always
keep in mind and get familiar with as a
community manager. Absorb the rules, but
know also when to adapt them. Following
them will help you to interact, communicate
efficiently and build an engaged audience

4. The Top 15 Rules
1. Tell the community when you’re available. State when you are present, i.e.
between our normal working hours of Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm.
2. Be clear on who you are and what the community can expect from you. You are
the voice of the voice of the social media site you are managing. But if your
audience asks questions outside your remit, please refer them to the appropriate
channel.
3. Be transparent and honest to the community. People expect you to be, and will
disregard brands that are not doing so. Don’t overdo things, make it feel natural.
4. Acknowledge when you’re wrong. The community will appreciate your humility
and your integrity and give you credit for this. That said, don’t apologise when
not needed.
5. Reply to comments within half a day. People will expect you to answer instantly.
If you need internal investigation, acknowledge the question first, to show
reactivity.

5. The Top 15 Rules
6. Share 2-3 times a week on Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. Although
frequency can increase during campaigns, posting 2-3 times a week is enough.
Keep the pace even when fewer articles are published.
7. You can share more often on Twitter. Twitter is an exception; followers tolerate
receiving more frequent updates, but avoid posting many times in a row and
space the tweeting.
8. Always mention your interlocutor by his/her name or username. This will make
your intervention feel more personal, but also ensure he/she gets notified.
9. Keep your content fresh. You can always share other followers or fans content
that is engaging for your audience, to make sure your community remains
interested and interacts.
10. Plan ahead, using a content calendar. It will help you to spread your
communications throughout time and to maintain a certain level of quality

6. The Top 15 Rules
11. Keep posts as short as possible. Try to stick to the length of a tweet as much as
possible on Facebook or LinkedIn, prefer one liners on Twitter. On Google+, it is
acceptable to share longer posts (up to two paragraphs).
12. Speak with the community, not at them. Avoid one-way communication.
Congratulate or thank people, ask questions, by addressing directly one person
or using polls on Facebook/LinkedIn. Show the community that you care.
13. Focus on quality when sharing content. Richer content such as videos, photos,
links to articles or blog posts will create more interest and more reactions.
14. Keep an eye on analytics to optimise your communication. Unlike sentiment
and other branding shift metrics, engagement is easy to measure quantitatively
and qualitatively. This will help you to optimise your posting strategy.
15. Empower your advocates. You will notice after a while who your most engaged
fans are. Take the opportunity to create a relationship with them; you will appear
more human.