Why artists & teams should consider hiring a Community Engagement Manager
A huge aspect of being an artist is connecting with fans. This means that you need to understand them and create personal connections within your community. You might feel like you don’t have enough time to keep up with the task yourself, or maybe you’re not sure where to start and what the best approach is.
If you’re an artist in this position, you might consider hiring a community engagement manager. On the flip side, you might be someone who is interested in the music industry with a great skill set to be an artist’s community engagement manager. Whether you’re an artist or someone who wants to work with an artist, learn more about what a community engagement manager is and how they can be a critical component of artist growth.
What is a Community Engagement Manager?
Generally, a Community Engagement Manager is responsible for overseeing a variety of community relations, marketing, communications, and other social initiatives. In the music industry, this might look like fostering relationships with fans, building brand/artist loyalty, managing social media, and more. Overall, this person supports the general growth of an artist, positively represents them, and works to establish relationships with new and existing fans and other members of the creative community on behalf of an artist.
Why are Community Engagement Managers important in the music industry?
Knowing your fans can mean a lot of things: Do you know how they speak? What kind of words or lingo do they use? Are there certain trends they seem into? What do they seem to like about you as an artist? What’s their psyche like? What’s their general demographic?
Having a dedicated point person can help with all of this and more. Then, they can use that knowledge to cater to your fanbase in marketing collateral and promotional pieces. In essence, it relieves the artist from taking on this workload themselves and gives them back more time to pour into the creative side of their music. As an artist, you still want to be involved in those conversations and insights, but the work getting done behind the scenes can lift a lot of administrative tasks off of you.
Overall, community engagement managers can be key players in your growth as an artist. Growing your community and strengthening your relationships with fans can only lead to reaching more people with your music and art.
Community Engagement Manager responsibilities
A community engagement manager can help curate an artist’s image and interactions within the community. They might be responsible for many areas of engagement, including the following:
Social Media
One of the best ways to engage with fans is through social media. Social media platforms allow you to have direct contact with fans, which can provide you with a lot of feedback quickly. These tasks may include:
Responding to comments and DMs.
Initiating contact with other profiles online.
Assisting with content copy for posts and stories.
Setting up interviews and conversations with fans.
Researching fanbase trends, personalities, likes/dislikes, etc.
Data Organization
Getting familiar with a large group of people means keeping track of a lot of data. This could include:
Gathering phone numbers and email addresses in order to send out communications and updates.
Tracking and analyzing responses on surveys.
Tracking social media metrics, user interactions, and general fan preferences.
Creative Liaising
Putting out a creative project takes a lot of people and moving parts coming together. Community engagement managers have a unique position of knowing the intended audience better than anyone else, which can go a long way in creating successful campaigns and projects. You might be the liaison by:
Participating in conversations with other creative professionals, like music video directors or graphic designers.
Bringing in ideas about how to roll out a project using knowledge about fans.
Ensuring consistency of the artist’s voice across platforms and projects.
Event Coordination
Many independent artists may not have a dedicated events manager or coordinator. A community engagement manager can help step in and take on some of those responsibilities, such as:
Setting up local events or pop-ups for the artist.
Reaching out to local brands or shops that may be interested in working with the artist.
Planning fan meet-ups so your artist can have face time with the community.
As an artist, you might need help with one or two of these areas, or you might need help with all of them. You’ll want to tailor a job description to your specific goals as an artist and ensure whoever you hire is on the same page as you. Once you hire someone, you can compensate them on a monthly or contract basis, depending on your needs.
Becoming a Community Engagement Manager
A community engagement manager role could be for you if you’re an expert communicator, your organizational skills are top-notch, and you’re a people person who thrives on establishing good relationships.
If you’re interested in becoming a community engagement manager for an artist, building off the skills you already have can help define what areas you’ll excel in. The following skills might help you succeed in this role:
Experience with customer management, public relations, or marketing
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment
Familiarity with social media platforms, content creation, and analytics tools
Passion for actively researching trends within the industry and connecting relevancy to artists
A strong suit for taking the time to understand people
For example, you might be a great writer and presenter, but you don’t necessarily want to be a marketer. Or you might be great at organizing, but you don’t want to be an artist manager. Hiring yourself out as a community engagement manager to specific artists and teams could be a way to have a different type of job experience and broaden your skill set within the music industry.
Whether you’re an artist or an aspiring community engagement manager yourself, both sides should have an equal understanding of the importance of communication and engagement with their community. As an artist, you need to be in the weeds and know what’s going on with the people who care about your music. As a manager, you need to know how to route communications and information appropriately to find the best way to create organic and personal connections. When working as a team, all sides benefit and can find both personal and communal growth.