Search Engines and Social Media: Community Management and AI

Do you see authentic community management becoming more important as people grow accustomed to AI generated content and what role does that community management have? 

Alex: It’s such an undervalued role. Proactive community management and building a community around your brand is so important. A lot of the time brands don’t fully understand the role or put enough effort into it so you go onto their platform or page and they don’t reply to the comments, or reply robotically or miss the mark somehow which can really put people off.

I think AI will do some of the heavy lifting and take a lot off of the plates of community managers, but there still always needs to be a human element there. 

Tom: I think it depends on the brand, for example we work with On Running and yes, they’re an activewear brand, but within that there are niche verticals that a community manager could focus in on, whether it’s gym training, long distance running, or fashion.

Each one of those is a niche vertical within one brand sector and they’ve got teams that spend time focusing on people who are just using their products for the gym, or just using them for running, and their content and the way they speak and their knowledge of the products and the community is then focused on that. That needs to be managed and it needs to be human. 

Kate: Both of your points tie together really nicely because I think it is often an afterthought and the last thing a brand might think of doing, but it is a direct line to your customers.

Consumers want a direct connection with the brands that they buy from, and the benefits that you can have with managing that community properly in terms of product development and things like that is something that should be prioritised.

AI can handle the easy automatic stuff, but if you want authenticity and trust you need to be communicating as a real human – people will always trust people more than they trust machines. 

Mick: If you’re not making your audience or customer feel valued, then they’re not going to be your audience or your customer for very much longer. That’s why good community management is vital.