What Is Differences Between Social Media Manager and Community Manager? Meaning and Concept

The social media manager and the community manager are two widely used concepts, but different despite the fact that sometimes the actions of one and the other can be confused.


The social media manager is responsible for planning the strategies to be carried out on social networks, and the community manager is in charge of executing them. We can say that one is in charge of the strategic action and the other of the operation in social media.


What actions does each one carry out?


Before listing the most common actions and tasks by the social media manager and the community manager, it is necessary to comment that these two profiles do not always exist in the company. That is, when we talk about large companies they can coexist, but in small and medium-sized companies it is usual for all these tasks to fall on the same person.


Even if an entrepreneur manages his own social networks, he can be identified in the management of these actions.


A social media manager is in charge of:

  • Develop the strategies of the company in social networks based on having studied the competition, potential customers, products and brand value.
  • Define the objectives to be achieved on social media.
  • Analyze the competitors and how they evolve.
  • Analyze the metrics and statistics of social networks. The external and internal data that are obtained.
  • Maintains a constant relationship with the community manager.
  • Prepare a crisis plan that includes possible responses and actions to comments on social networks, for example.

The community manager has among its main competencies:

  • Make the publication calendar.
  • Monitor the brand.
  • Follow the guidelines of the social media manager.
  • Respond to comments on social networks.
  • Analyze the activity and pass these statistics to the social media manager to assess them.

As you can see, both work together, but the social media manager would be in charge of the department if we had to speak in those terms.


These two professionals are relatively new, emerging from the social media boom, and have become an essential part of the company. They are the communication channel between users and the business, and the opinions, interactions and responses they collect from their activity can be used to modify strategies and see the most immediate and real-time demands of the audience.


It is essential before starting any activity on social networks to carry out a social media plan that would be the job of the social media manager to publish meaningfully, avoiding publishing content that is not very relevant to the brand. You have to learn on social media to test, assess and modify actions to see what works best.


In social networks, nothing is immediate, and everything requires a time of work to achieve the desired results. That is why it is important to always have real goals that can be achievable.


On the contrary, you would be making a mistake since it would cause a bad strategy and achieve erroneous results if you want to achieve immediate actions.