Community Manager Appreciation Day

Community managers play a special role – one that is mostly behind the scenes and receives little credit or glory. Now, Community Manager Appreciation Day is here to say thank you and show these important people how much they are appreciated!

History of Community Manager Appreciation Day

The role of community managers (CMs) is a fairly modern development that has made its appearance since the dawn of the internet. Online community managers began making their debut in the 1990s when MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games) started becoming popular and it was necessary for someone to manage the online groups of people playing the games. Although the term, CM, took a bit longer to be used.

As the job of community manager moved from just video games to all sorts of other communities, and as the interactions online developed rapidly, the roles of community managers continued to grow and evolve. In addition to taking care of social media, public relations and customer support, online community managers also may perform duties such as managing online bulletin boards, developing creative or collaborative processes, and ensuring that all-important communication between the product developer and the end-users.

Founded by Jeremiah Owyang in 2010, Community Manager Appreciation Day offers an opportunity for those online community managers to step out from behind the curtain and take a well-earned bow for all of their hard work!

How to Celebrate Community Manager Appreciation Day

Those who spend a lot of time online or whose businesses or work involves an online community should take a special interest in observing Community Manager Appreciation Day. Get started with some of these ideas for celebrating the day:

Say Thank You to a Community Manager

The simplest way to begin enjoying Community Manager Appreciation Day is by saying thank you to a community manager who makes an impact on your life or business. This could include making a post on social media to thank them, writing about it in a blog post, or just sending them a little email to say how much what they do is appreciated.

Attend a Community Manager Appreciation Day Event

Just because their work is online doesn’t mean they can never make appearances in public! In fact, many cities, especially those who are deeply targeted toward businesses that are focused on social media, may host events that allow people to meet up with their community managers in person. Boston, San Francisco and Austin are just a few of the many cities that have been known to host events in honor of Community Manager Appreciation Day.

Host a Community Manager Appreciation Day Event

Don’t have an event scheduled in your city yet? That’s okay! Perhaps this is the right time to get started planning on hosting an event in appreciation of these important members of the online community. Whether it’s a city-driven event or a more casual gathering of local community managers, it’s certainly worth the opportunity to foster that connection and simply say thank you.