How To Get A Job As A Community Manager In Games

What qualities and skills do I need to work in community management?

One thing you need to keep in mind before entering the world of community management is that the skills required will vary a lot depending on the job.

"Community managers come in all different flavours, and it's up to you to decide what you're most interested in," Tran says. "AAA companies and indie studios often require very different skills sets, so it'd be good to check past job descriptions for whatever side of the industry you're aiming to get into. For instance, indie studios often require more diverse skill sets, since community managers can end up handling all kinds of things like social media, copywriting, video editing, live streaming, customer service, marketing, PR, events, and so on."

In addition, some of these skills -- empathy, people skills -- may not be straightforward to learn, so it might take some trial and error to get there.

"The hardest thing to teach someone is soft skills, and as a community manager, that's what you'll be using the most," Tran continues. "The ability to navigate and mitigate other people's emotions is not easy, and often you'll run into stressful situations that require various judgement calls. There's usually a workaround or fix when you're trying to fix bugs in a game. But when you're working with various people from all around the world? There's no one size fits all approach."

• You need to have good communication skills

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the primary skill needed to be a community manager is to be a good communicator.

"You will definitely need some experience that demonstrates emphatic communication skills and a deep knowledge of social media," Cosgrove says. "The core of the job revolves around getting information out to relevant players, so strong written and verbal communication skills are a must."

This will also require a bit of patience and being able to "keep your cool," as Bhatti says. You will sometimes face unhappy players or need to re-explain things multiple times. But being a good communicator is not important just with your community.

"You're the mediator and advocate for your studio, so it's important to have things like empathy"Victoria Tran, Kitfox

"Also with your colleagues in communicating your ideas and plans, and how they're in sync with the overall goals of the project," Adebajo says. "You're usually the person who knows and understands your community the most, so it's key that you can communicate what you think would engage with them. "

Finally, when it comes to external communication, never forget that you are the face of the company that hired you, so you need to act as such.

"You're the mediator and advocate for your studio, so it's important to have things like empathy, good listening skills, and adaptability," Tran says. "Can you not only communicate with people in tense situations, but also rally them around a fun and positive space?"

• Be organised but flexible

It's easy to look at a viral tweet from a brand -- such as Fall Guys' skeleton or Big Yeetus -- and think it all came up organically within the past few hours. But more often than not, social media strategies are carefully planned, as Hindle shared in an article for the GamesIndustry.biz Academy detailing the social media strategy for Fall Guys.

"It's a role where you 100% must plan ahead," Adebajo says. "It's very rare that the content you publish is spur of the moment and I certainly got caught out early on for not preparing items weeks if not months ahead."

Listening to your community and its feedback is also a key aspect of the job -- so while organisation is crucial, you also need to be ready to drop everything and think on your feet when necessary.

"Being personable, able to multitask, and keep a cool head under pressure are key to the role," Cosgrove says. "Being able to adapt to change quickly is a big bonus. The online discussion space is constantly changing so being able to keep up with the latest trends will give you a huge leg up in the industry."

• Be creative

Coming up with ideas to engage with your community is no easy task -- there's only so many times you can use a meme, and you need to constantly bring something new to the table.

"Creativity is a big one, whether it be through words or digital content that you share with your audience," Adebajo says. "In gaming especially, you want to excite as well as inform, so you usually have to think of creative ways to do this."

"You want to excite as well as inform, so you usually have to think of creative ways to do this"Mike Adebajo, Square Enix

When on the lookout for community managers, Pounder says she's interested in finding people who can "think outside the box when it comes to social activations." She wishes she had personally been braver with the content she published when she started in community management.

"I should have taken more creative risks," she says. "I played it quite safe initially, but that was down to a lack of experience and confidence more than anything else. Being given the credentials to a well-known company's social accounts is incredibly daunting as a newbie. It took some time for me to push myself out of my comfort zone and have some fun on the platforms.

"[Now] I'm interested in finding community managers that [are] willing to take risks and can confidently flesh out a plan capable of generating growth, positive sentiment and incentivise conversions. The individual needs to be able to think about everything they do from a creative but also analytical standpoint."

• Showcase your technical skills

Having highlighted the importance of soft skills, Tran says that some technical skills are also required to be a good community manager.

"Oftentimes, it's great to have your own thing. What makes you special?"Victoria Tran, Kitfox

"Analytics tracking (and the ability to understand them), social media platforms, video editing, paid social ads, and so on," she says. "All of these and more could fall under the umbrella of community management, depending on what the studio needs. Oftentimes, it's great to have your own thing. What makes you special? Do you have a ton of streaming experience? Did you do journalism? Are you the best video editor? Can you do graphic design? All of these will help."

Since some community management roles will have you create content yourself, Adebajo adds that it's good to be proficient in specific software programs.

"I was lucky enough to have gained a lot of the skills during my time at uni, but I would certainly advise to get some working knowledge of programs such as Photoshop and Premier Pro," he says.