Online "community managers" trend in Spain - but what are they?

It's the trendiest job in Spain, although nobody knows why. Some of them make 18,000 euros a year, others over 45,000 euros. Some design complex online communication strategies, while others send messages through Twitter. Some have MBA degrees and a decade's worth of experience, others little more than a specialized course as their only credentials. There are no two alike, and yet they are all community managers.

Few positions have created so much confusion regarding responsibilities, wages or place in the company organization chart. The term did not even exist three years ago, yet today there are tens of thousands of community managers in Spain. In fact, there is even a Spanish Association of Online Community Managers (AERCO), with over 1,000 members. According to a report by the human resources company Adecco, 60 percent of unemployed Spaniards would like to take their careers in a different direction, and community manager is one of the most popular. Despite that, nobody - companies, candidates, and the online consulting firms - is really sure what that is.

"Ask 10 people and you'll get 12 different answers," says one insider

"Some offers are a pittance to manage social networks in 28 countries"

"Ask 10 people and you'll get 12 different answers," says José Antonio Gallego, president of AERCO. According to him, a community manager is the person within a company who is charged with running the online communities with ties to the brand. Even so, he admits that "the term is ambiguous, it's a trend, it changes from one day to the next and it's starting to create some weariness."

Google has a tool called Google Insights that provides information about the volume of searches a key word generates. This information can be broken down by countries. A search of the term "community manager" reveals that Spain ranks first in the world for requests. This boom is as unusual as it is disconcerting, considering that this profession does not put up the logical entry barriers such as a college degree or specific technical knowledge.

Spain is also one of the rare few countries where this trend has followed a bubble-like behavior: a quickly acquired popularity, the creation of a lucrative industry around it (associations, academies, agencies, consulting firms and so on), a debate regarding its validity, and presumably an eventual crash. Or maybe there will be a reconversion, like elsewhere in Europe and the United States, where after the initial novelty, community managers are no longer being viewed as specific positions but rather as a function within the communication or marketing department.

But in the meantime, many organizations are taking advantage of the reigning confusion. "Some business schools charge 15,000 euros for a master's degree in community management, or 3,000 euros for a weekend course. It's shameful," says a 37-year-old self-taught consultant who asked to remain anonymous and who handles several companies' social network presence. She says that businesses are very confused. "You get everything, from a shoe store that calls in to say they need a community manager, to a Spanish multinational that offers you a pittance of 500 euros a month to manage their social networks in 28 countries."

The economic crisis, unemployment and the necessities of life have breathed new air into the bubble. Another professional blames advertising agencies for infiltrating the sector without knowing the terrain, and criticizes the marketing and communications specialists who have turned overnight into social media experts. "Some time will have to go by before things go back to normal," says a 23-year-old computer engineer who manages the online presence of a major Spanish corporation. How did he learn the ropes? "I'm self-taught."

While the debate goes on, the world wide web is filling up with blogs, comments and tweets that are very critical of the entire concept of a community manager. To some it is deceitful, to others it simply does not exist in its own right, but as another task that falls to the communications department. There are even those who call AERCO opportunistic. "They feed a trend, they use the association to benefit just a few," says another source.

The internet not only has created new professional roles, it has also transformed the personnel needs at many conventional departments. Marketing, communication, technology, even management have been affected by the evident changes in the way we communicate. The leading role of social networks, and their increasing presence in people's everyday lives, has left many companies struggling to develop the right communications and research strategy. They have thus unwittingly contributed to the maelstrom of community management services with no official fees, no tangible results, and a mixed bag of respectable firms coexisting with sellers of air.

"Many companies charge depending on the size of the customer, rather than based on the service provided or the objectives; this makes for strong and unqualified competition," said spokesmen for several companies. "Serious firms with some experience work alongside others that merely seek to make an easy buck when the tide is high."