I had the HUGE pleasure of meeting today with a group of 10 community managers along with Rachel Happe and Rawn Shah from IBM! Read this great piece of work by Rachel on 2011 Community Manager report! http://www.slideshare.net/rhappe/the-2011-state-of-community-management
The bottom line is I believe firmly before of the important of Community Management and now am unquestionably sold on it!
Big quotable quotes!
* Everyone is a Community Manager!
* A Community manager is like a party planner!
* Community management is like a cultural translator!
We dished on Three Major topics!
A) Types of skills that made a GREAT community manager!
- Relationship skills
- Energizer
- Social Skills
- Coaching
- Facilitation
- “Event” management skills (This came from Jamie thinking about this role as a party planner — getting the wall flowers to enjoy the party, making it fun but valuable, etc!)
- Business skills
- Host or Hostess
B) How many community managers do you need? 
- The answer we came to is “it depends” On what?
- Complexity, size of community, and goals
- In addition to community manager you need support from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
- Can be done with part timers 3-5 people who spend 10-20% of their time
C) Where do you find them or how do you grow them?
- Mentoring
- Recommendations
- New curriculum that offers certificate?
The bottom line is this is now a new skill that is emerging and will be a critical success factor for any Social Business.