Having been a teacher and a counselor, I am at my happiest when I am contributing something to other people’s lives. I specifically love helping people who are helping others. So, of course, some of my favorite people are mothers. I have four amazing daughters-in-law who are really and truly my daughters. Each one is an inspiration to me. So I will be adding tidbits here and there about resources for moms and dads because each family in our core family works hard at being good parents.

So for today’s posts, I am collecting some ideas about what being an online community manager means.

In Mashable, Stuart Foster writes about the five essential traits for community managers. He suggests:

1.  Loving your job

2.  Ability to promote others as well as yourself

3.  Ability to empower and support your community

4.  Have a transparent, fun, and engaging personality

5.  Extensive knowledge about the company

I have been reading several job boards (the best I found is flexjobs.com) and contrary to what some believe, the need for community managers is growing. Bill Johnston lists several that he has come across. He also includes a link for anyone who wants to post an open position free of charge at Forum One Networks.

Why do I believe that I will be a good online community manager? Because I have in my 40+ years of work already have had eight different careers.

I have changed careers eight times. For several years I was bothered by not having a single direction is life. But when I finally realized that each career of mine (teaching, selling, counseling, managing, etc.) was really about one talent. That talent is the ability to motivate others to change. So I have really done one thing all my life—motivate.