I think listening is one of the top skills required. - Star Aasved

understanding of all communications, not just social media. listening is vital. personable is another. - Chuck Hemann

Multi-tasking, patience, dedication, commitment, tolerance, personable. - Martin Reed

An understanding of how communications/biz dev/marketing are tied into the CM role. - Sonny Gill

Authenticity and the humility to apologize - my personal experience. Learner's heart. - Daniel Johnson, Jr.

Being able to plot out what engagement/community can or will do for the organization's bottom line. - Teresa Basich

Ability to pull resources from any department within the organization - provide access by bringing the subject matter expert to the table. - Mike Whaling

really like the authenticity point from Daniel. It's easy to spot someone who is being "fake" - Chuck Hemann

The community manager must speak fluent Social Media as well as fluent traditional business. CM must be a good translator as well as creative. - Keith Burtis

Has to be able to represent management to the community and the community to management. - Jenna Woodul

@Keith - Good point. The traditional side of the business and how community management ties into the rest of your business' goals is important. - Sonny Gill

Diplomacy but not to the point of avoiding conflict at any cost. - Daniel Johnson, Jr.

@Keith - is that the ROI point? how do the CM's effots contribute to the bottom line? - Chuck Hemann

Great point, Jenna. Conduit between two sides. - Teresa Basich

Understanding company's goals, being able to translate those into implementation. - Star Aasved

@Jenna: Great take. Connie Bensen likes to say that a community manager is the voice of the company externally and the voice of the community internally. - Bryan Person

Everything ties back to ROI whether we like it or not...if you go to a senior exec and say..Ive had 15 conversations added 100 twitter followers and have 500 fans on friendfeed..they'll say..."Who cares?" - Keith Burtis

Thick skin. Tact. Empathy. The ability to communicate very effectively about positives and negatives. The written word is crucial. - Angela

How about effectively managing differing sets of expectations? - Daniel Johnson, Jr.

@Bryan - so they are a defacto company spokesperson then? How does that role diverge from a traditional media spokesperson? or do they work in harmony? - Chuck Hemann

BUT - if you can show the ACTIONS people are taking as a result of the community invlvemnt then you have a win win - Community = X (X=Y) - Keith Burtis

Fluidity. Ability to roll with changes, know when change is necessary and when change may not be the best course of action. - Star Aasved

But if you can illustrate to a senior Exec how you retained customers, changed a persons view, kept them around when they were leaving for good. Sent an email that turned them around completely, that works. You need the stories. - Angela

And here I thought the face of the company was the receptionist. ;) - Daniel Johnson, Jr.

Empathetic listening; ability to persuade with words; acting quickly and surely but never too hastily. - Kat Brennan

Great points Keith on ROI. Companies are looking for DIRECT returns, not fluff from social media numbers. - Sonny Gill

It would seem that measuring ROI in social media is the brass ring. - Daniel Johnson, Jr.

I agree with Keith that direct ROI metrics sell community, but I think they also exclude much of the value of community. We should educate c-level execs about the less direct and less tangible - but still very real - value in social transactions. - Jon Lebkowsky

Jon, yes - metrics only tell part of the story. - Star Aasved

Should we expect our CM to understand business metrics? Seems like a different skill set to me - Mark Sylvester

Daniel -- I remember going to a conference where a speaker emphasized using Return on Information as opposed to ROI. Took this advice, one of the bigger mistakes I've made. Lesson is always stick to the vocabulary and rules everyone else plays to. There is room for creativity, but not when it comes to hard-line numbers. - Lou Ordorica

Essential to understand business as well - Keith Burtis

CM doesn't need to be a business person, but definitely needs to understand the business goals of the community and how the community goals support them. Otherwise, the community is going to be short-lived. - Jenna Woodul

Two threads I'm picking up. One, CM is a hybrid position that requires a diverse skills portfolio. Very untraditional. Two, it all ties back to ROI. - Bill Free

@Mark I think CMs should understand business metrics, if it's not the case they might face more hurdles to do their work the best way. - Lilian Mahoukou

CM's MUST create meaningful metrics that align with the business, we can't be rogue warriors, having a business understanding and being accepted internally as a key player are very important. - Keith Burtis

After you have the meaningfull metrics set up benchmarks for yourself. This helps you proove your effectiveness. Once the internal reporting, meaningful metrics and benchmarks are set up you can go out into the wild and be creative. That pipeline of metrics ALWAYS stays the same. How you go about your community activities is fluid and moves with the industry - Keith Burtis

Business reporting and community building need to be inherently seperate....You NEVER want to look at your community, network or individuals in your community as numbers to convert. My biggest rule is: never approach a network or individual in a network with a one sided greedy objective - Keith Burtis

@Keith: Do you ever find it difficult to separate community building from business goals? - Bryan Person

@Bryan - the business goals remain static, once you set the pipeline up you tend to forget about it. So not really. I love the creative, passionate, and communal part of social media. I find that if my heart is in the right place and the business pipeline is set up then everything falls into place - Keith Burtis

@Bryan - the biggest fear I have when teaching people about ROI and traditiona;l business is that they will treat social media like traditional advertising and broadcasting. Thats why I say you need to be able to speak fluent business as well as have a massive understanding of the socil culture - Keith Burtis

Keith -- really like your thinking on the role of community building and CM in a business, shows how the role is evolving. - Lou Ordorica

Thanks Lou - Keith Burtis