CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Creating and running social network applications can be a daunting task for credit unions and other organizations facing a need to effectively deploy these new mass communications tools.

A new report from Forrester Research said to successfully deploy such strategies-- which could include heavily used utilities such as Facebook, MySpace and iGoogle-- companies should rely on two new positions: a social computing strategist to oversee the internal affairs of the program and a community manager to handle external relations.

Analyst Jeremiah Owyang said these two positions working together will make social computing programs compatible with business interests while maintaining satisfied community members.

"Running a community is a challenge," Owyang said in his report. "You'll have to wrangle internal stakeholders even as you serve the needs of community members."

This is easier to accomplish with two managers, he said. Using business experience, the social computing strategist ensures that the community meets the needs of the company. In Owyang's scenario, the community manager then reports to the social computing strategist, and together they run and manage the new sites.

The Forrester report recommended that strategists be leaders with past experience managing marketing programs or working with customers. The strategist also must be able to coordinate community programming with credit union objectives.

In order to do this, the social computing strategist must have years of experience, be able to steer though the political rings of the enterprise, adeptly manage relationships, and be comfortable in high-risk situations.

While it is the social computing strategist's responsible to get a community up and running, it is the community manager's responsibility to handle the day-to-day tasks of the community, Owyang said, including heavily interacting with community members.

The community manager should have experience using forums, blogs and other social media tools. "They are often experimenting, breaking and analyzing the latest technologies," said Owyang. "Go to them for tactical questions on which vendors and tools to use."

Community managers differ from traditional marketers in that they employ conversational marketing skills, Owyang argued, and negotiate conflicts and build relationships between members.

The Forrester report said marketing managers would be a good place to start while looking for someone to train to be social computing strategists, since they bring business experience to the table.

But they also should look for potential managers who participate in social spheres informally, such as with blogging or discussion forums. A good place to find them? In online forums already networking and blogging away.

--mrapport@sc.rr.com

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Forrester Report Identifies New Jobs for Arduous Social Networking Strategies

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