The Community Manager and Social Media Networks

Abstract

Local governments are increasingly embracing Web 2.0 technologies to encourage the use of means of bidirectional communication to change how they interact with stakeholders, thus providing the greater accountability demanded. Nonetheless, to make Web 2.0 tools efficient, there must be qualified people to operate and supervise the Web 2.0 and social network technologies implemented by local governments. These people, called “Community Managers,” play a key role in the implementation of social networks in local government, successfully or otherwise. In this chapter, the authors analyse whether the training and education of community managers in Spanish local governments is associated with the successful use of social networks by these local governments in their interaction with the public. Their empirical study of local government in Spain shows that the position of community manager is mostly held by men who are aged 25-45 years and have a university degree in journalism, performing in addition, tasks such as updating the municipal website or running the press office.