On this episode of Community Signal, community management consultant Tanja Laub gives a full report on what it’s like to work as a community manager in Germany. And perhaps not too surprising, the experience is not dissimilar to what guests from the United States and other countries have described. Tanja shares a breakdown of community manager responsibilities, typical salaries, and the limitations and opportunities that she’s seen in the field so far. Tanja is also a chairperson for BVCM, an association for Germany community managers, where she has helped develop a certification procedure for community and social media managers. Rather than requiring professionals to take a class to become certified, community managers instead verify their professional history and some other details about themselves to get the certification. Between that and her work to help organizations refine their hiring needs and community manager role descriptions, Tanja is helping to set the standard for what it means to work in community management. Tanja and Patrick also discuss: The value of certifications How moderation norms compare to other countries, like Australia and the United States What Tanja sees as areas of opportunity for communities in Germany Big Quote On building your community with your community (18:40): “If you’re [making] changes [to the community] without them knowing, [community members will ask:] ‘Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you change that?’ Even if it’s a minor thing. The greatest [thing] … would be to develop the community together with the users, to ask them in advance, ‘How do you want to have that feature? What works best for you? Here are two versions, look at them, work with them. Which one do you want to have? Which one shall we put into the community? What kinds of changes should we make?'” –@TanjaOnTour About Tanja Laub Tanja Laub has worked in community management since 2006. She spoke communities for a big European media company RTL Media Group, including one about cooking, the other for women, and was head of community for Douglas, a perfume chain, essentially the European Sephora. Since 2010, she has been a community and social media management consultant with a focus on own platforms. Tanja also gives trainings and workshops. Since 2017, she has been the chairwoman of BVCM, a German association for professional community and social media managers. They’re offering certifications and define the job descriptions to help companies better understand who they want to hire and what they need. The organization also conducts a survey to better know the market and problems of their professionals. Related Links Tanja Laub on Twitter Walkabout Media CommunityManagement.de RTL Media Group and Douglas, where Tanja previously worked BVCM, the Federal Association for Community Managers 2019 Australian Community Managers Career Survey Community builder, manager, and strategist Venessa Paech Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, or NetzDG Bianca Oertel, a community professional who works at Motor Talk Chefkoch, a cooking and baking community Voycer, a software company focused on the German market Article by Tanja about the role of a community manager on company-owned platforms Julie Hamel on Community Signal Transcript View transcript on our website Your Thoughts If you have any thoughts on this episode that you’d like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.