While Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD) has come and gone, we here at Weber Shandwick Seattle wanted to share some highlights of the global celebrations that took place within our network and beyond:
- Chris Perry, the president of digital communications at Weber Shandwick, authored an ode to community managers for Forbes.com, in which he outlines the day-to-day functions of community managers and illustrates how effective communities foster stronger customer relationships and showcase a brand’s true personality.
- Weber Shandwick’s Dallas office hosted a live chat featuring four of their community managers to discuss best practices and lessons learned. A recording of the conversation can be viewed here (footage starts around the 4:10 mark).
- Social media engagement and analytics platform Vitrue marked the occasion by announcing the launch of the Vitrue Community Manager of the Year Award, in conjunction with WOMMA. The call for nominations is now open through October 1, 2012 and the first winner will be announced next January.
- Sarah Evans, the owner of public relations and new media consultancy Sevans Strategy and moderator of #Journchat and #commentz, shared 10 ways to thank community managers, including delivering digitally-inspired baked goods to show your appreciation.
- Dell hosted a Google Plus hangout focused on best practices and the future of community management featuring #CMAD founder and Altimeter Group partner Jeremiah Owyang along with a number of community managers in various industries (replay available here).
- ReadWriteWeb‘s community manager, Robyn Tippins, also shared some words of wisdom about the characteristics of a good community manager, including “innately understands marketing, customer support, product strategy and user experience.”
- Social media education company Social Fresh created this fascinating infographic profiling the typical community manager and their job functions.
Of course, this is just a brief round-up of all of the fun ways people celebrated Community Manager Appreciation Day. How did you participate?
In photo (l to r): Katie Traut, Wade Rockett and Elaine Norton – Weber Shandwick
Katie is a Senior Account Executive in Weber Shandwick's digital strategy practice, where she helps clients like the U.S. Army implement fully integrated social media campaigns. Follow her on Twitter @Katie_Traut or read her 
