2010 is the year of the community manager.

Marketing, PR, and Advertising companies are looking for community managers. This recent economist article, illustrates that aligning corporate communication strategy on social media conversation is paramount.

If I were hiring a community manager, these are the qualities that I would look for:

1) Sharing Great Content

There is so much great content that gets passed around daily, a community manager should be able to find, engage, and share compelling and relevant content daily.

Examples: Len Kendall and Vanessa Miemis are always sharing great content that is fresh, that I probably wouldn’t have found on my own.

2) Personality

Any community manager needs to be memorable and personable. We connect with people that are interesting, people that listen, and people that share effectively.

Examples: Lauren Fernandez , Amanda Rykoff, David Spinks

3) Monitoring/Measurement

Okay, well most of us folks do not have personal brands big enough that we’ll miss a comment, a question, or a complaint. But for big time community managers, monitoring is obviously of the utmost importance. We have all seen how quickly complaints, questions, or negative feelings spread on social media.

Examples of people/smaller brands that monitor well: Berry Chill, Tim Jahn

4) Content Creation

Community managers also have to be good, clear, and competent bloggers/communicators. And they have to do it quickly as well.

Examples: Anyone on this list

You could make the argument that the best corporate communicators were always community managers, but the myriad of entry points and sounding boards for customers and employees alike have really uped the ante. For a list of great corporate communicators, check out Jeremiah Owyang’s list of Corporate social media strategists and community managers.

If you were hiring a community manager, what qualities would you look for? Who are some community managers that you admire?

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