The folks over at SocialFresh put together this awesome infographic about community managers just in time to celebrateCommunity Manager Appreciation Day in a few weeks.

Check out the full infographic here, but I'll share a few tidbits that I found most interesting:

-Did you know that the majority of community managers are women? Girl Power!

-Additionally, 2 out of every 3 community managers works for a brand rather than an agency. Personally, I love working for a brandbecause I can fully dedicate myself to the company, our team, and our culture.

-Lastly, over 60% of community managers spend over 30 hours per week working on their community. Now, that's dedication!
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Img: SocialFresh
 
Cendrine is an incredibly insightful social media blogger that I have had the pleasure to work with over the last few months. I'm glad to have her as a part of my online community, and honored that she views me the same! Check out her 2012 year in review post to see what awesome things she did this year. I'm looking forward to seeing what Cendrine has in store for us in 2013 on her must-follow blog!
 
My name is Ally Greer. I'm a marketer with expertise in content marketing and curation. You've probably never heard of me.

With over 500 million users on Twitter, 175 million on LinkedIn, and over a billion on Facebook, you probably haven't heard of most people on the Internet. The bad news is that this also means most of those people probably haven't heard of you either.

That said, I'm certainly not here to tell you how flooded the Internet is and discourage you from jumping into the information pool. In fact, I'm telling you to do the exact opposite. Although it isn't likely that all 500 million people on Twitter will be following you by the time you're finished reading this (or ever), there are a few ways to look what we call "information overload" right in the face and use it to your advantage.

In a digital world characterized by an overwhelming amount of noise, everyone is struggling to find relevant content from people and brands with an expertise on a specific subject. Content curators are the ones who step up to the plate.


 
Max Minzer is a Seattle SEO consultant, internet marketing strategist, entrepreneur and business adviser who helps businesses and individuals establish and maintain engaged online presence.

Every Thursday, Max hosts a “Max Impact Hangout,” a conversation designed to help businesses have maximum impact in their industry on social media.

This hangout is centered around content curation, and feautres AJ Kohn, the owner of Blind Five Year Old, an online marketing consulting firm out of San Francisco.

Kohn has some great points about the benefits of curation, including:

-“It’s not just about sharing the content; it’s providing your context. It’s good to be able to read a lot, but it’s better to be able to understand it, and so it’s your job to help your audience understand it and put context around it. If you’re not doing that, it’s just a bunch of links, and that’s not particularly helpful.”

-“Curation at its core is about expertise.”

-“People are looking for trust and expertise, and they don’t have a lot of time. If they can rely on you to continuously deliver that trust and value, they’re going to continue to come to you.”

He also points out an interesting curation practice that is probably forgotten (or dismissed) by some businesses: curating the content of your competitors. Regarding this practice, AJ says, “Your users are talking about [your competitors] anyway. You want to control the story: if they’re going to be reading it anyway, it’s better to provide the context for them.”

The hangout also includes a Q&A/discussion session with AJ.