For the younger social media pros, yes, these photos and memes are from 2007! This is what community management for Slim Jim looked like back then! Let me break down how community management was and how a lot of these principles still apply today!
Back in 2007, the role of the community manager, alongside the brilliant team (which I will tag below) has evolved 17 years later, but the fundamentals and the importance remains the same.
Back in 2007, the community manager supported the creative, co-produced the content, was the on-camera personality, went to brand sponsored events to be with the community in real life, connect with influencers online and in real life, monitoring the community for comments, insights, influencers to partner with, brands to collab with, learning the data, and trying to take that data and insights into something actionable for on-going optimization. All of these efforts still apply today, and still evolving.
Today, in 2025, the role of the community manager has been niched down to be able to be the eyes and ears across each platform. The team is the idea generator based on community, industry and product insights. The feedback loop to better creative, strategy, campaigns, partnerships, fuel paid media optimizations, and business updates. If 1,000 people on social media tell you they hate X about your product, one would think you would want to change it.
The landscape has shifted to insights and insights driving everything you do on social media. Vibes are high, but insights go harder to continuously grow. In short, community management is a vital role to any successful social media community.
