Today in honor of Community Manager Appreciation Day, Get Satisfaction is launching a cartoon series to highlight the value community managers bring to various departments in their organizations.

Community managers are listening and talking to customers every day. They are often the first eyes and ears to what’s happening and as such, it’s their job to not only understand the needs of your customers but to also resolve any issues that arise.  After all, customers are perhaps your most important audience. The community manager reduces support tickets, generates new leads for marketing and transforms customer feedback into better products. Although the value created by the community manager is often overlooked, the community manager is an integral part of the customer experience.

Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD) is a time to stand up and cheer for community managers. It’s also a time to acknowledge the value they bring across the organization. Starting today, we will post a new cartoon each Tuesday to highlight the value community managers bring to their company and poke fun at those who still don’t get it!

We are also continuing our annual tradition of checking in with some of the top community managers within the industry to learn about emerging trends in community management and to hear more about the business benefits organizations are realizing.  A special thank you to the participating companies including Blackbaud, eModeration, Bitcentral, Cazoomi and more.  Here’s their Community Management Predictions for 2013.

This is the first cartoon in the series. View the next cartoon in our #CMcartoon series here.