Community management is its own distinct discipline, yet every week numerous job postings pop up calling for “community managers” whose duties have little to do with what real community work entails. Instead, these roles often read more like a mix of marketing, social media management, customer support, or administrative tasks disguised under a “community” title.

This mismatch is one of the biggest reasons organizations struggle to build healthy, sustainable communities. The person hired as a “community manager” ends up doing everything but community strategy, engagement, or governance — and everyone feels the pain.

The Non-Community Tasks Often Misrepresented as Community

After reviewing countless job postings, here are the most common non-community responsibilities mistakenly bundled into community roles:

• Running social media channels with a focus on content marketing or paid campaigns.
• Handling customer support tickets or moderating complaints without community building intent.
• Managing newsletters, PR, or influencer relationships as if it’s community engagement.
• Performing general administrative duties like scheduling events or managing databases without community strategy.
• Creating one-way communication content rather than facilitating member-to-member interaction or authentic engagement.

None of these activities are bad or unimportant—but they don’t equal community management. They belong to marketing, support, communications, or operations teams.

Why This Confusion Happens

Many organizations don’t fully understand what a community manager actually does day-to-day. They see vibrant social channels or active forums and think anyone “good with people” can run them. Sometimes budget or headcount constraints lead to role mish-mash because companies want one person to do it all.

The problem? Community is a strategic, relationship-driven discipline that requires dedicated focus on nurturing connections, fostering trust, and building long-term engagement frameworks. When diluted with unrelated tasks, the role becomes overwhelming and ineffective.

The Real Impact on Hiring

Candidates entering these “community manager” positions expecting to build meaningful communities quickly realize their job is more about juggling unrelated duties. This leads to burnout, high turnover, and stagnant or unhealthy communities that deliver little business value.

Likewise, organizations waste time and money repeatedly filling roles that don’t meet their goals because the posting never matches the actual expertise required. This cycle frustrates everyone involved and stalls community growth.

How to Fix it: Role Clarity Is Key

To stop this from happening, companies must separate true community functions from other specialties:

• Assign social media marketing, content production, and paid campaigns to marketing teams.
• Place support and moderation tasks within customer service or experience teams—but keep moderation tied closely to community health.
• Keep the core community role focused on strategy, engagement programs, governance, and member experience design.
• Clearly define outcomes for the community role, such as retention, advocacy, member satisfaction, and network growth—not just activity metrics.

Proper role design leads to better hiring decisions, stronger communities, and more satisfied teams.

Clearing up these blurry boundaries isn’t just an HR nicety—it’s essential to creating communities that flourish instead of falter. When job postings honestly reflect community management’s unique scope, everyone wins.