My family is defined by love, not blood. November is National Adoption Month and since everyone seems to have very different stories and experiences, I’m here to share mine.

Note: when I say mom and dad, I mean my mom and dad — my parents, the people who adopted me and raised me and love me. The other people? They’re birth parents or biological parents.

I am reviving this 4-part, now 5–7 part series from an old blog of mine. To save you having to come back for more, I’m putting it all out here in one post. …

Community management is a way of life — social media management is a career.

The term/title community manager doesn’t exist at some companies or is understandably interchanged with social media manager.

A community manager absolutely can be the social media manager, but they have different responsibilities that fall under the title. Your community manager is your brand’s ambassador and front line defense.

Community Manager vs. Social Media Manager

Community Manager

• Builds and maintains communities and relationships with consumers and followers
• Creates value for followers and communities
• Is the liaison between the consumers and the brand
• Is the spokesperson for the brand
• Creates unplanned dialogue with fans and customers

Social Media Manager

• …

Marketing Twitter is group therapy for social media/community managers and strategists. We cherish our jobs, projects, and clients, but face a lot of challenges as social media marketing is still perceived as new/easy/lowest on the food chain and easiest for other departments to demand things of.

I think the most important thing we want everyone to know and understand is that this is a real job — there are now degrees for it. A lot of us paved the way and created the best practices by suffering through trials, errors, and crises.

We are humans. We are a department. We…