Community Manager positions like most jobs in the social media space are evolving. There is no real consensus on what the job should pay and it seemingly varies from one company to the next.

On a recent conference call for community managers, one of my peers from the Online Community Research Network who is looking for work gave interesting details about the conversations she’s had with potential employers. After gleaning a great deal of insight from her about community management during the initial interview, many have revised their job descriptions to incorporate some of what they learned from her, yet never called her back for a second interview.

It seems that they are benefiting from her experience with a highly respected leader in online video, to craft their own positions, once she has told them what they should be looking for.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds more like a consulting role rather than that of interviewee.  But that’s not the reason for this post. I found it in poor taste and simply wanted to share.

This post is about online community and social media compensation, which is the topic of the latest research released by Forum One Communications. The 46 page document is filled with interesting information and insight into what is really happening in the space from more than 350 professionals and is worth a close look.

One finding that supports the story I just shared is this:

Several respondents mentioned feeling like they were being inadequately compensated because of lack of data available regarding community and social media salaries, as well as lack of understanding of community and social media ROI relative to their organization’s activities.

Here are a few other highlights I’d like to share from the overall summary:

• The highest average median salary is 89K
• The gap between the average male and female salaries widened, with male respondents averaging $86,644 (up from $85,423 in ’08) and Females averaging $75,624 (down from $77,319 in ’08).
• The majority of respondents reported a salary increase in 2009, but the percentage compared to last year was down, as was a significant increase in the number of respondents who took a salary decrease in 2009 compared to 2008.

If interested, the full report is available for purchase, here.

[Editor’s Note: Originally posted on the blog, Online Community Strategist –mrh]