Community Management Playbook

Community Management Playbook Skill

This skill produces a complete community management playbook covering response frameworks, tone guidelines, comment moderation rules, DM handling, crisis and escalation paths, response templates, and community health metrics. Output gives a community manager or social media team everything they need to manage public interactions consistently, professionally, and at speed.

Required Inputs

Ask the user for these if not provided:

• Brand / product name
• Active platforms — which channels need community management (Instagram, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, etc.)
• Team structure — who manages community? (solo, small team, agency, rotating)
• Brand tone of voice — how the brand sounds (e.g. warm and friendly / professional / witty / technical)
• Primary community type — customers, fans, professional network, creators, users of a product
• Common comment types — what kinds of interactions do you get? (support questions, complaints, praise, spam, trolls)
• Response time SLA — how fast must the team respond? (e.g. within 2 hours on weekdays)

Output Structure

Community Management Playbook: [Brand Name]

Version: 1.0 Platforms covered: [List] Team: [Names or roles] Last updated: [Date]

1. Why Community Management Matters

[2–3 sentences on what's at stake: brand reputation, customer loyalty, algorithm signals, trust-building. Frame community management as a business function, not just social admin.]

Our community management goals:

1. [Goal 1: e.g. Respond to every comment and DM within our SLA — no question goes unanswered]
2. [Goal 2: e.g. Turn complaints into loyalty moments — every resolved issue is a trust win]
3. [Goal 3: e.g. Amplify positive sentiment — surface customer stories and user wins]
4. [Goal 4: e.g. Protect brand reputation — remove harmful content quickly and consistently]

2. Response Framework

Use this decision tree for every comment or message:

Is it spam, phishing, or dangerous content?
  → YES: Delete immediately. Report if platform requires. Log in moderation tracker.
  → NO: Continue ↓

Is it a hate comment, harassment, or offensive content?
  → YES: Hide or delete. Consider account block. Escalate if ongoing. See Section 6.
  → NO: Continue ↓

Is it a customer complaint or support question?
  → YES: Respond within SLA. Acknowledge, empathise, resolve or redirect. See Section 4.
  → NO: Continue ↓

Is it positive — praise, testimonial, or user win?
  → YES: Like + reply with warm acknowledgement. Flag for social proof content if suitable.
  → NO: Continue ↓

Is it a question about the brand, product, or content?
  → YES: Answer clearly and helpfully. Include a CTA if relevant.
  → NO: Continue ↓

Is it a general conversation starter or neutral engagement?
  → YES: Engage authentically — like, reply briefly, or ask a follow-up question.

3. Response Time SLAs

Out-of-hours coverage:

• [Define weekend / evening coverage — e.g. "On-call CM checks mentions at 9am, 1pm, and 6pm on weekends"]
• Crisis escalation is always on — see Section 6 for out-of-hours escalation contacts

4. Response Templates

These are starting-point templates — always personalise with the person's name and specific context.

Positive comments

Praise / testimonial:

"Thank you so much, [name]! 🙌 This genuinely made our day. So glad [product/service] is working for you. [Add specific personal note if possible]."

User-generated content / sharing their experience:

"Love seeing this, [name]! Thanks for sharing 🙌. [Relevant genuine comment on their specific post or experience]."

Review or recommendation:

"Thank you for taking the time to share this, [name] — really appreciate it. [Add genuine specific reaction]. If you ever want to [next step / share more / join community], we'd love to have you."

Questions about the product or brand

Feature question:

"Great question, [name]! [Answer clearly in 1–3 sentences]. If you'd like more detail, [link to docs / help centre / DM us]. Happy to help with anything else!"

Pricing / availability question:

"[Answer] — [link if relevant]. Feel free to DM us if you need anything specific. 😊"

"Is this available in [region/format]?" question:

"[Answer with current availability]. If that's changed, you'll always see it first at [link / newsletter sign-up / our channels]. 🙌"

Complaints

Product issue — acknowledged, redirecting to support:

"Hi [name], really sorry to hear this — that's definitely not the experience we want for you. 😔 Could you DM us with [order number / account email / details]? We'll get this sorted as quickly as possible."

Shipping / fulfilment complaint:

"Hi [name], thank you for letting us know and I'm so sorry for this. We want to make it right. Please DM us with your order reference and we'll investigate right away."

General dissatisfaction:

"Hi [name], I'm sorry to hear you're not happy — your feedback genuinely matters to us. Could you DM us or email [support email] so we can understand what happened and fix it? We really do want to get this right."

Public complaint that needs urgent attention:

"Hi [name], I can see why that would be frustrating and I want to make sure we sort this out properly. I'm going to DM you now — please look out for a message from us."

Difficult interactions

Polite but persistent critic:

"Hi [name], thank you for the honest feedback — we do read and take this seriously. We can't always respond to every individual point publicly, but if you'd like to share more detail, [DM us / email us at X]. We're genuinely working on [relevant area] and appreciate you holding us accountable."

Misinformation or incorrect claim about the brand:

"Hi [name], just wanted to gently clarify — [correct the record factually in 1–2 sentences]. Happy to share more if useful! [Link to source / official page if relevant]."

Competitor attack or negative comparison:

[Do NOT engage publicly with competitive comparisons. Respond only if there's factual misinformation. Template: "Hi [name], happy to share what makes [brand] work for our customers — feel free to DM us if you'd like to know more."]

DM templates

First DM response — complaint:

"Hi [name], thanks for reaching out. I'm [name] from the [brand] team. I've seen your [comment/message] and want to make sure we get this sorted for you properly. Could you share [details needed — order number, email, screenshots]? I'll personally make sure this is resolved."

First DM response — support question:

"Hi [name]! Thanks for getting in touch. Happy to help — [answer or next step]. If you need anything else, just reply here. 😊"

Issue resolved — closing DM:

"Glad we could sort that out, [name]! If you ever need anything else, we're here. Have a great [day/weekend]! 🙌"

5. Moderation Rules

Content that must be deleted immediately:

• Spam (repeated posts, fake giveaways, phishing links)
• Explicit or NSFW content
• Personal attacks on other community members
• Doxxing (sharing personal information about another person)
• Content that violates platform terms of service
• Illegal content or illegal product promotion

Content that should be hidden (not deleted) — review within 4 hours:

• Unverified complaints that may require investigation before action
• Offensive language that isn't targeting a specific person
• Posts that may be legitimate but contain sensitive information

Content that should be left (even if negative) — respond and monitor:

• Genuine product criticism or negative reviews
• Complaints that are being actively resolved
• Controversial opinions that are within the rules of civil debate
• Negative comparisons to competitors (only respond if misinformation)

Account-level actions:

"Never delete to silence" rule: Never delete a genuine complaint or criticism just because it's uncomfortable. Deleting legitimate negative feedback damages trust more than the original complaint.

6. Escalation & Crisis Protocol

Escalation tiers

Tier 1 — CM handles directly:

• Routine complaints, questions, thank-yous
• Single negative comment, isolated incident
• Standard off-topic or mildly unhappy comment

Tier 2 — Escalate to [Marketing Lead / Brand Manager] within 2 hours:

• Customer with significant public platform (journalist, influencer, known figure)
• Complaint gaining traction (10+ likes on a negative comment)
• Legal or compliance mention ("I'm going to sue", "trading standards", "data breach")
• Media interest — journalist asking questions publicly

Tier 3 — Escalate to [CMO / Founder / CEO] immediately:

• Viral negative content (100+ shares / views growing rapidly)
• Allegation of safety issue, injury, or product harm
• Coordinated negative campaign or pile-on
• Any media coverage of a complaint
• Potential crisis — brand reputation at risk

Crisis response protocol

1. Stop scheduled posting — pause all queued content immediately
2. Assess — what is the scope? How fast is it spreading? What's the allegation?
3. Brief leadership — share screenshot, link, and initial assessment within 30 minutes
4. Hold public response — do not post publicly until leadership approves messaging
5. Draft response options — prepare 2–3 response options (acknowledge / deny / defer)
6. Respond or don't respond? — sometimes silence + private resolution beats a public statement
7. Monitor — track mentions every 30 minutes during a crisis
8. Post-crisis review — within 48 hours, document what happened and what to do differently

Out-of-hours escalation contacts:

• CM Lead: [Name, mobile]
• Marketing Lead: [Name, mobile]
• [Senior escalation]: [Name, mobile]

7. Tone of Voice in Practice

Emoji use: [Define brand's emoji policy — e.g. "Use emojis sparingly — 1 per response max, only on positive interactions. Never on complaints or sensitive topics."]

8. Community Health Metrics

Track these weekly:

Weekly CM review (15 min):

• Review last week's metrics vs target
• Flag any recurring complaint themes (product signals for the team)
• Identify any standout positive interactions worth amplifying
• Note any escalations and how they were handled

9. Platform-Specific Notes

Quality Checks

• Response templates cover all common scenarios (positive, neutral, complaint, crisis)
• SLAs are realistic for available team resource
• Moderation rules clearly distinguish between delete, hide, and leave
• Escalation tiers are specific — each tier has a named contact and timeframe
• Tone of voice guidance is concrete enough to write from (examples included)
• Community health metrics have targets, not just labels
• Platform-specific nuances are covered for every active channel

Anti-Patterns

• Do not delete genuine customer complaints to silence negative feedback — deletion damages trust more than the original complaint and can escalate a minor issue to a viral one
• Do not respond to competitor comparison comments publicly — engaging publicly with competitive comparisons amplifies them; redirect to DMs or ignore
• Do not use the same template response for every complaint — copy-paste responses on visible complaints are noticed by other users and undermine brand authenticity
• Do not leave a crisis without pausing scheduled content — queued posts published during an active brand crisis appear tone-deaf and make the situation worse
• Do not set response time SLAs that cannot be met with the available team size — an SLA that is consistently missed is worse than no SLA

Example Trigger Phrases

• "Build a community management playbook for [brand]"
• "Create social media response guidelines for our team"
• "What should our moderation policy be for [platform]?"
• "Write community management templates and escalation procedures"
• "How should we handle negative comments on social media?"