What is Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD)?
Community Manager Appreciation Day, or CMAD is a global annual recognition day that celebrates the hard work and dedication of community managers.
It is celebrated annually on the fourth Monday in January. 2025 #CMAD falls on Monday January 28th 2025.
When was the first Community Manager Appreciation Day?
The first CMAD was in 2010 when Jeremiah Owyang announced that community managers should be celebrated for the tireless work they do to keep online spaces safe, healthy and happy.
He felt that Community Managers across the world should be more visible and appreciated in their organisations, volunteer community managers should be thanked by their members and all should celebrated as much as they deserved to be.
How is Community Manager Appreciation Day celebrated?
In my opinion, it’s not celebrated nearly enough!
The hashtags #CMAD and #CMAD24 will certainly be used on social media. Community managers, who are amongst the nicest people in the world, will celebrate and raise each other up. And there will be a few events for community managers.
Some lucky community managers might even get a heartfelt thank you from their employers or communities, perhaps even a cake or small gift if they are really lucky, but broadly, CMAD seems to be limited to a few virtual events and small localised meetups.
What do Community Managers do that warrants an Appreciation Day?
It’s easy to understand why there is a National Nurses Day, National Caregivers Day, International Firefighters Day or International Paramedics Day. We’re celebrating people who work in frontline emergency services or in caring roles. They are selfless people with emotionally challenging jobs.
There are communities that are considered by many as vital additional emergency services - those that provide essential support, advice, friendship and connectivity for millions around the world.
For example, communities of circumstance such as Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Online Community for people who understand life with MS, or local communities that support vulnerable people, such as the Warm Hub drop in centre a few metres from where I live in East London. It provides essential support, warmth and friendship for those who need it most.
Those responsible for the day to management of these communities often do it voluntarily.
And it’s not just the people who manage these communities who should be thanked.
We should extend our appreciation to those who provide expert customer service in a Community of Product.
Let’s thank community managers who connects people and pushes a profession on in a Community of Practice.
Take time to show your gratitude to community manager in a fan community, or Community of Play or Place who ensures that ‘spirited’ debates don’t descend into name calling or bullying.
Community managers make great efforts every day to look after their members interests, and they go above and beyond creating simply transactional relationships.
Community Management comes in many shapes and sizes and every community manager deserves their day in the sun.
So, do take the time to thank the person who is managing a community that you value, and tell them how much you appreciate them. Even if you’ve missed the day itself.
Want to hear more from Community Builders?
Learn from an inspirational group of community managers, founders, entrepreneurs and leaders who have placed community at the heart of their business.
Nicole Saunders, Director of Community from Zendesk realised she was a community builder when she first saw the #CMAD hashtag.
See who features in this series of interviews with me: ‘Meet the Community Builders’.
Nicole Saunders - Zendesk
Laura Roth - Amazon Web Services and Community Pros of London
Emma Sexton and Sarah Halfpenny - Inside Out Community
Kian Bhaktiari - The People
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