Give your community members something TO DO together
We’ve been having a blast chatting with our Mixily hosts and friends on Clubhouse. Last week we hosted our fourth Clubhouse discussion about community with our friends from Raddle (Liyani Rodriguez & Tex Dworkin), Badassery (Danielle Letayf), Dreamers & Doers (Hannah McCauley) and Beau Monde Society (Jennifer Nnamani). There were SO many nuggets of wisdom from these community powerhouses and I typed frantically to try and capture it all. Some of our favorite reoccurring themes were: no matter the size of your community 1:1 interactions are important, always pay attention to your audience and be an empathetic listener.
Enjoy these highlights from our latest Clubhouse community chat. Hope to catch you on Clubhouse soon! If you want to see certain content here, or have feedback about Mixily, never hesitate to reach out.
Join Community Leaders from Mixily, Raddle, Badassery, Dreamers & Doers and others to discuss strategies and tips for facilitating engagement within your community.
Where does your community show up, what tools do you use to gather them?
Instagram Live
Newsletter
Facebook Group
Circle
Slack
Clubhouse
Zoom
Mixily
Icebreaker.video
Orbiit.ai
Website with database of members and resources
What formats and structures do you use for gathering?
Dreamers & Doers - we have a “cocktail menu” of events! Some are centered around learning, some around building community. Different formats include mixers with a topic, 1:1 speed connections, holiday themed happy hours, business masterminds. We are not afraid to experiment and add in new formats since our community is often giving feedback and we can adjust. We “couldn’t do what we do without our members,” cant make decisions without feedback. Inboxes are always open and host a member survey once a year.
Badassery - virtual events exploded in 2020, now has become diluted so cap to 3 a month. All events fall in 2 buckets, 1:1 and groups. We also have a mix of member only events and non-member events, which help with revenue and advertisement. For 1:1 we use Orbiit that connects members via algorithm, (like Lunch Club). Our workshops work well because they are always hosted by a member. We help them build content.
Mixily - we want event organizers to have the tools to design their virtual event experience in the same way as they would in person with custom design, interaction options and easy to access resources.
Beau Monde Society - Instagram Lives for more casual conversations, Virtual Venue for our Summit. Since our Summit was hosted on our website using Mixily, I wanted it to be more professional. I brought in our guests to the space for a dry run before the summit to get comfortable with each other and Virtual Venue.
Raddle - we book our own Raddles regularly, to get input from members. Important to get to know your people, listen to them and form relationships.
We live in a virtual event world now, how will IRL fit in?
Dreamers & Doers - pre-covid all of our events were in person, it’s nice to step away and focus on virtual so more people can join. Not anticipating in person until everything is very safe, going to continue pouring into virtual events. Virtual events will always be a pillar of the company and community.
Raddle - we started in person, but leaned into virtual, as small business owners want 20 min in and out. Going to an event there is extra time required for travel, so virtual saves time.
Raddle - “I see the future of community events as forever hybrid”. Right now community leaders scared of liability of in person. Nothing can replace in person, but have to take it slow. It will be interesting and fun how to bring together the first 3-4 members per city in a safe way. I’m keeping an eye on what my members are comfortable doing (like socially distanced coffee walks) and building backwards from there.
Let’s talk peer engagement -- we know some of the best communities create a give/take experience. How do you foster that within your community?
Badassery - “at Badassery everything is members first”. Members submit event ideas and pick ones that seem interesting and then we work with members to think through content. Then they are the ones promoting in Slack. Building with community has been so imperative to foster meaningful engagement between members. Just because some people don’t come to all of the events, doesn’t mean they don’t engage. So many types of people, it’s a mistake to see all of them as a blob. It’s important to offer different types of engagements for different types of personalities
Dreamers & Doers - events are a component of our membership, but the main way members engage is through our Facebook Group. We have conversation starters posted by moderators, such as “something you need help” with” or “share an accomplishment of the week” but 90% of the time members facilitate the discussions and post questions or share offers. As the moderators, we help by going in and tagging people who could contribute to relevant posts. The members take the reins and we just chime in and add more people into the conversations. “To do the scalable you have to do the unscalable, have to support each member and what they are doing. And keeping track of when it changes.” Then you know how to support each member in the most meaningful way.
How do you facilitate your community’s conversations/who is leading them? Formally and informally.
Raddle - facilitation is very important for the structure of Raddles. We have a head of facilitation and a formal guide. Facilitators are pulled from within the community and create the parameters for safe discussions. Comforting to know ground rules, makes humans happy to know boundaries.
Beau Monde Society - most events are facilitated by Jennifer, the founder. For Summit event opened up the floor to her members to moderate the discussions and lead the conversations.
Badassery - events are mainly run and facilitated by members. Badassery prepares a document with tips on how to run a “kick ass event” and says “with moderation or facilitation, comes great responsibility.”
Dreamers & Doers - we have three distinct Facebook groups which are heavily moderated, something that sets Dreamers apart from other Facebook groups. It’s awesome to see when members are moderating for themselves and tagging other members. “There is a lot of groundwork that goes into making it feel informal.” Every now and then a member will push back and thats why important to stick with moderation guidelines. Create habits and people mimic those. We try to be as thoughtful as we can.
Next on ClubhouseFollow me on Clubhouse at mirayab to join future conversations about building community and virtual events. Want to host a discussion together? Email me at miraya@mixily.com and let’s get one scheduled on the Bulletin!