Community has been given a new lease of life online. As soon as you hop on to a network of people you are more than just connected. Community offers a range of elements, from support to strength in numbers.
Too often people can fear the idea of a business community because they think that being active within one will mean revealing too many secrets, especially in a community that contains rival companies. From the offset this can create a strained atmosphere, a stifling of group creativity and also, cliques.
A recent example, allbeit offline, of a barista introducing a dis-loyalty card in London’s trendy (Obligatory prefix) Shoreditch, is testament to businesses uniting together for the greater good.
Like Minds is proving to be a bit of a social change movement, with a lofty aim of generating £100,000 of revenue for the City of Exeter and in doing so proving the often questioned ROI from social media. The conference will bring great benefit to more then just the attendees and in turn will make a great gesture of support to the local business community. Other conferences do nothing or simply make a token gesture of planting a tree to offset carbon emissions.
Coming together for social good is something that social media is uniquely set up for. The boundaries are reduced, the red tape of charity is snipped, and things just get done. Take the Twestival organisation, initially, a near impromptu coming together of Twitter users in a handful of cities hosting a simultaneous putting-faces-to-avatars meetup, doubling up as fun-filled fundraising event. In this its second year, it is a more coordinated affair and because of the exponential growth of smartphones and users of Twitter, it will be a more powerful force for good. Bristol’s Twestival takes place on Thursday 25 March.
I am wary that the role of social media is overplayed in circumstances. Social media is an enabler and nothing more but for charitable and community gain it can certainly get things going.
How do you work within a community and what opportunities has community presented you?
Hi James — enjoyed visiting your site. I particularly like the way you have organized your material. Chaff and Wheat — very clever. Thanks for a good read!
Kate
I am a community manager for a B2B publishing company; being so involved in so many varied communities allows me greater insight into how people engage online. It’s often scary, and the immediacy of it all keeps me on my toes, sometimes even playing catch-up, but I love the fact I can feel connected to so many professionals and the fact that geographical boundaries become meaningless!
I also love that I can connect with random folk of like minds via Twitter and have humourous coversations while I work – it brightens up the day and restores my faith in humanity.
Nice blog, James
I saw a great quote earlier from @baekdal: “Traditional companies hire marketing coordinators. Social companies hire community managers. ”
A little bit of inane drivel makes the day go by quite nicely.
If we could all just hug it out and then get down to business, be it ‘business’ business or charity business etc, that is the next step. The minute ‘social media’ gets listed as a religion on the Census is when things have gone too far.