Hold up! Let's talk about the 'comms' in 'community'
How can community-building increase your social impact?
Dear members and friends of The Channels Network,
Happy new year! Is it too late to keep saying that? Or are you still starting your emails with the same three words? If you are, you probably understand the need to constantly engage with those you communicate with.
2023 has started with a bang: with Chat GPT taking over the internet, LinkedIn & TikTok taking over the creator economy, and social impact communicators navigating these changes like a pro!
In this month’s newsletter, Gabriella and I discuss how community building is essential to your communications strategy and how you can create deeper social impact through meaningful engagements.
If you’re working on community building and outreach, email us at thechannelsnetwork@gmail.com or DM me on LinkedIn and let’s talk about how our platform can help you amplify your cause!
Here’s to taking over communities.
Digitally Impacting your emails,
—Tanya K
Introducing: Community Building in Social Impact
As social impact communicators, we are always trying to come up with new ideas to advocate change and engage our audience. But how can we achieve this in a world where information is jumping for attention in front of us, at every second?!
Working in the impact space, we know how important it is to humanise narratives and take in consideration every stakeholder’s needs. This allows us to reach our target audience and advocate change more strategically and sustainably. That’s why we’re here to put the ‘comms’ in ‘community’.
Community building is important in social impact communications because it creates a shared sense of purpose and a common understanding of the issue at hand among members of a specific group or community. This can lead to more effective communication and engagement, as well as increased support for the cause or issue. Additionally, building a community can lead to the empowerment of individuals and the creation of leaders within the group, who can then take on roles in advocating for and promoting the cause.
Community-building is an activity which is directed towards creating and maintaining a network of individuals/entities that share a common interest—and when you look at it from a #SocialImpactComms perspective, it’s with the conscious effort of creating impact.
Why is community so powerful when it comes to social impact? Building and engaging in online communities allows people to connect and collaborate on issues they are passionate about. Communities can provide a platform for sharing information, resources, and strategies for making a positive impact. They can also serve as a way to mobilize people to take action and advocate for change. Additionally, online communities can amplify underrepresented voices and bring attention to important social issues that may not have been widely recognized or addressed.
How does this work in the social impact space?
Let’s say you are working towards providing equitable healthcare in a local region, your community-building strategy can include interacting with local clinics and organising events/stakeholder workshops that advocate your cause and suggestions to build cross-functional relationships with local entities.
There are many ways to foster community with small steps. Here are some examples:
Listen, listen, listen: Before you create a community, map out your stakeholders: where are they spending their time? how often do they use a platform? when do they use it? what are they talking about? who are THEY? How can you listen to them better? What messages do they need to share? How can YOU help? Do they need your help? This exercise can help you create targeted, niched-down community communication and save time and energy rather than just shouting into the void. Like with communications, communities are built around listening.
Create dialogue where there was none: Something we hear all the time (that it’s almost become a buzz-phrase itself) is “the need for more interdisciplinary dialogue…” or some variation of that. Communities can be a great way to do that! Imagine building a community where innovators, researchers, and communicators can come together to discuss the most pressing issues of their field from different perspectives! Consider setting up a Slack for different multidisciplinary practitioners in your field, or build your own external newsletter or list-serve where you curate multidisciplinary resources. Who knows what kind of social innovation can come from more dialogue?
External/internal stakeholder workshops and events: If you are working on a project with more than one partner, a good way to enable communication other than boring emails, excel sheets, and basic PPTs is to organize workshops in-person or virtually where you invite people within the industry and advocate about your cause/research/project recommendations. A working lunch with productive brainstorming never hurts! Plus, it can show your community that you value their time.
Pick a home for your community: Find a home for your community somewhere online that supports your community's goals. If your cause and organisation function on a large scale with a lot of different stakeholders, a good way to enable networking is by utilising a third-party platform (e.g. Mighty Networks, Tribe) where one can interact just like Facebook, LinkedIn, or another social network—but it’s all based on your design. A WhatsApp group can meet your needs if you’re a small community that primarily wants to share job openings and resources. If you want to host live events, connect people with others, and create a lot of content, then a whole suite of tech might be needed.
Listen and enable sharing: LISTENING is an underrated aspect of community building. When communicating for a cause that lifts marginalized communities, you must first listen to what your community wants and needs, and then as a communicator you can help to amplify their message. Tell their story in their words through first-person stories (with consent!) or advocate their recommendations to the public through online campaigns. If you’re doing this, then congrats, you’re already fostering a community.
The power of one: Never underestimate the power that just one person can have on their community. A community is more than just a group of people who meet up sometimes at some networking events… it’s also who you work with, who you align yourself with, who you lean on for support, and who you support in return. See an interesting job? Send it to your job-seeking friend. Met an interesting person at a conference? Connect them with a like-minded colleague and see what beautiful things come out of their meeting. Know a young, early-career person looking for advice? Ask your community to provide it. You can build community and literally change people’s lives, all on your own.
There are many different ways to foster community for social impact, which depend on your greater goals, but at the core of every social impact community is the goal to help people.
Just remember: jumping on trends (whether it’s using AI or signing up to build a massive community just because it’s a buzzword now) doesn’t always work. Community takes time and effort, so start small, experiment, and grow within the communities that already exist around you (like Channels).
💬 Still not sure how community can amplify your cause? Comment on this post with what you do and what goal you want to achieve, and we’ll reply with some ideas for you!
Want to know even more about social impact community building? Join our upcoming event with the Comms for Good podcast.
We are very excited to announce that The Channels Network is a partner of the new Comms for Good podcast, hosted by Kenza Essalama!
Together, we're hosting a podcast launch event where we'll actually be recording an episode of the podcast live—all about the power of community for social impact—and you're invited!
Join the live podcast recording to hear the first-hand experiences of The Channels Network in community building, and how social impact practitioners can use the power of community to amplify their work.
News & opportunities from Channels
Is AI coming for our jobs? Our take: AI can’t replace you (yet), but someone using AI can. Read: ChatGPT will revolutionise social impact communications by Gabriella Mikiewicz for The Channels Network.
We rounded up 40+ new opportunities in our latest #SocialImpactComms Job Board!
Hiring and want more eyes on your job/opportunity? We now have a job sponsorship package, so you can advertise your job opening or other opportunities to a highly-engaged group of top social impact communicators!
Want to share your profile with our network of 9k+ followers on LinkedIn? Fill out our member feature form here.
Channels is turning 2 years old in February! 🎂 All we want for our birthday is to reach 10K on LinkedIn… can you help us out by inviting your connections to follow as well?
Resource round-up
The Promise & Peril of Creator Tools Like ChatGPT for Nonprofits by Beth Kanter
Why We Need to Embrace AI in Communications by Vineeti Singh
Communications Trends 2023 by Tom Moylan
2023’s Top 9 Branding Trends for Nonprofits by Lauren Atherton
Tips for nonprofits on social media by Media Cause
Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2023 by Nic Newman
The landscape of global health communications: A survey by Infinity Communications
How can storytelling save the earth by Wired
A communications checklist by Vidushi Yadav
Have something to be shared here? Send an email to thechannelsnetwork@gmail.com or DM it to Tanya on LinkedIn!
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