Transformations Communities Need to be Adopting in 2023

Sense and Forum
5 min readJan 4, 2023

By Serena G, Founder of Sense and Forum. Community manager, creator and friend.

Community is important. We get that. Amidst a post-Covid crisis, building, growing and engaging with our communities is crucial to creating connections for ourselves and others. But we don’t talk enough about the sense of community.

Community is everything. It brings diversity, enables relevant and important conversation and growth to the table, so it’s vital you get it right. But what makes an outstanding community?

The true sense of a community is difficult to accomplish. Belonging, listening, trusting, nurturing and supporting people is an art form, but once you get it right, the benefits come thick and fast! So what actions should businesses be taking to form and transform these communities in 2023?

Diversity and Inclusion — The need to truly create diverse and inclusive communities.

Diversity and Inclusion is an important topic that has been on the agenda and discussed in many spaces over the last few years. In 2022, Druthers Search wrote that ethnic minority employees hold only 1 in 16 top management positions in the UK, that the unemployment rate for autistic adults is 78% and it’s 2x more likely for Transgender adults to be unemployed in comparison to cisgender adults.

But where do we start to get these stats fairer? Addressing the gaps that are present in many different communities is a good starting point. As a Community Leader simply asking what your community needs will encourage the conversation and fill in these much-needed gaps. Being genuinely inquisitive with your questions and not speaking on their behalf will allow people to tell their own stories and experiences.

From here, it’s time to take meaningful action. Make those visual changes. Remember to create guidelines and boundaries that protect all members of the community. Here are some easy-to-apply guidelines and changes you can start to make today.

1. Provide descriptive image captions for your images, audio versions and/or video recordings with captions of your content, blog post or newsletters. ⁠Also, CamelCase hashtags add a capital letter for each word. #DiversityAndInclusion

2. Use imagery and create content that includes minority groups. Avoid stock images and invest in professional photography to capture a true representation of your community. ⁠

⁠3. Highlight your pronouns and allow and encourage others to share theirs. ⁠⁠

4. Use inclusive and straightforward language. Use English in its simplest form, avoid acronyms and keep the text short.

5. Learn the correct terms for minority groups (LGBTQIA+) and understand the difference between race and ethnicity groups. Ask if you don’t know. ⁠

6. For online workshops and events, ask for people’s accessibility needs and create safe spaces. Explain the format so people can anticipate the level of energy they need to show up. Allow for a blackout room for those who don’t wish to participate.

A safe space = room for honesty and change.

The importance of listening and engaging with your community.

You need to listen and engage in order to build greater trust in your community. And we mean really listen. Providing not only a listening ear but attending with a commitment to respond, process and create connections is crucial. The conversation shouldn’t end once you part ways. Follow up. Deep dive under the surface and invite others to the conversation.

Ask more questions. “How do you feel?” “Is there anything else I can support you with?” “What actions do you need to take to achieve your goals?”, “Can I support you in this?”. Indeed lending an ear and following up can confirm a trusting sense of community.

Creating Safer Communities.

How safe does everybody in your community feel? And we mean everybody. Using specific platforms may not be inclusive to all or be a safe space for others to access information. Social media is full of flashing images, many moving parts and constant changes to navigate and content can show up without consent like sponsored or recommended content. Think about how triggering that could be for some. Stepping away from some social media platforms and implementing purpose-built and safe community apps is an authentic way to support people.

There are many apps out there where you can create safe spaces. Trust us we should know, we have done the research on over 20 apps. From free to paid, you have great options like Slack API, Geneva, Circle, Mighty Networks and Ugenie.

Communities with a cause, not a leader.

Communities should be about the people and a cause, a good community leader allows these two things to have centre stage. Community leaders need to transform their roles so they become better advocates and lobby for the community’s interests. What’s the saying?” Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much” by Helen Keller. And it’s the same in the community as it is externally.

Ask yourself, “What impact can the community have on the external world?” For example, if the community encourages conversation around how to progress women’s health; outside, it demonstrates greater change for women’s medical needs.

The power of Collaboration and Partnerships.

Making relevant collaborations and forming partnerships is the key to growing and nurturing your community. Inviting others and connecting people creates a bigger and better impact and change. Form partnerships in the interest of improving the experience of the community.

Some examples of where you can set up community partnerships include events and workshops with keynote speakers, community takeovers with an expert or monthly spotlights and accountability sessions highlighting your very own community members. You can think outside the box for this one and the community members will love you for the opportunity.

Work Smarter, Not Harder.

Don’t get us wrong. We know you can’t beat human-to-human interaction when it comes to generating authentic, meaningful relationships. However being smart about it is, well — smart!

Automating processes in your community will establish consistency. Using tools like Burb, Airtable and taking advantage of scheduling software will be a huge time saver. The great thing about purpose build apps is they also have inbuilt scheduling software that can save you time and money. For example, Circle has an inbuilt scheduling tool and Mighty Networks allows you to implement a slick onboarding sequence .

Artificial Intelligence (AI) could never replace people interaction but it will support community managers in running more efficient community operations. AI technology like Copy.ai and ChatGPT, as mentioned by Guild, have been developed to ease the pressure of writer’s block. Using a Copywriting bot will support you with creating content and emails, writing blogs and more. Implementing an onboarding process will make sure everybody’s welcome into the community is the same. Consistency is key and builds trust.

So there you have it. Some ways to revolutionise your communities. Let’s transform the way we create a sense of togetherness when approaching ways to build our community. It’s most important now than ever before, as we move into 2023 to ensure our offering is an inclusive, diverse, safe, collaborative and smarter one.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to create a sense of community, contact us serena@senseandforum.com

Originally published at https://www.senseandforum.com on December 21, 2023.

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Sense and Forum

No nonsense community management for human-centred brands. A marketing and events studio for businesses who want to maximise their community.