What does it mean to create a community or a sense of community? First, let’s start with what is a community?
com·mu·ni·ty
- a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
- a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
Commonality is the thread that holds a community together. The more commonalities shared, the stronger the sense of community is.
What’s so interesting about a community is that it can be linked by such a wide variety of things. They can be physical like where you live, your physical attributes, where you work. Or they can be completely abstract, like fandoms of tv shows or even a certain type of shoes.
The foundation of commonality in communities means they grow in the same way online or offline-by focusing on what they already share and creating more shared experiences.
On social media, shared experiences can be live-streams, watch parties, live-chats and even promoting events.
Sharing stories is at the heart of focusing on what we all have in common. Nothing unites us, inspires us and helps us to remember like a story does.
So if you want to foster a sense of community for your organization, look at what your audience has in common and share a story about it.
