Here is a roundup of the content around connection, community and storytelling this week, and what caught my eye. In the crazy random events that happen in our lives, I also thought you might like this:
On Sunday a bee swarm entered my garden, and landed here on a native Australian bottlebrush tree. Many of you will appreciate the anecdote and irony about a swarm of bees picking a community builder’s actual garden 🐝🐝🐝😆.
I’ve always seen bees, hives and birds on a wire as metaphors for community, and have often used them in branding for articles so imagine my delight. But 24 hours later they were gone, and had relocated entirely to find a new home when a threatening storm came in. A reminder of the magical aspect of groups and communities as well as their transient nature to move quickly and take different shapes.
But without further ado here is what I loved this week:
Listen 🎧
My highlight listen this week the C2C Podcast repost of
EP50: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on The Power of Community
Steve talks about community as anthropology, and looking to understand what it is that’s happening at Reddit and approaching its study as an anthropologist and guiding its course. His views on online and offline communities and thoughts on what each can learn from the other are insightful.
Also worth a listen is Create Community Podcast’s interview with Shannon Farley on social impact and empowering women leaders:
How to Create a Social Movement with Shannon Farley of Fast Forward
I also loved GetTogether’s interview with Nate Nichols and Steffi Behringer, and in particular their thoughts on diverse voices and hosting engaging online events. The story of building this community is a powerful one.
Rallying allies ✊🏾 Nate Nichols and Steffi Behringer, Allyship & Action
Read 📖
My heartwarming read of the week was the Guardian’s photo essay on The swimming group making waves in western Sydney - “Water is a leveller and all our differences dissipate in the water.”
Check out Noele Flowers article about How to Use an Online Community as a Content Marketing Pipeline. There are some thoughts around content, discussions and creating collaborative opportunities.
Also check out Danielle’s thoughts on Abundant Communities which I think is relevant not just for building communities but also networks in general. Start small.
Watch 💻
I’ve not done a lot of watching this week, but Greg Cooper and I had a fascinating discussion on LinkedIn groups this week - what works, what doesn’t and some thoughts for the future of how we can improve these as users and well as how they could be improved. You can catch the replay here:
Coming up next week I’ll be chatting with Tsufit about her incredible LinkedIn Group Step into the Spotlight and how she creates connection and engaged - everything we don’t expect from a LinkedIn group. Its a pre-recorded one, and an interview I accidentally did in my pyjamas 🤫. Long story…. Stay tuned though for event details here and on LinkedIn.
Don’t forget:
If you want to join a community to chat about all this stuff and connect with other community leaders don’t forget the Community Connectors Facebook Group. All this talk about LinkedIn groups is making me want to consider it as another option for community builders, but that’s a thought for another day…
Until next week,
💙 Anna