Building a community is a huge task, for any institution! There is no 100%, success-guaranteed formula. There will always be some guess and check. But for a non-profit, community building is especially tricky. Engagement isn’t just about passive actions; the real engagement is found in eliciting community oriented activities like signing up for a program, and interacting with other community members. So how do you make that happen?
We’ve seen our clients have success with their communities by implementing a few easy strategies.
Deepen Connections
Connect with them in real time. Personal connection is a necessity for forming a true bond with your community, and technology makes it easier than ever to get quality face time with your members. Dream See Do makes it easy to video chat with your community instantaneously; no pre-recorded messages or canned responses. Talk to them, and encourage them to talk with each other.
Pull back the curtain
In order for your community to feel emotionally connected and engaged with your work, a certain level of transparency will help foster that connection. Share the milestones, the breaking news, and even the struggles that happen behind the scene. Elicit their feedback, their ideas, and even their critiques. Feeling a personal bond to the work and the people doing it will keep them more engaged than passive,one-directional content.
Share the humanity behind the work
On Dream See Do, you can share the unique stories of the people doing the work in your organization with your community. And better, yet, you can have them reciprocate that bond by inviting them to share theirs. With the Narrative Path, each person can share pivotal life moments, dreams, influential books and Aha! Moments. Important times in life that informed their life decisions and growth as human beings. This helps people feel connected to one another, to you and to your shared mission. We see the power of this everyday.
Give them (a little) power.
Giving community members jobs and responsibilities within the community raises the stakes. It takes them from observer to active participant. They are now a vital part of the work you are doing, and they will feel a greater sense of connection and engagement with you and your work. One of the functionalities of The Dream See Do platform is that it gives you the option to assign community members as “supporter” or to be put in teams that allow them to connect, give feedback and amplify your mission driven work. If you do some type of training or community building exercises, this is a fantastic way to multiply your impact and galvanize your community’s participation in your mission.
If you want your community to be truly engaged, they need to have a little skin in the game. Let them share in the joys, the struggles, and even some of the work. Feeling like a part of the process and the cause that they are obviously passionate about will help change them from an observer to an engaged and enthusiastic community member.
Learn more about how to optimize your community engagement and scale your work online. Sign up today for a discovery video chat with our team, to review your program goals and needs.
Our team can help you create and cultivate the most dynamic virtual and blended learning experiences, with strong engagement and outcomes!
