Coworking space gives a lot of similar-minded people who work in different backgrounds with the same target of achieving their goals by putting in their maximum efficiency.
The amenities, the facilities you get from co-working space are all there, but still, the cooperation and community vibe that one gets among the freelancers, digital nomads, corporates, etc make it the best experience for anyone.
Building a community culture within the co-working space is required to encourage and support each other and their enterprises. It is also required to share the resources and to acquire the best talent from the pool.
Networking is yet another important factor that anyone gets through co-working communities. You, when being a part of a coworking space in Chandigarh can get to know more people from other parts of the world as well as get to know other news in the co-working business all around the world.
Community building can be done through a wide variety of methods both online and offline. While the present condition of lockdown and critical shutdown happening nationwide, we must continue the community culture on online space covering up for the offline events that could have been done.
Here are a few methods that can be used to develop an online co-working space community
a). Accountability Groups
These can be the online groups, (it can be on Facebook) where people can post their updates and the works they are concentrating on right now.
Having a Facebook group or a Linkedin Community other than your official page will help people share their milestones there, adding extra glory to your co-working space and an encouragement to all the members.
This will help the co-working users to be self-motivated and also help other people to accomplish the work they are accountable for.
When the coworking space in Nagpur came forward with the idea, people never thought that accountability groups can make a huge impact on the workers.
These groups also have helped people share the resources and to put forward their opinion on certain topics they think they have expertise in.
b). Join groups of other co-working spaces
Do not confine yourselves with your co-working space and your members.
There are forums and communities where open discussions take place about the latest trends and movements in the coworking spaces.
National and international community groups are present today that discuss anything and everything.
c). Conduct weekly webinars
Take a common poll among the members to know which topic you need to discuss each weekend.
This can be a technical topic that the majority wants a lesson on. Many startups or freelancers would want a common topic in general.
Some of the hardcore developers who run a business might not know much about the perspectives fo implementing SEO and getting high marketing leads. This might be a common problem among developers.
Common webinars that cover essential topics like these can be conducted which will be helpful for the member and will also help improve the skill set of users.
d). Welcome the new members to your group
As you have enough social networking platforms active, celebrate each of your new clients.
Introduce each of the new clients by posting on social media and letting them introduce themselves too. This would make an included feel for the newcomers too and the old members would not feel hesitant to mingle with the newcomers.
e). Co-working Google group
Co-working google group is a place where coworking space owners join and get to know the latest news in the industry.
They get advice from the pioneers and experts of the field and get to know what it is like to take collective decisions for the coworking industry and work for the same.
There are other likely communities that a co-working space owner or a user can join to make the best use out of it.
1. Co-working Leadership Slack
2. Co-working Content Alliance
3. Women Who Co-work Facebook Group
4. Co-working Worldwide Facebook Group
5. Co-working Wiki
6. Co-working Visa
7. GCUC Facebook Group
These are some of the professional community groups where you can get resources and likely engagement for the queries that you have.
f). Member takeover of social media
This can be fun if you have strong followership on social media and your clients are too a sport.
Each week, let each of your clients take over your social media platform. Let them come over live sessions, post their works, and let them describe how coworking life is for them from their perspective.
This will increase a feeling of belongingness to the users with each other when they start sharing these and find connected due to the relatable facts that each client lays out.
h). Newsletters from professional experts
You can maintain a mailing list out of the clients and ask them to subscribe to the newsletters that you can get from any of the professional expertise figures.
This can be the newsletters of any one user too so that others will get to know what other companies are working on, what each one is thinking about the situation etc.
i). Conduct polls before decision making
When it comes to making decisions regarding the co-working space, no one else has a voice in it other than the people who avail of the services from these co-working spaces.
From getting to know what snack they want at the cafeteria to what IT facilities they need to prevail, all depends on the needs of the users, and hence they must be saying this.
You can conduct online polls to get ideas regarding the user’s requirements and to know what they want.
j). The anonymous mailbox
Not everything can go well in a co-working space. There can be faults for everyone, including the owners and the users.
The co-working space management can have an anonymous online message delivery system where the users can come and say about the complaints they might have regarding any of the issues in the co-working space or among the users.
The co-working space management can have online meetings to discuss and sort out each of these issues to generate a positive vibe within the community of the co-working space.
