The pandemic era underscored the importance of togetherness, even as we were kept apart, emphasizing how essential community is to our well-being and productivity. Coworking spaces, with their unique blend of professional and social environments, emerge as beacons of community in a time when traditional office settings and remote work have left many craving interaction and collaboration.
As a proprietor of such a space, you wield the incredible capability to encourage a supportive community, transforming your coworking space into more than just a place to work—it becomes a place where connections are made, ideas flourish, and people genuinely feel they belong.
Drawing from a rich tapestry of experiences across multiple coworking communities and informed by insights from seasoned community builders, this article explores diverse strategies to cultivate a community within your coworking space. Whether you’re an experienced operator or new to the scene, the exploration of community-building practices aims to enhance the member experience, ensuring your coworking space meets the professional needs of its occupants and nurtures the social and collaborative spirit at the heart of the coworking philosophy.
What Does Community Look Like In A Coworking Space?
A community in a coworking space, it’s where the magic of serendipitous encounters meets the comfort of familiarity, encouraging an environment where every member feels valued and understood.
In essence, community within a coworking space manifests through various dimensions:
- Diverse Networking Opportunities: Coworking spaces are melting pots of professionals from varying backgrounds. Offering structured networking events, skill-sharing sessions, and industry-specific panels that encourage members to explore new partnerships and broaden their horizons.
- Collaborative Culture: The heart of a coworking community lies in its culture of collaboration. It’s in the brainstorming sessions in communal areas, the joint projects in meeting rooms, and the informal discussions over coffee that the community’s foundation is built.
- Supportive Environment: A community thrives on mutual support. This could look like mentorship programs pairing seasoned professionals with newcomers, feedback circles for startups, or even wellness initiatives addressing the work-life balance.
- Inclusivity and Accessibility: True community is inclusive, making every member feel welcome regardless of their professional stage, industry, or background.
- Shared Values and Goals: The strongest communities are those bound by shared values and goals. Whether it’s innovation, sustainability, social impact, or lifelong learning.
- Engagement Beyond Work: Community-building extends beyond professional networking and collaboration; it encompasses social engagements, celebrations, and shared experiences.
Creating a strong community within a coworking space is an ongoing journey of creating connections, facilitating engagement, and nurturing a culture where every member can thrive. As coworking spaces evolve, so too does the concept of community, constantly adapting to meet the changing needs and aspirations of its members.
Building a Strong Community in Your Coworking Space: Key Benefits
Creating a community within your coworking space is not just about providing a place to work; it’s about loyalty, building trust, and differentiating your space from competitors.
Loyalty through Connection: A vibrant community in your coworking space encourages members to form meaningful relationships, making your space more than just a workplace. When members feel a strong sense of belonging, they are less likely to leave for another space, even if it offers lower prices.
Standing Out from Competitors: In a market where clients have numerous options, the community can be your unique selling point. Without a strong community, members may see no reason to stay if they find a cheaper alternative.
Trust and Reliability: The isolation resulting from remote work has left many yearning for connection. By providing a space where individuals can work alongside others and forge new connections, you position your coworking space as a beacon of trust and reliability.
At its core, building a community in your coworking space is about more than just business benefits; it’s about making a positive impact on your members’ professional and personal lives. By prioritizing your clients and their needs, you create a space that stands out not just for its facilities, but for the difference it makes in the lives of those who use it.
In addition, investing in the community aspect of your coworking space is a powerful strategy to enhance member loyalty, differentiate from competitors, build trust, and make a meaningful impact.
Cultivating a Strong Community in Your Coworking Space
Now that we’ve established that community is important in your coworking space, we will look at the different ways you can build a community in your space. Below we’ve written a few important options that can help you achieve this. Remember to analyze your space, budget, and abilities when you decide how you want to proceed.
Option 1: Develop your coworking space mission statement.
Before working to build a community, the first option is to come up with a mission statement for your coworking space. What this will do is help you think about where you want your business to go and what your main priorities are.
When writing your statement think about your values and your customers. How would you like your customers to feel or be treated? Is there a specific aspect that made you want to start a coworking space?
Tip: Create a Mind Map of all your ideas, values, stories, and other things that inspire you. This will help give you a better idea of what your mission statement will look like.
Consider writing a mission statement that involves a sense of community in your coworking space. After the mission statement is written, you can base your business decisions on it, including building a community for your clients.
Share that mission statement with your clientele and team and establish the values you have, so that they will come into your space with the expectations and initiative to build connections.
Option 2: Create opportunities for members of your coworking space to feel like they belong
The power you have as an owner means that you are able to take initiative and organize different events to cultivate community.
By having exclusive member events, your clients will be able to network with each other and make friendships along the way. It’s also a great incentive for new clients who are looking for perks and community.
Here is a list of some events you can host in your coworking space for your members:
Your role as a coworking space owner to actively cultivate community through a variety of exclusive events designed to foster connections among members.
Consider implementing:
- Weekly Breakfast Gatherings: A regular, complimentary breakfast can serve as a communal touchpoint for members to socialize and start their day on a positive note.
- Game Nights: Introduce board game evenings to break the ice among members, encouraging both fun and networking in an informal setting.
- Happy Hours: Periodic happy hours provide a relaxed atmosphere for members to unwind and bond over shared experiences.
- Creative Workshops: Host crafting sessions to the creative instincts of your members, offering a unique avenue for interaction and self-expression.
The goal of these events is not just to entertain but to create an environment where meaningful relationships can flourish.
Option 3: Have your community manager get involved
One of the community manager’s priorities is to help your clients become part of the community in your coworking space. They serve as a friendly face that your customers know and trust. They will be the ones who your customers will go to for their needs. If your clients see your community manager socializing it’ll only encourage them to do so too with each other, so have them take the first step.
One great way for your community manager to help build community is to get to know each customer and company in your coworking space and their needs. After they feel like they know everyone, have your community manager connect your customers with each other.
This will serve as networking, but your community manager will be the one facilitating everything. If they notice that one company has something in common with another company using your space (or individuals), then that is a great reason for the manager to connect them with each other. This will create a group spirit between your clients despite them not actually working together.
Taking care of your coworking space community
Now that you have found ways to create a community in your space, it’s time to think about nurturing it and continuing to grow it. Sometimes some events may not have a huge turnout, but the more regular you are with them the more people will attend. It’s important to not get discouraged if something doesn’t go as planned, and keep your mission statement in mind. Be consistent in what you do and remind yourself that good things take time, especially building a sense of community.
With that said, it is important to keep track of your community-building efforts, and maintain them so that you can truly nurture a sense of belonging in your coworking space.
Put your community manager to use again
To maintain your community, you have to involve your members and their opinions. Your community manager is the one for this job. They will go around and survey your customers on how they think the community building is going. It might be tempting to skip this but remember that you may see things very differently than your customers, and until you ask them and put yourself in their shoes you have no way of knowing how it’s really going.
Have your community manager take surveys or just ask around about how everything is going. Based on the answers you will be able to see what’s working and what isn’t and adjust accordingly.
Take it to social media
The power of social media is strong in today’s world, so you might as well use that to your advantage. One great way to show your current and prospective clients that you value community is to have real testimonials from your clients.
Consider setting up an Instagram account that is dedicated to testimonials about your coworking space. Have your community manager find members who are interested in sharing their experiences and write a post on them. Bonus points if you can find someone with a great community-based story that happened in your coworking space.
This practice will show everyone how great your space is for community building and will encourage others to have similar experiences.
Another thing you can do with social media is share events that you are hosting to remind members and prospective members of what’s coming up.
Tip: Try to make your posts visually appealing so that it catches people’s eyes. Use Canva to create a nice design for your event that will stand out.
How Archie Can Help You With Your Community Building
Something to remember is that it may be difficult to facilitate all the community building by yourself. Keeping track of everything and everyone is also going to be hard, not to mention trying to promote events through outside parties will also be exhausting. If you feel that all the community-building efforts are too much to handle, we’ve got the solution for you.
Archie, a leading coworking space software, can help you through all your community-building needs. Archie, a multipurpose app, will not only allow your clients to book rooms, desks, and even plans right on the app, but it also contains a Network section that is specifically designated to have community features. These features include an Events page, a News Feed page, and a Network page, all for your clients to enjoy in an easy-to-navigate system.
The Events Page will be a hub for all the events you create. This is where you will post and promote any events that you are hosting. Members of your coworking space will be to RSVP and book (if the event is paid) right on the app. This will spare you the tedious process of promoting events and setting up payments on various different platforms.
The News Feed section will act kind of like a Facebook newsfeed that is entirely for your space. Here, your members will be able to communicate with each other. In a world full of social media presence, this will be a great way for your members to socialize together.
The Network section will be filled with all your members’ profiles. This way everyone can get to know each other conveniently and with ease.
Archie is a great tool that you can use to your advantage when it comes to community building.
Conclusion
Community is important for your coworking space. Investing in good community-building practices can lead to great outcomes in the long run. Remember to do what suits your needs best, and focus on giving your customers a great experience that ends with meaningful connections.
