How to Build a Thriving Community of Your Own
For those new here, first of all WELCOME! It’s incredible the amount of growth we’ve had in 2023 alone. Founded in 2019, Latinas Create has been a steady train on content—with changes from content, to colors and everything in between. However, one thing that’s remained consistent is that this is a strong tight-knit community!
There aren’t any written rules, but the unwritten ones are as follows: be kind, encourage inclusivity, cheer for and support fellow Latinas, and share joy in our successes. Things we do not stand for: bigotry, mysogony, mean, rude, or crude comments of any kind. We are always allowed to disagree, after all no one agrees with everything—but if someone makes it known this community is not for you in one of the above-listed fashions the block button is a click away.
All of that said, I know many of you are inspired and encouraged to cultivate your own communities—you are latina leaders after all! So I thought it’d be a perfect time to help you on your own community building journeys as we work to make this world the place we want to live in together.
Before we dive in on how to start your own revolution I want to quantify my experience as a community builder for you. My first introduction to the wonderful world of community building was with the Dallas Stars Hockey Club. I interned with them from 2006-2008 while in college and it was amazing, as well as unpaid. I was fortunate to have the ability to do this and definitely understand that most community building comes from a place of privilege. Although you may be in a job that is calling for you to build a community for your brand or business and having an incentive of a paycheck is definitely a bonus, but if you don’t also have the passion you likely won’t get very far.
I went on to work for Red Bull one of the largest marketing teams in the world that is amazing at building a loyal following. One thing both brands had in common: they knew how to diversify their efforts and recognized that you have to show up and interact if you want others to follow along.
After that was a string of leadership roles from being a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers, to running my own PR & digital marketing business, to working in tech in SF for a start-up that was geared towards the blue-collar community. So you can say I’ve had some experience.
Here are my top tips and tricks to building our own communities virtually and in-person!
Be ready to be consistent. Consistency is the number one reason most people won’t build a community. You don’t need to have everything figured out, but you need to commit to showing up.
First step easy? Awesome! Now let’s talk content. When building a virtual community you need to understand their motives. What moves people to action? Singularity.
What does that mean? Don’t overwhelm your audience with how to contribute—show them who you are and why they should relate to you one talking point at a time. This allows you to see who starts engaging, and gives you that much needed moment of connection. You’d be amazed at what one post, word, or andecdote will do for bringing the community together.
Which brings us to our next point: always be engaging. If you’ve ever been a fan of something or someone then you know the feeling of receiving attention from said source. It is electric. There is power in returning the love and it is extremely important to building and maintaining a relationship with your community.
Now what if you don’t know how to find your people? I got you! The first step is knowing who and what your brand is, and then you can decide where to shine your light.
In the case of social media, think of 3-5 brands that you want to emulate or that are similar to you. Choose ones that are local to your target area(s) and engage with their communities. If you’re going global, the same theory applies. The trick here is to find communities large and small so as to up your chances to get engagement back.
*Bonus tip: keep your following to followers count balanced, try not to follow a significant amount more people than follow you—be patient with the process and foster the relationships you do have! OR run paid ads and target the audience you want to reach to try and accelerate that growth.
Now that we have the basics of virtual community building down, let’s talk long-term: this is when in-person communities come into play.
For the OGs, you’d know that this community was built largely during the pandemic. With that came the opportunity to reach people who were constantly behind their phones, but as the world comes back out of the shadows folks are ready to meet in-person! This is something that many of us have already been engaging in, but for Latinas Create we are just getting started. So how do I plan to keep going? I’ll tell you!
Just as with the first point of community building, committing to showing up is key. With our largest markets of LA, NY, and Texas I’ll be hitting the road to visit a city near you. First up: LA! By the time this is posted I’ll be sitting in the Google offices, courtesy of a friend-pass, posting away. If you’re in LA shoot me an email steph@latinascreate.org and let’s connect while I’m here!
Now what happens when you’re in-person? Prepare to get vulnerable. You don’t need to share all your life secrets, but community is about common-unity. What do you have in common that you can connect about and in what ways can you support in return?
Of course just like with any meet-up, there are ways to accelerate connection with ice-breaking and get-to-know you activities as well.
Meeting in-person is also an excellent way to gather your communities information if you don’t already have it! For example, the Dallas Stars would use giveaways as a means to gather sales leads. You could also gather information on what our community wants to see more of.
Whatever your amo, you don’t need to do the most to make people happy being together is what it’s all about.
I hope these tips help you on our own community building journeys and at the very least I hope you all think about taking on a leadership role that brings you closer to your people—thanks for reading, see you here again tomorrow!
