From Face-to-Face to Online: Creating a Successful Online Community
As technology and the internet become more relevant to everyday life, it is important for us to have well-functioning online communities that match the type of relationships and value we get from face-to-face communities.
Fabian Pfortmüller (2018), discussed the importance of creating a community that focuses on going from Me to We. When focusing on “we” behavior, our communities focus on generosity, addressing conflicts, empowering others, co-creators, feeling safe, and trusting others. By doing this, we are shifting from a “me” mindset to a “we” mindset, making the focus of the group be on the group as a whole not just one person. This is something that many people recognize in a face-to-face community that can be pulled over to an online community.
When creating a community, it is also important to find something that the members have in common. Whether it be a cause, an interest, or just a similar background, by having something in common it will allow the community members to shift to that “we” behavior we mentioned previously. During the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an uptick in the amount of communities created to keep local towns and cities in touch with one another when they couldn’t physically be together. Isolation Help Bexley is an example of a successful online community that has the commonality of living in the same town and going through the same crisis. Eugene Petzer, the founder of Isolation Help Bexley, stated that the lockdown and their Facebook community has brought neighbors together like never before.
Ashley Relates (2019) also shared 5 Trinidadian Secrets to Building a Healthy Online Community where she showed the qualities of her island and it’s people and how we can use their way of life and relationships to build healthy online communities. She stated that we have to create a family, create conversation, nurture and comfort one another, and accept everyone. In my opinion, this relates directly back to “we” behavior. Locals Trinidadians focus on the group as a whole and not just the betterment of the individual. An individualistic mindset does not create a healthy community.
Eugene Petzer, co-founder I. H. B. (2020, May 9). Coronavirus: How lockdown is making us better neighbours and building new communities. Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-how-lockdown-is-making-us-better-neighbours-and-building-new-communities-11984795.
Relates, A. (2019, September 1). 5 Trinidadian secrets to building a healthy online community. Medium. https://medium.com/@ashleyrelates/5-trinidadian-secrets-to-building-a-healthy-online-community-438847435f73.
Pfortmüller, F. (2018, April 13). From me to we — the shift in behavior i see in powerful communities. Medium. https://medium.com/together-institute/from-me-to-we-the-shift-in-behavior-i-see-in-powerful-communities-cd8af635858b.
