How Community Managers Can Build Successful Coworking Communities in a Profit Driven Industry
Early on, coworking spaces came to be as one-off opportunities for creatives & entrepreneurs who couldn’t bear to work in coffee shops but wanted to work away from home and still be surrounded by others — whether linked by craft, profession, or sociopolitical ideologies. Back before there were investors pumping billions of dollars into coworking, before there were on-site baristas and beer on-tap, and definitely before there were dedicated community managers, coworking spaces were small curated communities often hand-picked by the founder looking to build a dynamic support system. With coworking turned into the billion dollar investment opportunity that is the shared office space industry, there are more of these so-called community managers on the front-lines driving sales and attracting members.
Having worked in coworking for a few years now, I think most of these “community managers” have the entirely wrong title, or at least the wrong priorities. You see, depending on where you go, community managers are more than likely the sales engines for coworking spaces. But I don’t think that’s how it should be. Community management should be about developing spaces focused on supporting the community. For the most part, that’s what I get to do. As a community manager at Alley, I help create these kinds of spaces focused on supporting the community. I help create a space for others to feel empowered, encouraged, and supported. I get to support bona fide hustlers, and in-turn, I am surrounded by people who support and encourage me. I have forged amazing relationships with members, and watched as some of them outgrew the space. But other community managers don’t have it like I do.
Community managers in the coworking industry are so often saddled with the primary role of selling space, whether that’s a desk or an office; following that maybe they’re coordinating events, which often times is to support making sales. Between those responsibilities they might respond to issues within the community, but for the most part, actual community management takes a back seat. The most important part of community within a coworking space is connection and connecting with others. Sometimes these things happen organically, but sometimes they don’t. That’s where the community managers come in: we are there to engage with our members, introduce new members to current ones, and from time-to-time, create opportunities for new connections to happen organically (read: host events). But in an industry so kept afloat by maintaining memberships and sales, it can almost feel like “community” is being forced. Recurring events become stale, people stop showing up because there’s no one new to meet, nothing new to see, and then…the “community” dies.
The dictionary defines community in a few ways,
a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common
and
a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
While both can apply to members in a coworking space, the second one bears the most fruit. It’s important to know who your members are, what they’re interested in, and what their goals are in order to help stoke the flames of fellowship and community. That is until we get to a time when being a member of a specific cowork hub comes with a level of prestige and recognition like that of a country club or social club.
I’m not saying I do it perfectly, but I like to think I do it better than most. Effective community management is all about the contact we have with our members, and their contact with each other. By focusing on connection, empathy, and genuine community, and by having a space where our members feel heard and their experiences valued, we can reduce our community churn. When we care about our members, we’re creating opportunity for them to advocate for us, to sell for us; and who better to sell something than someone who already uses it? Because that’s how word-of-mouth works, right? People use things and buy stuff because someone they know uses that thing. Not because we made it sound good.
Thankfully for most coworking spaces, there is no shortage of small businesses or entrepreneurs who need an office, or desk. You can’t swing a cat without hitting someone who has launched a start-up, and undoubtedly they need a place to work. But for those that actually seek a community to grow and connect with, you might be surprised how hard-pressed they would be to find you and your space. Those motivated by connection and community will find a place to go, and it’s likely not to be one where the community managers are reeling in new tenants. Community management is equal parts engagement, and cultivating trust, and only a smidgen of sales.
The most important part of community within a coworking space is connection and connecting with others.
I care a lot about how people feel when they’re at Alley. I care a lot about their experience and I care a lot about my relationship with them. I don’t really care about sales, profits, or metrics. Although, like most ventures, Alley is dependent on maintaining a steady or growing community, we still put a lot of attention towards the needs and interests of our communities. To build that out, and grow the community, I focus more on connecting with people and showing them how supportive it can be. I check-in with them regularly, solicit their opinions about the space, and in-turn create an ongoing dialogue with them about their experience. I think I have sold more people on membership by showing them how they would be supported and how others have been similarly supported, than by just trying to sell them on space. You can’t put a price tag on developing an inclusive, welcoming, and supportive community.
For anyone out there who’s leading the development of coworking spaces, ask yourself, what kind of community are you hoping to create? What kinds of community are you hoping will emerge? If the answer doesn’t involve ones that are connecting, supporting, and encouraging others, then you need to turn it around. We should want there to be a genuine sense of community, trust, and support within our coworking community, but you have to bake that into the organization as it develops. If we can’t bake it in as we go from the start, then we have to find strategic opportunities to turn it around in the mid-game, before profits > people.
