Building an online community is like building a gingerbread village
By Alexandra Reid
Some people have called me the Grinch because I wait until December before I start getting all Christmassy. I don’t buy a tree, string lights, buy presents, play Christmas music, eat pumpkin pie or drink eggnog until the 12th month dawns. I’m sorry if I sound like a downer, but Christmas decorations look depressing when they droop outside in November rain and hearing songs like, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” and, “Have a holly jolly Christmas,” playing in shopping malls as early as September drives me crazy. (It’s a short drive, I know). I’m not saying that I don’t like Christmas. In fact, I love Christmas. I just think that everything has its time and place and getting fanatic about our biggest holiday before its time has come dilutes its marvel and meaning. It’s curious how the one-day Christian holiday and the gathering of friends and family became an excuse to produce lame Christmas albums and go on three-month-long shopping marathons.
However, my Grinchy heart grew three sizes yesterday as December 1 chimed in the time to be festive and trumpet my Christmas spirit. I’m an arts and crafts nut with an assiduous sweet tooth so my beau suggested we build a gingerbread village as a merry display for our dining room table. We ate candy and built, licked icing glue from our fingers and designed for hours, until we created the vision you see alongside.
Naturally, the creative process of building this gingerbread village got my mind churning. I thought to myself time and time again, “Wow, building this gingerbread village is so similar to building an online community!” Here’s why:
Patience and practice equal perfection
As I said, this gingerbread village took us hours to create. We considered what candy would be used for the rooftops, skating rink, pathway and ground; where they would go and in what combination. Each piece had to be held in place for a number of minutes to dry.
Building an online community through social media takes a lot more time than just a few minutes. It can take months and even years. You have to put a lot of thought and consideration into each person with whom you connect, how you will engage them and how you will strengthen your relationship to them. This process is ongoing, and so requires a great deal of patience. Connections can grow slowly when you are new to social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn, but if you put in the time and social effort, you will grow a good community. The key is to never give up.
Real is always better
We used dark and white chocolate almond bark from a local chocolatier to build the pathway and rock gardens. All the candy was selected to be as fresh as possible. Sadly, we didn’t have the resources at hand to bake our own gingerbread, but it’s something I hope to do next year, because real is always better.
It is important to remember this while you build your communities. Discover your own voice and be loyal to it to show others that you are a real human being. People are naturally attracted to others who are genuinely interested in the conversation so be personable and express real life experiences and opinions that bring value to the subject matter.
The best bring together a mixed bag of colourful and fun flavours
We used 14 different kinds of candy to bring this gingerbread village to life, including liquorish, gummies, multicoloured and multiflavoured chewy and rock candies, crystallized white, red and green sugar, and dark and white chocolate. Yum!
When socializing in online networks, always keep an open mind and open invitation to people with various perspectives, opinions and backgrounds in order to grow a dynamic community. Diverse voices drive great conversations as they can offer perspectives others may never have considered otherwise. As in any social situation, you are bound to cross paths with a bad apple. While criticism is vital for personal and professional growth, harsh language and personal attacks should never be tolerated. Keep your community clean and fun by packing it with constructive people.
They are both gifts to be shared
I’d likely end up very ill or in hospital if I tried to eat this whole gingerbread village alone, so I plan to share it with company later in the month.
In social media, you will be most successful if you share intelligence, advice and experiences with others in a reciprocal manner. Talking solely about yourself is not social. Instead, ask others their opinions on certain issues to drive discussions. Acknowledge others when they have accomplished something and share information about happenings in your marketplace or in your community. You will have a much easier time growing your community when others see that you are sharing the space.
Those are my observations. Do you have any other ideas, or perhaps gingerbread tales of your own?
Grinch photo from: The Invisible Seductress
