Community Culture

Community culture encapsulates the everything that makes the community whole - goals, vision, celebrations, events, rewards, recognitions, beliefs, rituals, and presence. A culture is what separates a community from the rest of the crowd. It gives an identity to the community and the people who are involved in it.

Communities are bound by culture. Even in society there’s always something that’s unique to you and how you interact with the people around it. Religion, food, history, language - one thing or another differentiates us from the rest of the world and it’s also the reason why we stick to those traditions.

How can you define community culture?

Communities are built around a common theme, but culture is what binds the people together. It gives people a reason to stick around, or keep coming back because your community has a culture that no other community has. But, in all honesty, community culture cannot be defined but only cultivated. Here’s a few things you can keep in mind when you do so -

• Nudge your audience to have conversations that serve the purpose of having that community in the first place. But before you do that, make sure you define your community’s purpose.
• Introduce rituals that are unique to your community. Something even as simple as reacting with a certain emoji is a form of cultivating a culture. For example - We at Threado have the Samosa (an Indian Snack) emoji that represents gratitude. So, whenever we want to show gratitude to another member, we react with a Samosa emoji.
• Do the same things differently. Some things in community are common, like events and meetups, but it doesn’t have to be done in the same way that they are traditionally done. You can add your flavor to it. For example - Dovetail offers KitKat days or KitKat afternoons where employees can take an extra paid day off or an afternoon off away from the noise of Slack DMs and Zoom meetings. It’s one of the things that makes them unique.
• Gamification, rewards, and recognition. Set up badges and leaderboards for your community to create a reason for engagement. Organize contests and give out rewards or swag. This is a great way to separate yourself from the crowd.

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