The Seasonality of Community

Navigating the ebbs and flows during a long hot summer.

As we transition to summer, here in Brooklyn things are feeling a little slower and lighter. The baby ducks, swans and birds have hatched, the spring flowers have given way to many shades of greenery and the sunset is happening closer and closer to bedtime.

Noticing both the subtle and big differences in the seasons has been a gift from pandemic living. It’s hard to believe I was too preoccupied to notice some of these big changes to my environment in the before times!

Communities, regardless of weather, are also very seasonal. Just as in nature, personal growth and change happens in cycles. I’ve noticed I go through phases, sometimes regardless of the time of year, when I’m more open to connection and learning. And other times when I spend much more time integrating and building. You may have noticed member participation often naturally happens in these cycles of deep engagement and then breaks.

Paying attention to those changes in yourself and in your members, will help you stay at your best and able to support members at both different times of the year and at different points in their journey.

If you are building a community with members mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, you’re about to enter (or have already entered) a collective quiet period.

Summer tends to be a time when people are busy. Kids are off from school, vacations are planned, there are more picnics, concerts, camping trips, beach trips and other reasons for members to be happy outside. People tend to have less time for online classes, connecting with new people and joining online events.

Research also suggests that warmer weather increases happiness, and lowers our motivation, our energy and our ability to think critically. (It’s not just you!)

So for many reasons, online communities are A LOT quieter in July and August.

As community leaders, what should we do in these quieter months?

1. Know that this is true across most communities.
   Every year I know attendance will drop in the events and communities I lead, but it doesn’t fail to have me think “oh no, is this all over!?” It’s not! Your members will return and be more ready to engage in September.

2. Pause on the usual schedule.
   Knowing that there will be less activity in the community, you may want to scale back what you offer for July and August. You might consider hosting less events, pausing on welcoming new members, or posting less prompts.

3. Be transparent with your members.
   Not all your members will be tanning on boats this summer. The ones who stay may be disappointed and confused if they all of a sudden find themselves the only ones at the party. Let everyone know in advance what they can expect and guide them in planning their participation in the community accordingly.

4. Launch a summer-specific program.
   There’s no way around summer being a slower time. But you can embrace that!
   I tend to think of summer as a time for fun experimentation in community.
   
   Maybe there are community programs you want to try with a smaller group first before bringing it to the full community. Or you see an opportunity to go deeper with the members who are still around. If you’re intentional and keep your member journey in mind, summer can be a great time to deepen key relationships and test new things.

5. Use this time to plan for fall!
   Unlike the summer, September and October are a very busy time for most communities. Your existing and future members will be super ready to connect and learn in community with others.
   
   So the slow summer days are a perfect time to plan a launch, relaunch or membership push. Or build a new operations system, a big event or new community experience. Any larger projects that are hard to do when there’s too much going on (and maybe don’t require you to be at your very sharpest 🙃) may be good to tackle.

Remember, there are different reasons your member participation may be seasonal and everything above may not apply to the unique community you’re building.

If you’re not sure where to go during these slower months, your community probably has your answer.

That’s what I realized with BACB. Since we are a community for community builders, the summer is when many members need more support as we plan for a busy fall. We are taking our own advice and launching a summer-specific program for members called Launch Pod to be a companion as we put the pieces together for September and October. Because I know we’ll all be busier outdoors and moving a little slower, we are incorporating the summer vibes into how it’s structured. It's not an intense, bootcamp situation that requires all our members' time. There are opportunities to join asynchronously and participate however feels comfortable.

We can build better communities if we pay attention to the way seasons may effect our members’ journeys. And, we can listen to our own community’s unique seasonality and find ways to thoughtfully meet members’ needs.

I asked about this on Twitter and got many other great responses from community builders in this thread.

We are entering into a VERY QUIET couple of months in online communities... at least ones with lots of members in the Northern Hemisphere.

I'm writing about embracing the seasonality of community, especially during slower times. Any ideas?

— Tatiana Figueiredo ✨ (@tatfig) June 14, 2022

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How are you planning on spending summer in your community?

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