The Squandered Whatsapp Community Buildup

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I love to be part of online communities that also meet in the physical world on a regular basis. I enjoyed tuttle meetups, seesmeetups and more. I also really enjoyed when running and cycling groups have whatsapp channels where we can chat. The reason for this is simple.

There are five to ten running groups in Nyon, and several dozen between Morges, Rolle, Geneva, Nyon and Lausanne, without excluding Divonne and other places.

Running groups have three means by which to be visible. The first is to have regular runs where people can meet and become part of a community. The second is to have branding via t-shirts and more. The third, and cheapest is an active Whatsapp community.

In my experience every group has a whatsapp group. This means that the more active a chat is, the higher it remains in the timeline of groups. If a group is silent, then it gets lower and lower in the timeline. If the community is tight-knit, and close, then the chat is alive and dynamic, remaining within a scroll or two from the top.

That visibility is great for two reasons. The first is that if you’re in a quiet moment, and you see that running, or cycling chat, you propose a run, or cycle, and people join.

If the chat is dedicated to answer “When” and “Where” something is taking place, that was decided behing the scenes, then it is competing with three or four events taking place either on the same day or within a day. Most people do not go for social runs six days in a row. They join one group, see how it goes, and then rest. They then look for the next event.

The group that has more participants, that is more vibrant, that is more engaging will win. The one that is “When, Where” will fade into the background.

I already missed two runs with one group because their Whatsapp chat is a hostile environment, and a second community has the same problem.

For clarity, every group, since lockdown, and sometimes even before, is seen as a bulletin board for pre-decided events, rather than a chat room.

I believe that data analysts, and community members, that do not want chatter shouldn’t be using Whatsapp in the first place. People say “I don’t like Strava because of the competitiveness and other reasons. I don’t like Whatsapp because it is owned by Facebook, and the community that was once tight-knit has been shredded, as if a cat had been locked up with a quilt for too many hours, madly trying to get out.

For me, as long as chatter within a running group is about running, or cycling, it should be allowed, because a community is stronger when people meet within the context of unofficial events, as well as official events.

Someone sent a poll, and people said that they didn’t like a verbose chat. It is a mistake to listen to those people, because a verbose chat is an engaged community, and if those that are not engaged, either in person, or online, want a quieter chat, then they have no say, because they are not an active part of the community. They are lurkers. Lurkers should not affect social dynamics until they are part of the active community.

For me, if an activity is posted to Strava, then that’s enough, I don’t need to see it in a Whatsapp message.

In my eyes, when you have an active online community, that cycles, runs, hikes or does other things in person, then you have a great opportunity to allow the community to become more and more active in person.

When a community is silent, and there are events once per week, then once per week it is visible, and possibly for a few seconds. If a chat is vibrant, and the community establishes a tight bond, then it grows, especially if people are encouraged to do informal activities, as well as official ones.

And finally, I was actively looking at the logistics for a group run from Morat to Fribourg and I was going to suggest it to a community, until the chat was locked down. Once it was locked down my sense of community, and engagement faded.

I was enjoying chatting to several groups, until each one, in turn shut the chat door. Now, once again I am stuck waiting for another run or ride. In essence, if your market research says that a whatsapp chat is too chatty, find new marketers. Whatsapp was designed for people to chat. It was never meant to be an event board. We have Strava, Facebook events and Meetup for that. Of course Meetup requires real money.

To me a quiet chat is a dead chat, and a chat where we can only see “Event a at this time at that location, doesn’t require a Whatsapp group.