Very few people dispute that joining a community is usually good for you, and good for the community as a whole.
But often we focus on the greater good - supporting others, furthering a good cause, or the feeling of satisfaction you get from being helpful.
These are what community professionals call “intrinsic motivators”. They’re essential for any community to thrive. But it can be too easy to think community is solely about those “warm fuzzy” feelings.
In fact, there are many more tangible benefits for people who join groups, communities and networks on Guild. And the more active and helpful you are in a community, the more you’ll benefit.
Here are a few examples of the benefits of joining communities on Guild:
1) Grow your professional network
Social media platforms have volume, but that comes packaged with a lot of noise. More intimate communities attract C-suite and senior leaders because they escape the sales spam that accompanies social media platforms like LinkedIn.
Professional communities on Guild can help you build deeper relationships with people who can help your career - and also help build relationships that can land that deal, important introduction, partnership, client, interview etc. We're so certain about this advantage that we covered it in more depth in our guide to Community Based Networking.
2) Get practical and confidential advice in a safe space
"Every day is a school day" as they say, and asking for help is an opportunity to learn.
Turning to a community can get you helpful and knowledgeable answers fast. That’s why communities make great sounding boards for ideas and challenges.
Community members are often motivated to build their reputation. There’s more time to think and to come up with a quality answer. If you’re not battling a social media algorithm, the right people are more likely to see your question at the right time.
It can be easier to ask about sensitive topics like inclusion, wellbeing, conflict, finance and sustainability initiatives out of the spotlight of social media.
3) Benchmark your knowledge with peers
Joining a community can help you understand where you are on your career path. If others are giving similar answers or you're asking the same questions, you'll feel more confident in your own knowledge and abilities.
What if you find that your answers are completely different? Either you’ve got a valuable alternative point of view, or you’ve got something to learn. Whatever the answer, you’re surrounded by peers who can help you. Even if you choose to simply listen (not lurk) in a group or community, you can still learn a lot from your peers.
4) Find better jobs, faster
Many communities on Guild allow members to share jobs. For example Guild communities like NED and Board Advisor Network and Business of Sport offer dedicated jobs threads.
Managers looking to fill a role will often post in a community where they know there are good candidates. In fact, these jobs may even be filled before they make it to a recruitment agency or a jobs board. Everyone you help in a community might have an opportunity for you one day, or may recommend you to someone else.
5) Find quality candidates for your job roles, faster
What about when you’re the one recruiting? Candidates in a community are effectively pre-qualified. You can get to know them in a way that you can’t through a CV and an interview.
And community members can often offer personal recommendations for people who are suitable for your job vacancies. If a community you want to recruit in doesn’t have a jobs board or thread, it’s always worth asking. The community manager or host will want the community to help its members and they’ll usually be open to relevant jobs and opportunities being posted.
6) Make better choices - finding suppliers, technology, partners, consultants, advisors, agencies and more
If you’re trying to decide on a technology, looking for a new supplier, agency, advisor or consultant or just need a second opinion, turning to your community can save you time and money.
You may not even need to ask a question - searching through past conversations could turn up the answer you need. Communities like Events 365 for event professionals, Legal Pioneers or Renewd Network will regularly discuss technology, venues, suppliers and more.
Questions like these are likely to be welcomed and answered - many Guild members find peer-approved recommendations from their communities invaluable.
7) Learn to run a community - from the experts
Just being a member of an active community is an effective way to learn how to run your own. Watch and listen (remember, it's not lurking!) to community professionals like Blaise Grimes-Viort in Guild Community Collective or dedicated subject-matter experts like Catherine Weetman in Delivering Sustainability in your Business. Every community is unique - and yours should be too. But you can pick up ideas, inspiration and effective techniques and adapt them to your own membership.
8) Find people who share your challenges or circumstances
Connecting with people who empathise and understand your position can make a huge difference to your business, your career and achieving your goals.
There are many communities on Guild for people working to achieve the UN's Global Goals, including communities working towards affordable energy, quality education, climate action, sustainability and gender equality.
For example, on Guild there are supportive communities fighting racism like the Anti-Racism Innovation Community and the Race Equality Matters Community Communities like She Has No Limits bring professional women together to share support and advice.
We find neurodivergent individuals feel especially welcomed and supported.
Loneliness and lack of connection can have a massive impact on wellbeing and health. They can also have an economic impact - absence, staff turnover and productivity can all be negatively impacted by loneliness. Simply joining a community can extend your personal and professional connections - and improve your sense of connectedness to others.
9) Kick-start your career
Many professional communities are hugely supportive of newcomers to an industry.
Many communities on Guild post internship and apprentice opportunities in some of the most exciting and supportive workplaces for those who are looking to kick start their careers.
Mentoring is an effective way to progress your own career and people are often flattered to be asked for help or recommendations. The pandemic and lockdowns in 2020-2022 saw a number of professional support groups start up including Design Community Hub supporting newcomers to the design industry, and CREO (now Events365) which supported event organisers who were facing conference calendar chaos.
10) Take a step up in your career
Communities can also support people who are looking to take a step up in their careers.
As well as the possibility of finding that next dream role in a community or group you've joined, you might want to become an advisor, trustee or non-executive director. NED and Board Advisor Network is a community of hundreds of non-execs and those who want to move into board/trustee roles, exchanging advice and experiences. It's also a community where those types of opportunities are posted.
11) Stay up to date with what’s going on in your industry
We all have great intentions about keeping informed. We'll read the trade media. We'll follow industry experts on social media. We'll plough through that newsletter backlog.
But the most important topics will inevitably bubble up first in communities.
If your peers are talking about it, you need to know about it. You’ll often get knowledgeable and polite opposing points of view and evidence in a professional community. If you care about nuance and reaching a balanced conclusion about issues and contentious topics, community peers can be the best source.
12) Get a head-start on an unfamiliar topic
We've talked about listening and learning already, but joining a community and browsing past conversations can be a great way to jump in to the deep end without drowning in information. Scroll through past conversations or search by keyword, and scan through what's been discussed. You'll start to pick up what's important to this community, who the experts and influencers are, and get ideas for books or other resources that can help you on your journey. Guild is designed to make it easy to search and read older conversations so that valuable information stays available. Curious about creating a more inclusive culture or exploring the options in AI? Guild has groups for you - just search the community directory, request to join, and start reading.
13) Expand your professional interests
Professional success isn’t all about your industry knowledge and contacts. It's more important than ever to understand the bigger picture for our businesses and organisations.
There are many communities on Guild and generous hosts that welcome non-specialists/practitioners who want to learn more about a specific industry, profession, specialism or topic.
Whether it's community management, sustainability, inclusion, digital marketing, law, HR, product management or PR there's a host of discoverable communities and groups on Guild that could be a source of education and support for you.
14) Increase your visibility in your industry and further afield
Most online communities have member directories. For example, every Guild community has a member list that all members can access.
Some communities have public directories. On Guild you can make your personal profile discoverable, and share your bio, links and professional accolades. Your profile may also show badges like the number of connections you have. Humans are naturally curious. These directories, public or private, can lead to unexpected connections from contacts new and old.
15) Build your reputation as an expert
Many of us want to build a personal brand or generate awareness, coverage or links to our businesses.
Being active in communities can lead to all kinds of opportunities. Community Created Content is a common outcome of professional communities. You’ll often get a link and / or bio included as well as a credit.
Each time you post something constructive on a community, it's an opportunity for someone to check out your profile (tip: don't forget to make sure your Guild profile is complete and up to date).
As people start to recognise you, you’re more likely to get requests to contribute to articles, reports and other resources. And don't forget, there are lots of journalists on Guild looking for experts and insights that they can write about.
16) Find collaborators and expert comment
If you’re musing on content like blog posts or a report, a professional community can be a source of expertise, ideas and quotes - but don't forget to ask and attribute!
You’ll often have a good idea of who might respond, and you can identify and approach potential contributors directly. They are likely to be motivated to help you because of your shared community connection.
You're more likely to get considered, quality replies when people have time to think. You could even share a proposed post or report with your community and co-create your content. Your contributors will often share their contribution with their connections and networks. That means you can reach a wider but still very relevant audience.
17) Offers, opportunities and unexpected benefits
We often see large and small acts of generosity and support in communities on Guild.
Frequently members will share free and spare tickets to events. Authors and educators have offered advanced viewings of courses and books. Businesses have offered spare software and equipment. People have offered beta test opportunities for a valuable new service before it launches. Professional designers have offered to review websites and provide tips.
Simply being in the right place at the right time can mean you get access to these kinds of benefits. However, being a good community citizen can put you at the front of the queue if there’s competition.
And of course, you can return the favour. Sharing your own opportunities with your niche community saves time fielding enquiries. And at the same time, you can cement your personal reputation for generosity and reciprocity with people who really matter to you.
18) Have fun and make friends
This benefit is much more than a nice to have - it can actually make you healthier as well as happier! Humans are truly social animals - research led by Imperial College London says that feeling socially connected, even virtually, can help protect against depression and reduce anxiety. Your online connections needn't be solely virtual, either. It's common these days for real-life relationships to start online - friendship expert Kat Vellos even has a step-by-step guide to help you do just that. Not everyone you meet has to become a friend, but don't dismiss the potential of an online acquaintance, especially when you've started with a solid connection in a trusted community.
19) Escape the algorithms
Ad-funded social media platforms determine which content to deliver to you based on your behaviour, and that of others they deem to be "like you". This can be a lot of fun - and it certainly serves to keep you scrolling and clicking. But it does also limit what you might see and reduces the chances of serendipitous discoveries. If you're tired of seeing the same things at the same time as everyone else, then exploring online communities can help. On Guild, the newest conversations are at the top of each group, and hosts and moderators handpick important conversations to feature or pin. If you sometimes find the non-stop suggestions of social media exhausting, then invest more of your valuable time and energy in online communities and the humans you find there. (If sparks your interest, read more on why algorithms are bad for online communities).
20) Owning the product, rather than being the product
In our Trends in Community 2022 we identified new community governance and ownership models as a trend in online communities.
These trends can include anything from local communities coming together to buy, build and run local businesses and services, to community tokens and cryptocurrency benefits for creator, gaming and music communities.
The idea is that your contributions and hard work as a community member can become a form of intellectual or financial property of value. Compare this to a social media platform using your contributions to sell advertising or use personal information to help advertisers target you.
However this trend develops, being a member of online communities will help you understand community dynamics and put you at the forefront.
More about the benefits of being a community member
How to grow your professional network on Guild
Make your Guild profile discoverable to connect with other professionals
Getting started with Guild: building the perfect Guild profile
How to use Guild for professional networking and personal brand building
Networking tips for students, graduates and career starters
The Guild Guide to Being a Great Community Participant
Ways to Use Guild: Community Participants
Communities you can join today
Communities for comms and PR professionals
Six Guild communities that can help your career 🤝
Many communities on Guild are private but some are 'discoverable' and listed on the directory. Search by keyword to find the right community for you.
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