Learning how to find online communities in your industry helps you discover a tribe of like-minded peers with whom to share insights and knowledge. Indeed, online communities are great for expanding your professional network, getting learning opportunities, and staying accountable for your progress.
Today’s post will focus on laying out a step-by-step process to help you find online communities in your industry.
Related 👉 What Is an Online Community in Business? Build Yours in 5 Steps
Why Join an Online Community?
The benefits of online communities are many. On the one hand, joining an online community in your industry will help you find like-minded peers with similar interests and professional paths. You will meet diverse people worldwide from within the same industry, who will broaden your perspective and understanding of the industry. Indeed, online communities are great for expanding your professional network.
But online communities also allow you to access several learning opportunities. Many communities organize regular learning events such as live sessions with industry experts, fireside chats, webinars, workshops, and more. Furthermore, other communities include cohorts, bootcamps, conferences, and additional types of training.
Related 👉 How to Start a Tutoring Business in an Online Community
On the other hand, most communities include a content library where you can explore diverse resources and tools. And if a community doesn’t have that, you will still learn from interaction with other members. Sharing experiences, asking questions, and exchanging ideas, insights, and strategies with peers are all powerful ways to learn.
The last benefit of online communities I want to mention is getting support. You will slowly build a support network to help you through common challenges in your field. Additionally, it will be easier for you to stay accountable for your progress if you have someone to share.
However, how do you find online communities with the perfect ratio of engagement and usefulness? Let’s see the step-by-step process.
How to Find a Community Where You Belong
Unita’s platform makes it easy to find an online community that will be the perfect fit for you. We will explore how to make the most out of the platform’s filtering and categorization features to search for communities in your industry and start reaping the benefits of joining a group of like-minded peers.
#1 Search by keyword
Once on Unita‘s platform, you will notice an above-the-fold search bar where you can input diverse keywords to find related communities.
First, think about the type of community you want to join. In what industry do you work? How would you describe the people you want to surround yourself with? Are you looking for a community of founders, developers, content creators, community builders, investors, marketers, designers, or something else?
Once you have thought about some relevant keywords to search, input them in the search bar. For this example, we will be looking for communities for community builders.
Then, the platform will suggest a category to explore and communities related to the keyword. But let’s press enter to explore additional filtering and categorization features.
#2 Explore categories
There are over 30 categories on Unita’s platform, such as product management, investing, marketing, business, crypto, developers, and more. You can explore categories to find one that closely relates to your industry and search for a community you like inside that category.
Regardless if you choose a category or search for a keyword, the platform will take you to a list of communities where you will find additional filters to refine your search if you wish.
#3 Refine your search
Unita’s list of communities for a specific category or keyword includes all available filters on the left side.
Filters include:
- Order by: It allows you to order communities by ‘Top rated’, ‘Latest’, and ‘Random’.
- Keyword search: In case you want to include additional keywords.
- Categories: This allows you to select one or more categories.
- Platform: Do you prefer a specific community platform, such as Discord, Slack, or Circle? If so, you can specify it here.
- Free or paid: To filter to only free or only paid communities.
- Virtual/In-person: Here, you can specify if you prefer a fully remote community or in-person initiatives with local gatherings.
- Yearly cost/Monthly cost: This filter allows you to specify your budget to find a community you can afford.
- Country/Language: Useful if you are looking for communities in specific countries or languages.
- Job Board: Are you looking for new career opportunities? If so, use this filter to find communities with job boards.
- Tags: Unita includes several tags to refine your search inside a specific category. There are tags such as ‘Forum’, ‘No Requirements’, ‘Mentorship’, ‘Perks’, ‘Executive Education’, and more.
#4 Find an online community in your industry!
Once you refine your search with filters, categories, and keywords, you will obtain a list of communities you might want to join. Each listing includes detailed information on the community’s methodology, what learning and networking events it organizes, what resources it has, and which perks are available for members.
From my search of communities for community builders, I chose CreatorPad.
Additionally, each listing has two buttons in the upper right corner: ‘Website’ and ‘Join’. By clicking on ‘Website‘ you will be redirected to the community’s main website. On the other hand, by clicking ‘Join‘, you will get redirected to the membership page, a Discord server invitation, a Slack invitation, or something else (depending on the platform).
And that’s it! Make sure to read the listing of each community you are interested in to see which resonates with you the most.
💡 Boost your community-building skills
CreatorPad gathers content creators worldwide who participate in engaging events, share resources and bounce off ideas and insights. The community is paid, and it’s the right choice for those who want to make content creation their full-time, professional career.
Finding the right online community it’s possible by following the steps above. Are you looking to learn more about community building? Make sure to check out these innovative approaches to leverage community-based marketing.
