Communicators Seeking Community: Ideas for Building Connection

Being a communicator can be a lonely job. You connect with every team across your organization, but you don’t truly belong to any of them. As part of a support function, you’re always on call to help others while receiving very little help yourself. Your work requires paying close attention to the nuances of every word, which can imbue every interaction with a sense of stress.

Through it all, you often work solo or as part of a small team. If the latter, your colleagues are also spread thin across stakeholders, making it hard to develop a sense of group identity. And if you work remotely, multiply all of this by 10.

Over time, these feelings of isolation can take a toll on your creativity, morale, and well-being — both mental and physical. Feeling connected to and understood by others can prevent burnout and provide a vital perspective. So what can you, as a communicator, do to find community?

Strengthen Your Internal Network

The sense of connection you desire might be closer than you think. If you feel siloed from within your organization, you can benefit from building stronger relationships with your peers on other teams. Schedule regular coffee chats — in-person or virtual — with colleagues across the company to get to know them better than email allows. Get involved in employee resource groups and other internal communities that can give you exposure to a wider range of people. Additionally, volunteering for stretch assignments or becoming a mentor or mentee can help you develop professionally at the same time you widen your community.

The advantage of all these approaches is that they can reduce loneliness while strengthening your day-to-day work. Being present with others will help them remember how communications can help support their own goals, as well as give you a wider bench of people to contact when you need help or insight yourself. The more involved you get, the stronger the village you’ll build.

Seek Organized Support

Of course, it can be deeply satisfying to speak with others who share similar struggles and successes in their professional lives. Networking isn’t just about creating professional opportunities; it can provide empathy, fellowship, and personal growth. Professional organizations like the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and the National Communication Association (NCA) provide regular happy hours, workshops, and other opportunities for meeting up locally or virtually with other folks who can talk shop and relate to your stories. The ROI Partner Group is another such network, where senior communicators can attend special gatherings to connect and share their experiences.

Are you hesitant to join a larger group? Maybe you can create your own. Even just two or three like-minded colleagues from other organizations can provide a key support structure for sharing best practices, discussing trends and opportunities, or just venting. If you don’t know where to start, you can raise your hand on LinkedIn to attract potential members or get advice.

Become a Thought Leader

Speaking of social media, it’s a great tool for building community by sharing your own thoughts and perspectives. Posting about your experiences and insights can help you attract a community of both new and familiar faces. Joining conversations and asking questions online is a great start, as you explore what your voice and point of view might be.

From there, consider what sort of platform would work best for you. Should you write occasional posts on LinkedIn? Commit to a more in-depth newsletter via Substack? Whatever you choose, make a plan and stick with it long enough to gain some traction. It’ll help raise your professional profile at the same time as it widens your network.

Grow Through Learning

Sometimes the solution comes from setting out on a new path. There are many different learning approaches that can help you gain new skills along with a broader outlook. There’s no need to confine yourself to communications subjects — since our discipline touches all the others, nearly anything you learn can help enrich your professional understanding.

And don’t feel like you have to go it alone. Enlist friends and peers to join you. Depending on the platform, you might even be able to arrange a group discount. If that feels too formal, start small by hosting a book club for communicators, with a focus on storytelling, psychology, or creativity. It’s a low-commitment approach that can yield powerful benefits.

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The common denominator across all these ideas is that community doesn’t happen by itself. It takes reaching out, showing up, and sometimes playing entrepreneur by creating the opportunity yourself. But the payoff — support, inspiration, and a sense that you’re not alone — is worth the extra effort.

Contributor