How To Find Community As A Digital Nomad

by Nate Westheimer / Sep 30

Community is one of the most powerful sources of innovation and productivity for businesses and workers. However, in an increasingly mobile workforce, people are away from their natural work community and replacing it with other resources. Here are a few trends on how workers replace the benefits of a productive office environment while they’re on the go.

• Internal Social Networks, Blogs and Email — While work-life becomes more mobile, some companies are finding that having an online space for employees to share the random odds and ends of their personal lifes is an effective way to build community within a mobile workforce. Call it a virtual water cooler or whatever you’d like, but what’s clear is that by giving a venue for (moderated but unsensored) interaction and sharing of information, feelings of comradere stays high while on the go and workers benefit.
• External Social Networking and Blogs — Of course when your coworkers can’t keep each other company on the road, your customers can. External social networking sites and industry blogs make it easier for traveling workers to connect with their existing and prospective client. Whether it’s through an industry group on Meetup.com, a mixer hosted by a popular industry blog, or by maximizing your business network on LinkedIn, today it’s easier than ever for those far from their rolodexes to connect with the people they need to know wherever they are.
• Coworking — Over the last two years, “coworking” has emerged as popular permanant work solution for free-lancers and small companies, allowing them to pool resources and work among like-minded folks who are likely in the same field. However, for the mobile worker, coworking centers also have specific benefits. For instance, coworking community are usually designed to accept “drop ins,” making them both an open door in destination cities and a place where new workers can quickly integrate with the community and make gains from the proximity to other knowledge workers.

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