Existing Online Communities

If you belong to professional online communities, follow fellow community members on Twitter. “Online communities” may sound ephemeral, and “professional online communities” may sound extremely lame. But the best of these are gathering places for people with shared passions, interests, and experiences—and they absolutely have the power to help you in your career. They can be a good way to stay abreast of what’s happening in your industry, meet professionals peers, and find new opportunities.

You can find these communities in a number of ways:

• Google phrases like “top online communities for developers”; “Slack groups for designers in San Francisco”; or “Facebook groups for freelance writers.” You’ll often find articles that list several groups for your area of interest.

• Use the search query on sites like Facebook or Linkedin to find relevant groups on those platforms.

• Ask friends and colleagues about the professional online communities they belong to and have found value in.

Online communities you can consider joining and eventually following its members include:

• Slack Groups (like DevChat)

• Facebook Groups (like Tech Ladies)

• Discord Groups (like #blacktechpipeline)

Some communities are open to anyone, while others may require you to answer a few questions about your interest in the community or apply in some other way before allowing you to join. Most online communities are free to join, but some may require a one-time or monthly subscription fee. Additionally, while many online communities are global, you can also find communities with people in your specific city or state by adapting your search queries.

​important​ It’s wise to use the same image, handle, and name if possible across platforms to help people become familiar with you and your presence in and across communities.

To translate these community connections to Twitter, you might start a thread or topic where you ask everyone to share their handles. You can also check to see if this thread already exists—it is not uncommon or strange to do so. People who enjoy each other’s online company in one community often want to follow each other on other parts of the web.