Here's how The Yard uses social media to build community

Community is what all brands dream of creating—especially in the creative and professional spaces.

And let's be real: it's a hard thing to make. Your actual business needs to be focused around its community, and you need to post the right things on your social media to properly create this sense of genuine community.

So when looking how to build community on our own social channels, we scoured the 'net for other brands in the creative space that are doing it right.

And while we found a ton of awesome brands making community in our search, one stood out to us: The Yard.

The Yard is a coworking company with locations in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. Its coworking spaces are beautiful—but even more beautiful is its social media presence.

The coworking company makes a point to showcase its member's successes and the causes it supports. This awesomeness transcends all of the networks that The Yard is active on too, so there's no doubting its commitment to community.

So in this article, we'll show you how The Yard builds community on its social channels. We'll walk through the content the brand shares and discuss how you can use similar tactics on your own social accounts.

Use what we've highlighted here to build community on your social channels. Doing this will make your audience feel more engaged with your brand, and in turn, they'll feel engaged and trust you more (and spend more money 😉).

So without further ado—let's dive in!


The brand shouts out its current and past member's successes

Our favorite thing about The Yard's social media presence is how it frequently posts about its current and past members.

Take a look through its Twitter feed and you'll see tweets discussing its member's most recent round of funding and other successes. One of its past members even won an Oscar!

This pumps up The Yard's audience and inspires them to work towards their goals. Because if someone can write an Oscar winning film at The Yard, imagine what other members can accomplish!

How does this build community?

Sharing the successes of past and current members brings The Yard's audience together to celebrate.

Further, it also shows that The Yard actually cares about its audience. Instead of just being a customer, these tweets and Facebook shares make The Yard's customers feel like family.

Try doing the same on your brand's social media. Discuss your customer's successes, show off your standout employees, and otherwise spread engaging positivity.

This will give your brand a friendly face, create community, and truly show that we're all in this together.

The Yard posts frequent event coverage

Being a coworking space, The Yard hosts a ton of events. Some of these are private events, and others are open to the public or its members.

The Yard posts frequently about these events by posting photos, links to signup pages, and videos. It does this to create hype around the events and pump up its audience in a

This excitement not only brings people to the events, but makes people excited about The Yard as a brand. Further, it also acts as a funnel for bringing new people into its community.

How does this build community?

It's no secret that events build community. They bring people together in one place to network, learn, and create. But this only happens if the events are properly promoted and hyped up.

So with that in mind, host events for your brand and promote the heck out of them on all of your social media channels.

When the event happens, you'll physically bring your audience together. This builds community around your brand and—if the event goes well—boosts your brand's image and perception.

We recommend using a platform that lets your audience interact beforehand like Facebook Events. This will let you and your audience mingle before the event, breaking the ice and keeping everyone up-to-date on the happenings in the event.

Raises awareness for causes close to the brand

View this post on Instagram

It's about time we bridge this gap. 📸 @mlabbe

A post shared by The Yard: Space To Work (@theyard) on

The Yard isn't shy about promoting causes close to its heart.

The coworking company shares links to causes like feminism, voting, and more.The brand will generally time these posts around a holiday or other event, making the posts timely and relevant to increase engagement.

How does this build community?

It's proven that Millennials want brands to post about causes they believe in. So make sure that your brand is also posting about causes—it will get your audience more engaged and put a friendly face to your brand's name.

We do recommend trying to target causes that are relatively neutral. Don't post overly political causes that will divide your audience, but rather post about causes that are heartwarming and will bring them together.

Shares relevant third-party content that its audience enjoys

The Yard frequently posts links to third-party content related to coworking, business, and tech.

The brand mixes this in with in-house content, giving its twitter and Facebook feeds great variety of content that's consistently interesting.

How does this build community?

Sharing third-party content shows that The Yard cares about its audience and their growth.

This content is selfless and likely won't convert for The Yard, but the brand does it anyway because it actually cares about the people that read its tweets.

Additionally, it creates conversation. The Yard's followers will frequently share opinions and discuss topics that are posted, giving The Yard a better organic reach and a higher engagement rate.

We recommend doing the same on your social media channels.

Not only will you benefit from showing your audience that you care, but it'll also make your life easier. After all, it's faster to tweet than to blog, so don't be afraid of posting the occasional bit of third party content.

Want to make third-party content even better? Use Social Report's Link Frame feature. This lets you brand your third-party content with your own logos and call-to-action buttons at the top or bottom of the post.

This means that instead of posting content that won't convert, you have a shot at driving some traffic back to your website or blog. Start your free Social Report trial and give it a shot today!

It keeps posts #relatable


View this post on Instagram

Make your workspace your own. #Repost @theyarddc #WorkYarder


The Yard knows its audience of creatives, technologists, marketers, writers, entrepreneurs and more.

Because of this, it posts images and other content that it knows its audience will enjoy.

Just take a gander at the brand's Instagram account. There are tons of photos of sleek workspaces, coffee, brunch, dogs, and other things that remote workers (and truthfully, millennials) love.

This creates super engaging posts that are well-loved by The Yard's audience. They get plenty of likes, comments, and are otherwise interacted with.

How does this build community?

Like posting relevant third-party content, posting #relatable content shows that The Yard is in-tune with what its audience loves. This leaves a good impression about the brand and its social presence.

Plus, your audience is a lot more likely to interact with content they like.

Promotes other local businesses

Let's be honest: (most) people are super enthusiastic about the cities they live and work in.

The folks at The Yard are no exception.

The brand constantly posts photos, tweets, and status updates that feature their local favorites. For example, see the photo below that shouts out a local coffee shop near one of its New York City coworking spaces.

This is especially prevalent on the brand's Instagram page. Each week the brand posts pics from different local eateries, coffee shops, bars, and more to share the promotion love.

Seriously, our Digital Marketing Specialist got hungry looking for a photo to embed 😉


View this post on Instagram

A little love in your cup! #WorkYarder #PrologueCoffeeRoom



How does this build community?

This does two things: one, it builds community with other local businesses in the area.

I mean, think about it. If you're a local coffee shop and you get free publicity, you're more than likely going to reach back out to the company promoting you.

So make sure you're actively engaging with other local businesses. Feature them in a blog post, tweet about them, or otherwise shout them out. There's a good chance they'll retweet you or—maybe—was a deeper partnership.

And hey, it's good karma too!

Secondly, promoting local businesses shows your audience you're actively engaged with your community. Your audience will eat this up and interact with your posts more passionately than ever before.

So give it a shot! It's an easy way to build community.

Bottom line

The Yard is a great example of businesses building a community on its social media channels. The coworking space promotes community by sharing its customer successes, raising awareness on close causes, and sharing content its audience loves.

Take cue from The Yard's social media accounts and work to build community around your brand. This will improve your brand's trust and awareness and—everybody's favorite buzzword—social proof.

But enough of our thoughts—what do you think about The Yard's social presence? Further, how do you plan on building community around your brand? Let us know in the comments box below!

Need a better social media management tool? Try the award-winning Social Report for free.

Try Social Report free for 30 days