A Community of Love

In the words of John Lennon and the Beatles:

“All You Need Is Love”

Yes, Love is All You Need.

I have been working my ass off to produce programs for my business.  Thinking that I MUST sell out of every program I offer to be successful.   I also have carried this thought over to my client’s businesses as well.  After all, I am one of the key players helping them launch their products and see their visions through.

And you know what, that is bull shit.

Before you can sell a program out, you MUST first create a community.  But not just any community.  A Community of Love.

In the last few weeks I have seen love in many different ways through Facebook.  I have also realized that building a community is more important than selling out of programs.

Facebook provides a platform for everyone in the world to connect with others to build a community.  Let me share some of the community and love that I have experienced.

1.  Hosted and attended my first Facebook Party

I’ve heard of Twitter parties but had never attended.  So when I hosted a Facebook party a few weeks back, I was blown away by the community of talented entrepreneurs that attended my party!  I underestimated how much fun it would actually be.  I played online games like Pictionary and Social Media Trivia, there was community engagement on questions that I asked, and there were connections made!  I would say that I can see my community forming. Huge Success!

2.  Successfully crazy viral product launch

I wish I was referring to one of my products with this, however I am talking about Marie & Laura’s insanely popular B-School.  These incredibly smart & savvy chicks utilized their community of past B-Schoolers to help sell and market for them.  What better people to help than those that had went through the program and reached success because of it.  Sure the catchy videos created by Marie & Laura helped but the love from real people who went through it already was the biggest selling point.  They built a community and while  I don’t know exact numbers, judging by the love and buzz surrounding their launch with their community, I would say they did pretty well for themselves…  Success for them!

3.  Comment love and support!

Over the last week I have been feeling nothing but LOVE from my followers, friends, and family.  I asked for help and support to be chosen as a speaker at Spark & Hustle Atlanta.  You may know this already but this is the 2nd video contest that I have entered.   The first was for Rich, Happy & Hot LIVE with Marie Forleo.  My video entry, dancing skills and your comment love won me the chance to attend the event in NYC.  Today I found out that I have been chosen as a Finalist for Spark & Hustle.  This does not guarantee me a speaking spot YET but it does mean that I made it to the next round.  Something that I am very proud of.  A HUGE accomplishment to achieve even if I am not chosen.  I have again proven that I am slowly building a strong community.  Hmmmm Success again!

4.  Memorializing Life

This actually just happened this past week as well and is not related to business.  It does show the strength online communities can build when you bring people together.  A local friend passed away in a motorcycle accident this past weekend at the age of 29.  As word spread of the news, his friends took a couple moments to visit his Facebook page.  Some left comments of shock, others shared memories of the good times  and tagged pictures of those times they had with him.  Almost immediately the community of his close friends pulled together to help his family out with the funding to cover the unexpected expenses of the funeral.  This definitely shows the power of community and how much love you build off of one website.  There was nothing but love throughout his community.  I can only imagine how proud his mama must be to be able to see how loved he was.  The Ultimate Success Story.

As you can see, building a community of love can be one of the most important steps to any type of success.

What are you doing to build your community of love online?

Source: http://aliciarittenhouse.com/2011/06/community-love/

Published by Alicia Rittenhouse

Alicia Rittenhouse is a social media geek goddess. She helps entrepreneurs strategize and implement social media into their online presence to become an expert in their niche. Alicia also provides weekly doses of social media tips via The Scoop. Would you like to take your Facebook Marketing from Half-ass to Kick-ass The Geek Goddess way - click here