Free tools for community building
Issue 10: community design on a budget, tools I've been loving, and tool tips
Hi, I’m Emilie, and I’m writing this newsletter, Connection Engine, to discuss reflections and actionable lessons on community building in a digital world. If you’re a community builder or just curious about community work, you can join the fun by subscribing below!
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Welcome to Issue 10 of Connection Engine!
It’s an unfortunate truth that oftentimes community teams don’t receive big budgets to make community magic happen (or they get more funding after first proving value).
Luckily there are tons of free tools available for community builders to use as a starting point — without a hefty price tag. It’s important to also note that you don’t want to get to a place where you’re too busy measuring outcomes of your community instead of actually building it. Tools should be there to support your efforts and save you time without adding more work.
For productivity and project management
My favorite project management tool is Notion. I use it daily for so many things:
Tracking my to-do list
Creating content and social calendars
Organizing tables and charts
Keeping track of notes and tasks
Bookmarking relevant resources
There’s a free plan that gives you access for unlimited personal use. I highly recommend you check it out!
Another tool that’s free for personal use is ClickUp, which breaks down projects into tasks, helps you visualize your goals, and has hundreds of feature to help you customize your productivity needs.
If you’re a visual person like me, I love using Whimsical for creating and editing flow charts to track and visualize processes. You can easily create and embed the charts into other documents and tools. Highly recommend!
For design
If you’re not a graphic designer but need visuals for your community, Canva is an awesome tool that’s easy to use, helps keep your branding consistent, and makes it easy to update or edit images.
If you are a designer or want to learn more on building from scratch, Gimp is an awesome tool I’ve been using for some time in lieu of Photoshop. It takes some practice getting used to it but it has all the features a designer needs to create some eye-popping visuals!
Last but not least, Figma is an A+ tool that makes design and collaboration easy. They have a free plan that gives you unlimited personal files and collaborators.
If you’re looking for good-quality, free stock images, Pexels or Unsplash are great options.
For writing
In some cases, the community builder is also the community content creator. Content is a huge part of community building — it gives members something to look forward to, something to do while in your community, and also the opportunity to write and build something together.
Here are some of my favorite tools:
Hemingway: An editing tool that assigns a grade to your copy’s readability and gives you suggestions on improving your writing to make it clearer.
Copy.ai: If you’re staring at your blank page and not sure where to start, Copy.ai generates copy for you based on the type of writing and a brief description of what you want to write about. It gives you multiple options to choose from which you can then polish and revise.
Surfer SEO: Whether we like it or not, we live in an SEO world where content that matches specific lengths or keywords is favored on search engines. If you want your content to make a splash and help with community discovery, check out this tool which (with the free plan) lets you add and track websites, receive SEO suggestions, and get weekly SEO insights.
For networking and events
Meetsy by Commsor is an awesome tool that facilitates 1:1 meetings between your members and matches them based on a questionnaire! It’s almost too good to be true for a busy CM on a tight budget.
Mixaba and Gatheround are other great tools that add a bit of serendipity to your next event by matching members 1:1. They are simple to set up and free for smaller groups, so perfect for any coffee chats, happy hours, or team bonding sessions.
For surveys and feedback forms
My go-to form tools are Typeform and Tally. They have easy-to-use templates, make responses simple to track, and add a delightful, human touch to gathering feedback. Free plans available for both.
I write more about gathering and implementing feedback here!
For screen recording or demos
Time is precious when you’re building communities and especially if you work on an async team. Instead of looking for an impossible slot on the calendar, record a video of your screen to use as context, provide your members with a demo, or help clarify any community questions. Screen recordings are great to have and refer back to, and make it easier to explain things over email.
Loom: I’ve been using Loom for a while and love how easy it is to record and save demos. While easy to use for a variety of things, I mostly use Loom for recording demos, tutorials, or for onboarding purposes when teaching members how to use a product or tool.
Bubbles: Bubbles is a free Chrome extension that lets you quickly record your screen with audio. I use this if I have a quick question or want to show someone how to use something, but less so for demos or longer videos.
Bonus: some tips for screen recording. Close any irrelevant tabs and clean up your desktop space. Attention is limited — use your viewer’s attention wisely!
And there you go: my virtual toolkit to set up community builders for success — at a whopping $0. Of course there are features you may want to unlock with a paid plan, but all of these tools offer great starting points that are completely free.
If you have any tools you use that you love, let me know!
Thanks for being a part of Connection Engine – together we can and together we will. Until next time!
About me
I’m Emilie. Why am I doing this? To share my learnings on community work, to learn more myself, and to make new internet friends!
Want to read more? Follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter here.
Have a community question for a future issue or interested in working together? Check out my website or email me at ekormienko@gmail.com.
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