Travis sits down with traveler, social media strategist and community builder Nicolette Orlemans.
Intro: Background + community origin story
Topic 1: What was it like growing up? How did you get started?
I grew up in a bilingual household in the Netherlands with a Polish mom and a Dutch dad. My parents inspired wanderlust in me as a child, as we traveled often (they started traveling with me when I was a baby). In 2000, we moved to the US for my dad’s work, and started expat life.
Travel has always been something I feel grateful to be able to do, and I really enjoy connecting with others who travel. It’s endlessly fascinating to me that, as people, we go to similar destinations, but have vastly different, unique experiences. That’s the beauty of travel and exploring local culture in our own way. I love being able to talk to others about their travels and experiences.
Topic 2: Let’s talk about what community means to you.
To me, community means a place where people can talk freely. It’s a space where people share stories, become inspired, feel supported, share advice, ask questions, and rely on each other’s feedback.
I don’t think community has to be a homogenous thing–meaning that people can have differences in opinion and perspectives–but it should be a place where people feel comfortable talking to each other no matter the differences.
Topic 3: Let’s talk about the different tribes that you support. Who are the members? Why does this circle exist and what is your mission? How do you work together to achieve your mission?
I especially love connecting with travelers, no matter how often they travel. Travelers tend to be very open-minded, and share interesting perspectives on not just the destinations they visit, but also on how they personally grow from visiting different places and learning from diverse cultures.
In 2014, I started participating more in Twitter chats, online real-time conversations happening over a unified hashtag at set dates/times. Twitter chats allow people to connect with others, and share their perspectives. As people respond with the associated hashtag, others can connect with them and ask questions or start conversations.
On November 13, 2014, I launched my very own travel Twitter chat focused on the intersection of culture and travel. I aspired to create conversations among people about cultural immersion, and what helps people get to know local culture on a deeper level.
Today, the chat is still happening every Thursday and connecting travelers worldwide in shared conversations. Since the launch of the chat, I’ve expanded into a community website, a Facebook group, and hosted in-person meetups to bring travelers together.
In October 2018, I launched a Kickstarter for Travel Banter, a conversation starter card game inspired by the online conversations my community has had over the years. It’s the “real life” version of the Twitter chats and helps bring people in a fun, meaningful way offline to have conversations around culture and travel.
Topic 4: What are a few lessons you’ve learned from your journey in the online community space?
As technology changes, we should embrace that. Technology is constantly evolving and new platforms pop up, though people crave real conversations no matter the platform.
Behind every social media profile is a real person. What excites this person? What stories does this person have to share? How do we connect to each other on a deeper level?
I think it’s important to inspire storytelling both online and offline. We can’t forget that storytelling is at the core of everything we do. We connect with people over shared experiences, and by learning from each other. We hear stories that we can relate to, and we feel inspired to share our own stories.
Topic 5: What community if any do you look up to, and why?
There are a few in the travel space that I really admire.
Topic 6: Talk to us about a recent trend you’ve been following..
Video! More and more businesses and people are using video to share their stories. Video isn’t new, of course, but I’ve been seeing more video sharing on LinkedIn newsfeed.
I still think storytelling will be key here. Telling your story or that of your business in an authentic way is key. Just posting and hoping the content “sticks” isn’t enough. You need to be able to draw people into the story.
Topic 7: How do you keep the community connected with each other throughout the year?
I’ve created weekly traveler conversations via the Twitter chats but have also opened up conversations on Facebook, and in-person. I think it’s important to meet people where they are. Some people can’t always chat on social media, but enabling them to share stories, advice and recommendations with others year-round is important to me.
It’s about making sure that you’re reaching people on a genuine level and offering them something that’s valuable. In the case of a community, that’s connecting in meaningful ways with other people and people sharing stories with each other.
Topic 8: What’s next?
I plan to teach even more people about the value of online community building. It’s not about self promotion; it’s about creating value for other people. Businesses can and should be encouraging meaningful interactions between people; if you give people a platform to engage, they will be inspired to do so.
People will, I think, fundamentally always care to have deeper conversations with others. Encouraging connections to happen whether online or offline will excite people.
Topic 9: Freestyle - feel free to insert any current challenges you’re facing, what your dream community or initiative would look like, or anything that you’d like to chat about!
I think something that’s a constant challenge is time management. It’s very easy to get distracted by things, and lose time on things that aren’t all that meaningful. Not losing track of what’s important is crucial. You can give yourself time to let your mind wander (I also think that giving your mind and body breaks is healthy), but having a singular focus on something you care about is motivating and energizing. Drilling down to what that motivating thing is, is easier said than done sometimes, but when you find it, it’s a great feeling!
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