Social media promised you community—it delivered loneliness instead

Stop renting your audience, start owning the conversation

What did you post on social media last week?

Can you name three people who saw it?

Can you name one person who took action as a result of it?

Think of all the time and effort you put into your social media.

How many people do you have following you on Instagram, LinkedIn, Blue Sky, Threads, Twitter or whatever it's called these days?

How do you know who reads your stuff and when?

Meanwhile, my friend Hector runs This Week in Coworking and sends one email every week to thousands of people who actually read it, reply to it, and tell their mum they are in it.

The difference isn't about creativity, budget, or some secret growth hack.

It's that Hector owns his audience.

But you're renting yours - from billionaires like Elon and Zuck.

Here's what nobody tells you about running a coworking community: You can have the best space in the world. Perfect lighting. Artisanal coffee. Ergonomic chairs that cost more than most people's rent.

But if you can't consistently communicate with your members, you're just running an expensive library.

Why Email Is The Foundation (Not The Afterthought)

Most coworking operators treat email like a necessary evil.

They have the work experience person ‘do the newsletter’ when the work experience person finishes ‘taking a look’ at how to boost Instagram.

Something you do when you have an offer to push or an event to promote.

"Don't just email when you have an offer. I’ve seen too many people say 50% off if you book by the end of the day!"

They sent this weirdo, random email every few months because they are experiencing a shortage of customers.

This is backwards thinking. And it's killing your community before it even gets started.

Sending a regular email newsletter is one of the most powerful things you can do for any project, community or business you are working on, especially one that is community-centred.

Not because it's trendy. Not because some marketing guru told you to.

Because it forces you to think about what actually matters.

You have to think about ‘who I am writing this to’, what I would say if they were standing in front of me.

That question changes everything.

Suddenly, you're not posting random photos of your meeting rooms.

You're writing to Sarah, the freelance copywriter for NGOs and the third sector who works from your space twice a week and struggles with isolation.

You're writing to Carlos, the software startup founder from Spain who has made a home in London and needs a community but doesn't know how to ask for help.

You're writing to real people with real problems that your space actually solves.

The Personal Discipline Nobody Talks About

But here's the part most people won't tell you about newsletters.

It's not really about marketing.

You will develop the personal discipline to sit down and put it all together, so you understand what's going on in your business.

I was podcasting with Seth Godin years ago, and he told me he’d write even if no one read it, because it’s how he discovers what he thinks about that subject and what his true opinion is.

Every week, you're forced to reflect:

What happened this week that mattered?

What conversations did I have?

What problems are my members actually facing?

What stories am I hearing that other people also need to hear?

This isn't busy work.

This is how you become a better community builder.

This is how you stop guessing what your members want and start knowing.

When you write consistently, you begin to see patterns.

The same questions are coming up. The same challenges. The same opportunities. You begin to understand not just what your members need, but why they need it.

The Content Multiplication Effect

Here's where this gets really powerful.

Say you have four things in your newsletter.

You send the newsletter to your audience, and then you utilise that content by breaking it down into four sections and posting it on the internet in various places, such as YouTube and social media.

One newsletter becomes:

• Four Instagram posts
• Four LinkedIn articles
• Four YouTube video topics
• Four TikTok ideas
• Content for your website blog

You create once, distribute everywhere.

But the newsletter comes first.

Because that's where you think clearly about what actually matters.

If you do this on a repeated basis, people will start to connect with who you are.

Not your brand voice. Not your company messaging.

YOU.

The person behind the space who gives a damn about community.

The Real Example That Proves It Works

Let me tell you about Hector and This Week in Coworking.

He started in 2021, and I have seen him grow.

Hector has never stopped experimenting, which is why it works so well.

He runs a newsletter and a tech company. I don't know the exact figures, but I know he has thousands of people subscribed.

Every week, the same commitment to showing up.

Hector starts with one email, which is the seed of his LinkedIn version, web version, podcast episode, and YouTube video.

Here's what's interesting: Hector isn't trying to sell you coworking spaces or his tech directly.

He consistently shares what's happening in the coworking world and has incredible conversations across the industry.

Because of that consistency and commitment to serving his community first, Hector has become one of the most trusted voices in coworking.

People know his name. They respect his opinion. They turn to him when they need guidance.

That's the power of showing up consistently with valuable content. Not once in a while. Not when you feel like it. Every week.

This is what's possible when you treat your newsletter as the foundation of your community building, not an afterthought.

The System: How To Actually Do This

Enough philosophy. Let's get practical.

Here's the exact system that works:

STEP 1: PICK YOUR DAY AND TIME

Choose one day of the week. Same time every week.

Whatever day you send is fine.

It's more important to send it than worry about the day.

When I ran @Work Hubs coworking space in London, we did the Write Club there.

I would always write the newsletter at the Write Club, and it went out every week because I knew I had a two-hour block sitting at a table with Phil and other writers.

Block this time in your calendar as if it were a board meeting. Because it is.

And in reality, if you run a community, this is a connection email newsletter, not a marketing newsletter.

So people will read it because it's you, not because you're trying to sell them soft drinks or cell phones.

STEP 2: CREATE YOUR SIMPLE TEMPLATE

Please keep it simple. Here's what works:

• Personal opening (what's on your mind this week?)
• Community spotlight (celebrate a member or achievement)
• What's happening (events, changes, opportunities)
• Learning moment (insight, tip, or observation)
• Personal closing (how you're feeling, what you're thinking about)

That's it. Five sections. 800-1,200 words total.

A GREAT example of this style is Mark Master’s ‘You Are The Media’ email shot every Thursday.

STEP 3: WRITE LIKE YOU TALK

Forget everything you learned about "professional" communication.

Write like you're talking to a friend over coffee.

Use short sentences.

Ask questions.

Share what you're thinking, not what you think you should be feeling.

If you wouldn't say it to someone's face, don't put it in your newsletter.

Here's the thing about AI: when people write with AI and ask it to write about coworking and community, it spits out all the exact words.

Like “Fostering” and "innovation" and "rent arbitrage" and “meaningful connections” and “inspiring spaces”, so your voice sounds like everybody else in the industry.

Pro Tip: I only get my AI advice from Write with AI and Kofi at Urban MBA, not from Instagram ads. You should also stick to one or two trusted sources.

TL;DR - Don't ask AI to write for you; use your voice.

The biggest pro tip for using AI to help you write is to only ask it to do things you know how to do, then you’ll recognise if it’s shit or not.

STEP 4: MULTIPLY YOUR CONTENT

After you send your newsletter, break it into pieces:

• Each section becomes a social media post
• Key insights become YouTube shorts
• Personal stories become LinkedIn articles
• Community spotlights become Instagram posts
• Learning moments become Twitter threads

You've just created a week's worth of content from one hour of writing.

STEP 5: TRACK WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERS

Don't get obsessed with open rates and click-through rates.

Pay attention to replies.

Pay attention to conversations that start because of your newsletter.

Pay attention to people who mention something you wrote when they visit your space.

Pay attention to booking inquiries that reference your content.

That's community engagement. That's what actually matters.

In reality, when you're writing a newsletter to some form of community, you are writing to people who know you and you know them.

How to know what to write about

Write something you would want to read yourself, not something that you think would win an award at a HubSpot marketing conference or what you copied from the coworking space down the road.

One of the most significant problems with any writing is that you don't write what you would read yourself - you write because you're guessing what others might read.

These days, I email around 5,000 people every week through various newsletters and projects, and it is the specific details of each newsletter that make it enjoyable.

There are many larger audiences than I enjoy writing about, but I am not interested in those topics for a broader audience.

I've been sending email newsletters nonstop since 2008, and over the last five years, I've realised that 80% of what I was writing about wasn't something I was particularly interested in.

I was more interested in those things than in other things.

But I couldn't keep researching and writing nonstop about that 80% - I'm not particularly curious about it.

I need to jump out of the shower to make a note, or cook and write notes at the same time; that is what keeps my brain alive.

I'm exhausted by most marketing, startup, real estate, back-to-the-office, bro tech and even coworking conversations.

Life is urgent, wealth inequality is eating us, Gaza is being bombed and starved while we sit around talking about kombucha taps and coworking being worth $40.47 billion by 2030 - really? 🤮

What Kills Newsletters Before They Start

Here's where most people screw up:

Don't overthink the design. I spent months obsessing over email templates and fancy graphics. Nobody cares. They want to hear from a human being, not a marketing department.

Don't wait until you have "enough" subscribers. Start with ten people. Start with five. Start with your mum. Just start. Hector started with Cat Johnson, Jeannine and me.

Don't try to be everything to everyone. Your newsletter should sound like you. Not like every other coworking space. Like you, talking to people you care about.

Don't aim for perfection. Aim for consistency. Aim for authenticity. Aim for helpful.

Perfect is the enemy of done. And done is the enemy of never starting.

You don't need fancy tools.

• SendFox is a great place to get set up fast.
• SubStack, you only need to write!
• ConvertKit is for more advanced users.
• Nimble - the CRM I use even has a built-in email marketing component these days, so that you can get all your CRM and email newsletter in one place.

Pick one. Set it up. Start writing.

The technology doesn't matter. The consistency does.

The deeper truth about email and community

Email newsletters work because they mimic the way a real community operates.

In a healthy community, someone takes responsibility for keeping people connected.

• Someone shares news.
• Someone highlights what matters.
• Someone remembers to check in.

Your newsletter is that someone, scaled.

I used to email everyone in the coworking space about an event and then walk around without mentioning the event to them.

Then be pissed off when none of them showed up.

Then I started talking with people in the coworking space and mentioning those conversations in the email newsletter.

As a result, everyone started discussing the newsletter because they were featured in it.

This is the difference between making an announcement and instigating a conversation.

It's not about collecting email addresses.

It's about taking responsibility for the connections between people in your orbit.

That's not marketing. That's citizenship.

That's the work of building something that lasts.

We're living through a loneliness epidemic. People are more connected than ever, but they feel more isolated than ever.

Your coworking community is providing belonging. You're giving a connection.

You're providing a place where people can show up as themselves and know they matter.

Your newsletter is how you remind people of that. Every week.

Start This Week (Not Next Month)

The next time you feel tempted to chase the latest social media trend, remember this:

Every successful coworking space I know has a newsletter that people read.

Not because they have the best design or the cleverest copy.

Because they decided to show up consistently with something worth saying.

Here's your homework:

1. Pick your day and time this week
2. Choose your email platform today
3. Write to one specific person you know who represents your ideal member
4. Share one thing that happened in your space this week that made you remember why you do this work
5. Send it to everyone on your list, even if that's just 12 people

Do it again next week. And the week after that.

What would you write if you knew someone was actually listening?

Start there. Start today.

Bernie's Picks

📚 Book: A Couple's Guide to Menopause: Navigating the Change Together by Kate Usher & Neil Usher.

This isn't just about managing menopause - it's about how couples navigate massive life transitions together.
Find out more here.

📱 App: Kortex. One place for all of your ideas, notes, highlights, and writing.

Piece it all together with Kortex kAI, without sacrificing your creativity. I love tools that help you connect dots between different thoughts and projects.
Click here to explore.

🎧 Coworking Values Podcast: Fighting to Belong: Building Places Where Everyone Can with Vibushan Thirukumar.

Vibushan runs Oru Space and joins me to delve into the complex, human work of creating spaces where people don't just show up—they truly belong, from Palestine to Sri Lanka to Sutton.
Listen here.

📚Vigo’s Number One Coworking Space: How to Build Authentic Connections in a Village-Style Coworking Space, with Cristina González Fernández by .
Read Lucy’s post here.

Thank you for your time and attention today

Bernie 💚🍉