3.4 The importance of creating a mentors and mentees’ community
The process of mentoring is much more enriching with the support of a community. Sharing experiences with other mentors and mentees multiplies the benefits for everyone. One of the best ways to achieve or form this community is using tools or platforms such as the following ones:
It is a platform to meet people that share the same or relevant interests or ideas. There are different options to interact with other participants: join a group (check if there is any group that fits you), assist to events (different events take place every day, online and face-to-face events) or create a new group.
LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals of the same sector with similar interests to share their ideas, experiences and ask for advice. This social network also gives users the opportunity to join a group or create a new one.
Despite having more social or less professional use, Facebook Groups section can also be used as a means to create mentors and mentees community. Both platforms work in a similar way, you can join a group you find interesting or you can set up your own group.
As LinkedIn, beBee is a new social network, which aims to connect professionals with other entrepreneurs and contents of their interest. This network is formed by different hives (groups) where different bees (professionals) share their interests, experiences, information, etc. to contribute to the community.
If you work with WordPress, a less conventional but innovative way to create a community can be using BuddyPress. It is a plugin that helps you to build a community website with: members profiles, activity streams, users’ groups, chats, etc. In this case, previous knowledge would be required to develop it.
