How to make your own Buddies group

So, you want to make a group like Girona Buddies!

You don't need money. All you need is a phone and perseverance.

Why start a group?

• To help people meet each other
• To help people make friends
• To help people support each other (languages, advice, etc)

Step 1. Make a WhatsApp group

Good news: this is easy and takes one minute on your phone!

In WhatsApp:

1. Tap the + button
2. Tap New group
3. Add at least one person
4. Choose a group name
5. Tap Confirm

You need at least one other person to make a WhatsApp group! This could be your friend or family member.

Group name

For the group name, we recommended your city/town + Buddies. For example:

• Girona Buddies
• Krakow Buddies
• Paris Buddies
• New York Buddies
• Dehli Buddies

Why the word "Buddies"? Buddies means "friends", which is the aim of the group: to help people make new friends. Buddies is also a fairly uncommon word, so a lot of social media handles for it are still free, and it also from a branding perspective it means we can add our own meaning to the word because people don't use it much.

Step 2. Tell people about the group

The next step is tell people about your new WhatsApp group.

First, you need the link to your new WhatsApp group. Every WhatsApp group has a link that lets people join it by tapping on it. To get your link:

1. open the WhatsApp group
2. tap on the group name at the top of the group
3. scroll down and tap on Invite via link or QR code
4. tap continue
5. tap Copy link

Next, you need to write the message telling people about your new group. Post something friendly, personal, and human. Here is the original Girona Buddies message:

Hola you!

I am Denise, 28 years old, from Germany and just decided to move to the area around Girona because I just fell in love with the surrounding of mountains and ocean.

I love all kind of action sports and outdoor activities, like climbing, hiking, kitesurfing, (aerial) yoga or snowboarding.

But i also have a passion for baking, beeing creative and partying. If you are also looking for some active frinds or just want to go out somethimes for a nice coffe-break or salsa-bar-night and practice spanish together, you can just send me am message with your phone number and I add you to a whats-app group for all adventurer out there!

Looking forward to meet you soon!

Make sure to include the WhatsApp invite link so people can join the WhatsApp group!

Tips:

• Include a smiling photo of yourself
• Sound like a real person, not an organisation

Finally, you need to post this message somewhere. Places to promote your WhatsApp group:

• Local Facebook groups
• The subreddit for your town, city, or region

For Girona Buddies, our founder (Denise) posted in a local Facebook group called Girona Costa Brava Expats International.

Step 3. Organise the first meetup

Once you have 20-30 members, it's time to organise your first ever meetup. Choose a safe public place like a cafe or park.

Important! Always take a photo of every meetup. Why?

• People who didn't come will see the photo and get FOMO; so they will more likely to come next time.
• Photos build trust
• Photos help attract new members
• Photos show the group is real
Most importantly, people are apprehensive about trying new things, but showing them a photo of what that thing is going to look like can alleviate some of that fear.

Ask permission before you take photos of people. This can be something as simple as saying, "Okay everyone, we're going to take a photo." This gives people a chance to move out of the way if they don't want to be in the photo. If you take photos without asking, someone may complain later if you post the photo online, and you may have to remove it.

Step 4. Keep organising meetups

Many WhatsApp groups have hundreds of members but are completely dead. Why? Because no one organises anything. People never meet in real life, so no one makes a connection, so the group becomes silent, then useless.

If meetups stop, the group will die.

Members are not enough. Meetups + members are what keep a group alive.

If nobody comes

Some meetups will fail. You will go to a café or a park and no one will show up. This is normal. Stay there anyway. Read a book. Do some work on your laptop. A meetup where no one comes is not a disaster. In fact, it’s quite safe, because no one except you knows it failed.

A failed meetup is feedback. Use the opportunity to think about how to improve the next meetup. Was the time bad? Was the place wrong?

I once organised a music jam in the park. No one came. I sat in the park and played guitar alone for an hour and then went home. I felt disapointed and let down but it didn't stop me from organising meetups. Another meetup I organised was a lunch in a restaurant. 20 people came, which was the total capacity of the restaurant. We filled the entire restaurant. Maybe people didn't want to play guitar together, but they did want to eat lunch in a restaurant together.

Step 5. Let others organise meetups

At first, you will do most of the organising. That’s normal. But encourage others to organise things too. Say things like: “If anyone wants to organise the next meetup, go for it!”

If nobody does, then you organise the next one. And maybe the next one too.

Step 6. Turn it into a community

Once the WhatsApp group gets too busy (people feel overwhelmed by too many messages, conversations overlap), this is the moment to turn your group into a community.

In WhatsApp:

1. Tap on your group's name
2. Add group to community
3. Tap New community
4. Tap Get started
5. Enter a community name
6. Create the community

Ideas for subgroups:

• Language groups
• Hiking
• Parents
• Music
• Sports
• Volunteering

Don't make a subgroup unless there is already interest in one. Otherwise you could end up with a instantly dead subgroup.

Step 7. Create more admins

You will probably be the admin in all the subgroups at first. But you will need more admins to help you handle problems when you're away from your phone. Choose people who are responsible and active.

Step 8. Create social media accounts

To survive, you need new members. Members will invite their friends, but this isn't enough.

Useful platforms:

• Instagram (you can post all the group photos here)
• Facebook (doesn't work as well as Instagram)
• Meetup.com (works well, but costs €150 a year. Although this looks expensive, but it only around €12 a month, and this cost may be worth it to attract more members and keep the group alive.