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  • Thoughts on Using WhatsApp for Professional Communities?

    Paula Derrenger

    Paula Derrenger

    @paulad
    Updated: Sep 6, 2025
    Views: 102

    I’d love to hear your thoughts on using WhatsApp as a community platform for building a professional community. I’ve recently joined a few WhatsApp based communities; but I’m not convinced that it’s a good platform to host a professional, thriving community. I’m however open to ideas, opinions and thoughts.

    What works for WhatsApp:

    • Most people already have WhatsApp. No new app installs required.

    • Easy to onboard members. People join without hesitation.

    What worked against WhatsApp:

    • Most groups were full of self-promotion

    • Only 1 group had some real conversations and real people.

    • I had to mute all the communities because of frequency of notifications

    • No privacy. I don’t like to share my phone number with strangers.

    • The active group was chaotic. Impossible to keep track of good conversations.

    I had to mute the groups and even exit most of them. I sincerely believe WhatsApp is not meant for community building.

    What are your thoughts on using WhatsApp as a community platform for professional communities?

    2
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    @kaustubh-katdare • 1w

    tl;dr: WhatsApp is not a good choice for professional communities.

    I"ve built several professional communities in the past. The best advantage WhatsApp has is that it lowers the barrier to entry.

    Professional communities usually need following three things:

    • Structure
    • Longevity of content
    • Network

    WhatsApp is usually a great platform to 'test' your community and building a minimum viable community

    If you can get about 10 people to actively participate in your WhatsApp Group, you can begin testing waters with a full-fledged community platform.

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