Time zones and global communities

A membership that attracts people from several continents is a wonderful thing. It brings a range of perspectives, keeps the forum active around the clock and often shows your topic has broad appeal. It also brings a practical problem that grows with every new country: there is no time of day that suits everyone. A live session at a comfortable evening hour for one group falls in the middle of the night for another.

Handled badly, time zones quietly split a community into members who get the live experience and members who only ever get the recordings. Handled well, a global community offers something for everyone, wherever they live. Here is how.

Find out where your members really are

Before rearranging anything, look at the data. Most membership software records members' countries or billing addresses, and your analytics can show where visits come from. Group members into broad regions and count them. You may find your membership is more concentrated than you thought, or that a region you rarely think about now accounts for a sizable share.

Imagine a global community for freelance translators run by an owner named Yuki. She assumed most members were in Europe, but a quick count shows three clear clusters: Europe and Africa, the Americas, and East Asia and Oceania. That changes how she plans everything.

Rotate live times fairly

If a regular live session always happens at the same time, the same members always miss out. Rotation spreads the inconvenience:

• Two or three rotating slots, so every region regularly gets a comfortable time.
• A published rotation calendar, so members can see well ahead which sessions suit them.
• Honesty about your own hours. It is reasonable to have times you will not work; just say so rather than leaving members guessing.

Yuki might run her monthly live workshop in three rotating slots, one comfortable for each cluster. Every member gets a convenient session at least once a quarter and can watch recordings of the rest.

Repeat the sessions that matter most

For sessions that really count, such as a new member orientation or an important announcement, consider running them twice, roughly twelve hours apart. It costs you more time, but nobody has to choose between attending and sleeping. Lightweight recurring formats such as virtual coworking sessions are easy to multiply across time zones by recruiting a member host in each region.

Make asynchronous the default

The most effective way to include a global membership is to rely less on live activity. Asynchronous formats, where members take part whenever suits them, work equally well everywhere:

• Discussion threads rather than chat, which favors whoever happens to be awake. The trade-offs are covered in choosing between chat and a forum.
• Recordings posted quickly, with a summary and a thread where questions can continue.
• Questions collected in advance for live sessions, so members who cannot attend still get answers.
• Challenges and events that run over days rather than hours, with deadlines stated clearly.

Bigger gatherings benefit too; running an online conference for your members includes ideas for shaping a live program around several regions.

Write times so nobody has to calculate

Time zone confusion causes more missed sessions than almost anything else. A few habits help:

• Use calendar invitations or event pages that show times in each member's own zone, where your platform supports it.
• Otherwise, list the time in three or four reference cities spread around the world.
• Avoid phrases like “tomorrow morning,” which mean different things in different places.
• Remember that clocks change for daylight saving on different dates in different countries, and not at all in many.

Here is a sample announcement:

Live workshop: pricing specialist translation work. This month's session is in our Asia and Oceania slot: 8 pm in Tokyo, which is 10 pm in Sydney, 11 am in London and 6 am in New York while their clocks are on winter time. Your calendar invitation will show the time in your own zone. Cannot make it? Post your questions in the thread below by the day before, and I will answer them live and in the recording. Next month's workshop is in the Americas slot.

Build regional hubs

As a global community grows, regional groups help members connect with people in their own time zone and working culture. Santiago, a member in South America, might host a regional group that meets at a time that suits his neighbors and discusses issues specific to their market. Regional hosts also help you understand needs you would otherwise miss.

Think beyond the clock

Time zones are not the only difference. Working weeks, public holidays and busy periods vary widely, and a challenge scheduled during a major holiday in one region will leave those members out. Before fixing major events, check the calendars of the regions where most members live. Consider language, too: members writing in their second or third language appreciate plain wording and patience.

Make your community work across time zones

• Count your members by region to see where they really are.
• Set up a rotation of two or three live session times and publish it.
• Run your most important sessions twice.
• Favor threads, recordings and multi-day events over live-only activity.
• Show times in members' own zones, or in several reference cities.
• Recruit regional hosts as the community grows.
• Check major holidays in each region before scheduling big events.