How to Start a Group Chat with Your Neighbors
Level up your political influence by building community
This week, I shared the opportunity to join the 2025 NYC June Primary Bootcamp. As a refresher: the goal of the Bootcamp is to level up your political influence. And have fun doing it!
Save the date for the Bootcamp Launch Party on Monday, April 14! Venue TBD— hit me up if you know a great spot for a party.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll post examples of how other people have accomplished different Bootcamp actions. It makes it easier to do it yourself when you have a how-to guide from someone else.
It’s worth 10 Bootcamp points to start a group chat with your neighbors.
Liam Rosen wrote a great post on how to start a group chat for your apartment building. I’m going to summarize the key points from his post here, but you should definitely read his full post and FAQ!
Why start a group chat? How does this help me level up my political influence?
Your political influence is based on a combination of three things: time, money, and social capital. Social capital is helpful for being able to do things like:
Hosting a fundraiser for an advocacy group or candidate
Sharing actions with your network (e.g. write your city councilmember about XX)
Sharing articles, notes, and recommendations with your network
One thing that happens when you get a bunch of neighbors together is that they get excited about solving a local problem. It’s natural: you get people together who live in the same place, and they immediately start to commiserate. Needles in the subway station. Rat infestation. Illegal weed shop next door. The more local the problem, the easier it is to solve. You can level up your influence, and the group’s, when you write in the neighborhood WhatsApp group: “I sent an email to our city council member today about the illegal weed shop. Here’s my note if you want to copy it and send your own.”
That’s the end game. But don’t jump there immediately– first, just start the group. See what flows. It’ll be mostly people asking for dog sitters or trying to give away stuff they don’t want.
Just to be clear: building community is not only a means to an end, but also an end in itself. Humans need personal connection– we need to feel like we belong. It’s way less fun to live among a bunch of anonymous neighbors. Use this guide to kickstart conversations with neighbors— it’ll be fun and rewarding.😊
My takeaways from Liam’s guide
Buddy system
Liam made the great point that collaborating with just one more neighbor is super helpful for maintaining momentum on getting the neighbor chat going. It’s more fun when you’re not doing it by yourself. He didn’t know any neighbors yet, so he had accountabilibuddy friends outside his building that made a pact to all try the same thing. Liam is also happy to be your accountabilibuddy– hit him up!
Picking a platform
Liam recommends using WhatsApp for your group chat, since it’s the most accessible option for group chats. He also gives pros/cons for other options like Telegram, Slack, and Discord. I’d be curious if folks have used Facebook groups as well– they have a great interface and clearly people are still using Facebook groups because Buy Nothing is the only way the world continues to go round.
Onboarding neighbors
This is the most helpful part of the guide! Liam gives his example flyer and multiple ideas for how to disseminate.
I didn’t expect that there might be rules against flyering within an apartment building. Liam came up against this– he was putting this flyer (see below) under neighbors’ doors and his super texted him and told him to stop. I totally agree with Liam that begging for forgiveness is better here than asking for permission.
He also gives tips for sharing the group chat by posting on a bulletin board, talking with your neighbors (gasp!), and asking folks to add more neighbors. Definitely use a QR code to make it quick and easy for people to join.
Kicking off the chat
Establishing a positive culture in a chat from the beginning is key. Liam’s flyer clearly explained the purpose of the chat without laying out strict rules. He was able to keep it casual and flexible and allow the conversation to naturally evolve. Here’s his intro message template:
“I’m Liam and I’ve lived here since April 2022, in <unit>. I made this because this is lowkey the best building in the city and thought we could use a bit more COMMUNITY. Feel free to use this group to buy/sell/give away stuff or whatever you feel like is a good fit.”
Don’t let fear stop you from trying
Liam shares how to overcome some common “what ifs”:
What if my building already has a group chat?
What if my group chat turns into the negativity of NextDoor?
What if I’m not the right person to lead this?
He’s right: You are the right person to lead this. No one else has done it, or at least not successfully if you haven’t heard of any other group chat. You can set a positive culture in the chat and people will follow your lead. Other neighbors probably thought that it would be nice to have a building chat, but you’re the only one that is doing it. Thus, you are the right person to start it.
Help Liam toward his goal
Liam’s goal is to inspire 26 people to create group chats for their buildings by the end of 2026. Let him know if you start yours! And join 2025 NYC June Primary Bootcamp to get 10 points for getting started building community!
Yes!