“As I was rocking my daughter Tahlia to sleep, I felt an overwhelming sadness that brought me to tears. I thought of all the Haitian mothers who were in chaos and darkness,” said Janine Cuthbertson, founder of the Moms for Moms Communities after the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January of 2010.
A ten year Colorado resident, she once lived in Miami and worked with Haitian students.
She was one of many moms in her community who felt disconnected to what was happening abroad and frustrated that she could not immediately offer help to these Haitian families.
Janine decided to take action by organizing a local relief effort. She needed a way to organize with her local community, and leveraged a local email distribution list.
As she carried out relief effort she grew frustrated with the limitations of email. After the Haiti relief effort was over Janine was inspired to find a better way to accommodate communication across the mom community.
Eventually Janine launched the Carbondale Moms for Moms community. This central hub became the go to place for discussion, community awareness and family support.
Janine working with the community to organize a relief effort
Janine’s story shows the power of passionate communities. Janine–the community organizer–provides a truly local experience for her members.
Janine’s community is bursting with user-generated content by moms for moms. She is the guardian of the community and cares about the user experience of each member and the overall integrity of the site.
The original Carbondale Moms for Moms community made traction so fast Janine was inspired to create more communities, and now the Carbondale Moms for Moms community is one of 9 thriving communities. All of these communities are run by moms local to the area of the community.
Janine’s story is a familiar one.
Gatekeepers of communities all over the web don’t want to inundate their community members with advertising. They are concerned with protecting the group. The community must always be a safe space where people can openly congregate around their passion without the interruptions of advertising.
At Linqia we feel influential community organizers like Janine are the future of the web.
We believe brands can earn entree into these communities only through meaningful, authentic content and experiences.
Only then will brands engage communities like Janine’s in the far corners of the social web.
Seamlessly matching brands with influential communities 