Chicago Gents Who Stroll
In the age of ‘social’ media, IRL connections are more difficult to come by than ever. The US Surgeon General calls loneliness a “public health crisis”. It’s estimated that 1 in 4 adults feel socially isolated.
GWS fights the loneliness epidemic by providing accessible, low-stress socializing opportunities for men in Chicago. Through our biweekly walks, social rock climbing days & cross-group collaborations, GWS is part of a greater force in the emerging socializing market.
Goal: Combat social isolation
Strategy: There are numerous social groups in Chicago, however, in this emerging market there are many blind spots. Mainly, a lack of men’s groups. From firsthand experience, this was due to men being more difficult to mobilize and specialized groups for niche communities.
It was almost a blue ocean opportunity. We understood the role we would fill and sought to make it a reality.
Tactics: The name of the game is accessibility. While niche communities are great, you are still isolated if you don’t fit into that niche. We keep our reach wide by centering around one of the most common activities, going on a nice walk. Through walks & other free events, we reduce the barrier to entrance across the board.
Recently, GWS has partnered with a local startup platform that helps connect social group leaders together, as we are all working toward a shared goal.
Results: With a leadership change in June, we have grown from ~200 IG followers to 1.1k in 4 months. We also average roughly 20 members per walk and have grown a Discord server of over 400.
Analysis: While we are still in our infancy, we are learning that connections are everything and building a network takes time. However, the most crucial elements to running a successful group are social media presence & collaboration. Monthly profile visits exploded over 1100% from our first collab event. More to come…