Facebook Announces 2021 Communities Summit, $350k Community Awards Program

For the year 2021, Facebook has scheduled the date of its Communities Summit to November 4th. At this virtual event, the social media giant will gather numerous moderators from various Facebook groups to share insights, recommendations, and sneak peeks at new tools and features coming their way.

This is how Facebook describes it: “The Facebook Communities Summit is an opportunity to bring together community builders from around the world so they can connect with one another, hear from our executives about the latest product features and learn from each other’s experiences. This year, FCS will be hosted virtually and we will showcase our latest products that will empower group members and admins to build meaningful and impactful communities and highlight those making a difference across the world.”

During previous Communities Summits, many group features, like moderation tools, group-ad options, new group types, and more, were introduced to the user community.  Facebook is constantly experimenting with new group features, the most recent of which include the ability to share posts across several groups and the introduction of Community Awards to reward good behaviour.  At the November event, these may be given more attention. At the same time, Facebook may unveil even more group features to help with effective management and maintain the use of one of the platform’s core engagement tools.

The ‘Community Awards’ initiative, also launched by Facebook, will recognise and reward moderators for their efforts in creating and maintaining their communities.  A total of 22 people have been nominated in seven categories for the first-ever Facebook Community Awards. These people are inspiring others, making a difference, and bringing people together from a variety of backgrounds and interests.  A sum of $50,000 will be awarded to the seven finalists, along with mentoring and other resources from Facebook to help them succeed.

People can share their stories and cast votes for their favourites as a way to help us choose the winners. Decide who inspires you the most by casting your vote here. Voting is available from 7 to 22 October on mobile devices. Each person may only vote once in each category. Awards will be presented at the Facebook Communities Summit, where winners will be announced.  Because groups have 1.8 billion active users, Facebook needs to do everything it can to keep them engaged and entice them to return more frequently. 

More and more people are migrating away from public sharing and the backlash that can accompany it in favour of more private conversation within friendly, like-minded communities.  In light of the COVID incident, group activity has become even more relevant, and while this has led to concerns about filter bubbles and even radicalization for certain people, Facebook groups have shown to be a crucial means of connecting people across major divides in many different ways.

Learn more about the Facebook Communities Summit and RSVP here. You can also listen to all of the Summit activities on the Facebook App Page.