Creating Content That Connects – and Reflects Your Coworking Culture, Community and Vibe, with Alana Harris
Why authentic, people-first marketing is the secret to creating coworking content that resonates with audiences.
Brand Manager Alana Harris lives the Projects experience every day. Based in Brighton, Alana not only shapes the coworking space brand from the inside out but is also immersed in the community that defines it.
Since opening its first space in 2018, Projects has built an impressive online presence – nearly 9,000 Instagram followers, and hundreds of likes, comments, saves, and shares on each post. The team also cultivates strong personal brands online, such as Managing Director Alex Young, who amplifies Projects’ story and its values even further. As a collective, the team has built an impressive marketing presence.
In this special edition of People Make Coworking, Alana shares all things marketing for coworking operators. What stands out most in our conversation is how authentic, people-first content can transform coworking marketing into something that truly connects. Read on to find out how.
1. Can you share a little about Projects and your role as Brand Manager?
Alana: Projects runs two coworking spaces in the heart of Brighton. We’re a certified B Corp workspace, on a mission to provide a home for better business. We operate workspaces where work isn’t just about fixed hours or static spaces, it’s about community, lifestyle, and, really importantly, flexibility.
In practice, our spaces are specifically designed to be incredibly beautiful, providing that ‘wow factor’ when you walk through the door. They’re also highly optimised and functional, with great WiFi, lots of phone booths, and amazing meeting rooms.
We create moments for connection, for our members and people who use our spaces, whether that’s in the coworking space, at a networking event, or a workshop.
We’re also creating moments where people can unwind, disconnect, and recharge. That might be through our yoga classes or work classes, or unwinding at one of our parties, where our community can have a bit of fun.
Lastly, we’re super passionate about creating flexibility for people. Every single day, the world of modern work is changing. As a workspace provider, we’re creating and adapting our environments to our members’ needs, not the other way around, to make their working life the best that it possibly can be.
My role as brand manager covers a scope of things: I’m responsible for brand strategy, marketing, and community engagement. Day to day, that could look like anything from creating posters and working on website changes, to working closely with our community and marketing lead, Ethan Phoenix Kentish, on all things socials and email marketing. I also drive our partnerships and event program.
2. Projects place its community at the heart of your marketing. What inspired you to do this, and how do you capture the vibe and culture?
Alana: Featuring people in our content is a no-brainer. Firstly, it’s the people in our spaces, our team, and our members who genuinely make it so special; they’re the ones activating it and bringing it to life. Capturing that for our social media and having that represent what it’s like to work at Projects makes complete sense.
From a strategic perspective, people connect with people. Showcasing our members working, thriving, and networking, whether that’s at an event or in one of our meeting rooms, authentically represents what’s happening within our spaces. That’s always been our top-performing content.
Within our spaces, our people help create our vibe and culture. They make our events successful, and they collaborate and create the magic. Within our walls, they work on endless amazing projects, which we like to highlight. Placing our community at the centre of our content captures that vibrancy, creativity, and life within our spaces.
For that same reason, we also choose to capture the wider Brighton community, such as local businesses, creatives, or independent brands, who may not be Projects members, but are part of the city’s wider fabric.
Our content highlights what happens within our spaces and what’s around them. This shows the energy within our spaces and the vibrancy of Brighton. For us, it’s all about celebrating the people in the community behind our space and Brighton.
3. Which social media channels work best for you and why?
Alana: Instagram is our core channel focus. We find that it’s perfect for showing the personality behind our space, and it works best for us in terms of brand awareness and reach.
The stats on some of our lifestyle pieces are wild! For example, one of our last posts received over 2000 likes and nearly 1000 saves – this really reflects the reach and brand awareness we’ve grown on Instagram.
Our second channel is, of course, LinkedIn. It’s where our work content does better and resonates more, whether that’s an announcement, professional insight, or blog post.
This year, we’ve also used LinkedIn specifically to repurpose team-generated content from Instagram. For example, if we post five beautiful pictures on Instagram, Ethan might repost them on LinkedIn with his own thoughts, perspective, and narrative. Repurposing that content to fit that specific platform has been really successful.
Our team is our brand and culture. Empowering our team is beneficial; it authentically shows who we are and the people behind the brand. For instance, Ethan is really passionate about men’s mental health and sustainability, so we empower him to focus on those topics and create narratives around them.
4. How do you embrace AI in your marketing?
Alana: Across the board, we’re trying to use AI to empower people to function better day to day. Things like improving processes and streamlining, especially within marketing, but not using AI to take ideas or that originality away.
For me, AI can streamline my processes so I have more time for creative thinking, brainstorming with Ethan, speeding up my emails, or responding to something faster. It’s freeing up time so originality can still happen.
We need to be mindful about how we’re using AI, especially for creativity. AI can be addictive; in that sense, it can be a slippery slope.
One of the most beautiful parts of my role is the people I work alongside. We support creative people who create amazing content for our brand. We certainly won’t be using any AI-generated images or video – I’d never want to take away that people element.
5. Are there any lessons or observations you’ve learned along the way that might inspire other coworking operators?
Alana: One massive lesson for us this year has been just how effective lifestyle content can be for our reach. Showing that broader culture around your space, whether it’s local businesses, restaurants, or news, can engage people. It’s a great way to localise your content.
Everything you do has to tie back to your brand; otherwise, it can feel disconnected. For example, when we feature a new Brighton restaurant, it feeds back into that community pillar of spotlighting local businesses, but also shows off our central location and the lifestyle benefits of working at Projects.
To broaden your reach, you have to be strategic about it, and not just post random, disconnected content. At Projects, we’re full of creators, foodies, and people who enjoy life outside of work. Leaning into that is always going to resonate. So, when we feature restaurants, we link that back to our brand. It’s a really good way for us to know what’s going on in the city.
We also feature local business owners in our Instagram roundups. I reach out to them about a partnership or offering a discount to our members. It’s a nice way for us to genuinely connect with other businesses within the city. And then when our members step outside our spaces, and go out with their friends or on weekends, they may benefit from that 10% discount for a local coffee shop or a restaurant.
Ethan and I work from the spaces every single day to feed that authenticity, as we’re able to capture those moments in the spaces. Having a localised presence is really beneficial as we can witness moments in the spaces that represent us, and capture them in our content. That’s invaluable.
It also means we’re not fabricating it. You can try to recreate the moment, but in our case, it’s genuine. Especially nowadays, where people see through the inauthenticity, it means that brands have to be more creative and authentic online. This can only be a good thing moving forward.
People Make Coworking: Special Edition
This special edition (#17) of People Make Coworking features Alana Harris, Brand Manager at Projects coworking spaces in Brighton. People Make Coworking celebrates the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement.
If you’d like to share your story in ‘co’, please get in touch. I’d love to speak with you for a future feature.
Creating Content That Connects at GCUC UK
To dig deeper into creating content that connects, join me tomorrow at GCUC UK – I’m facilitating a workshop at 2pm that does exactly that. I’d love to see you there.
In the meantime, check out this additional resource to help support your marketing.
