How Betches Uses Geneva to Mobilize Voters in the Group Chat

Emily, a St. Louis based social worker and recent grad student, was feeling politically burnt out heading into election season. “I put a lot of energy into the 2020 election and going into the midterms I was burnt out and exhausted,” Emily said. “Even though my friends and I have similar political perspectives, I wanted a community where I could talk about politics with other like-minded people, from Missouri and beyond.” When she clicked into the Betches Sup weekly newsletter in September she found her answer—the newly launched Betches Group Chat on Geneva.

If you pop into the Betches Group Chat on any given day you’ll see conversations on a range of topics – women across the country are discussing everything from the Georgia Senate race to how to deal with unwanted guests at your wedding. And it’s by design. When the team behind the digital media powerhouse launched their community on Geneva over the summer, they started with one of the most seasonally relevant segments of their community: Betches Brides. They opened the doors to their first 2,000 members across the globe getting ready for their big day, kicking off the home with rooms like “Am I The Bridezilla? 👰” and “Destination Wedding Planning 📍” to give the most active and, ahem, engaged audience members across the Betches Brides newsletter, Facebook, and Instagram followings a space to more deeply connect, ask questions, and share advice. And despite the massive scale of people they reach across their Instagram accounts (over 11 million strong), they chose to call their home on Geneva something much more intimate: the Betches Group Chat. “We were all talking about how we wanted this community platform, but we didn't want to call it ‘Community’,” said Lily, Marketing Manager at Betches. “But we're all a part of a group chat—you're in a family group chat, you're in a friends group chat. If you're going to a bachelorette party, there's a group chat for that. And so this is really our group chat; it’s the place where Betches HQ connects with our people, and our people connect with each other.”

When looking for the right home for their Group Chat, the Betches team prioritized safety and authenticity first and foremost. “Geneva was the perfect spot,” said Lily. “It's that light and airy feeling app where we can control who is entering and avoid trolls infiltrating the space. We want people to feel safe, included and to be able to connect in a more authentic way.”

Following the summer launch of the Group Chat with their Brides community, Betches has now turned to another timely topic their community is passionate about – voting. Sup is Betches political vertical where, as their Social Media Manager, Bridget, puts it, they “use humor and social media to break politics down and make all of the things going on in the world more accessible.” The team behind Sup was seeing that their audience was energized about the midterms, but didn’t have a venue to get involved or have discussions before November. “Launching Sup on Geneva was a way to get our most engaged audience in place where they can share actionable steps to take going into the midterms—phone banking, getting involved in campaigns, donating and just being more engaged citizens overall,” Bridget shared.

The Sup Group Chat launched on Geneva in September and has since become a sanctuary for women across the US looking to take action, learn, and sometimes just vent in a judgement-free space. The space has rooms for key election states from Arizona to Georgia along with rooms for members to chat about volunteering and even who’s on their “Political Burn Book”. “We broke the group down by state so it's been fun when debates are on to see people getting excited and live chatting about them in there,” Bridget shared. But like any good group chat, the power of the Betches Sup community is in how its members turn their online connection into real life action. Emily, the Missouri-based Group Chat member who, earlier in the summer was feeling political fatigue and burnout, shared that the group has given her a renewed sense of inspiration for how to get involved. “I love the passion that members of the Group Chat have about phone banking and canvassing and all of that. It's nice knowing that there are other people similar to me who are taking action.”

With election day approaching, Betches is preparing for what comes next for the Group Chat and the next timely conversations they can facilitate across their other verticals like parenthood, travel, and even dating. “A lot of people follow the Betches account on Instagram but there's so much more to Betches,” said Lily. “It’s been a great experience to not only have our people connect with one another and help each other out, but also to see exactly what they’re talking about and what they care about outside of social media.” As for Group Chat member Emily, she’s in the process of transitioning out of grad school and has just started a new job in St. Louis. Life transitions like Emily’s can be tough, but Betches wants to make it easier. Moving somewhere new? Starting a new job? Just trying to make some new friends? As far as Betches is concerned, there’s a Group Chat for that.