"Closed Google, where you can get everything": how Dnipro entrepreneurs created an effective telegram chat that works for the victory

Anna Zaikina

February 25, Dnipro, a queue to the blood bank. People are waiting in the cold for several hours to replenish supplies – in the nearest future the donated blood will be needed. The local chat of entrepreneurs receives a message: we need to deploy a heating station. In three hours there is a tent, sweets, thermoses, blankets, and the owners of Dnipro cafes bring their coffee machines.

Earlier the business problems were solved in the chat. But since then, it has become a powerful community of entrepreneurs who help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Territorial Defense, the internally displaced people and doctors on a daily basis.

We all have a lot of chats now, and often there are more emotional messages than useful ones. How to organize effective communication when everyone is overstressed? We tell you about the example of a business chat in Dnipro.

To curb the flow of emotions in the chat, the moderator had to make considerable efforts.

There is the first message for February 24 in the screenshot – a call to join the "joint meditation for the defense of Ukraine." For some reason, the moderator missed and did not delete it, and now it hangs in the chat as a reminder of the chaos of the first days of the full-scale russian invasion.

What is the problem?

That we are oversaturated with information. Instant messaging is often the breeding ground for rumors, fakes, greeting cards and long fights. On February 24, prayers, patriotic songs and unproven calls for help were added.

"Imagine there are 260 entrepreneurs in the chat, and everyone is distracted to read a new message and be as helpful as possible. If we also read prayers or read the news there, it will be a defocus. Some people withdrew from the chat because they did not have time for the flow of emotions," said Vlada Mykolyuk, a founder of the PR agency PRoector and the School of brand evangelicals in Dnipro. This school is not related to religion: it teaches small and medium-sized business owners to promote their brand. The graduates of the school joined the joint telegram chat to stay in touch and help each other.

Vlada Mykolyuk in the merch by Kostya Krasnov. 

Vlada Mykolyuk in the merch by Kostya Krasnov. We told how Kostya paints eco-bags to raise money for the soldiers' armor. PR agency PRoector helped the boy: told about his project to a wide audience, digitized drawings and connected the community of entrepreneurs. The owners of the furniture factory took over the production of body armor, and the printing house prints merch – T-shirts, sweatshirts and shoppers.

Until February 24, the messages in this chat were written only on business issues. But in the first weeks of the full-scale war, two parallel processes started: on the one hand, the hedgehogs, sand for checkpoints and hundreds of portions of food were found, and on the other – the fears were shared about "somehow there are too many sirens today" and the outdated information that blood is urgently needed somewhere was brought.

What is the solution?

Thanks to the moderation and clear rules, the chat of entrepreneurs has returned to a productive "request-response" format. Probably it does not work for every community. But according to Vlada Mykolyuk, some people can create the most effective chat:

"There are people who have already built something, albeit small. Not necessarily a business. It can be a cultural event, a charity fund or an animal enclosure. It doesn't matter, the main thing is that they know the price for what they built, they are used to being responsible for it and bring things to an end. "

And another important component is having one person who is able to persuade and organize others.