When Alisha Friddle’s son, Braxton, turned 10 this June, his only wish was to have a big birthday party. The Fort Worth family had been through a tough year, particularly in the months leading up to the celebration, which focused on Alisha’s daughter graduating. For Braxton, who has autism and struggles to make friends and engage in typical activities like sports, the desire to celebrate his special day felt significant.
At the last moment, Alisha decided to reach out to her community via Nextdoor, sharing her son’s story and inviting local families to join them to sing “Happy Birthday.” To her surprise, the response from their neighborhood was overwhelmingly positive. Alisha shared, “We had multiple kids, multiple adults that have autistic family members or special needs family members. Just all the support from the community was so heartwarming. We had people driving by, honking and waving and just showing love.”
This powerful show of community spirit perfectly encapsulates the vision co-founder Nirav Tolia had when he helped launch Nextdoor in 2011. As a hyperlocal neighborhood network app, Nextdoor aims to foster connections among neighbors, and over the past 14 years, it has united over 100 million individuals worldwide. Recently, the San Francisco-based company announced a redesign of the app, introducing new features tailored to meet the evolving needs of its users.
Tolia reflects on the importance of community, stating, “Community is something that is the output of healthy interactions between neighbors, and you create those healthy interactions by providing utility. Nextdoor is that utility. The neighbors use it. They come together; they appreciate each other, and before they know it, they’re part of a community.”
The inception of Nextdoor dates back to Tolia’s upbringing in Odessa, Texas, where the local football culture fostered community cohesion. He remarked, “Odessa is all about community. And so to grow up in that environment, you learn very quickly the power of people coming together. When you’re around other people, when you’re part of a healthy community, the highs are so much higher, and the lows are not quite as low.”
Co-founder Sarah Leary shares a similar sentiment from her own childhood in Andover, Massachusetts. After Tolia and Leary moved to San Francisco, they were struck by the absence of the close-knit communities they had known. Leary explained, “It was where we were in our respective lives, where we weren’t right out of college anymore and kind of settling down, putting down roots, and realizing wait a minute, I don’t know the people who live around me.” She pondered whether they could leverage technology to rekindle local connections.
Together with Prakash Janakiraman and David Wiesen, Tolia and Leary founded Nextdoor with a mission to cultivate the sense of community they cherished. Today, the company boasts an impressive presence, serving 11 countries and over 340,000 neighborhoods globally.
Nextdoor distinguishes itself from other social media platforms through its hyperlocal focus. Unlike global-oriented apps such as Instagram or TikTok, Nextdoor curates content based on users’ locations. As University of Texas at Austin associate professor of marketing Ben Bentzin points out, participation is authenticated through real names and addresses, contributing to a sense of accountability and trust among users.
Instead of emphasizing individual user profiles, Nextdoor prioritizes community engagement, tapping into the dynamics of small neighborhoods. This targeted approach fosters trust and ensures that content remains relevant to local users.
Another aspect that sets Nextdoor apart is its community moderation system. Unlike many platforms that rely on algorithms or outsourced staff, Nextdoor employs designated community moderators who oversee interactions and maintain a positive atmosphere. Bentzin added, “There are some members that are selected as community moderators, and they have a special role, and that also then builds more of a sense of loyalty for them from the platform because they have this role to play moderating content.”
Under the leadership of Tolia and Leary, who returned to the company after several years away, the team is committed to modernizing the Nextdoor experience to meet contemporary user expectations. Tolia humorously noted, “I like to joke that if they asked a founder to come back and be CEO again, things must be pretty bad. But in reality, it was all about looking at our core product and thinking about how we can make it better.”
As the platform has faced challenges in the stock market and struggles to grow its active user base, the redesigned app aims to enhance the overall user experience. Tolia articulated, “The Nextdoor product wasn’t nearly as good as the Nextdoor concept,” emphasizing the necessity for improvement.
Nextdoor’s redesign comes with three major features intended to elevate user engagement. First is the integration with local news publishers across the U.S., allowing users to access relevant news articles directly within the app. By collaborating with over 3,500 local publishers, the platform aims to keep neighbors well-informed while promoting discussions about local happenings. Kelsey Grady, head of global communications at Nextdoor, stated, “The vast majority of Americans say local news outlets are important to the well-being of their community. The magic is bringing [the news] to the neighbors and then also seeing my neighbors talk about the article.”
The second feature is the introduction of real-time alerts for crisis situations. Previously reactive to crises, Nextdoor is now taking a proactive approach by delivering crucial information directly to users. Grady explained, “This real-time safety information has been a top request from our users. [This is] another way to really help keep neighbors safe, so safe in the moment, but also bring the neighbors together to discuss the situation, to support one another.”
Alerts will be color-coded to indicate severity levels, ranging from mild events like street closures to more serious situations such as fires or natural disasters.
Lastly, the new “Faves” section will spotlight local highlights and businesses within neighborhoods. Using AI technology, Nextdoor has compiled years’ worth of community discussions and recommendations to create a comprehensive guide for users exploring their locality. Grady mentioned, “We’re bringing a lot more AI to the forefront of the user experience with the new Nextdoor. Being able to use AI to summarize the local gems in the community is great to introduce.” Users can also ask questions within this section, utilizing AI to receive tailored responses.
These enhancements signal a shift in Nextdoor’s approach and underscore its commitment to creating a valuable space for users. Tolia noted, “It’s the beginning of [what] we hope [is] a better foundation to provide the value proposition that we believe so strongly in. We have 100 million registered neighbors. They’re going to get us feedback. We’ve talked to thousands of neighbors already. We’re about to hear from millions of them, and our job is going to be listening as carefully as possible and then responding.”
As Nextdoor embarks on this new chapter, it will face competition from other social media platforms that focus on video and viral content. Given the necessity for verification to ensure trust, growth may be more gradual than on platforms with less stringent sign-up processes. Bentzin commented, “It’s going to build one individual at a time, one neighborhood at a time, and that leads to a much more linear growth pattern.”
Despite these challenges, Nextdoor’s commitment to fostering genuine community connections remains at the forefront of its mission. The path forward may be complex, but with innovative features and a renewed focus on local interactions, Nextdoor seeks to reinforce its role as a vital resource for neighborhoods worldwide.
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