Our Square Readers Book Club is a space to learn new business strategies and connect with other members to share experiences and expertise. We provide opportunities for our Community members to co-host book club sessions, leading discussions and encouraging connections to help other business owners learn how to better their businesses. This resource is designed to help guide members who sign up to co-lead our sessions.
Expectations
We want to make this as simple and low-impact as possible, but still provide a great fulfilling experience for our members, and hit Community goals. We will work together to:
- Read the book
- Create & post discussion threads
- Respond to member comments
- Create & publish the Summary Post
Hosting Style
The tone and style we’re aiming for is presentable and guiding, but still fun and casual. Add in pictures, gifs, memes, emojis, and anything else to keep things light and engaging. Keep things light and positive, encourage sharing, and keep the conversation going. Be yourself! We want your personality and character to shine through, and for members to feel connected.
Responding to Comments
We want the Book Club to be full of engaging conversations between members. We found that the best way to do that, is to model it ourselves. Our goal is to respond to every comment, encouraging them and others to share more. Here are some key things to consider when answering comments:
- Keep it conversational
- Validate their points and perspective
- Support it with elements of the book
- Share your perspective and experience on what that said
- Ask follow up questions
Discussion Threads
Our goal is to post around once a week, so we will post at least 5 Discussion threads for each book. The post title should reference the book name whenever possible, or at least the topic of the book. Start each discussion thread with a 1-2 sentence conversational introduction. End with 2-3 questions for members to answer to reflect on the material of the book and how it relates to their business. I recommend drafting them in advance.
Here’s a breakdown of the 5 Threads:
- #1 is an Opening Discussion to encourage participation before members read the book. These are more general questions about their thoughts and experiences around the topic.
- #2 through 4 are Section Discussions that dive into the core of the book and encourage learning, deeper understanding, conversation, and connection with other members.
- Start with a short 1 paragraph summary of the book section key details and points. Feel free to add in 1 quote that captures the spirit of that section. Then introduce your 2-3 discussion questions.
- At least 1 Discussion is activity-based with more engaging elements for members to participate with each other in the comments. Get creative and think of fun ways to use the subject of the book to get members to help and share with each other.
- A great example of this was Get Social Media Advice for your Business, where members shared their social media pages and gave each other ideas on how to improve and implement learnings from the book.
- #5 is a Closing Discussion to reflect on what members have learned from the book, and key lessons they can or have implemented in their businesses. These questions encourage sharing experiences of the impact the book has had on their businesses.
After you post, please reply to it with a comment sharing your own answers to the questions. There will be 1-2 weeks without posts scheduled, but feel free to create extra posts for those weeks if you’d like. Halfway through, we’ll post an announcement/reminder about the next book.
Summary Post
We finish up with a Summary post recapping the book and discussions. It has a short overall summary of the core principles of the book, along with quick recaps and links to each of our discussion threads. @Pesso will pull a list of the top members who participated, and we’ll tag them in to thank them for participating. It has information about the next book and a reminder to join in on the discussions.
Sample Schedule
Some book sessions last 8 weeks, while others last 9. Here’s a suggested schedule for each:
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8 Weeks
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9 Weeks
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Become a Book Club Host
Is this something you’re interested in? Leave a comment here or post in the Square Readers Book Club!
