About us

About 
We love communities

We love communities has been founded to help everybody who wants to do ‘something’ with communities. Namely, as an individual, influencer, professional and as a company, you can utilize your community very well to make your ambitions come true. Communities are a trend. Facebook has adjusted its mission and is going to focus mainly on communities in the next 10 years. In this enormously digital world full of stimuli and fake news, people feel the need to connect with people who have the same passion, whom they can trust.

Why is it that online communities are quickly becoming the big secret to many business’ and social movements’ growth and success? 

Today, the power of community, something that we have leaned on since the dawn of time, is what smart companies are relying on to nurture customer relationships, inform their strategies, develop better products and conduct market research - all in a meaningful, appealing and customer-centric way.

There's no question that digital communities can create a sense of belonging, solidarity and trust - but the challenge is how to create a meaningful community that is a win-win for both community leaders and members alike. 

Through 37 interviews with best practices and secret trucks of the trade, Maartje Blijleven has done the work of figuring out this challenge for you. Hear how successful communities were begun, built upon, and continue to thrive, and learn secrets and tricks of the trade from some of the best-known and most well-respected digital community leaders in the Netherlands and beyond.

We Love Communities was written not only to offer you a step-by-step plan for implement an online community, but also to bring you more visibility and the thought leadership you deserve. The book will be published in Dutch in september 2019. For everyone who is passionate and has a good idea for a community. Or if you want to make your existing community even more successful.

There are also plans to translate the book into English. Can't wait? Request the free summary with the step-by-step plan now.

At We love communities you will learn:
- Why communities are necessary to stay relevant
- What the latest trends are in the area of communities
- What the secrets are of a successful community
- How you yourself can start a successful community (including step-by-step plan)
- How you activate your community (and find ambassadors who like to help you)
- How you attract new members and make your community grow fast
- How you leverage your community for commercial success
- Bonus: trucks of the trade of some of the best community leaders
- And so much more.

We love communities is a community voor community lovers. So, especially for you. Right now, you can read just the basic information on this website, but very soon you can read a lot more here. We love communities!

“Passion is energy,” says Oprah Winfrey. “Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” 

And as a fan of online communities you can only agree with that. You know what happens when you talk about your favorite subject, right? You get that spark in your eyes that others immediately recognize and it’s fun. It helps to connect. We all like to connect with people who share the same passion. In communities it’s easy to do that. And you’ll see that it gives you a lot of positive energy. It’s fun!

About Maartje Blijleven

My name is Maartje Blijleven and I am absolutely passionate about communities. Of course, I’ve experienced these face to face throughout my life - at school, in the neighbourhood, at work. However, as a digital consultant, I’ve seen the rise of online communities take the power of offline communities and multiply those by tens - thousands even - to bring us in contact with people we are connected with in just about every place where we really need those connections. 
 
Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege to work for great well-known brands such as Endemol, KLM, Postcode Loterij, Heineken, Peugeot, Schiphol, Dyson and others for over 20 years now. I have been unconsciously building communities my entire career due to my natural attraction to these, and only in the last few years have seen first hand the potential that these have to grow brands in a way that resonates with all of our favourite buzzwords ;-) “Authentic”. 

For Endemol, I’ve worked on their show Big Diet, for people who wanted to lose weight, and created a digital community so they had support. For KLM we launched KLM Club China to meaningfully connect frequent business travellers between Holland and China. For Schiphol I activated an internal community to get people on board to successfully implement the digital transformation. Just some examples from during my career, to give you an idea. 
 
Next to working for well-known brands I also have experience with (digital) communities in a different way. I also am founder of the Community Leaders Club, for Dutch small businesses who want to make an impact with their own online community. Other than being a digital consultant and an author, I am a regular keynote speaker at (international) events. 

Other facts about Maartje Blijleven, founder of We love communities:
  • Maartje Blijleven lives in Amsterdam, together with her son, daughter and spouse.
  • You can meet her on her bicycle, or in her grey BMW-1.
  • She does kickboxing 2-3 times per week to stay fit.
  • She loves to dance, preferably on R&B and Hip-hop music. 
  • In 2002 she wrote the book Beauty with Brains, a handbook for beginning models. To inform young models about the business side of modelling.
  • Maartje Blijleven is a passionate volunteer to work for more diversity and inclusion in the creative sector, because she believes that improves our work. To that end she co-founded together with Arno Peperkoorn, Stephan Alspeer and Nadine Ridder, the IncludeNow. foundation – additional to the community in April 2012.

Maartje Blijleven appears in the news on a regular basis. You might have seen her in the Adformatie, Marketingfacts, Emerce, MarketingTribune and LBB. Would you like to invite Maartje for an interview or as an expert in the media? Get in touch. 
During my career I have had the privilege to work for beautiful well-known brands such as Endemol, KLM, Postcode Loterij, Heineken, Peugeot, Schiphol, Dyson and others, already for over 20 years. But I also work with small companies and individuals. I have a special preference to work for people and companies that apply Corporate Social Responsibility. 

Testimonials

“Maartje showed us why the time has never been better to leverage communities in order to achieve, maintain and grow our business. I would strongly recommend to ask Maartje as keynote speaker at your next event.”
Rik Ledder, managing director TBWA/Neboko
“Maartje gave us an energetic speech about the power of communities. She shared relevant cases and interact with the group effortlessly: the ideas generated during the interactive part are very valuable to us. As a passionate keynote speaker to empower women, Maartje earns my highest recommendation.”
Coco Seignette, Event manager MediaMonks HQ
“Maartje gave such an inspiring talk to our associates, which we're hearing so much positive feedback about. One part in particular that we loved about her talk was stressing that we should have fun with what we do, as that's so important for engagement and an underlying theme we stress at Nielsen Netherlands. Thank you for reinforcing that so well!”
Stephanie Manning, Marketing & Communications Leader Nielsen
“Maartje Blijleven worked together with me at KLM. The projects we where operating where online business clubs KLM Club China and KLM Club Africa. She conducted different aspects of these two communities such as, managing content, member support coordinating offline events, etc, etc. She is very motivated and flexible to work with.”
Stuart Makosi, Manager Online Business Communities KLM
“Maartje has been an exceptional help on our digital journey, delivering quality, on time and above expectations. Maartje not only is extremely knowledgeable in all things digital, she is able to simplify subjects depending on the audience, increasing knowledge fast and effectively for everyone.”
Tomas Centeno, Managing Director Benelux Dyson, about Maartje's keynote speech about digital technology trends
“Most CEOs have overcrowded agendas with little additional time or energy to keep ahead of developments in the digital field - social media, digital marketing, website technology and other business opportunities. If you are also overburdened with digital developments and how they impact your business, I can wholeheartedly recommend Maartje.”
Boudewijn Poelmann, founder Novamedia and Dutch Postcode Lottery
“Maartje’s enormous dose of positive energy makes it a pleasure to have her in meetings and brainstorms. She gives her team the freedom to explore and is always up for new and innovative ideas. Maartje is able make dreams come true by bringing creative peoples ideas into real actions and (operational) marketing plans. I love her friendly and pragmatic way or working. I would highly recommend Maartje to anyone who wants to take his or her business to the next level.”
Valerie Boerman, Co-founder + Interior Designer at Barde + vanVoltt
“Maartje is able to think and act on strategical, tactical and operational level. Her excellent communication and organisation sensitivity skills lead to good teamwork with all stakeholders & projectteam members. She is a real team player and able to get the best out of the people she works with. A few last words to describe her as a person, Maartje is very loyal, trustworthy, responsible, clever and last but not least she has a nice sense of humor. And as I have been working with Maartje for quite some years I can honestly she is the perfect colleague to work with!”
Marie-Louise Mulleman, IT Project / Integration Manager Customer Experience (a.i.), Tele2
“With all her initiatives, Maartje has a beautifully structured mind, great project management skills and a subtle intuition for coordinating and motivating her team. Besides her professional skills, I highly appreciate her healthy sense of humor and the fact that she is always open to innovative ideas, new people and cultural experiences. I am glad to have had the opportunity to work with Maartje and I will happily recommend her for all her future communication projects.”
Raluca Alexandru, Data & programmatic at Weborama
“Professionalism, involvement and commitment are the keywords that come to mind when I think about Maartje. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing her for 2 years during which she was in charge of the Business Development of the Weborama offering in The Netherlands. Above all, I was impressed with Maartje’s ability to manage projects and build solid client relationships. And, of course, her fast learning capability to adapt herself to an ever changing environment. A true asset for any company searching for digital professionals. I highly recommend.”
Abelardo Ibanez, Vice President International, Weborama
“Brilliant to have you share insights with us. Let’s make sure the NL creative industry isn’t left behind as we embrace a world of inclusion and equality. Together.”
Kerrie Finch, founder of FinchFactor, about Maartjes's presentation about diversity and inclusion in the Dutch creative industry 
“Maartje really contributed to a large extent in the adoption of digital within Schiphol. And also outside. Every day we find it so difficult to express what digital actually is. A lot of people are completely clueless. But we need them to understand the benefits of digital, in order to drive a successful digital transformation. Maartje is a true asset to any organisation which is going through a digital transformation and want to get people on board in order to drive change. She comes with my personal recommendation.”
Roy Scheerder, Chief Digital Officer, Royal Schiphol Group

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