Hello, friends! We have some important updates to share regarding our Hazelnuts Community platform and the Hazel Village Hazelnuts Facebook group. (In case you are unfamiliar, the Hazelnuts are members of our customer loyalty program.)

First, a quick recap: at the end of March, we closed the Hazel Village Hazelnuts Facebook group and debuted the new Hazelnuts Community, which lives on a platform/app called Circle. This change came about for a number of reasons, which we’ll get into further down this blog post.

We recently sent out a survey and received many helpful responses, which led us to this conclusion: a lot of Hazelnuts miss the old Facebook group. We hear you, and we understand! It was clear to us that some changes needed to be made, so we came up with a plan that we hope will be a good compromise both for our small business team and for all of you.

Changes to the Facebook group

As of this moment, our official Hazel Village-run Facebook group has been reopened – with a new name! Instead of ‘The Hazel Village Hazelnuts’, the group is now called ‘Friends of Hazel Village’. The group is no longer Hazelnut-exclusive, and instead is open to anyone who loves Hazel Village. New members will simply need to fill out a brief questionnaire to join the group.

We will no longer be posting Hazelnut-exclusive content on this group, but we will post regularly to keep members informed about upcoming collections, new animal hints, and other such things. And of course, we will do our best to foster a welcoming atmosphere and encourage your love of the woodland friends!

We will not be conducting new collection livestreams on the Facebook group, but we will continue to upload the saved videos to our Hazelnut-exclusive unlisted Youtube playlist so you can watch them there. If you would like to participate in our Hazelnut livestreams in real time, you can do so on the Hazelnuts Community.

Changes to the Hazelnuts Community

The Hazelnuts Community will remain the social home base for members of our loyalty program. We are not changing anything about the content we currently post there, Hazelnut-exclusive or otherwise. However, we listened to your feedback and decided to make a few small changes to the functionality of the group.

We have downsized the number of spaces. As of now, the two spaces where you can post are The Lodge and Crafting Corner. All existing posts in retired spaces have been moved to The Lodge.

We have added a chat! The Hazelnut Chat is a place where community members can have ongoing conversations separately from posts and comment sections. We are excited to try this feature, so please let us know if you like it!

We also want to remind you that your notification settings on this platform are highly customizable. For instance, if you would like to only be notified when Hazel Village posts but not for anything else, you can set it up that way. 

Now, to answer a few questions we anticipate you might have:

Why not close the new platform and just go back to the Facebook group?

Simply put, we really like the new Hazelnuts Community! It is more customizable and offers far better organization than the Facebook group allows for, so from an admin perspective it is a distinct improvement. In addition to that, we have heard from many folks who are not interested in joining Facebook (or who are actively stepping away from it) but would still love to connect with other Hazelnuts. We are very happy to be fostering a pleasant and cozy socializing space that is separate from mainstream social media.

Why can’t the Facebook group stay Hazelnut-exclusive?

Maintaining two separate Hazelnut groups would be a lot of extra work for our small team, and would also create confusion. We understand that this decision may be disappointing to some of you, and we do apologize for that. However, we are confident that the change will have only a minimal effect on the atmosphere of the reopened Facebook group.

How do I join the Hazelnuts Community?

Thank you so much for asking! Just send us an email and we will give you a special invite link which allows you to create an account.

Once you have an account you can access this group in your web browser on mobile or desktop, or via the Circle Communities mobile app. If using the app, open it and enter the email address that you used to create your Hazelnuts Community account. It will take you straight there, and you won’t have to enter your email again next time.

What if I don’t want to be in either group?

That is perfectly all right! Here are all the Hazelnut perks you can still enjoy:

• Free USPS Ground Advantage shipping on all orders (or a $5 shipping discount if you are international)
• The Hazelnut Weekly, a special e-newsletter we send out every Friday with behind-the-scenes updates, announcements, and sneak peeks
• A detailed collection preview blog post for every launch, with all the photos, pricing, and product information
• Access to a monthly calendar on our website with upcoming collection launch dates
• Access to our Close Friends stories on Instagram (message us with your Hazelnut email to be added)
• Access to our unlisted YouTube playlist of Hazelnut livestreams from the workshop elves (email us for the link)

And other possible perks that we sometimes cook up when we have time. Plus, our fondest appreciation and regard! 

Thank you for reading these updates, friend! As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out via email at hello@hazelvillage.com ♥️