#22. Marinos Giannis. The story about youth, volunteering, and power of community. Greece 🇬🇷

Marinos Giannis is a Community Manager and Co-Owner of InfinityGreece, a social enterprise based in Thessaloniki. 🇬🇷

What makes his story special is the way he moved from photo and video production into leading a youth-oriented community. InfinityGreece is about volunteering, media, digital skills, youth empowerment, and social entrepreneurship — and Marinos is right in the center of all this, making sure volunteers grow into leaders and projects bring meaningful impact.

I’m very glad to share this new story from Greece within my Community Managers’ Stories project.

Enjoy!

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Alla Zhdan: Introduce yourself briefly: your current role, where you are from, and where you live. ;)

Marinos Giannis: Hello everyone, my name is Marinos Giannis, and I am the Co-Owner & Community Manager at InfinityGreece. I am from Greece, specifically from Thessaloniki, where I currently live. InfinityGreece is a social enterprise that empowers young people aged 18 - 30 years old, both personally and professionally. We make that happen through volunteering, educational, and mobility projects.

Alla Zhdan: Tell a bit about your journey into Community Management: how did you transition from video production into community building?

Marinos Giannis: I started volunteering at InfinityGreece around 4 years ago. I joined the volunteer community at the photography and videography team, and after 1 year, I became Team Leader at our project management team. For the past two years, I have been working as a Community Manager, also handling some media tasks such as photoshoots and montages. From day one, I had a big passion for this ,organisation and my energy and dedication helped me develop more soft and hard skills through my two volunteering years. I have always been active at our team meetings, projects, and community engagement activities. That was crucial for me getting offered the paid Community Manager position.

Alla Zhdan: InfinityGreece is structured around volunteering, media, digital skills, youth empowerment, and social entrepreneurship. Which of these pillars do you work with as a Community Manager most closely, and what impact have you seen?

Marinos Giannis: My field is mostly centered around youth empowerment, volunteering, and media skills. I firmly believe that the biggest and most important impact someone can see is people that once were your team’s members, starting to develop, evolve, and become leaders themselves.

Alla Zhdan: What was the latest extraordinary achievement of your community that you helped to gain?

Marinos Giannis: I believe that our latest achievement is the organisation of this year’s “Impact Showcase,” a valuable yearly project of our organisation that acts as a final evaluation of our achievements. We had a great experience planning and making sure that our guests had an insightful and fun evening, and the result really paid off.

Alla Zhdan: As a Community Manager, you’re training and leading volunteers every year. What are your core responsibilities in doing this, and how does your day-to-day look in practice?

Marinos Giannis: There are a lot of different responsibilities, from interviewing new volunteers, training them, ensuring we have a well-bonded community and, most importantly, making sure every one of our nine volunteer teams works properly. My day-to-day can vary a lot, from organising meetings, workshops, and quick feedback calls to planning a project, doing some photo or video editing, or even making small adjustments to a platform we have for our volunteers.

Alla Zhdan: What are the specific challenges and opportunities of managing youth-oriented communities (18–30 years old) in Greece?

Marinos Giannis: Here in Greece, I think our biggest challenge is how to keep our volunteers active and engaged. Everyone is trying to find a job, finish their studies, or attend a seminar or a course, all in the hope that a better work opportunity arises. Here in Greece, especially since the COVID pandemic, this is highly visible, much more so than before. Therefore, it is a challenge to help young people who are so overwhelmed understand the value of volunteering and how much it benefits them as well.

Alla Zhdan: In your opinion, which soft skills are the most critical for a Community Manager? Which hard skills (such as data analysis, project management, or digital media) are indispensable for this type of work?

Marinos Giannis: I believe you need to be able to make other people feel safe around you, to trust you. Being dependable is crucial for this role, as are active listening and being empathetic. For hard skills, you certainly need project management and basic digital skills (using Google tools, Microsoft tools, Canva, CapCut, WordPress).

Alla Zhdan: In your LinkedIn you mentioned your passion for mathematics, problem-solving, and creative work, such as photo/video editing. How do these skills support and enrich your community management role?

Marinos Giannis: In every project, something will go south, so having a strong problem-solving and analytical way of thinking is really beneficial at times like that. Being creative helps build presentations and video guides in a fun, interactive manner, making them more appealing to viewers.

Alla Zhdan: Do you collaborate with other community organisations, social enterprises, or universities in Greece or abroad? If yes, how do you build and maintain such partnerships?

Marinos Giannis: We collaborate with:

1. universities,

2. youth organisations, and

3. social enterprises.

Every partnership is built on trust. By cooperating on mobility and local projects, participating in each other's workshops and always targeting a good participant’s experience and results, is key for a long-lasting partnership.

Alla Zhdan: What do you like the most in your work? Share one or two moments from your community career that always inspire you when things get tough.

Marinos Giannis: My favourite aspect is cooperating with young people, guiding them on their volunteer work, and helping them achieve their own personal goals. Especially when we collaborate on a project, the feeling of accomplishment when you finish the project and achieve your goal is truly irreplaceable. A great example of this is our youth festival, “Tsimpa Smile,” which is centred around finding true happiness in oneself. It is a week-long project and when it’s finished, we all go out to eat and drink together, thinking of all the challenges that occurred and being glad we overcame them together.

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This conversation with Marinos was truly inspiring — because it’s not only about tools, skills, or achievements, but about the energy of young people in Greece who, with the right guidance, can turn volunteering into real personal and professional growth.

I’m happy to add another voice from Southern Europe to the Community Managers’ Stories project, and this time it’s Greece 🇬🇷. Actually, there will be one more interview with awesome person from Greece but in podcast format. Stay tuned!

Learn more about my Community Managers' Strories project to gather insights from Community people from 42 European countries here. 

Do you have a story, and I haven't "visited" your country yet [check the map of countries here]? Drop me a line on LinkedIn, then!