5 easy tips on growing your online community
DESCRIPTION
Want to learn how to grow your online community? Here are five easy tips on how to grow your community. Joe and Andy, BigMarker's Community Heroes, want to help you grow your community, so that you can connect with even more people. You can watch their webinar here: https://www.bigmarker.com/BMCommunity/growing_your_community They will grow through the main ways to grow your community, from social media to email marketing to hosting webinars. Whether you are an organizer, member, or host, this webinar is for you!TRANSCRIPT
Growing Your Community
Why grow?
• Your community is a place to connect with other like-minded people
• You want the perfect sized community to really establish this connection
• For most online communities, that means you need more people
The BigMarker home and find
• This page lets you browse all of the public: – Active communities – Video conferences and Webinars – Recordings
• You need to complete: – Images – Description – About – Contact information – Personal profile – Community settings
Filling out your community
The Fabulous 5 Growth Tactics:
1. Use your networks 2. Use social media outlets 3. Take advantage of blogging 4. Encourage member activity 5. Host webinars
• Right from the beginning you should invite: – Friends – Family – Colleagues
• If you know someone who would love being part of your group, invite them.
1. Use Your Networks
1. Use Your Networks (cont.)
• Start off on the right foot • Having members in your community will
help attract more members – No one wants to be the first to the party
• This is why you invite those contacts you personally know – Get them in first, and it will be easier to get
others
2. Use social networks
2. Use social networks (cont.)
• People that want to join your community are out there
• You just need to find them • Social networks are the easiest place to
look • Start by posting updates about your
community and conferences
2. Use social networks (cont.) • Popular social networks to try out: – Facebook – Twitter – LinkedIn – MySpace – Google+ – Pinterest – Stumbleupon – Reddit – Bebo (UK) – Hi5 (Non-US)
• Having an active blog is a valuable promotional tool
• It becomes a funnel to your community • For hosting webinars: – Refer to your events – Your Blog/website is the most effective
marketing tool – Embed your conference recordings
3. Taking advantage of blogging
3. Taking advantage of blogging (cont.) • Blogs need content • Most bloggers don’t have time or the energy
to constantly come up with content • This is where you and your community
enter! • Reach out to bloggers that write about your
topic – A cooking community should reach out to
cooking bloggers • Tell them your story
“A community is like a ship, everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.” -Henrik Ibsen
4. Encourage member activity
4. Encourage member activity (cont.)
• Without your members help, your community can become stagnant
• Activity is what will drive you through the community stages:
Stage Incep*on Establishment Maturity Mitosis
Descrip(on
The community just started. You’re pos(ng most of the content and invi(ng most of the people to join. You’re the driving force. This is where most communi(es fail.
The community is on a good pace. It’s growing and members are sharing on their own. You’re no longer the driving force. You’re a facilitator.
Take a vaca(on, because this community is 100% its own en(ty. If it was garden, you’re just trimming here and there. If you leD, the community would con(nue to grow.
The community has grown so large that you need sub-‐groups to facilitate more specific and in(mate conversa(ons. Each sub-‐group will go back to the incep(on stage.
% of organizer posted content 50 to 100% < 50% < 10% 50 to 100%
4. Encourage member activity (cont.)
• We suggest to create a schedule for posting. For example:
1. Monday - Opinion feature (stir debate) 2. Tuesday - News article repost 3. Wednesday - Host a video chat 4. Thursday - Featured interview (can be with
outsiders or those in your group) 5. Friday - Event for the weekend. 6. Saturday - Welcome newcomers 7. Sunday - Summary of the week and a look
forward to the next week 18
5. Host webinars
• If content is king, then the webinar is the king of kings
• They are a way for you to: – Share knowledge – Meet your members face-to-face – Interact with your community – Promote your community to outsiders
5. Host webinars (cont.)
• On BigMarker, hosting a webinar is easy • Click “Host a conference” and you are on
your way • Then, you want to promote your webinar
with the same tools you used before – Inviting relevant contacts – Working social media – Telling the blogging world