Often times, your members will only check your What's New page, and the General board. If they dont see new stuff they move on quickly.
KEEP IT FRESH AND NEW: The first thing to know about creating stickiness in your group is that your members WANT to stick around, they just need things to keep them "glued" to your group.... there are some things you can add to your group, that will help keep them there. Some of those things are: Keep the What's New page VERY fresh, add new links to it all the time, like to current hot topics, great threads, and current events.
THINGS THEY LOOK FORWARD TO: Another few things you could add are links to horoscopes, comics and daily things to read, like chicken soup for the soul, etc. Things they'll look forward to coming to your group to read, that'll give them reasons to come to YOUR group first.
CONVENIENCE: Also try adding links to hotmail, yahoo mail, and other well known providers. give your members one click access to their online mail. Tip: Tell them to Right Click links that go OUT of your group, so that when they close that window, guess where they are.. STILL in your group!! ;-)
MESSAGE BOARDS: The heart of any group is the message boards, mainly the General message board. This is where your members will get to know eachother! When they send an email to 'groupname@groups.msn.com' it will automatically land in your general board. They can also post by going to your message board and clicking on "New Discussion" or on "Reply" to reply to someone else's message. Sometimes, a new member will have no idea how to post or reply, help them by having a short page for newcomers on how to get around your group, how to post and reply to messages, etc. Encourage them to not show their email addresses in their profiles.
UNUSED BOARDS: if you have boards you think are great but aren't getting visited, move everything to your General board. Most don't visit more than two of your boards per visit. If you have several boards, perhaps you could ask if others would like to be a "Host" or "Hostess" to help keep your other boards active and looked after. They could answer people's posts and questions and post new things related to that particular board.
STAY ACTIVE: It is very important to keep things moving! It will be hard at first to think of things to post but you have to put in the work if you want your group to grow! If someone comes in your group at 9 and 11 am and sees the same posts, then at 6 pm and there are only a few new posts, do you really think they'll keep coming back?? Probably not! Enlist the help of a couple members, ask them to post as much as possible, and you do the same.
Find things to post new discussions about, even if its something like 'How old are you?' or 'Where do you live'? Give them topics to discuss, related to your group.
MAKE IT FUN: Another way to help your members stick around, is to offer group activities, like games, trivia, and ways for them to interact, like chat of course, and Secret Sisters, Siggy Swaps, those sorts of things. Find something unique that you can post in your group, that few or no others have!! Be Original :) Avoid games which are 'mindless' or cheat the activity meters. We have many Games you can use here: Share Games
WELCOME YOUR NEWBIES: It is very important to welcome each new member, personally and individually. Avoid posts like 'Let's welcome dotty, barney, theresa and barb' because that is very impersonal. Instead welcome each one. This helps your new members feel welcome and will encourage them to post.
If you use alot of net slang like lol, dh, roflmao, brb... you will want to create a page about this Net Lingo so your members know what you are talking about. In no time they'll be using net slang too LOL! (laugh out loud)
POSTING REQUIREMENTS: There is something that people don't like: being forced to post! If you have a posting requirement (such as: "you must post weekly to remain a member", that will discourage, not encourage activity. Alot of people will not join your group if they see you have a posting requirement.
ROLL CALLS: If you have a Roll Call every once in a while, that's fine. But if you post Roll Calls too often, like weekly or daily, that is too much and your members will soon ignore them. Roll Calls posted monthly or every few months is plenty.
Be sure to read the Tips N Tricks board here, lots of great tips for getting your members active and staying there. Want more members? To find new members, here's a unique way: go around and sign guestbooks of homepages, leaving your banner and link. Only do this if the homepage fits your group (like if youre a parenting group, sign a guestbook of a stay home mom.. or a sports group, sign the guestbook of a guy into sports.
We hope this helps you increase your activity at your group and helps you create a place your members can't wait to visit every day!
