Engagement How do you actually get people to register in 2025?

[Al]

It’s easy enough to set up a forum and post into the void. Getting people to actually sign up and participate is a different story. And in 2025, with social media dominating everything and logins being more friction than ever, it’s not simple. What are you doing to get people through the door? Are you relying on personal invites, Discord channels, search traffic, social posts, paid ads, or just hoping decent content is enough? Let’s be honest about what’s worked and what’s been a complete waste of time.

Post your tips for getting new members so we can help each other create awesome communities!

 

[InMyOpinion]

Great topic! It really is easy to set up a forum and just post into the void but getting people to care is the real challenge. I’ve found that personal invites and engaging with niche communities have been the most effective ways to bring in active members. Just throwing a link out on social media doesn’t cut it anymore and people need a reason to join and stay.

For me, building relationships in other spaces (without being spammy about it) has worked best. Having a strong onboarding process also helps. New members should feel immediately welcomed and know exactly what value the forum brings.

That said, I’m still experimenting! I’ve wasted plenty of time on things that didn’t work such as paid ads that got clicks but no real engagement.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I'm currently engaging in post exchanges. However, on Gex Forums I got a good number of people to sign up from the subreddit after I asked one of the moderators. With the Gex trilogy coming out this year, I couldn't think of a better time for promoting a Gex forum. Plus Reddit has been doing things recently that many people aren't a fan of, so I think we'll see a influx of users on forums again in the future. So it might be worth promoting on Reddit or heck even Lemmy which is a Reddit alternative. I feel that lots of folks who use decentralized social media are those who are more willing to join forums again too.

 

[Bawse]

Most my sign ups from promoting come from social media sites, and interacting with new followers on my accounts. It can be a slow grind, but necessary for growth.

 

[Cory]

As the owner of a resource board, I put my resources behind a registration wall, and it seems I gain 30+ members a month. If I didn't put my resources behind a registration wall, I'd assume I would have half of that.

 

[Senkusha]

Ah! I finally found the original post I wanted to reply to before registering here!

Organic membership friending is probably the best way to gain new members. A good ole fashioned hand shake, as it were. People are more likely to come check out something that you've built when they see that you're a genuine person, not trying to sell them something. I believe that this will become more important as more people struggle financially (especially with the tariffs).

Having something unique to offer is another good strategy. I originally thought that anime role playing is certainly unique, and to a die hard fan, it's really cool to have a friendly space for it, but... turns out there's either not that many people interested in either topic, or probably more likely, people are just too busy surviving and are burned out trying to keep up with just surviving our current economy. This only gives me more determination and motivation to keep my site up and running, on the off chance that somebody needs a creative outlet, if nothing else than to simply de-stress and escape reality for a little while. And one thing I've noticed just yesterday about Social Media, is that much of it is just filled with people aching from all the political discourse and conversation. I don't know about anybody else, but I'm kinda over it all. So maybe there's an additional Light of Hope for our forum communities still yet to come?