Engagement New Forum Admin Advice; Post on your own site regularly
- Thread starter Cpvr
- Start date
For strategies on keeping leadership involved with members.
Al
Hello, I'm Al.
That's a bad attitude. You might have to do it alone. You can't rely on anyone else. You need to be regularly starting discussions and, if someone else does (miracle!) encourage that by responding - even if you think it's something that you would normally be bothered to discuss. Nothing turns a member off more than being ignored.
What's crazy about that is that it's the oldest failure in the book!
You have to keep posting to keep the interest up.
I have a group on Facebook that has 46K members. It's extremely active. But I notice if the other staff members or I aren't that active, activity declines. When we are active, hundreds of posts a day.
I schedule my posts on there, some themed ones, to help keep it active.
With a forum, it's even more important. Everyone is on social media; hardly anyone is on YOUR forum unless they join because of something they like. If they don't see an active admin, I bet they pass on joining.
If you can't be active on your own forum - you might consider a different type of website.
Bryn
Community Explorer
The reason why I felt negative about that is the fact that topics made mostly by the forum owner can be a turn off to any new visitors...
But in general, sometimes I have other things to do and other times I lack the motivation to do such a thing. This is one part I hate about forum leadership, if I have to be brutally honest to you.
Al
Hello, I'm Al.
Okay, but what’s worse? A forum with the admin showing an interest in the subject matter or a forum with no activity?
Don’t be afraid to create a duplicate account to make posts with. Some frown on it but to me it’s a viable tactic to get started. Even if it does mean you are talking to yourself. Kinda like 90% of my conversations with @Cedric
Al
Hello, I'm Al.
Hmm. It could damage your reputation, but it also could not. You could be found out, but also you could not. Post exchanges are another method for increasing activity, but let me ask you this:
If we post exchanged am I posting on your forum because I want to post on your forum, or because of what I am getting in return? Is that ethical? It’s the same as:
Paid posting
Post packages
Sock puppets
Post exchanges
None of the them are ‘real’ so the ethics on all can be questioned. What makes one fake member system more ethical than another? Is paying to get to the top of google ethical? The role of the forum community manager is hard enough without limiting our toolbox based on some noble ethics system.
If we post exchanged am I posting on your forum because I want to post on your forum, or because of what I am getting in return? Is that ethical? It’s the same as:
Paid posting
Post packages
Sock puppets
Post exchanges
None of the them are ‘real’ so the ethics on all can be questioned. What makes one fake member system more ethical than another? Is paying to get to the top of google ethical? The role of the forum community manager is hard enough without limiting our toolbox based on some noble ethics system.
Bluezone777
Newcomer
I don't think the fact they don't post on their site regularly is the root issue as there is something else at play that brought upon this lack of interest in doing so. Sometimes people need someone to believe in them before they can believe in themselves. It can be an issue of doing it for the wrong reasons as doing it just for yourself is not going to give you motivation to push through hard times while doing it for the benefit of others would do exactly that.
It comes down to a case by case basis but just telling someone to post more on their site isn't going to help matters as much as you think it might.
It comes down to a case by case basis but just telling someone to post more on their site isn't going to help matters as much as you think it might.
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