Promotion is often seen as the owner’s responsibility as it’s your vision, your project, your mission to grow the community. But what about your staff? Do they ever chip in to help get the word out?

 

Personally, I think it’s great when staff members take the initiative to promote the site, whether it’s by sharing links, or even sharing stuff on social media, or inviting friends to join. That said, I also believe that if they’re actively and consistently contributing to promotion, there should be some form of compensation involved - whether that’s financial, perks on the site, or other rewards. Of course, there’s always the exception for those who do it purely out of passion or a desire to give back to the community.

 

How do you handle this on your forum? Do you expect staff to help promote as part of their role, or is it entirely optional? If they do help, do you compensate them, or do you leave it as a goodwill gesture? Let’s hear your thoughts!

I was really lucky and thankful for the fact that on my most popular forum I had a Moderator early on who was an advertising professional in his career. He liked the forum and the direction we were going in and the different things we were doing to competitors at the time, and so he got on board and helped teach me a lot of things about advertising, especially around using Facebook for advertising at the time. A big part of the success of that site was owed to him in fact. :)

Right now it's only me and [mention=5]Cpvr[/mention] on my staff. I need to be very cautious with who I bring on my team. Reputation is everything in the gambling niche. He does help me advertise my forum, and teaches me tricks with SEO to help me rank my site.

As a staff member, I help promote the communities that I’m apart of. It’s something that I like to do as I like to see the communities that I’m staff on grow and expand.

As a staff member, I help promote the communities that I’m apart of. It’s something that I like to do as I like to see the communities that I’m staff on grow and expand.

And you do that very well! 😀

They have in the past... maybe I should tell them to do it again :P

Right now, my website isn’t open to the public yet, so promotion isn’t something my staff is actively involved in. But once it is open, I’d definitely expect my staff to help spread the word. After all, if they’re invested in the community and want to see it thrive, promoting it should feel natural!

 

That being said, I think promotion should be more about enthusiasm than obligation. If staff members genuinely enjoy the forum, they’ll naturally want to share it with others. Encouraging them to post about it on social media, invite friends, or engage in networking spaces related to our niche would be ideal.