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“According to Peter Drucker The purpose of a businesses is to create and keep a customer. Going back to the reason why someone joined your forum will be insightful as to what you need to do to retain them. They joined because they wanted a result. They felt they would be better off than not joining.
As a forum owner your goal is to continually deliver the result and exceed the expectation. Initially your customer may have thought that they wanted more content but really they probably wanted the result that the content will help them get. Sometimes giving people more content is not the answer – it can actually delay them getting a result. So if it’s not just delivering more and more content what is it?
Starting discussions is a great way to involve users. If you have a regular ‘post of the day’ or a ‘thought for the week’ that will be helpful. Ask a question that creates a discussion and people will be very keen to share their opinion. This shifts the focus from you having to do the content delivery to being a discussion wrangler. Your main role as a forum owner is then to step back and moderate what the members create. User generated content is now the fuel for getting results for others. You have formed a culture / tribe.
Establish clear rules and boundaries so that people can work within a framework that is clear. Once they know the rules it’s easy to play the game and people post more without having two worry about doing the wrong thing. (Fear of doing the wrong thing will cause lurking). It takes a lot of maturity to run a form because you have to make decisions like a parent or a boss.
Have a look at the most active members. Figure out what it is that draws them to your community and why they are so engaged.
Run an actual event for your community members. Each month in most major capital cities members of my community meet at a pub and they don’t pay any extra. Post pictures to the forum afterwards. In fact I just returned from one last night was around 25 members and they all know each other. Bring a special guest if you can. The other communal event that is very good is to run an annual member conference/event. This’ll be a paid event with some guest speakers but also be made up of people who know each other and this is the most powerful community thing you can do. Just by holding even one pro year you would have a very strong member attention.
Other things that increase engagement upon registration it’s very important to have your new member post something immediately. Have a welcome thread and ask them to post and let you know why they joined and what they’re hoping to achieve is a result of being a member.
Have your sections laid out intelligently and be prepared to move / trim / delete forums and threads as you figure out the best way to structure the forum. It will change over time.
One of the main reasons people stay engaged and retain their membership is to be part of a community. Your home office can be lonely when you’re sitting at home behind a computer without other people to discuss things. Especially if you are not yet achieving the level of result you desire. Even in a very business oriented forum it’s worth having a social lounge or coffee area that people can just go and talk about non-related business matters where you can have people posting funny things are things that to help them reflect because this really extends the relationship aspect.
Consider letting members have the use of a forum signature which is the little one of text underneath each post. Members of Fast Web Formula are allowed to put a link to whatever they like. This is their little advertising space encouraging them to post valuable contributions because each time they do, they get a little bit more attention for whatever it is that they are looking to promote (if they want to promote anything). Members stand to profit from the type of customer base who you have will certainly be a long-term member because they get a return on investment.
Strict rules and occasional moderations / deletions are required if you do this however you’ll find a lot more content gets posted because it’s ‘give take’. Give content, take a signature. Encourage members to put a Google Analytics tracking link in their signature so that they can reconcile a return on their posting investment when they look at their own analytics and conversions.
Do a weekly roundup of the best threads. This is an idea I originally got from Dennis Becker but innovated it to the following: Find a member who has a high attention to detail and is a very active participant. They compile a list and send an email is through once per week of the top discussions. (I pay for this). I go to each thread and open them up in my browser. The I make a video of me summarizing what’s happening in the forum this week (Screenflow shows the thread and me on the same screen see attached). I then place that video inside the membership listing the threads underneath. I then email all members the links.
Have a thanks button or a like button of some kind that provides recognition for a quality post. It is very important that people are able to be praised if they do good posts. Have a user title that changes in importance as people post more posts. For example you could have New, Intermediate and Advanced Member user titles.
Find the members who contribute the most to the community and give them special member titles and perhaps even a slightly lower membership rate so that they stay for a long time. Invite in experts who are very good at their field. I still have mine pay a membership but it is a special rate that way it’s a draw card for members but also the member will get in there and find they have a ready-made community without having to create their own.
For my smaller community SilverCircle I hold three GoToMeetings on Tuesdays and all members turn up to one or more. I still make a summary video of the highlights each week.
Have a results thread. Have somewhere where people can post the amazing results they have been getting. This helps your member acknowledge how much value that getting from the membership. Is also good indicator for you as to how much value your providing. Can also lead to an easy way to generate testimonials should you wish to add them to your sales page (ask for permission).
Ask. Be sure to ask your members what they’d like to see in the community and continually have something in the future that’s exciting. It could be a webinar once per month or a live event coming or just a local meet up.
Turn up. The reason a lot of people join your communities they want access to you and I have turned up to my community almost every day for more than four years in a row. If you do turn up and you are interested, than your members will stick around.”
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