Keeping members active

[Tania]

It is not enough to get members to a forum. You need to keep them actively posting and engaged otherwise the forum is going to look empty anyway. So how do you do it? I've SMF forum that rather died because the posters weren't active. On the new one I've launched, I'm posting huge amounts, and it now has an active user base of about twenty (because they like arguing with me), but I'm paranoid that if I stop posting it will just fall apart again.

I've considered competitions, but that tends to get a limited number of posts and only keep the site going while it runs. Posting a lot works, but it takes a lot of time and leaves the forum depending on your time.

So once you've got the users on the site, how do you keep them involved?

 

[fcuco]

You need to enter a virtuous circle, this being the opposite of a vicious circle, basically, you need to reach a certain level of engagement that encourages even more engagement, once you kick start the discussion people come back for more, feeding into it and attracting even more people, so they are going to be involved as long as others are also involved!

A couple of things: allow more controversial and provocative subjects, encourage those discussions, not flame wars but simply topics where people are going to have strong opinions, people are more likely to come back again and again to reply to those discussions because people have a strong need to be right and convince others, in this, even your users that are borderline trolling could be your allies because usually those posts generate responses.

Try gamification: make it game, offer people trophies for small accomplishments like first post, liked post and so on. Have a rank of the best users in terms of contributions displayed somewhere, use something like a karma based system. You could have a trophy for posting 5 days in a row or something like that, watch people go crazy for these virtual prizes, you are going to be amazed!

 

[Deka]

Well, first of all, rankings are great motivators for members. Personally, I like seeing my account with a higher ranking and won't stop until I have one. Lol. So that's one incentive that you can think of and implement in your site. Have some kind of ranking system that differentiates a newbie member from an older member. Give some privileges to these older members simply because they do deserve it especially if they are active in the site.

Next, if it's too time consuming for you to keep posting on the site, have some other people do that for you. Hire staffs that will be able to post new threads, moderate for spam and in general, maintain the site. Make sure that these people are knowledgable about the site itself and are willing to spend that much time there. Of course, you will have to pay them but in any case, if you want a site to survive, you must have the right people for it.

Lastly, be engaging. Like, agree or disagree with the members' posts. Even a simple like can make a huge difference and it makes the member feel appreciated. They will surely keep coming back if they feel like they are welcome in the site.

Good luck!

 

[Vampa]

1.Many people visit forums because they seek information they can get elsewhere on the net. Give them what they want and they too may be willing to help others.

2. Ensure you have very few sub-forums and categories initially. Too many empty sub-forums discourage members from posting because they don't expect to get a response should they post something on the empty forums.

Just let the forum grow as the community does.

3. Continuously ask engaging questions which you think your community might want answered. You can create a few fake accounts to get it done. Answer the questions as the admin. Lots of people will join and participate in the discussions because they know anytime they need some help the forum owner can answer their questions.

 

[pwarbi]

In the past with my forums I've often found that controversy can keep members active, and even if it is down to the site owner to post the first threads, usually that will snowball and others will gradually start to respond and react.

When I say controversial posts, I obviously don't mean go calling your members or saying things that are going to start them arguing, but I mean add new threads that you know people aren't going to necessarily agree with and you know will become a talking point.

 

[iKnowThings]

I think it's important to remember what might be competing for their time. If there is time competition, of course they'll bounce. It's more important to make sure you are beating the competition in your own field so it's not like you're losing time to someone else that they could have spent on your site, increasing total engagement time and then profit logically from that point.

 

[PenguinManiac]

You should incentivize your users with small rewards: achievements, points, special ranks and so on. (try to take inspiration from RPGs, if it makes sense). Also, doing some giveaways once in a while can make more people check your forum regularly; same goes for contests. Organize some nice events, involve your users, make them feel part of a community, not wanderers who just happened to run itnto your forum to give their opinion and leave.
Also, this might be obvious, but you should be active yourself. You can't expect a forum to grow on its own if you, an admin, don't spend your time on it.