How to attract new people to our community 🧲
The degree of involvement/participation of people in a community changes over time. Therefore, to maintain the community's activity, it is important to capture the attention and get new people to come and, but most importantly, to make them want to come back.
I would summarize the key strategies for attracting new members to the community as follows:
- Lower the barrier to entry.
- Create content and disseminate it.
- Be nomadic.
- Encourage diversity.
- Consider disruptive approaches.
Lower the barrier to entry
The easier it is for newcomers to make first contact with existing members, the better. Therefore, the first tip is that (if you don't already have one) you should create a two-way channel where you can interact in a more "private" way. I mean, a Discord, Telegram, Slack, ...
Include a specific channel where everyone has the opportunity to introduce themselves:
Allowing initial contact to be made behind the keyboard not only helps the most timid individuals by letting them observe before participating, but it also caters to people with disabilities and those who prefer text-based communication, making it easier for everyone to engage confidently from the start.
We, the GeoVoluntarios community, which connected digital volunteers with organizations at the start of the pandemic, even went so far as to organize some "office hours" or daily AMA's. During these sessions, anyone could connect and introduce themselves, and then be guided and connected with others in the community with related interests so they could help. Obviously, you don't have to go to that extreme, but you can organize periodic online meetings (with optional camera) to break the ice.
If you want to be more original, you can try tools such as Gather Town:
For more "disruptive" approaches, at GeoDevelopers for example, we spent some time doing online/virtual coworking through Discord and promoting it through Twitch to make us even more accessible, This was done in a similar manner to the #studywithme, #focus, #pomodoro, #coworkingstream.
Create content and disseminate it
I guess this is pretty obvious, but just in case I'm saying it.
If you have the opportunity, I recommend recording or streaming all the events you can, taking photos, and sharing them afterward. This encourages people to come by, watch from the sidelines, and hopefully generate enough interest to take the step to participate.
Share it all through a public channel (Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Meetup, TikTok, Facebook, ...). Use tools like StreamYard or Restream to broadcast on multiple video platforms simultaneously, Ivoox to publish your podcasts, etc. And always remember to indicate how to join the bidirectional channel. Take advantage of as many channels as possible to advertise your events, and hopefully allow anyone to sign up for and share your events.
As for which channels/social networks work best... I wouldn't presume to say any particular one, as it usually depends on the audience, age, location, etc. I would start by asking people in the community which channel they prefer to receive notifications of new meetings and published resources (email, social networks, shared calendar, instant messaging, RSS, web/meetup, push notifications, ...), and enable as many as possible.
One option is to set up a tool like Zapier/IFTTT/Make that automates republishing between networks, at least until you see which one works best for you. Ideally, you should find a user of this/these and make them responsible for it/them. It is not necessary to share daily, but at least the "pre" and "post" event would be advisable.
Otherwise, try creating a unique hashtag, X list, mailing list, or or something similar that interested people can follow to be aware of what is happening. Also, consider using a tool like "Share link creator " when you publish a meeting, and ask the whole community and followers to help you spread the word.
Be nomadic
"If the Mountain won’t go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must come to the Mountain".
Avoid staying in the same place all the time. As an organizer, I know that finding a "headquarters" and always holding events there is the most comfortable for you. However, one of the best ways to attract new people to a community, whether it is starting from scratch, or if it is old but stagnant and you are just looking to "revitalize" it, is by contacting training or professional centers in your area (e.g. academies, high schools, colleges, universities, adult education centers, etc.) and holding the events there.
Contact them, find out what you could offer them that might interest them and consider the possibility of holding a future meeting there. Examples of things you could offer include: sharing experiences about your professional reality, your career paths, new technologies you master, review of the landscape of communities, talk about conferences and other educational channels, etc.
This also applies to online communities. Connect with other online communities, look for related interests and propose joint events. And if it were me, I would broadcast those collaborations on both communities' channels using the platforms mentioned above.
Encourage diversity
Organize events in other languages, and let me repeat myself... contact other communities, look for interests that you have in common to see if it is worthwhile to organize an event or an agenda of joint events.
If yours is physical community, look for other local communities, user groups (you can search in meetup.com, facebook, etc. ), associations (maybe you can get a list of the associations registered in your city council), contact parent associations/groups of schools (if you have families in the community or through their websites), entrepreneur groups (Young Entrepreneurs Association, business networks like Chambers of commerce, incubators, accelerators, entrepreneurship centers,
In the document on "How to encourage new people to give talks" we will also talk about create-safe-environments.
I haven't personally checked out the Awesome Diversity repository, but if you need more ideas... I think it's worth a look.
Consider disruptive approaches
If you have tried all of the above and it still doesn't work, consider more dramatic changes. It's possible that traditional methods may no longer suffice. For example there are technologies that "go out of fashion" (e.g. PhoneGap meetup), and others could be very niche topics (e.g. Lambda World).
In that case, if you really think you need to attract more people, consider:
- Merge the community with another community with similar interests (local or online).
- Increase the frequency of your virtual meetings if they are not already a major component of your strategy.
- Broaden the range of topics you cover.
- Rethink if this is the type and format of community you want/need
It's important to recognize that people's time is valuable. To effectively attract the audience we aim to reach, our proposal must be compelling and align with their needs and interests. By focusing on these aspects, we're likely to be more successful.
Contributions and acknowledgments
This document would not be possible without the contributions received. Thanks!
Comments
And what about you? Have you tried these or other methods? Please share your experiences so that others can benefit from them 😊.