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What’s your biggest struggle with keeping new members active after they sign up?

· 1 week ago · 3 replies · 64

Getting people to register on a website or forum is only half the battle - the real challenge is keeping them around.

In my experience, the biggest struggle is bridging the gap between that initial registration and getting them to post their first reply or thread. So many new members sign up, look around for a minute, and then completely vanish without ever interacting with the community. It feels like if you don't engage them within the first 24 to 48 hours, the chances of them becoming regular contributors drop drastically.

How do you handle onboarding new members? Do you think reaching out personally to every new member is the best approach?

3 replies

· 1 week ago

Th oukd be a challenging tasks. There are so many members who would rather lurk around on the forum rather than actually participating in the discussion. I think that I would personally approach such members and ask them to participate in the discussion. If they are not interested in the niche, then I will create a separate section for them related to the niche they are interested in. I would do this so that they could participate more.

· 3 days ago

I think it really depends on them finding enough content to reply to or read that they are interested in, without it being content that they are actually creating themselves. A lot of times it’s hard to have conversations on communities that tend to be inactive, or with gaps in posting, since you aren’t sure if you will be the last poster there or if what someone else has said is even releveant anymore (based on time gap).

· 2 days ago

Onboarding is the answer.

Instead of looking at it like you’re trying to get a new member to be active, look at it like you’re trying to make a new best friend.

We need to get away from me “We’re the admins. We’re the leaders. We’re the authority figures.” and get more like “We’re here to make friends".” mindset.

When someone new joins, do this simple thing:

Send them a PM introducing yourself and ask how they heard about the forum.

If they respond, then a conversation has been established. From there, focus on turning them from newbie into your new good friend. Be social. Get to know each other.

Once you become friends, getting them to be active on the forum is going to be simple.

Then you just keep coming back and talking to your friends.

That’s how we need to do it if you truly want a community.

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