Activity in any community will always ebb and flow. It’s natural.
Sometimes the ebbs are unavoidable. For example during the holidays, a lot of communities will slow down a great deal since people are spending time with their family.
Other times, it just happens when there aren’t many conversations going on. Here are some tips to re-energize your community.
1. Call or email someone
Call or email a typically active member of your community and just see how they’re doing. Just let them know that you appreciate their membership and see if they have any thoughts about how to improve the community.
They may feel like it’s then their responsibility to help make the community better and will start some new conversations. At the very least, it’s a way to personally connect them back to the community so when a conversation comes back up, they’re more inclined to jump in.
2. Direct questions to specific people
Another way to call on the help of your most active members is to @ reply them in the message so they feel a personal obligation to respond. This works really well in facebook groups. It only works if it’s actually a topic that they’re particularly fit to answer. If you bullshit it, it has the opposite effect.
3. Host an event
If you have enough community members in a local area, host an event to bring them all together. Meeting people in person will make people more excited to continue to connect in the community online.
4. Invite some new people to the community
Sometimes some new blood and fresh perspectives can get the community energized again. Make sure to introduce them, and make it easy for them to start participating in conversations right away.
5. Do something out of the ordinary
Sometimes conversations can get repetitive and the format starts to feel dull. Maybe try hosting a friendly contest. Host a google hangout with a special guest. Host a twitter chat. Do something that’s fast paced and different.
What other things have you guys done to reenergize a community during periods of slower activity?
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Photo cred: James Clear via Compfight
David Spinks, Co-Founder TheCommunityManager.com was a part of the TCM team from the site’s inception through 2014. He utilized TCM to create the first CMX conference in San Francisco in February 2014, and then ultimately severed ties with TCM and its co-founders.
TheCommunityManager.com, CMXSummit and LetsFeast.com. Lifelong student, community builder and writer.
I liked these ideas, especially #5. You could also do a etrospective on the past year looking at what’s worked well and what needs improvement. I think it’s also a good time to ask the community for feedback as to what they’d like to see and how to make things better.
penguinasana Interesting.  Do you keep a record anywhere of how things are going?  Things that went well/didn’t go well?  That would be a good habit for CMs to get into.
In the past, I’ve done quarterly records/reports just to look back at things or done post-mortems from particular projects. However I’d like to get into the habit of documenting/reviewing on a more regular basis. (New Year’s resolution?)
@DavidSpinks In the past I’ve tried to review on monthly/quarterly basis; hoping to get in this habit again (New Year’s resolution?)
These are some really great ideas, my favorite being #1. I think we often underestimate the value of being appreciated. Sometimes a simple call or email to ask how everything is going is enough to re-energize a community member.Â
Great article!
JessYin Thanks Jess.  Spot on.  A large part of building a healthy community is letting people know that they’re being listened to, and that others in the community are aware of them. Â
Thanks for the comment.
great idea