Having attempted (albeit half-heartedly) to get some friends to use my slinkset site, without much success, I have been thinking about what it will take to make a successful community on a slinkset site. In a couple of weeks there is a big meeting of the community I want to use the site so I'm about to go up a gear and get it going, but I need some advice first.
My thoughts on building a community (so far) are as follows: (if anyone has any advice please comment!)
1. The highest value 'communities' are those that are exclusive. This is as true on the web as it is in life generally.
2. Therefore trying to pursuade people to join my community shows it is not exclusive and therefore low value
3. While I don't want my community to be exclusive it may be best to start it that way to make it desirable to be part of it.
4. So to start off I'm going to put my slinkset site on 'private' or 'editorial' setting.
5. Then I'm going to find people within the community who are more comfortable with web2.0 stuff and get them involved
6. At the event I mentioned I am going to talk about the site without pushing it
7. Then I will send my audience an email saying that there are only 50 places available on the site initially which will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.
8. See what happens.
This is a great plan. We are also planning on letting the admin set it so users can be anonymous therefore further lowering the barrier to entry. I know this goes possibly the complete opposite direction of the way you plan to get users engaged, but now this way we can run a couple tests.
We're obviously trying to think of other ways to make sites more sticky, so please don't hesitate to let us know of any other thoughts you have. thanks.
I've been setting up my site in a similar way and it is starting to gain traction. People definitely like the idea of an exclusive invite, but you need to find people willing to make regular contributions to keep the interest of those less interested who somehow got onto your beta.
Im not sure yet ( as i don't any if at all any users :D ) but...
If a user registers to use 'my' page...
Will i only see their user name or do I i have permission to see/collect their email address?
It would be a great mailing list collector if so...
x
If a user registers on one of your pages and enters their email, you will be able to see it.
Having attempted (albeit half-heartedly) to get some friends to use my slinkset site, without much success, I have been thinking about what it will take to make a successful community on a slinkset site. In a couple of weeks there is a big meeting of the community I want to use the site so I'm about to go up a gear and get it going, but I need some advice first.
My thoughts on building a community (so far) are as follows: (if anyone has any advice please comment!)
1. The highest value 'communities' are those that are exclusive. This is as true on the web as it is in life generally.
2. Therefore trying to pursuade people to join my community shows it is not exclusive and therefore low value
3. While I don't want my community to be exclusive it may be best to start it that way to make it desirable to be part of it.
4. So to start off I'm going to put my slinkset site on 'private' or 'editorial' setting.
5. Then I'm going to find people within the community who are more comfortable with web2.0 stuff and get them involved
6. At the event I mentioned I am going to talk about the site without pushing it
7. Then I will send my audience an email saying that there are only 50 places available on the site initially which will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.
8. See what happens.
Thoughts?
This is a great plan. We are also planning on letting the admin set it so users can be anonymous therefore further lowering the barrier to entry. I know this goes possibly the complete opposite direction of the way you plan to get users engaged, but now this way we can run a couple tests.
We're obviously trying to think of other ways to make sites more sticky, so please don't hesitate to let us know of any other thoughts you have. thanks.
I've been setting up my site in a similar way and it is starting to gain traction. People definitely like the idea of an exclusive invite, but you need to find people willing to make regular contributions to keep the interest of those less interested who somehow got onto your beta.