Love Your 1%
If there’s only one secret I can pass on about keeping a healthy and vibrant online community — it’s this. Love your 1%.
It only takes a few people to engage hundreds of others and as a community owner/builder it is your job to keep those few as pumped and engaged about their participation in your dream as possible. If you treat these folks like family you’ll reap the rewards.
Remember a community is built on dialogue. You need someone to provide the spark, ask the question, answer the others and so on. If not, you could end up with a community of 10,000 inactive people. It’s not a stretch. I’ve seen it.
There’s many ways to reward and love your 1%. You make them feel important, you make them feel like they matter. Here are a couple of examples of how I’ve done this in the past:
- Send a personal message to your 1% on a weekly, or monthly basis thanking them for their involvement in the success of the site. Everyone loves recognition.
- Showcase or give a “shout out” to your 1% on the home page of your site. Not only will this recognize your active 1% but will attract others to be more active so they can get on the home page too.
- Send your 1% special items of appreciation, t-shirts, hats, stickers or money letting them feel like they are truly a part of your team. Remember this is your virtual staff.
- Invite them to participate in a planning meeting for new site features. This will not only give you the chance to talk with them, but you’ll get valued opinions and advice for the next steps of your community.
Lastly, and most importantly, remember you have to be genuine. That’s BE genuine … not act genuine
