Sunday, May 15, 2011

Facilitating Community Growth

Over the past semester I learned a number of critical lesson, which allowed me to more successfully grow a digital & physical community.

- The Importance of Incentives: People respond to incentives. Since childhood we have been exposed to the idea of incentives. For example: when a child gets a good grade, his parents may reward him with a new toy. It is important to involve this method within communities in order to promote initial and constant contribution by the majority of users.

- Promoting User Interaction & Contribution: Make clear your interest in community members thoughts, opinions, and criticisms. People like to feel needed and respected for their intelectual contributions. Once you get "the ball rolling," in terms of user interaction & contribution, users will react to one another and follow suit.

- Constant Content Evolvement & Growth: It is important to constantly grow and evolve your communities home content. Whether it be digital or physical, community members need new and changing content in order to keep interest in the cause or purpose of the community.

- Attracting Multiple Target Markets: Do not make your communities market attraction to narrow in focus. The point of a community is to grow its user base, not to turn away or restrict access to certain groups or markets.

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