Rob Beckers
25th January 2007, 09:28
It's that time of the month again, :eek: where I'm looking for ways to make Green Power Talk membership grow. The growth rate has dropped a bit lately, to around 1 new member a day, not bad at all, but we need more!
In "The Way Forums Work According To Rob", the number of members pretty much drives how well a forum functions. The way forums work in-the-wild, there will be a great majority of members who very rarely post anything, possibly 90% or more. If there is enough (new, fresh) content they like to come back to read, and to learn new things from the forum. Who knows, if it is interesting enough some of this group can even be enticed to post! Then there is a smaller section of members who post every now and then, and if a topic is something in their field of interest they are the ones likely to respond. I put this group down to around 8 to 10% of membership. Then there are the few who deliver a continues stream of posts, they are the ones that keep a forum moving. We'll not get into the 'quantity vs. quality' debate, though I'll argue one can substitute for the other to some extend ;) . Unfortunately this group represents only a few percent of membership. So it is all about the number of members.
Part two of my Theory on Forums says that there is a 'critical mass' of sorts in memberships, where a forum turns the corner of the occasional posting, to a liverly online community. A place one keeps coming back to for both learning about new topics, teaching others about your expertise, a place where personalities emerge, and personal banter ensues. In other words, a dopamine producing experience that is not only useful but actually something one looks forward too. :cool:
To sum it all up, more members means more posts, means more reactions from the largely silent minority, means a lively forum. My personal guesstimate is that around 500 members will reach that turning point.
QED! :D
Now how do we get there? Preferably before our current members loose interest...
I have posted about Green Power Talk in just about every discussion group (E-mail groups) I can think about. That doesn't mean you can't do the same every now and then, or make reference to Green Power Talk. Every bit helps!
I have also tried to get Green Power Talk mentioned in the news sections of Slashdot.org, RenewableEnergyAccess.com, and a few others. Unfortunately with a profound lack of success. My feeling is that being a member or sponsor of these organizations helps. So if anyone has some pull there (or in other large news sites) please feel free to try. Possibly if many people with no pull at all send in a similar news story to sites like this it will convince their editors to actually publish it. The larger news sites reach tens of thousands, so they are definitely a good place. It's all about numbers.
There are other news publications that would be a great place to get mention of Green Power Talk into: The various RE associations. I have tried to get onto the AWEA news letter, no luck. Those are the places that would really count though. They reach the exact audience Green Power Talk targets, and they often have many thousands of readers. So, if you can get us mentioned I will personally dedicate my next beer to you! :p
Ideally you will get to work now and get Green Power Talk a little publicity. However, if that is not in your future I will settle for a bit of discussion in this thread on how we can reach forum nivana at Green Power Talk.
-Rob-
In "The Way Forums Work According To Rob", the number of members pretty much drives how well a forum functions. The way forums work in-the-wild, there will be a great majority of members who very rarely post anything, possibly 90% or more. If there is enough (new, fresh) content they like to come back to read, and to learn new things from the forum. Who knows, if it is interesting enough some of this group can even be enticed to post! Then there is a smaller section of members who post every now and then, and if a topic is something in their field of interest they are the ones likely to respond. I put this group down to around 8 to 10% of membership. Then there are the few who deliver a continues stream of posts, they are the ones that keep a forum moving. We'll not get into the 'quantity vs. quality' debate, though I'll argue one can substitute for the other to some extend ;) . Unfortunately this group represents only a few percent of membership. So it is all about the number of members.
Part two of my Theory on Forums says that there is a 'critical mass' of sorts in memberships, where a forum turns the corner of the occasional posting, to a liverly online community. A place one keeps coming back to for both learning about new topics, teaching others about your expertise, a place where personalities emerge, and personal banter ensues. In other words, a dopamine producing experience that is not only useful but actually something one looks forward too. :cool:
To sum it all up, more members means more posts, means more reactions from the largely silent minority, means a lively forum. My personal guesstimate is that around 500 members will reach that turning point.
QED! :D
Now how do we get there? Preferably before our current members loose interest...
I have posted about Green Power Talk in just about every discussion group (E-mail groups) I can think about. That doesn't mean you can't do the same every now and then, or make reference to Green Power Talk. Every bit helps!
I have also tried to get Green Power Talk mentioned in the news sections of Slashdot.org, RenewableEnergyAccess.com, and a few others. Unfortunately with a profound lack of success. My feeling is that being a member or sponsor of these organizations helps. So if anyone has some pull there (or in other large news sites) please feel free to try. Possibly if many people with no pull at all send in a similar news story to sites like this it will convince their editors to actually publish it. The larger news sites reach tens of thousands, so they are definitely a good place. It's all about numbers.
There are other news publications that would be a great place to get mention of Green Power Talk into: The various RE associations. I have tried to get onto the AWEA news letter, no luck. Those are the places that would really count though. They reach the exact audience Green Power Talk targets, and they often have many thousands of readers. So, if you can get us mentioned I will personally dedicate my next beer to you! :p
Ideally you will get to work now and get Green Power Talk a little publicity. However, if that is not in your future I will settle for a bit of discussion in this thread on how we can reach forum nivana at Green Power Talk.
-Rob-