Welcoming Newcomers to Your Online Forum

You’ve attracted the attention of a few prospects. Now how do you empower them to become full-fledged members of your online community? Welcoming newcomers is one of the community manager’s most important tasks during the inception phase of any online forum. Why? Because statistics show that the sooner you engage a new visitor in the conversation, the more likely they will become long-term participating members.

Below we’ve collected some ideas to help you welcome and celebrate newbies with confidence and style.

Be the early bird.

Experts agree that responding to forum visitors within 24 hours is the best way to ensure that they’ll come back and become regular participants in your online community. If you don’t always have the time to respond right away, delegate the task to someone in your community whom you trust to take on the task promptly.

Use the buddy system.

Consider assigning each new member a community mentor to show them the ropes and engage them in the conversation through personal attention.

Don't let them lurk.

Highlight relevant conversations that visitors might enjoy. Ask for their opinion or input, or give them a role right away, before they get into the habit of lurking. Make a newcomer page that takes visitors straight to a discussion thread.

Make it personal.

Bland auto-responder emails are out; lively and engaging personal emails are in. Ask your newcomer a question. Thank her for inspiring you. Re-tweet his comments. Share and promote what they have to offer and personally acknowledge their importance to the community. Be sure to send personal invitations and incentives once there is initial engagement.

Celebrate newbies.

Mentioning newcomers by name is a great way to highlight and encourage their participation. Some communities publish a weekly or monthly newcomers list. Honor your newcomers with special rituals, contests or incentives.

Throw the book at them.

Providing new members with a downloadable rules of engagement manual or a document about the history of the community will help them overcome online social anxiety and help them join the conversation sooner. This is especially true if your community is engaging a population new to social media.

Use member metrics.

Google Analytics and systematic sampling is a great way to track your newcomer to member conversion rate. For every fifth or every tenth new member, see how many have made a contribution, and if not, discover where they drop out. This will tell you where to work on your approach.

The sooner you begin to satisfy your newcomers’ social (active) needs rather than their information (passive) needs, the sooner you will have a forum that is well on its way to being a mature and self-sustaining online community that routinely attracts visitors and converts them to members.