Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Want more members? 10 things you need to do.

1. Invite Friends, Colleagues, Associates
A bit obvious we know, but some may be amazed at how powerful email invitation to your network can be, it made Facebook what it is today. Make sure the content of the email is interesting, to the point and targets people likely to be interested. To do this you can use the inbuilt SocialGO Invite Member functionality, use your normal email account such as Google Mail or use a bulk email service like MailChimp. You should be regularly inviting people to your network.

2. Encourage Members to Invite their Friends
If your members like what they see, then they can be the most powerful advocates you'll ever find. Make sure you enable "Invite Friends" in the Admin Centre so they too can invite there friends, who invite their friends, who invite their friend etc etc.

3. Create a Great Looking Network
Pictures speak a thousand words, so they say, and if you have a great looking network you are more likely to grab peoples attention. You have all the tools in your Admin Centre with the Network Designer and CSS access to do a great design. Or you can get the team at SocialGO to do it for you with the GO Setup & Design module for $349.99 or the GO Logo module for $69.99, both of which can be found in the ProServices Directory.

4. Import a Member Data Base
if you have an existing member data base, ie a business or a club, you can import their details into your network in advance of launch. You can do this by buying the GO Import module from the ProServices Directory. GO import is $49.99 per 2,000 members.

5. Create Great Content
You cannot underestimate the critical importance of having some fresh, relevant and interesting content on your network. Not only will your search engine optimization improve with better content, but new members will be far more inclined to come back and invite their friends if your network is full of great content. So get writing in your blog, stimulating posts in your forum, plus add some new photos and videos. If you need some help there is the GO Content for $49.99 in the ProServices Directory.

6. Interact with New Members
When new members sign up, make contact with them on the network, say hello, have a IM chat with them. That way they will feel welcome. This is especially important in the early days when you are trying to seed membership.

7. Tweet Away!
Get a twitter account and start building a following on Twitter. But remember you need to Twitter with intent, people don't want to hear twattle.

8. Comment on Blogs in your Sector
Work out where people you are targetting are congreating online, ie what blogs and foums. Then start engaging people via comments and posts, but be sure to be upfront who you are and what your trying to do. Honesty is the best policy in cyberspace.

9. Run an Advertising Campaign
Online advertising is always a great option to get traffic to your network. There are loads of advertising platforms you can use, but Google is probably one of the most user friendly. If you would like some help, the SocialGO team can setup and run Google advertising campaigns for you with the GO Advertising Setup module in the ProServices Directory.

10. Create a Facebook Group
Or maybe join some groups that have similarly minded members. You need to engage the community you intend to target and make them aware of your network.

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