It's great to manage own community, to see how different people gather and create something unique or just chat with like-minded friends. Though social networking is getting more and more popular nowadays which means the competition grows and it's getting harder to stand out and keep users in your community. To not to decrease your controversial rates we offer these easy steps.
Be different
Yeap, I know, sound like I'm teasing right now, though that's an important principal. It's easy to make an analogue, but even analogue can be more popular among users than essential community. The secret here is to position your community right. People don't care if you just post on Facebook "Hey, join my community, it's awesome!", sure it is, though to engage and get users on the hook you'll need to prove it, you have to offer something that your competitors haven't. Make videos, use jokes, encourage your users by giving special points. There are lots of ways you can make people want to click on your community link.
The opposite
Usually competitors copying each other, well do the opposite! Everybody posting Pokemon stuff, offering discounts those who play the game an so on, all right, challenge accepted - make an anti-Pokemon post. Create silly graphics, play joke, but don't overdo with that, since you don't want to offend somebody.
Details
People like details, just because they are not obvious, though useful and nice. It may be a small widget for Christmas that lets it snow all over the site, a star mark for being active member or a special Birthday card and so on. When you offer something others don't, you care for your users and make them feel special.
Engagement
If you want as much quality time from your users as possible, entertain them, offer a topic to discuss or a poll, make a contest or giveaway. People like sharing opinions, argue or roll the dice, so why not let them spread the wings?
Aware though, if you won't moderate the talks they may get out of control. Keep your chats clean and users will definitely come back for a new portion of good talk and emotions.
Image
Every human being has his or her unique style. The same with your community. Work on your style. It's like attending a private school - it's cool to wear that severe tailored uniform, all those emblems and clubs - it's a privilege, it's attracting. Having an identity is the key to success. Your logo, way of communication, colors and rules are those points that create your image. There are multitude simple ways to beautify your site, you can convert psd to html css for the site or newsletter, refresh content with various multimedia, and much more.
You must make your users stay. Why would you leave the place where you feel yourself comfortable and special?
You should always keep in mind that every member of your community is valuable, even if there are thousands of them. Because, as it said, what is an ocean but a multitude of drops?
