Want to learn how to grow your online community? Here are five easy tips on how to grow your community. Joe and Andy, BigMarker's Community Heroes, want to help you grow your community, so that you can connect with even more people. You can watch their webinar here: https://www.bigmarker.com/BMCommunity/growing_your_community They will grow through the main ways to grow your community, from social media to email marketing to hosting webinars. Whether you are an organizer, member, or host, this webinar is for you!

1. Growing Your Community

2. Andy
Andy@BigMarker.com
Community Hero
Joe
Joe@BigMarker.com
Community Hero

3. Why grow?
• Your community is a place to connect with
other like-minded people
• You want the perfect sized community to
really establish this connection
• For most online communities, that means
you need more people

4. The BigMarker home and find
• This page lets you browse all of the public:
– Active communities
– Video conferences and Webinars
– Recordings

6. Filling out your community
• You need to complete:
– Images
– Description
– About
– Contact information
– Personal profile
– Community settings

8. The Fabulous 5 Growth Tactics:
1. Use your networks
2. Use social media outlets
3. Take advantage of blogging
4. Encourage member activity
5. Host webinars

9. 1. Use Your Networks
• Right from the beginning you should invite:
– Friends
– Family
– Colleagues
• If you know someone who would love being
part of your group, invite them.

10. 1. Use Your Networks (cont.)
• Start off on the right foot
• Having members in your community will
help attract more members
– No one wants to be the first to the party
• This is why you invite those contacts you
personally know
– Get them in first, and it will be easier to get
others

11. 2. Use social networks

12. 2. Use social networks (cont.)
• People that want to join your community
are out there
• You just need to find them
• Social networks are the easiest place to
look
• Start by posting updates about your
community and conferences

13. 2. Use social networks (cont.)
• Popular social networks to try out:
– Facebook
– Twitter
– LinkedIn
– MySpace
– Google+
– Pinterest
– Stumbleupon
– Reddit
– Bebo (UK)
– Hi5 (Non-US)

14. 3. Taking advantage of blogging
• Having an active blog is a valuable
promotional tool
• It becomes a funnel to your community
• For hosting webinars:
– Refer to your events
– Your Blog/website is the most effective
marketing tool
– Embed your conference recordings

15. 3. Taking advantage of blogging
(cont.)
• Blogs need content
• Most bloggers don’t have time or the energy
to constantly come up with content
• This is where you and your community
enter!
• Reach out to bloggers that write about your
topic
– A cooking community should reach out to
cooking bloggers
• Tell them your story

16. 4. Encourage member activity
“A community is like a ship, everyone ought to
be prepared to take the helm.”
-Henrik Ibsen

17. 4. Encourage member activity (cont.)
• Without your members help, your community can
become stagnant
• Activity is what will drive you through the
community stages:
Stage
Incep*on
Establishment
Maturity
Mitosis
Descrip(on
The
community
just
started.
You’re
pos(ng
most
of
the
content
and
invi(ng
most
of
the
people
to
join.
You’re
the
driving
force.
This
is
where
most
communi(es
fail.
The
community
is
on
a
good
pace.
It’s
growing
and
members
are
sharing
on
their
own.
You’re
no
longer
the
driving
force.
You’re
a
facilitator.
Take
a
vaca(on,
because
this
community
is
100%
its
own
en(ty.
If
it
was
garden,
you’re
just
trimming
here
and
there.
If
you
leD,
the
community
would
con(nue
to
grow.
The
community
has
grown
so
large
that
you
need
sub-­‐groups
to
facilitate
more
specific
and
in(mate
conversa(ons.
Each
sub-­‐
group
will
go
back
to
the
incep(on
stage.
%
of
organizer
posted
content
50
to
100%
<
50%
<
10%
50
to
100%

18. 4. Encourage member activity (cont.)
• We suggest to create a schedule for posting. For
example:
1. Monday - Opinion feature (stir debate)
2. Tuesday - News article repost
3. Wednesday - Host a video chat
4. Thursday - Featured interview (can be with
outsiders or those in your group)
5. Friday - Event for the weekend.
6. Saturday - Welcome newcomers
7. Sunday - Summary of the week and a look
forward to the next week
18

19. 5. Host webinars
• If content is king, then the webinar is the
king of kings
• They are a way for you to:
– Share knowledge
– Meet your members face-to-face
– Interact with your community
– Promote your community to outsiders

20. 5. Host webinars (cont.)
• On BigMarker, hosting a webinar is easy
• Click “Host a conference” and you are on
your way
• Then, you want to promote your webinar
with the same tools you used before
– Inviting relevant contacts
– Working social media
– Telling the blogging world

21. Andy
Andy@BigMarker.com
Community Hero
Joe
Joe@BigMarker.com
Community Hero