A Leaders Forum Community Group
A Leaders Forum is for Group Founders, Group Administrators, and anyone who is thinking about starting a discussion group on the Daily Strength Website. We discuss how to start a group, how to keep it growing, how to keep daily activity high, and other aspects of managing discussion groups. Would you like to change the world? If so, please come join our group!
If membership in your group isn't as high as you'd like it to be, have you considered having a contest with prizes?
For example:
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Contest: The members of the "__________________" Group who get the most new members to join the group within the next __________________ days will win prizes.
1. Grand Prize (Three Winners) will each receive a pre-paid cell phone with 60 minutes airtime.
2. Runners-Up (Three Winners) will each receive gift cards valued at $__________________.
3. All others will be considered for promotion to Administrative positions.
Rules. Contestants must submit a list of all new members they have succeeded in getting to join the group between the dates __________________ and __________________, subject to verification.
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Prizes could be consistent with your group's theme. The Laughter Club might have a prize consisting of a joke book. A religious group might offer Bibles or Bibles recorded on CD.
Of course, all money for prizes would have to come out of your own pocket. Maybe you have some other ideas for prizes, maybe even ones that won't cost anything?
Rules for contests can be tricky. What rules would you have?
For example:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Contest: The members of the "__________________" Group who get the most new members to join the group within the next __________________ days will win prizes.
1. Grand Prize (Three Winners) will each receive a pre-paid cell phone with 60 minutes airtime.
2. Runners-Up (Three Winners) will each receive gift cards valued at $__________________.
3. All others will be considered for promotion to Administrative positions.
Rules. Contestants must submit a list of all new members they have succeeded in getting to join the group between the dates __________________ and __________________, subject to verification.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prizes could be consistent with your group's theme. The Laughter Club might have a prize consisting of a joke book. A religious group might offer Bibles or Bibles recorded on CD.
Of course, all money for prizes would have to come out of your own pocket. Maybe you have some other ideas for prizes, maybe even ones that won't cost anything?
Rules for contests can be tricky. What rules would you have?
Lets say you do it and get alot of people to join, what happens then.
To me it has never been a numbers game, no actually when I first started my groups it was. A group with 6 people will always be dead.
But once a group has crossed a threshold (I recon around 50), you have enough people in that group to start to make things look interesting.
The problem with the numbers game is that if this is the main driver you end up with groups of up to 200 people which are dead zones.
Two of the groups I am a member of have more than 100 people and my reply of more than 10 days ago in each group is the last reply in each group.
Give me a live group with 50 members over a dead group with 200 any day.
What happens is that many people including me join groups because they may be interested in the content but after a period of activity don't go there any more but we don't leave the groups.
Maybe we should then at least the group admin will know how many people are interested in what they are doing.
My moto, once you are past 50, prioritise activity over numbers, in time the group will grow and people will stay interested.
In the DAPA group I founded I have let my advertizing links die but the group is still adding at least 2 people a day. The group is currently 130, at this projected growth rate in one month it will reach 190, in 1 year 800 people, I sincerely hope the growth rate will slow.
You've got to think outside of the box. First, what you build here in your groups isn't wealth or power or a knowledge base so much as it is social capital. Building that social capital can lead back to those other things.
Contests are held in workplaces - they're the basis of determining who gets bonuses and promotions and other incentives - and those contests are often unannounced contests, perhaps better known as "performance reviews." Political campaigns are contests to see who can get the most votes, usually ending in winner-takes-all outcomes. Daily life in a human society is a contest, with everyone vying for the benefits society offers.
A system of rewards yields results.