In Football, we talk about the power of the “12th Man On The Team”, meaning the impact a favorable crowd can have on the game, even though they aren’t on the field. Lately, we’ve been talking about how to build a successful community, but what if you just want to help grow the communities you love being a member of? Believe it or not, there are 3 different ways you can help build these communities from out in the crowd! Let’s take a look at what we can do.
One of the most obvious ways you can help is to Contribute. One of the worst things that can happen in a community is silence. If no conversation is happening, people won’t have a reason to come back, and then there will be even less conversation. Creating and responding to conversations helps keep the conversation moving, and helps keep people active.
But what kind of contributions can you make? Of course, commenting on existing posts or discussions is an easy way to stop lurking and start contributing. Beyond that, take a look and see what kind of posts people seem to like. For example, in our Nerds Belong Here group on Facebook, meme posts tend to spark a lot of discussion, as do nerdy debates. So, if I’m looking to spark conversation and contributions, I might post a meme, especially if it’s about a controversial topic, such as which one of the newly announced Pokemon Gen 9 starters is the best. Again, pay attention to what the group likes, and go with that.
Another great thing you can do is Interact with the community. This goes beyond simple contribution, into the realm of social media algorithms. Let’s take a Facebook group for example. If we comment on posts, and add reactions to comments and posts, it bumps those posts up in the algorithm, and therefore, those posts will appear on more community members’ news feeds, and those people are more likely to interact, creating a snowball effect. Additionally, groups that have high interaction levels are more likely to be recommended by Facebook. It’s worth noting that while we used Facebook as an example, most social media platforms have a similar algorithm system.
Finally, the best way to grow a community you are in is to Share it with your friends! In most cases, you can, at minimum, send group invites to your friends. Sometimes, as is the case with public Facebook groups, for example, you can directly share content. Either way, we recommend sharing a group you are passionate about with the kind of people you would want hanging out with you in that group. Ideally, those people would be the kind to contribute to the conversation as well!
As it turns out, there’s actually a lot that we can do to help grow our favorite communities from the crowd! Specifically, if we contribute to the conversation, interact with the content, and share our favorite group with our family and friends, we can make a sizable impact on the welfare of that group! Want to see a great community in action? Check out our Discord and Facebook groups! Not already a member? Grab the links to our communities at NerdsBelongHere.com! And as always, stay tuned to this blog for more great tips and tricks!