Best practice growth ideas for an online discussion community?

October 6, 2021 8:09 AM

A moderated discussion forum I frequent offers free, or nearly free, engagement (reading, writing, conversation, community) as core services. But long-term changes in internet advertising and the rise of social media have radically decreased profitability and the user base. Since no business lasts long without a reliable user base, some growth is crucial for long-term stability. Management’s access to resources and manpower is limited, and they likely have no particular social media expertise. What are some easy, creative, economical steps they could integrate into their routines to help build a larger user base with social media?

A few related facts worth considering:

• Branding — The user base has historically been highly educated, international, multi-generational and cross-sector. Politically, it is predominantly on the left regardless of age or nationality. Many friendships and even marriages have been made through site discussion and user-arranged meetups world-wide.

• Company Values and Style — Management is decidedly not corporate. Instead it’s reminiscent of a hands-on small business. Moderation, which is a core distinction of the site, ensures: (1) civility and on-topic discussion site-wide. It also (2) maintains the functions of different parts of the site.

• Competitors — The forum has several subsections, with two that are especially well-known: (1) A Q&A forum whose closest competitors are probably places like Quora.com, Reddit.com, Dear Prudence, Ask-a-Manager, etc. and (2) A read-and-comment subsection that is probably most similar to sites trafficking in long(er) form discussions like www.podcastbrunchclub.com and countless local and online book clubs, including many hosted on www.meetup.com.

With all this in mind, what steps should the discussion forum be taking on social media (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) to target and attract potential users, and how can they get the most bang for their buck? Also: What tools should the organization use to understand who it's appealing to now and who it might appeal to in a more granular way (Similarweb, Facebook's audience analysis tools for business, etc.)?

posted by Violet Blue to Technology (12 answers total)

My feeling is that they should keep a paid moderating staff, but not provide 24/7 cover with them, and instead use them to train and manage a small cohort of volunteer moderators who are able to remove bad comments or low effort and dull comments from some of the more jaded and verbose and less considered commenters very quickly.

Maybe if the volunteers could only delete comments within 5 minutes of posting, that would avoid the situation where people were making considered refutations of bad points, and would also mean that a more diverse set of commenters might not be drowned out.
posted by ambrosen at 8:20 AM on October 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

Probably the most important consideration, in my opinion, would be to be very clear and strategic about the top priorities and how to set targets that won't overwhelm the system. Since company values and style are core to the forum's identity, but resources are already strained, growing the user base at this time could do more harm than good, despite the best of intentions, unless this effort is very pointed and directed.

It may seem that removing barriers to entry would be a positive step in growing the user base, but it should be assumed that new users will consume more moderation resources and that inclusivity goals may actually get worse, at least in the short term, as a whole new wave of users enter the forum and hard-fought community norms have to be re-litigated again and again.

With these thoughts in mind, I would strongly recommend that outreach to new users should be focused on groups that already share an affinity with the forum's core values and on forum member invitation-only (entry-fee waved) sponsorship campaigns.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:40 AM on October 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Hey, not to threadsit, but I posted here to get answers to a couple of very specific social media/online marketing type questions since that is a standard way for online organizations to grow their user base. So if we could stick to that topic, I would appreciate it.
posted by Violet Blue at 8:47 AM on October 6, 2021

Applying my above response to specific social media platforms, I recommend targeting sub-groups that are suggested by forum members for their specific affinity with the forum core values. Sub-redits, Facebook affinity groups that forum members recommend, Twitter accounts that forum members identify with and recommend, etc. Any advertising campaigns should be at the sub-group level, recommended by forum members, and chosen for the affinity of the memberships.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:57 AM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Before even getting to advertising solutions on social media, this discussion community should add methods, on every post in its Q&A and read-and-comment departments, a way for readers (whether members or not) to share the post on social media without having to copy/paste the URL. Simple Facebook and Twitter icons will accomplish this. This method is a proven traffic-builder. Increased site traffic will build both membership and advertising revenue.
posted by beagle at 9:43 AM on October 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

My feeling is that they should keep a paid moderating staff, but not provide 24/7 cover with them, and instead use them to train and manage a small cohort of volunteer moderators who are able to remove bad comments or low effort and dull comments from some of the more jaded and verbose and less considered commenters very quickly.

Even big web sites like Stack Exchange rely mostly on volunteer moderators overseen and coordinated by professional community managers. Seems to have worked well for them.
posted by grouse at 10:09 AM on October 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

I second the suggestion to invest in giving members fee-waived invites to pass out - not in order to limit growth, but because it's both a way of attracting people who are relatively likely to stick around, and a way of advertising the site. When generating invites, forum members could be offered a chance not only to automatically email the invitee, but also to post a message to the invitee on social media. There could also be an option to generate invites for undefined invitees, such that the inviting member could post "I have 3 invites for HypotheticalSite! Hit me up". Invites could be generated for holidays, in honor of quirky events and other catchy occasions, and whenever weekly/monthly signups start to dip.

HypotheticalSite's own accounts on various SM channels should prominently display both short text descriptions/slogans for readers, and really quick video ads for watchers, about its unique selling points and how the user experience works. Friendly mods! All text, no threading - real conversation! Don't know which subreddit to pick for your question? Post all your questions under one roof! An elegant site for a more civilized age! Whatever can set expectations within a few seconds, such that new users aren't put off by the site's uniqueness when they try it out, and such that visitors to the SM channels can understand the site's brand and be intrigued into visiting it.

Some user profiles can be targeted through SM advertising on subject-focused networks. This would be paid advertising, but sometimes you have to spend money to get money. For example, a Q&A site is a great resource for people looking for advice on job searching, interviewing, negotiating terms, breaking into and navigating new fields, finding resources for those fields, etc. It can be a much quicker, more personalized, and easier to navigate resource than Ask A Manager. So FB groups for women in hi-tech, POC in publishing, alumni groups, whatever, could be a place to advertise that specific use of the site. Maybe the site is known for its ability to quickly identify that book you read three chapters of when you were 8 and the only thing you remember is that there was a clown on the cover? Book-loving communities and fanfic sites might be interested in your ad about that specific feature. Got other niche parts of the site, like a place where anyone can post their music for a gentle crowd? Lots of relevant communities there. Any topics that get a lot of love on the general discussion section? Advertise on topic-related podcasts.

You'd want to build up a smooth path for people who follow your ad/post/mention all the way to the site to actually interact with it. Is there a sign-up fee? That's a barrier, but a barrier that can also keep out spammers (and create the possibility of invites). So maybe your first two posts and comments on those posts are free. Or maybe posts and comments for users who haven't signed up have to be personally approved by a mod (to make sure they're not spamming), which means slower posting times so there's still an incentive to pay if you like the experience. New signups could get a special landing page: Post a question. Post a song. Chat about what's on TV.

International members are probably a largely untapped user base, so any outreach should make it a point to also target international communities. On that note, some infrastructure (like using email to communicate with new signups, for example) could stand updating; there are parts of the world where WhatsApp and other apps are used exclusively or largely in place of email, so those channels should be provided as options.

WhatsApp and co. in general could be a way to bring the site to where people already are. Interested viewers could join the HypotheticalSite group and get notifications of every Q&A post, RSS-style, with a link they can follow if they're interested. This also makes it easy to forward interesting or attention-grabbing questions to friends and other groups.

Many new initiatives can also be used as a small-scale outreach vector in and of themselves. Members can be encouraged to post, message, and email friends and social groups about how they have this beloved old-fashioned site that's trying something new and wants input from people who've never used it before: Try out their WhatsApp group and tell them if it drew you in. Post a song there and rate the experience of doing that. The site wants to help people find them, and these are the things it offers - are you connected to any communities that would find it useful or cool. Does this ad make you want to click through.


But long-term changes in internet advertising and the rise of social media have radically decreased profitability and the user base.

It's crucial for the site not to take this as a given. The internet may be changing, but there are more people online than ever, and plenty of those people have the kind of niche tastes that would love the site. There's also more acceptance than ever of the idea of paying to support online entities (Patreon is a prominent example; user-funded journalism's another). Ad space becomes more valuable with more users. There's no inevitable downward slope.

Whatever approaches are taken, the site needs to truly commit to them for at least a set period of time. If an initiative fizzles out or seems halfhearted, it sends a message that the site's not healthy enough to get attached to.

Input from marketing and other relevant professionals who'd have way more solid ideas than these, as well as project management and business consultants, could be worth its weight in gold.
posted by trig at 11:19 AM on October 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

Does anyone know amyone who can get, say, the Google doodle to celebrate a historic day for the community (though I don't know how they'd even get their doodle into Google -- or why)?

Cross-promotion with say a movie-discussion suite and some streamer/YouTube video presenter where there's overlap?

Are there famous users who can say "I brought my friends/I made my friends at..." your online discussion community?
posted by k3ninho at 3:35 PM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Since the organization in question has the option of allowing itself to continue to rely on literal word-of-mouth referral to keep the growth of its user base at slightly above replacement level and within the scope of what its moderation staff can reasonably cope with, and since what it has to offer is both old-school by deliberate design and a total relief from the uncontrolled shitspray that characterizes mainstream social media, and since its finances serve its mission rather than the other way around, I would advise it to avoid thinking of growth as a desirable end in its own right, to steer well clear of mainstream social media as a marketing platform, and to keep on concentrating its limited resources on what it does best.

Also, it should totally keep its $5-with-exemption-on-request signup speed bump.
posted by flabdablet at 8:32 PM on October 7, 2021

steer well clear of mainstream social media as a marketing platform, and to keep on concentrating its limited resources on what it does best.

I agree with this, but I want to underscore that my simple suggestion, above, of adding social sharing buttons (FB and Twitter icons) to the info line below posts is in line with that suggestion. It has literally zero cost; it is not paid marketing on social platforms, but it is a good way of encouraging "literal word-of-mouth referrals." If unwanted viral growth results (which I doubt would happen), it is easily reversed.
posted by beagle at 8:38 AM on October 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Most digital marketing consultants fall into two groups.*

One is kind of the "big ideas" group and they bring in all kinds of ideas without really paying too much attention (beyond perhaps budget) to the organization they're working with. So from them you would get something like "tap your niche markets," "create partnerships with allied content producers," "pay influencers to drive traffic," and often something like "create social media channels." They're not unhelpful, especially if you are dealing with a team that just needs to start thinking differently, but when I was in content strategy those consultants felt like a pain in the butt.**

The second kind really gets into your organization to understand not just what your specific unique value proposition is but also to understand what the real resources are. For example, if you have a board of directors that can bring partnerships to the table with like, an artistic community, that's kind of awesome. But you don't know what those specific bits and pieces are without getting into the guts of the organization - examining analytics to spot missed opportunities or trends or whatever. Or even installing analytics and that kind of thing.

Anyways, this is mostly to say that generic advice is probably not hugely useful for your community, because all marketing takes resources and unless you're able to kind of throw cash at a situation and hire a firm based on results and have them go out and do all their tricks*** then there's no point.

Where crowdsourcing ideas can be really powerful is once you pick a lane, then you get your crowd brainstorming. So for example, if you decide that your unique offering is the quality of your moderation and discourse, you might go out to people who have audience but not engagement like people with Substack newsletters and offer to host their discussion in return for promotion -- and that's when it's useful to brainstorm who to approach and ask people to help with their connections. But if that's something you would never, ever, ever do - it's not useful and can just be really frustrating.

* There are more like "change the logo" and "what's your budget," but.

** Best suggestion from one of these: Get Céline Dion to promote your french edition magazine! Um okay, will just call her up right now. (She did eventually do a cover but the promotion was the other way.)

*** The tricks are where you really have to know what it is you want. Traffic that doesn't turn into members might help if advertising dollars is your goal and might, in fact, be a better ROI. But if you want conversions, sometimes the tricks to get traffic will have a negative effect. So it's really, really important to know what you want first. Plus if you're paying people, they do have ways of "making their numbers" that won't deliver actual results so you have manage it well.
posted by warriorqueen at 12:53 PM on October 8, 2021

Incidentally, while social media channels can be good for partnerships and some viral traffic, most social media platforms are way better at keeping people on them than whatever community is trying to use them.

Personally, while I think a base level of social media presence is good for a number of reasons - Google, discoverability, etc. - the less effort put in the better. Otherwise you're poaching your resources to grow TikTok/Facebook's/etc. audience. That's not true if you're selling a product or you're an unknown artist or whatever, but it is often true if you're trying to provide an online experience.

This is one of the things that generic social media marketers/brand managers tend to learn the hard way. If your videos build a Facebook audience, and you can take that to advertisers, it's fine. But if you want loyal community members/subscribers you're more likely to lose them because they get the sense that they are getting everything they want from you *on Facebook* and they don't really bother to engage elsewhere deeply.

This was not true 10 years ago, so there are definitely content and community brands that built themselves using those platforms. But those platforms have become better at keeping people loyal to their ecosystems.
posted by warriorqueen at 1:01 PM on October 8, 2021 [2 favorites]