Nurturing Groups: How I built membership & engagement

This is going to be the last part of my series!

Once an interest group is up and running, the initial few months are crucial to get people to join and actively engage in the group. While there's no one-size-fits-all approach, I'd love to share some tactics that have worked well for us. 

P.S - if you have any unique methods that have worked for you, I’d love to learn them from you!

1. The magic of emails
   1. One of the first things we did was to announce the launch of our group to our customers through crisp, yet fun emails. 
   2. We used the power of our Gainsight Journey Orchestrator tool to send tailored messages to different cohorts of admins, depending on their stage in the beginner admin journey.
2. Newsletter plugins
   1. Newsletters are fantastic for igniting interest in folks who haven't yet joined a group, since they already have an established audience. 
   2. Share intriguing glimpses of unique posts from the group to give them a taste of what they're missing out on. You can also showcase wins and feature group member spotlights, in order to spark curiosity and draw members in. 
   3. For example, our monthly admin newsletter always has a special section highlighting something unique moments that happened in the group. 
   4. Additionally, we use our larger newsletters to send out quarterly reminders about our group, keeping it fresh in people's minds.
3. Community placements in associated categories
   1. Ensure that a thread from the group is hosted on the related larger community category, for higher discoverability.
      1. We have a "Training and Certification" section in our community, which serves as a common landing point for all admin-related discussions. I took advantage of this & hosted our introductory group message as a quick link. 

4. Plugins in community posts
   1. Keep an eye out for opportunities in community posts that align with our interest group. 
   2. In our case, we had a bunch of series-based posts and topics that were related to our group's theme. By plugging in unique moments and wins within those series posts, it helped create more visibility and engagement. 
   3. For instance, we featured the launch and celebratory moments of our group in the larger community roundups in partnership with @anirbandutta ‘s awesome 'The Community This Week' series. 

      

       

   4. We also showcased unique items from our group on the weekly community job listings that are relevant to our group's purpose.

5. Internal company promotions:
   1. One of my favorite strategies is creatively promoting our group within our company. The possibilities are endless!
   2. In our case, the primary aim was to attract the attention of our CSMs so they could guide their beginner admin clients to join our group. We used our company's announcement channels to share launches, reminders, and unique moments from the group. 
6. LinkedIn shares via leader profiles:
   1. When something unique or crucial is happening in our community, I suggest reaching out to your organization's leaders to spread the word. Their larger reach and influence can make a huge impact. 
   2. Luckily, @seth , one of our leaders, is hell lotta creative, and utilized multiple opportunities with him to promote the group and its unique posts. 

So, these are some key tactics that have helped us drive members and boost engagement within our group. And we are still in the process of experimenting new tactics as we move forward with this group and others!

I’d love to learn more from other members here if:

• You’ve tried any of the tactics above and how has it worked for you?
• Is there a tactic that’s missing here that has helped your group grow?

There’s so much potential with interest groups, so feel free to discuss, ask, share thoughts here. I’m all up for a discussion