Groups #2 – Start your own group

Welcome back to MaximiXING, and the second part of the group special feature.  As we described in the first installment, each XING member can start a topic-based or professional group.  You can make a name for yourself as an expert in your field, create and maintain a network of professionals, or just pursue a hobby you particularly enjoy.

As the moderator of a group, you’re responsible for creating and developing a group, and can influence who is a member – which means in effect that you can play a key role in determining the discourse on a specific topic.

Think first, group later!

Before submitting a group creation request, you should think about the topic you wish to focus on, and how you wish to set up the group.

Our Community Management team will respond within a week of you submitting your group creation request, and let you know whether the group can be approved. According to our group policy, we do not permit groups with religious topics or “nonsense” groups. This means that groups bearing serious-sounding titles such as “For more pirates in politics” or “All about swimsuits” will not be appearing on XING – admittedly, this is in contrast to other social networks. At XING, we take care that our groups adhere to a quality standard, and that members have a serious interest in sharing information in group forums.

A group name should be short and sweet, memorable and appealing. Group names that are too long generally don’t work.

Ideally, you should consider whether the topic at hand is interesting and unique enough to warrant interest by a substantial number of members, and sustain continual activity. Oftentimes, there are already groups on the topic at hand – please remember to check on the Group Overview Page. If this is the case, you may consider applying to co-moderate the group. Many moderators are only too happy to take you up on such a request, and after all, it doesn’t cost anything to ask.

If you do decide to start your “own” group, you should answer the following questions first: What is your target group? Who do you want to join? Who do you want not to join? You should have the answers to these questions from the start of the group, as well as the group’s rules.

All’s well that begins well

Once created, the new group is replete with a set of standard forums. It behooves you to create interesting and unique forums of your own, or to rename these standard ones to better suit the group’s focus.  For clarity’s sake, separate the various forums with headers.

On the topic of design, I’d seriously recommend designing a good-looking group logo. If you’re not an artist at heart, you could have a contest in your group to see who designs the best logo. But wait, there’s more: it’s a really good idea to write a few words for your group start page. If you’re so inclined, you can add HTML tags and pictures, too.  And while you’re writing…your “About this Group” page is still empty, isn’t it? And it would be nice to write a welcome mail which is sent to new group members. Nothing fancy, a few lines will suffice.

Sounds like a lot of work, right? You might want to look for a co-moderator or two. Once you’ve found one, it’s easy to appoint that person to ‘co-moderatorship’ using the “Member administration” tab in your group. To appoint full moderators, please get in touch with us. Using the contact form, just send us a message with a link to the person you wish to make a moderator. In case you’re wondering, co-moderators can do everything moderators can, except appoint and depose co-moderators. Oh, and they can’t change the basic settings of a group.

By the way, experience has shown that a few basic settings make for a more active, larger group on XING: Make your group “visible for everybody”, or at least for “all XING members”. Otherwise – and this is important – non-group members will not be able to find the group by searching!

We also recommend that you allow everyone to read group articles, so curious passersby can have a look at what’s happening before joining a group. But don’t worry about non-members writing – it’s best if “Only group members” are allowed to write in forums. Special circumstances call for special settings, however, and if you believe that certain articles or even the group itself should only be visible for a small group of people, you can adapt the settings to meet these needs.

Next week, I’ll explain how to keep group activity soaring. As always – ask any questions you may have, and we’re happy to take your suggestions or critical comments.