Groups #3 – Moderating and promoting your group

Welcome to the third and final part of our series of posts on XING groups. Having outlined the basics of group membership in part 1 and explained how to start a group of your own in part 2, I’ll take a look today at other options and features open to group moderators.

There are various different ways to invite people to join your group: Besides the link in the group itself, you can also recommend the group to others by clicking on the group link under the Invite tab. Alternatively, you can click on the “Invite to join a group” button in the top right-hand corner of all members’ profiles. You might want to encourage other group members to spread the word about the group within their own personal networks as well.

You can also create “Search alerts” either by clicking to right of your start page or choosing the same option on a search results page. As the name suggests, these will “alert” you to new members joining that may be interested in your specific group. You can set up a search with such precise criteria that you will be guaranteed to pinpoint perfect matches for the group.

From honey bees …

If your group is visible, it will also be promoted whenever a new member joins in the “What’s new in your network” feed, provided the new member who hasn’t deactivated this feature in their settings. Take advantage if this viral spread – it really is honey to the bee, and other members will follow suit! It’s good to post articles regularly and be an active member yourself, especially in the initial stages after setting up the group. Try to mobilize active members and get them to post articles, at least in the round of introductions. And don’t become disheartened by the apparent lack of activity either …

Activity levels can’t just be measured on the level of content posted. It is about participation in a wider context, measured for instance by page impressions and unique hits, membership numbers, participation in group events and – above all – the number of impressions generated by individual threads.

It is often easy to forget that active contributors to a group depend on their audience at the same time. Moderators can count themselves lucky really if just 10% of their group’s members play an active role in discussions. This figure is usually much lower, demonstrating how valuable these view members are and also proving how important the silent reading majority are as well.

Over-zealous moderators who decide to exclude apparently inactive members from their group (because they don’t post) will be doing untold damage to the delicately balanced biotope within their own community. The trick is to encourage these apparently inactive members to read the forums.

… to blossoming threads

Articles with emotionally appealing, provocative and question-mark subject lines easily attract the most number of readers – and usually the small group of posters in the group as well. Moderators shouldn’t be afraid to approach talented authors either and ask them to post their input in a thread that has just been opened,

Be sure to write monthly newsletters, linking these to interesting forum discussions and reporting on upcoming group events and recent group developments. This will inspire your members to “stop by the group and take a look around” again. And always remember: Lots of page impressions attract lots more page impressions, lots of articles lead to lots more articles … honey to the bee!

You might also want to include a link to your group in your own profile, or even integrate it into your own email signature.

I would also recommend tagging all group members with relevant keywords from the very outset. This way you’ll be able to locate specific sub-groups of users easier, invite people to relevant events or introduce people to one another.

That’s all from me for now. I look forward to all the insightful articles and lively discussion that will continue to make Groups such an interactive and enriching part of XING in the future.

Best wishes,

Silke Schippmann