Having friends to join

[Bryn]

When anyone first sets up their forum, it's recommended for anyone to inform their circle of friends about it (either real-life or those you know from elsewhere) just for yourself to get started with things. If you make a forum and you plug it on another site to get your first set of members, then it's going to be much harder. On top of that, Forumotion encourages you to tell your friends about your new forum when you use their services to make it, and of this done via bulk mail (which technically would be your first one ever sent).

I've done this myself before and it worked, so I hope it has for everyone else. At least those you're familiar with can give you the support you need to make your new forum successful from the get-go 🙂

 

[Jason76]

Hmmm. I don't really like to. I mean, sometimes I will post something massively interesting on Facebook - as in to my FB friends (not groups and pages), but I'd rather avoid it. The thing is - it seems like a desperation measure. It's like someone starting some cheesy business thing and asking friends and family to sign up. 🙁

But that's not saying the projects people are doing are necessarily bad - only that they're in the small stages and the polite way to go about it - is to try promoting to people other than friends - and especially to targeted traffic - that actually is interested.

Another thing to note is that if you're using your real name to promote on Facebook that could also be leaking out to your main circle of non-business friends and that could annoy them. That's why I post with a fake name on my FB pages/groups and also to be less narcissistic.

 

[Shannon Apple]

Meh, no. You see, I don't tell my real life friends that I run forums, that I'm a gamer, or anything else. There are certain hobbies that I have that would not interest the majority of my female friends and they'd probably go as far as to think I was weird. Certain hobbies are best kept to yourself when the only people that share them are people you know from online. XD

 

[Jason76]

Meh, no. You see, I don't tell my real life friends that I run forums, that I'm a gamer, or anything else. There are certain hobbies that I have that would not interest the majority of my female friends and they'd probably go as far as to think I was weird. Certain hobbies are best kept to yourself when the only people that share them are people you know from online. XD

I tell my friends a little of what I do - but I don't go overboard.

 

[Shannon Apple]

Meh, no. You see, I don't tell my real life friends that I run forums, that I'm a gamer, or anything else. There are certain hobbies that I have that would not interest the majority of my female friends and they'd probably go as far as to think I was weird. Certain hobbies are best kept to yourself when the only people that share them are people you know from online. XD

I tell my friends a little of what I do - but I don't go overboard.

Bwuahaha! I tell them nothing really. The bare minimum.

 

[Jason76]

Well, the stuff I like is certainly geeky - but I will say some things - if they don't like it, then stuff it!

But I was making the mistake one time - due to inexperience, of posting all updates of sites to my main friends. That was dumb.

 

[MeganChan]

I used to do that a bit. Some friends online that I talk to sometimes. It often does help though. Often some would join.

 

[Page]

It's easy for me. I don't have any friends 😛 Yet again those online friends don't join

 

[Shannon Apple]

It's easy for me. I don't have any friends 😛 Yet again those online friends don't join

Your forum doesn't seem to be doing too badly these days. It looks nicer and you have a lot more members. 🙂

 

[Bryn]

Maybe I should elaborate more on my first post... I'm leaning more towards online friends, say like those you know from YouTube, DeviantArt or wherever else. The first time I did that was when I had my first forum and the first thing I did was plug it onto my now-defunct YouTube profile. I then got my first new members during the first couple of days, really to take advantage of my high subscriber count 😉

And when it came to The Hideout, that I think @Shannon Apple would remember, those of the previous forum had flocked to there upon me inviting them.

 

[Page]

Hardest part that can happen with friends that do join if you are getting staff members and your know your friends so well that you know not to hire them as you rather have another guy that is more knowledge and whatnot. How that will turn out for them?

 

[Deleted member 17779]

Usually that can be beneficial, especially if your circle of friends are going to be active on your forum.

 

[Jon]

To be completely honest, I doubt anyone I know in real life would participate in a forum today. That's the sad reality of what effects the "new" social networking platforms have made on the forum community. Forum go'ers are a special edition, limited breed. I do hope something curves the graphs back in our favor, however, I'm absolutely clueless as to what that may be or when it could occur.

I highly rely on networking with other gamers to bring attention to my forum, and even then it's quite difficult to find someone with a genuine, long-lasting interest. Although it's not my case in particular, if you have a large pool of friends who you think may take you up on the offer to register and participate, I highly recommend informing them all about it!

 

[Jason76]

To be completely honest, I doubt anyone I know in real life would participate in a forum today.

My forum The Math Help, has top notch material - but nobody ever posts on it - minus an occasional spammer who asks a math problem to sneak in a link, lol.

 

[Jon]

My forum The Math Help, has top notch material - but nobody ever posts on it - minus an occasional spammer who asks a math problem to sneak in a link, lol.

It's likely you'll experience a high level of lurkers on your page as most will be there for homework help, and not actually looking to contribute themselves. Have you considered creating a landing page with some links to your material which visitors can use for support, and offering the forum as secondary to your main content?

Either way, best of luck with your forum! I support what you're doing and I believe sharing of knowledge is great.

---

Trying to steer back into the direction of the topic at hand, have you considered sharing your forum with some of your friends and family @Jason76?

 

[Allenafaith]

My real life, friends, I would never tell about my Forum. I know my friends and I know they would not care and would not sign up so there’s no point in wasting my breath, but with my online friends, I would absolutely tell them because it’s something that they also enjoy.

 

[Maya]

This is my go to strategy. My first users are my friends

 

[Katrina]

Not many of my real life friends/family are interested in supporting the forums I'm a part of. I've had a couple sign up on Christianity Haven when it first opened, but didn't stick around after that. Yet, they want me to support their internet endeavors, and for the past few years, I've ignored those.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

When anyone first sets up their forum, it's recommended for anyone to inform their circle of friends about it (either real-life or those you know from elsewhere) just for yourself to get started with things. If you make a forum and you plug it on another site to get your first set of members, then it's going to be much harder. On top of that, Forumotion encourages you to tell your friends about your new forum when you use their services to make it, and of this done via bulk mail (which technically would be your first one ever sent).

I've done this myself before and it worked, so I hope it has for everyone else. At least those you're familiar with can give you the support you need to make your new forum successful from the get-go 🙂

I would only invite friends that I know would get into the niche of my forums otherwise, they're going to charity join and not be active.

Aim for active members not just anyone.

 

[Gizmo]

I've got a group of online friends I bug endlessly until they join.