Hiring staff too early

[TechWiz18]

Do you ever find yourself so anxious to get active members that you start hiring staff members just to get them? I think that this is a bad idea. I find that very few if any forum genre's need to have a staff team other than the founders for quite awhile.

I also don't think you want to have your staff to out-number your total member count as this could be off-putting.

 

[Jason76]

Do you ever find yourself so anxious to get active members that you start hiring staff members just to get them? I think that this is a bad idea. I find that very few if any forum genre's need to have a staff team other than the founders for quite awhile.

I also don't think you want to have your staff to out-number your total member count as this could be off-putting.

A lot of that stuff is just "being a pal". In other words, making friends on the promotion forum - LOL.

 

[Katrina]

How many staff members are you saying is a bad judgment call? I think that in the beginning it's nice to have at least one or two staffers on hand because the owner/Admin isn't going to be online 24 hours to protect the site. I find it's good to have staffers in different time zones to cover the clock in case trolls/spammers try to take over.

Now, what Christianity Haven did at the start and I think is an excellent idea was to get some members to be "Advisors" which wasn't a staff position. We no longer have Advisors on the site because they suited their purpose at the beginning and now we have other people doing what they did. But as for the Advisors, it gave some people a way to stay connected to the site which means that they logged in every day and they had roles/responsibilities to keep them involved. We sectioned it off so that one Advisor was in charge of being the hospitality person in making sure every newbie was greeted, sending a PM or leaving a visitor's message. Another Advisor was in charge of creating fun events for the site. Another was in charge of technical issues that members might have and answering their questions. Instead of having an Admin wear all these hats, the roles were delegated out to members who were eager to help out.

It actually also helped that these Advisors were known members from another site.

 

[TechWiz18]

How many staff members are you saying is a bad judgment call? I think that in the beginning it's nice to have at least one or two staffers on hand because the owner/Admin isn't going to be online 24 hours to protect the site. I find it's good to have staffers in different time zones to cover the clock in case trolls/spammers try to take over.

Now, what Christianity Haven did at the start and I think is an excellent idea was to get some members to be "Advisors" which wasn't a staff position. We no longer have Advisors on the site because they suited their purpose at the beginning and now we have other people doing what they did. But as for the Advisors, it gave some people a way to stay connected to the site which means that they logged in every day and they had roles/responsibilities to keep them involved. We sectioned it off so that one Advisor was in charge of being the hospitality person in making sure every newbie was greeted, sending a PM or leaving a visitor's message. Another Advisor was in charge of creating fun events for the site. Another was in charge of technical issues that members might have and answering their questions. Instead of having an Admin wear all these hats, the roles were delegated out to members who were eager to help out.

It actually also helped that these Advisors were known members from another site.

Most of the time sites don't start getting a ton of member activity right away so I don't see why your staff should out number your active member count.

 

[JoelR]

A lot of that stuff is just "being a pal". In other words, making friends on the promotion forum - LOL.

Genuine question: what's the point of making friends on a promotion forum when ....

• That user may not be interested in your niche?
• That user has other priorities (eg. his own forum) that don't align with your priorities?

I'm all for making friends anywhere you can, so if you want to make friends for the sake of friendship then go for it. But networking and trying to get uninterested people to come to your site is a low-value way of building up your niche. Why don't you go hang out in other communities that are actually related to your niche instead?

 

[Jason76]

Genuine question: what's the point of making friends on a promotion forum when ....

• That user may not be interested in your niche?
• That user has other priorities (eg. his own forum) that don't align with your priorities?

I'm all for making friends anywhere you can, so if you want to make friends for the sake of friendship then go for it. But networking and trying to get uninterested people to come to your site is a low-value way of building up your niche. Why don't you go hang out in other communities that are actually related to your niche instead?

Nobody's that interested in drumming here - but they might be a little. Well, in this place people like gaming, web development, general chat, hosting - but not musical instruments.