Creating Community Spirit
Published: October 1st, 2006Creating community spirit is one of the hardest things to do on a site, here are some tips on how you can get by!
Creating community spirit is very important for communities. Otherwise the members feel like they are actually not a part of anything but the “topic” of what your site is about.
There are a few ways to do this, but I’d have to say the best way is to create a monthly newsletter/publication.
Not only does this improve community spirit, but it also brings back inactive members. Why? Because of that e-mail waiting in their inbox with the title of your site. That’s why ;).
For an example of what I am talking about, you can view September’s issue of Writers Club, an official publication of Writer’s Beat. Which is my writing community.
Key points in these newsletters/publications is involving your members with the community. This can be little things like showing updates of what has been going on. Or little reminders about something that is happening, like a contest or something like that. Basically anything you can think of that inspires someone to get involved. It’s truly up to your own creativity to do so.
But I really can’t stress how important it is to get a monthly newsletter going. In fact, start planning it out RIGHT NOW if you do not have one already. Trust me, you’ll see your communities’ activity start to rise.
Summary, get a freaking newsletter out there to your members every month.
Ready. Set. Go.
In terms of the formatting, you're allowed to use markdown, textile, or basic html; it's truly up to you -- what strikes your fancy?
You don't have to worry about your e-mail address being sold to a russian-spam-mafia. I'm only going to use it for my own weird needs; like asking you out for a date on a lonely night of coding.