Encouraging members to post?

Well, I'm sure this is going to be something that most individuals have to come up with from time to time, but I'm just at a loss here as to how to do this!

The traffic? Not an issue. Lately I've pulled some decent pageviews, decent stats for a small(er), new(er) forum. I say new because the thing is barely 4 months old. There is no problem with the traffic and getting it there. I've even thrown a few things out to entice members to register (vbcredits charge for misc. answers to trivia, etc), but nothing on the post end.

New content? Daily, I post either some movie information, television information, images, videos, something, whatever's going on in the related world (movie, tv, games, etc), so that doesn't appear to be an issue?

I gotta be doing something wrong here!!

 

The internet and especially forums are a magnet for shy people who like reading discussions, but don't feel comfortable conversing with others. Constant challenge to post counting! :p

The way to get any party going is to get some fun and interesting people in there who will talk to anyone. You need some shills. You need ice-breakers to get newbies and also lurkers to post once, then they feel less intrusive about posting. Welcome everyone at the door (or have a shill do it.) Gently ask them to tell something benign about themselves, if you have a topic, how long they've been involved and what's their favorite area of it. Throughout the forum ask people their thoughts and opinions on things not too controversial so they won't worry about being sniped if they have an opinion someone else doesn't like.

The topic people want most to talk about on any forum is pretty basic ... themselves. Ask them about their experiences and opinions. Don't inform them of things, ask them about their thoughts about those things.

That's my suggestion. I can get a charity party going, have smaller experience with forums but it's all people stuff and kind of the same.

You may know ... big swank high-budget parties hire people who appear to be party guests to get 'real' party guests talking to each other. Otherwise a lot of guests just stick close to the buffet table saying very little. Your forum may need some outgoing conversationalist party-starters on board. Not just anyone, they have to be good at it, it's an under-appreciated art.


I know some lurkers, and have been one on other forums. Some are just readers not conversers, and that won't change for them. Others are potential posters. Sometimes a big reason why potential posters aren't posting is a lot of confrontational threads, and/or a lot of sniping and snarky remarks. If every thread seems to have a few posters who are aggressively sarcastic, there are lurkers who have no intention of bothering to post and reap such responses. Cleaning up sniping, snarking, sarcasm and belittling may lose those posters, but gain several others that have been holding back and who are a lot more appealing to other members. Just a thought - if your forum is so new you may not have that issue. But it's an issue that can seriously dent participation and the forum owner never realize it.

 

When posting topics, how many responses you get is usually a matter of adding substantive points to your opening post, which is easy if you're actually enthusiastic about what you're posting about. For example, you might post about an exciting ski trip you had, and provide a lot of vivid details that heighten the probability that a member will feel compelled to respond to a particular point, which in turn increases the probability that an interesting and substantive conversation will take place.

However, you cannot be expected to come up with such topics on a regular basis, and you also know that you cannot expect members to pick up the tab for you, at least if you have a small forum (large forums, on the other hand, may, for example, have a popular website attached to it that does all the talking for you, so to speak). You know this, and it seems like a Catch 22.

I do not think that it is an unworkable dilemma. You can, for instance, do the following: Suppose you go to other forums besides your own. You like browsing the topics and reading the discussions. Maybe that forum has several topics lists that go back months, even years. You can try using the search feature to find topics you like that would be popular on your forum. Using the main idea from topics of interest you find, give your own substantive opening post to encourage discussion. If the topic is a unique enough idea, give credit. Whatever the case, make sure it is your content, and make sure that the content is substantive. (Among the more annoying things I see on some forums are topics lists filled with opening posts by people who simply tell the members to discuss, but who make no effort to add anything to the topic.)

Additionally, if an interesting topic idea comes to mind, wherever you are, you can take note of it so that you can remember and develop it later.

Finally, you can also help provoke response by holding strong to a position. This does not mean belittling or mocking others; it only means that you take a position and you stand by it, and don't use a bunch of qualifiers, conciliatory language, and false equivalencies to prevent conflict. This type of posting would do more to provoke responses because people are going to take issue even with topics of little controversy.

 

One thing that I was doing, I was posting video quizzes. I would take a situation, or an object and ask the people to post an answer.

I would be out on a hiking trip, find something, show it to the people and ask them some questions about it. All of it was filmed and posted on youtube and embedded into the forum.