Tips to Get your boards flowing!
This was written by DebMomX3 exclusively for MHM and is not to be shared or copied.
The heart of any group is the message boards, mainly the General message board. This is where your members will get to know eachother! When they send an email to 'groupname@groups.msn.com' it will automatically land in your general board.
© 2003 Managers Helping Managers, do NOT copy!
It is very important to keep things moving! It will be hard at first to think of things to post but you have to put in the work if you want your group to grow! If someone comes in your group at 9 and 11 am and sees the same posts, then at 6 pm and there are only a few new posts, do you really think they'll keep coming back?? Probably not! Enlist the help of a couple members, ask them to post as much as possible, and you do the same.
© 2003 Managers Helping Managers, do NOT copy!
Find things to post new discussions about, even if its something like 'How old are you?' or 'Where do you live'?
Give them topics to discuss, related to your group.
Find something unique that you can post in your group, that few or no others have.
© 2003 Managers Helping Managers, do NOT copy!
Post something every day like 'horoscopes' or 'chicken soup for the soul', something they can look forward to.
© 2003 Managers Helping Managers, do NOT copy!
***It is very important to welcome each new member, personally and individually. Avoid posts like 'Let's welcome dotty, barney, theresa and barb' because that is very impersonal. Instead welcome each one. Takes a little more time but I have a post saved that I simply copy and paste each time, individualize it with their name and Im done :)
Now if your group is growing very very fast or if you have ALOT of new members every day, you cant welcome each one probably. So if you want to still welcome them all you could set up a New Members board or welcome them all in one post but include all their names in the welcome post.
© 2003 Managers Helping Managers, do NOT copy!
Encourage your members to welcome your newbies.
Speaking of newbies, if you use alot of net slang like lol, dh, roflmao, brb... you will want to create a page about this Net Lingo so your members know what you are talking about. In no time they'll be using net slang too LOL! :)
© 2003 Managers Helping Managers, do NOT copy!
Also be sure to post your group's rules!! This is very important. If you dont post any rules, there is no way to keep things under control. If you dont mind people posting links to other groups, great! But if you allow it, you are opening a floodgate to spam. I recommend you instead provide them a board and/or banner exchange and lay down some rules. A rules page should not be so long that they have to scroll down to finish it, that is too long. Make the rules brief and easy to understand. Have some common courtesy rules about member conduct that suit your group. Common rules are: Be courteous, no member bashing, no copying email addresses and respect others opinions.
© 2003 Managers Helping Managers, do NOT copy!
