Most forum owners have a serious problem – member onboarding.
Historically, we have all been bad at onboarding new members to our forums.
The reason is simple. The first forum owners didn’t do it. Over time, as forums got more and more popular, administrators just followed suit with the OG forum owners, and they didn’t do it either.
It basically became a culture thing, and now it’s a habitual thing.
But it needs to stop when we’re living in an age where it seems like forums are on the decline. If we get better at onboarding, it might be the thing that saves forums.
In this guide, I’m going to focus on ways we can improve our forum membership onboarding strategies.
The Welcome PM
PM or DM, whatever you prefer – the message we privately send to new members.
Mostly, it’s generic, and all members get the same message because usually, it’s automated. And if you’re like most other forum users and me, you don’t read it.
That’s where we go wrong with onboarding.
It’s prime real estate that we could be using to improve our membership and forum activity.
Instead of sending a generic automated message, we need to send a personal message manually. Yes, that means we need to work a little harder and spend more time visiting the forum, as a good administrator should.
Start with the subject line. No more “Welcome to the forum!” because that looks automated and generic. Make it eye-catching. “Hey (name of user), I want to personally welcome you.” Be personal with the new member.
Then comes the message.
No automated and generic BS. Not anymore.
You’re messaging someone that might become your biggest asset to the forum. They might become a very active member or even one of your best moderators over time. But if you don’t engage with them the right way, the opportunity may never arise.
Send them something personal and engaging:
“Thanks for joining the forum. It means a lot to me. Why did you join? I’d love to know.”
Start a conversation with them. A real conversation.
And then keep it going. Build a friendship. Make them want to come back over and over again just so they can message you.
You’re already keeping forum topics active; you can reply to private messages, too.
Engage and build that relationship and then invite them to start posting on the forum. A good friend will do that long before a lurker who knows no one.
Start a Member Intelligence Report
Sounds kind of spy-crafty, doesn’t it?
But it’s the real thing.
Create a spreadsheet and add a couple of columns to it. Username, age, gender, location, biggest needs, interests, and anything else that stands out. Fill in as much detail as possible, but you’re never going to get all those details from all members.
Use the spreadsheet to identify members who relate to one another.
Then take those members and introduce them to each other. Network them together. Be the one who helps them build a relationship with each other.
Do this enough time plus maintain your friendship with the members and you’ll have yourself a loyal community on your hands.
Only use the spreadsheet for this purpose. Respect the privacy of membership data.
Make Being a Member Easy
Another reason why members turn into lurkers is that they don’t know how to use the forum or they feel like an outsider.
Consider the features you add that change the forum. Will the feature or theme make using traditional forums harder for people not used to them?
If it’s difficult to get used to change, many people will become inactive. Humans, most of us, don’t like change. Don’t make changes to your forum to benefit you; make them to benefit members when they demand it.
And then comes the community and how inviting it is.
If you let cliques form, they might not take to new members as they should. They might be mean to new members. That should be stopped before it gets out of hand because it’ll change the culture on your forum.
Be a leader and guide your community to be very welcoming to members. When you see a member welcoming another member, praise them for doing it. Give them a digital badge or something like that. Reward members for being nice to new members.
That will set up your culture and show members what you expect from them.
Support Desk and Support Documents
Make finding and using your support desk (help section) easy.
I also recommend going above and beyond the generic support documents that come with the forum and remaking them to include more details and screenshots using the current theme in both desktop and mobile versions.
The idea here is to show new members how to use the forum as easily as we can show them.
Title support posts in a way that makes finding help very simple.
You can even edit support posts from other members to re-title them and just explain why you did it. Do this after the support request is resolved so that there is an answer available for new members to find.
Final Thoughts
We need to pay more attention to our new members.
It doesn’t take long for a new member to convert to a lurker if they go unattended too long. Right when they join, or soon after, you should be sending that personal welcome message and establishing the friendship that will turn them into loyal members.
P.s. It’s okay for forum administrators and moderators to befriend members. In fact, doing so may prevent those members from becoming problem members down the road.
What other ways can we improve member onboarding? What ideas do you have?
