Regularly Engaging Your Community

Keeping your community engaged is often a matter of consistency. A little effort every day, a little more every now and then, and a reliably thoughtful relationship with your moderators and members can encourage people to keep coming back.

Your goal is to find the tactics and rhythm that work best for your community.

Engagements, Big and Small

If you want your members to post regularly, you should try to give them a reason regularly. Find simple, sustainable ways to reach out maybe once or twice a week. 

  • Engagement Questions: Start a conversation: what’s your PC setup look like? Share pictures of your houseplants. Taking part helps!
  • Daily/Weekly Updates: Hosting a Stage Channel where you share what’s new doesn’t just give people a reason to pop in, it gives them something to look forward to.
  • Community Feedback: Let your members regularly vote on what they want from you, from new content to new server channels.

These daily efforts will pay off even more when they’re supplemented by bigger scheduled events.

The more regular or exclusive to your server a big-ticket engagement is, the more likely people will be to come back for it. Consider scheduling something exciting at least once a month.

Stage Events are excellent for more involved engagements: they let everyone participate in Q&As, round tables, live performances, seminars and other big tickets without letting things get out of control. They’re also easy to schedule and display, helping your community remember when they should come back.

Empower Your Mods

You can’t be everywhere at once. That’s why you rely on moderators—not just to keep your server safe, but to help keep it active, friendly and engaged. To get the most out of your team…

  • Communicate: Let your moderators know when you’ll have lulls or spikes in activity so that they can plan, adjust and facilitate engagement. 
  • Accept Help: If you can trust your moderators to host and even design events, you’ll be able to focus your own efforts even more. 
  • Use Server Insights: Giving your mod team the power to analyze Server Insights will help them understand and connect with the community.
  • Know What Burnout Looks Like: Consistency is important, but so is taking a break. Know when you, or your team, need some time off.

Understand Your Limits and Priorities

It may seem counter-intuitive, but part of making your community happy is making sure you’re happy.

  • Trust Your Instincts: The community might suggest changes to your channels, rules, or schedule, but it’s your community too. Be understanding, but don’t be afraid to set boundaries.
  • Get Ahead of Anxiety: Maybe you can’t keep up your schedule for a while. Maybe you just need a break. Consider letting people know so they understandd—and they won’t wonder where you went or whether you’re coming back.
  • Know You’re Not Alone: Find people in your community you can trust. Let them carry some of the burdens with you, either as moderators or volunteer organizers.

Making a server you want to come back to every day will help make sure everyone else wants to as well.

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