Ning.com was created as an alternative to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. What makes Ning unique is its focus on user created communities promoting special interests, such as networking, music, and small businesses like Etsy. Any member is free to create their own community and ask other members to join. However, ease of entrance is only the first step. Once you’ve created your community you must practice online etiquette to build and maintain member interest without annoying your network.
Building a popular Ning community can be compared to hosting a dinner party. Nobody wants to be the first to arrive and if the conversation gets dull, your guests will leave early…and as for visitors or word of mouth, how inviting is an empty house? When members do join your community, remember no one wants to be invited to dinner expecting good conversation and then find the meal comes complete with a sales presentation. Your guests (or members) are unlikely to buy or come back the next time they’re invited.
Here are the top five reasons Ning members leave a network, and tips to keep them coming back for more:
- “Whenever I go to your network, I get confused about how to navigate the posts”
Navigation is key to promoting network growth and retention. Make it easy for novice users to navigate your site. Just because you can speak CSS and HTML fluently, doesn’t mean your users can. Assume that half of your visitors are new to Ning and offer helpful directions for getting started on your site.
- “The forum is confusing, how do I even post a question?”
Forum setup is frustrating for new users. Make it simple. Don’t have ten different categories when five broad categories will shorten time to navigate and post. It’s much better to have few categories with lots of discussion, than twenty empty categories.
- “My eyes hurt after 5 minutes on your site.”
You want members to linger and participate, so make your site easy on the eyes. Don’t use the annoying black background that has people seeing spots when they look away from the screen. Don’t get clever with flash animation or an abundance of unrelated graphics, they distract from your message.
- “There’s no discussion or interaction here. What’s the point of staying?”
With a new network, you have to get the discussion going. Invite your close friends to join, start discussions in the forum, link to other networks or articles of interest to your community so that members see your network as the place to come for the latest buzz. Users will leave if they see no signs of life.
- “My inbox is full of your broadcast messages, and they don’t even have anything worthwhile in them to read”
Your broadcast message can be a powerful force in growing your network, if members view it as a valuable source of information. Send broadcast messages no more than twice a week and keep the content short and relevant. Nobody likes Spam.
- “Wait. You’re charging me how much to continue my membership in this network?”
Start your network as an open community with no entrance fees. If you later decide to charge a premium for membership, let your original community members continue for free or at a deeply discounted rate. There’s no better way to drive off membership than to start charging the very people who helped your network get off the ground in the beginning.
Want to learn more about Ning networks? Read this earlier post from my blog: Ning Networks 101: A Guide to Creating a Thriving Online Social Network
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{ 1 comment }
this is so far over my head. I am trying to keep up with technology, but how much i don't know is frightening!!
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