Ways to help bring in more members and attract new activity

[Ludachris]

Hey guys, I was hoping we'd have more activity by now but it's still really slow. I had some ideas that have worked well on other forums. It's pretty simple really, we just all need to be as welcoming and responsive as possible to new members.

I'm implementing some notices to unregistered members, encouraging them to log in/register to browse the site with fewer advertisements. Once they log in, they'll see notices encouraging them to participate and to post a truck profile/build thread. I'm doing some other things that should help too but here's how you can help...

Most new forum members join to ask a question. Do your best to welcome each and every new member that posts a thread. Try and answer those questions quickly. I've found that if people don't get a quick reply they usually never come back to the forum. Especially when they can get speedy responses in FB groups (). So the quicker we can respond to questions, the better, even if it's just pointing them in a direction where they might get a good answer.

When interacting with newer members, encourage them to create a profile for their truck here on the site in the Truck Showcase section. And when they do, be sure to click the Like link in that profile, respond to their build thread and request some updates. The more a user invests in that truck profile, the more it tends to stir up passion for their truck, and the more likely they are to share that passion in the build thread, sharing photos, updates, etc. That's the type of participation that snowballs in a positive direction.

Be sure to share updates about your truck in your Truck Showcase profile. The more we lead by example the more others will follow suit.

That's pretty much it. I told you it was simple. Just be responsive to every new member.

 

[heavydoc]

I check here once a day for new posts and help/answer where I can. The push notifications don't seem to work here, well on psn either! Not really sure why either. I have unsubscribed and re subscribed with no luck. I seem only to get notifications of Billy's posts

 

[Ludachris]

I check here once a day for new posts and help/answer where I can. The push notifications don't seem to work here, well on psn either! Not really sure why either. I have unsubscribed and re subscribed with no luck. I seem only to get notifications of Billy's posts

I’ll see if I can figure out the push notifications.

 

[heavydoc]

I’ll see if I can figure out the push notifications.

And yet this one came through

 

[Fellro]

FB groups are having issues now with the dogpiling on the new guys or somebody that says something and then they start going off on them and such. It is actually starting to go downhill, for every helpful response there is 5 jack***es that trash talk the poster.

 

[Beach66Bum]

FB groups are having issues now with the dogpiling on the new guys or somebody that says something and then they start going off on them and such. It is actually starting to go downhill, for every helpful response there is 5 jack***es that trash talk the poster.

This!! it’s gotten so out of control on the Ford truck Facebook pages, meh!

 

[heavydoc]

Anddddd, back to no notification

 

[dustybumpers]

Some origional members that stuck it out through thick and thin have been given a feeling they dont belong.
Only reason I answered here is because Billy hit me on Facebook messenger about the thread.

You need to concentrate on old members that were active before, and stopped posting to see what's going on.
Welcoming new members is great, but you should work to keep the old active members as well.

 

[CowboyBilly9Mile]

....I seem only to get notifications of Billy's posts

Huh? Possibly a software setting that members can't manage (?).

 

[Ludachris]

Some origional members that stuck it out through thick and thin have been given a feeling they dont belong.
Only reason I answered here is because Billy hit me on Facebook messenger about the thread.

You need to concentrate on old members that were active before, and stopped posting to see what's going on.
Welcoming new members is great, but you should work to keep the old active members as well.

I actually did reach out to a few members with higher post counts and no recent activity. No responses. The problem might be that they have outdated email addresses in their user account, preventing me from reaching them.

Any ideas why they might feel like they no longer belong? You guys are welcome to PM me to discuss privately if you want.

 

[Sparky83]

I actually did reach out to a few members with higher post counts and no recent activity. No responses. The problem might be that they have outdated email addresses in their user account, preventing me from reaching them.

Any ideas why they might feel like they no longer belong? You guys are welcome to PM me to discuss privately if you want.

As attitudes changed other members started attacking each other. Both in foreground and background conversations. Basically backstabbing till they left.

You also got many that just outgrew the forum life. I still check out the forum daily. But like doc said. I help when i see something i can with. If im not sure i leave it for others whod know better than i would. New members can be frustrated further when looking for Help to figure out a problem their having with vehicles and someone posts "helpful" solutions that are unrelated to fix their vehicle that really dont help track the problems down.

 

[5.0Flareside]

Knowing most of the high post count members alot of em have just outgrew it. Got busier in life with kids and families. Or even some slowed down in life and got away from the business of forum life.

I've came and went. Trying to be active.

 

[smokey]

I've just been swamped with work and getting my Dads farm back In operation from years of neglect when his health declined. Have miles of fencing, machinery repairs and remodeling the house. I can only get on normally late when I should be sleping.

 

[Ludachris]

Huh? Possibly a software setting that members can't manage (?).

The Push Notifications settings are in Preferences, which you can get to by clicking on your avatar in the main navigation - here's the link:

https://www.fordtruckfanatics.com/account/preferences

 

[Ludachris]

As attitudes changed other members started attacking each other. Both in foreground and background conversations. Basically backstabbing till they left.

You also got many that just outgrew the forum life. I still check out the forum daily. But like doc said. I help when i see something i can with. If im not sure i leave it for others whod know better than i would. New members can be frustrated further when looking for Help to figure out a problem their having with vehicles and someone posts "helpful" solutions that are unrelated to fix their vehicle that really dont help track the problems down.

The attacks between members is concerning, but not surprising. It happens in all online communities. It happens on social media daily.

As for outgrowing forum life, that's possible too. Usually that means they just stopped getting value from the forum. Whether that be less content they find interesting or inspiring, or just less fulfillment of helping others. I know when I mention forums, people tend to say "I always just search forums for what I need" or "all the questions are already answered". We don't necessarily just need question answerers. Or question askers. We need people who are passionate about trucks to come in here and share photos of their Ford truck in the forums regularly - as opposed to doing that on social media. We need them to share videos they've uploaded to Youtube here. We need people to post about what they're doing, what they've experienced on their journey, what they're planning to do with their truck, recaps from meets and events they attend, etc.

Some people move on and no longer invest time into being social in a forum setting like this. Members will always come and go. But plenty are still discussing Ford trucks online. I see them in other forums, I see them on social media, I see them on Youtube. Tons of activity out there. Hopefully we can get some of them to do that here.

I'll keep working on more things like the Truck Showcase and other features to help spur more activity. Build threads are one of my favorite aspects of the internet, hopefully we can get more people to post (and update) those here. I'll keep reaching out to people, inviting them to participate. The more people we get to post, the more Google will reward us in the search results for our content. The less activity we see here, the less Google will think we are relevant and the less our threads will show up in search results - which will work against us obviously.

 

[Ludachris]

You need to concentrate on old members that were active before, and stopped posting to see what's going on.

I've sent off a bunch of PMs to inactive members with high post counts, hope to hear back from some of them. The reality is though, if we don't get more members - regardless if they're new members or old, the site won't be a useful asset to anyone going forward - and the longer it goes with such low activity, the harder it will be to revive it, as we'll lose more ground in Google results if we don't have people posting new content. So I'll continue to reach out to older members, but if the email blasts I sent out didn't spark any curiosity, I don't know that we'll be able to bring them back. I'd love to have them come back, but we probably need to focus more on bringing in and welcoming in new members who are interested in being here and getting them to become more active.

 

[Sparky83]

For me when i got tired of the forums it was because i kept seeing the ppl on the forums doing what id like to be able to do and get depressed because i couldnt for one reason our another. So i would quit getting on to get my head right again.

 

[Fellro]

I can relate to that. I do get some inspiration as well from others. I have found as I get older and a number of events have come to pass I have become less outgoing and more quiet about a lot. I can't do much on build threads as I am not getting much done myself... my pooor diesel has been doing a lot of sitting due to not comfortable with running with the temp gausepegged out even though I'm confident not actually overheating (took the rad cap off, coolant was lukewarm at best, yet gauge was nearly pegged. ) Glow plugs need change, ignition rack is broke, among a few other things. My other issue is most of my pictures from prior builds have been lost due to computer crashes or websites that were once free charging for the access now.

 

[Ludachris]

I can relate to that. I do get some inspiration as well from others. I have found as I get older and a number of events have come to pass I have become less outgoing and more quiet about a lot. I can't do much on build threads as I am not getting much done myself... my pooor diesel has been doing a lot of sitting due to not comfortable with running with the temp gausepegged out even though I'm confident not actually overheating (took the rad cap off, coolant was lukewarm at best, yet gauge was nearly pegged. ) Glow plugs need change, ignition rack is broke, among a few other things. My other issue is most of my pictures from prior builds have been lost due to computer crashes or websites that were once free charging for the access now.

Same here... the girls are getting older, the home projects and maintenance keep increasing, and working on vehicles for "therapy" tends to take a backseat. But I promised myself I'd start getting more therapy this coming year. I need it badly.

 

[Sparky83]

I can relate to that. I do get some inspiration as well from others. I have found as I get older and a number of events have come to pass I have become less outgoing and more quiet about a lot. I can't do much on build threads as I am not getting much done myself... my pooor diesel has been doing a lot of sitting due to not comfortable with running with the temp gausepegged out even though I'm confident not actually overheating (took the rad cap off, coolant was lukewarm at best, yet gauge was nearly pegged. ) Glow plugs need change, ignition rack is broke, among a few other things. My other issue is most of my pictures from prior builds have been lost due to computer crashes or websites that were once free charging for the access now.

I just need to get mine running again. But need to get my house livable first. But same time winters rearing its ugly head atm. So kinda need the truck too