Thoughts?

We seem to have decreased in size from the Scrapzee site. I was thinking we should be posting some of the wonderful work here on Pintrest and Facebook to see if we can conjure up any new people. (I'm at a disadvantage right now without my home computer so I'm hoping someone can do the original pin and I can re-pin.) Any other ideas what we can do to boost membership?

I'm thinking a lot of it is the holidays. It would be fun to do a Pinterest board that we can post on FB. I'm not at home, so can't do anything from work. Not sure I can actually get to my computer at home for a few days, either. I'll try when I get home to do something.

Maybe if we did some kind of event in January, like be apart of a blog hop, that we might be able to get more members. The holidays are making it very hard to concentrate on making anything that is a Non-Christmas present.

It honestly takes a lot of time, hard work and effort and consistency to build participation on a site. I'm not sure what Sheri's plans are for the site and how much time she wants or has to do this. If there is someone who is interested in working it and building it, maybe they could have a chat with Sheri and see what her intentions are with the site and possibly working out a plan to build things up and work with Sheri on this. With that said....here are some suggestions that have helped build other sites in the past:

Keep in mind...like the others said above, it is the holidays. December is always slow on all forums of this type.

Work the social media...it is HUGE and will boost a site with participation if worked correctly. Start by:
1) Build a Pinterest board for the site and be consistent with pinning on it.
2) Build a FB page for the site and post on it daily with things going on here and pictures of work being submitted for challenges, crops etc. Some of our members are on FB daily and may get more involved with the activities here if they read what is going on here in their FB feed. That may spark an interest to come over and do a challenge or two...
3) Create a you tube channel for the site and promote it. There is a HUGE amount of card makers / paper crafters on you tube.
4) Build a blog for the site and post on it daily with what is happening here etc.
All 4 of these covers the biggest part of the social media where you will find other paper crafters.

Explore the idea of asking people / companies to sponsor a prize for the crops....maybe a grand prize offer to be given to one random participant drawn from all the names of those who participated. There are are a number of small businesses out there looking to promote what they are selling and they just might be willing to sponsor a crop. It promotes them and in return they will be letting their customers know about the upcoming event which brings awareness to the site and possibly more participants. I have found a couple of new crafting businesses on you tube that might be willing to sponsor a crop or two. I also have a friend who is rapidly building her store simply by promoting it on you tube and FB. So using the social media is important and it works....plus in most cases it is free to use it! Fb...twitter...instagram...pinterest etc

We already missed the opportunity to invite members from some other sites that have recently closed. However watching for other forums of this type that are announcing they are shutting down or seem to be floundering and then sending an invitation to their existing members might also bring some more members.

It really is all about "numbers" The average participation is usually 10% of your membership. We actually were just above that on SZ....so not bad even though it seem like it was low participation we actually were doing good. So the trick to more participation....we need a lot more members.

That's some of my ideas for now. I have some more but I have to head off to the cancer center and get cooked for the day! :lol:

To wrap it up though....social media....networking and hard work is what is needed to bring more participation. You can put all the fun challenges and crops you want on here but unless it gets put out there that we are here....no one will know to come join and do the fun challenges and crops. So someone needs to work it on a regular basis and stay with it. It grows slooooooow but it will grow if it is worked.

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I'd say a lot of it is the holidays. I managed to get signed up here, but in addition to the holidays I'll also be starting to pack the house to move from Ohio to Kentucky.

Susan pointed out some very good ways to promote our site. FaceBook is good even if you don't post every day. Post when the challenges go live, like Monday and Wednesday. That will get word out.

Susie--You're giving me more credit than I deserve! :lol:

You're working under the assumption that I have a plan! (*Looks for plan*...Nope, no plan!)

My intention at this present time has just been to give us a new place to gather. In terms of how much time I have to do this... I don't have a good enough idea yet of what all is involved with what I need to do with it now let alone with adding in any of Susie's (or other's) suggestions.

I think the biggest thing with Susie's suggestions (social media, blog, etc.) is consistency. The thing is that is a big commitment--blogging especially. To write a blog every day is a huge commitment. And there are some days when that is not going to happen, whether it is me doing it or someone else. Even Facebook and Pinterest require consistency. What is the point of having an account if nothing is ever posted/pinned to it. I watch Pinterest on a fairly regular basis, but almost never saw things pinned to the SZ Pinterest board.

In terms of sponsors for crops...I'm pretty sure that's over my head at this point. (I'm over my head with the site period! :shock:

) I'm sure there's a lot involved with that and that would take a lot of research on my part before I'd start considering that.

I'm not sure that the most important thing is having more numbers. I think most of those that we "lost" were (mostly--that's the key word here) not "active" SZ members. The active members are mostly here. And, as others have mentioned, with the holidays it is slow. I had intended to have the site up earlier, but...Sorry, it just wasn't happening! so maybe with the SZ email that Susie sent out for us as a reminder some of those who are missing will make their way over when things settle down a bit.

I can say though that we have added 8 or so in the last couple days. Some names there were familiar, but others were not. So there are some new ones here. (And I'm working under the assumption that those were not just human spammers getting around the measures put in place to keep the spamming bots off.)

I'm not sure all that actually offers any suggestions, but it should give you some idea of my current "Grand Plan!" :lol:

Such as it is!

Wow Susan, very thorough! Lots of good information and ideas!

Sheri, you were a hero in taking on creating the new site. It's not something I was comfortable tackling, that's for sure! You rock. Thanks for the info about the new registrations too. That's encouraging. We need to make sure there are things going on to keep them interested in coming back.

I think it's a good sign that already 5 people even checked this topic. That's great!

If Susan can tell me how to set up a Pinterest board I would be willing to put our creations on it. I waste time on Pinterest every day so I may as well do something constructive. :lol:

I would be happy to work on the Facebook side of things. I haven't posted to my Emerald Lane Art one in awhile, but not because I didn't have time. There I did my art and Stampin' Up things. I don't sell SU any longer and haven't done much art either. I have been in a slump. It began with the death of a friend in June and was quickly followed by the stroke. My life changed then and I am just now getting interested in doing things again. The death of our friend's baby a couple weeks ago took me down a peg or two, but I am really working to get back where I need to be. I think having something to work on would be a good thing. I am on FB every day. It is one of my prayer lists and the place where I keep track of friends and family. I don't do Twitter...I don't even understand it. Someone else would need to do that. Let me know if you want me to do this.

My thoughts? I LOVE this group! How amazing that one posting can yield so much encouragement, ideas and actual volunteers to do some of the work. As always, you all make my heart happy!
I am not sure what I can do, but would be happy to help with FB... and possibly Pinterest. Since I "reside" in both places quite a bit. (However, I do think that the holidays are part of the reason it is slow here. And, like others, I will have a bit more time to help early in the new year.)