Community Management Tidbits – The Circle Game
What the heck is the Circle Game? Er, I do not mean this one. Don’t even think about it.
Forums have cycles, and so do users. That is, there is a start to them coming to your site and joining. But there is also a middle piece. And, inevitably, there is an end.
Community Phases are the Backbone of This Circle Game
There is not a lot that you can do about this. You can, however, stretch out the individual phases.
Discovery
The first phase is discovery. It all starts with excitement. The user has found your forum! It seems huge! The user can never possibly read everything. The whole thing is all too much.
It is heady, and the user may very well tell everyone he or she knows about you. Or, the user might want you all to him or herself. Either can happen.
Nesting
The next phase is nesting. The user makes friends and starts to get into an enclave or two. Enclaves are little groups within your forum, whether formal or informal. Even if your forum does not have actual designated groups, per se, this still happens.
In a community for single fathers, for example, a user might hang around with other users who became first-time fathers after the age of forty. In a folk music forum, a user might spend time with (and follow around) other users from Ohio.
This is perfectly normal – a carving of familiarity in an alien sea. But it does set up the next phase.
Boredom
The next phase is boredom. The community has too much sameness and does not seem to be changing quickly or thoroughly enough, so far as this particular user is concerned. But the user sticks around, however, grudgingly.
Departure
The final phase is departure. Whether that comes with a bang (a user suspension) or a whimper (the user simply fails to sign in any more), is immaterial.
Or, there is a third type of endgame, where the user posts a topic about their departure. This topic can be fond, hostile or even a ploy to get other users to beg that person to stay. Or to get other users to join them in exiting—or going elsewhere.
Do not put it past people to use their departure as a means of gathering friends or fans or followers in some new pasture. They want to start their own, new circle game. But they do not feel like putting in the time or effort to build an audience.
Fighting Back and Reversing the Circle Game
Does it always have to be this way? Well, this kind of a cycle is more or less inevitable.
The trick is to stretch out the first two phases, discovery and nesting, as much as possible, or to have the user cycle back from boredom to nesting again (e. g. to find a different group to hang with).
Or, a positive situation would be if the boredom phase were at least short (and put off) so that the departure phase would not be a suspension. And it would be less fraught with meaning.
Because a user taking leave, no matter how popular that user is, will leave behind less of a hole if they are a part of a 100,000-person forum versus a 100-user community.
How do you do this? By phases, of course!
Discovery, Reimagined
The Discovery phase of the circle game has two essential elements: new users and new topics. Increase both with good SEO and with encouraging as much user participation as possible.
Nesting, Transformed
The Nesting phase can be encouraged and promoted by keeping your community a safe, warm and welcoming place. Having formal specific groups is not strictly necessary for this, but it can be of help if your users are struggling in this area.
And, if you do go with formal groups, ask your users which groups they would like. They might surprise you. And it (almost) does not matter whether a group is terribly active.
It will still serve its purpose, to continue to afford your users with a friendly place within the forum, even if it is small. This is a place they can call their own.
Boredom, Shortened
The Boredom phase of the circle game can be delayed and/or truncated by keeping the twin flows of new users and new topics going. This means more and better SEO, offering new features and encouraging your users to continue adding new, interesting and diverse topics.
What if you simply cannot think of new topic fodder? So try taking a stand on a controversial subject, or ask for comments on a related news article. Or look in your archives, and see if an older subject might benefit from a fresh, new take.
Circle Game Departure, Delayed
Finally, the Departure phase of the circle game can, of course, be put off if the first two phases stretch out. When departure happens, do not ask most users to stay. Unless you have a very tiny forum, this kind of behavior will be impossible to scale.
And it generally does not put off the inevitable for too terribly long. Instead, try to find out from the user just why they are leaving.
Except for purely personal, internal circumstances (e. g. the user just started a new job and has no time for your community any more), there may be something you can learn from and improve on.
And asking why will also give you an opportunity, not to entreat the user to stay, but to let the user know that he or she is welcome to return at any time.
The Circle Game: Takeaways
Your users’ interest in your community will wax and wane. You cannot always do anything about it, but if an effort is made, your users are generally going to appreciate that. And your circle game will go on.
Want More About Community Management?
If my experiences with community management resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about how online communities work.
Here are some posts about my years in community management, and what I have learned.
• A Day in the Life of a Community Manager
† Analytics (see below for link)
• Going From a Collection of Users to a True Community
† Risks of a Community Without Management
• Are Off Topic Posts Ever Okay?
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