How to Build a Huge Group

Building and maintaining a large group can add 10,000 visitors to your profile page and website a month.

Guideline #1: Create an Appealing Group

Look at the Groups, and create a group that is somehow related to your industry. Look for an opportunity where there is not already an existing group. If there is an existing group that your new group would be competing with, make sure the existing group is beatable…in other words, that it doesn’t have strong momentum (few members, little activity, group creator not effectively monitoring quality of comments and discussion posts).

A good example of a “demographic” group is Women Entrepreneur

A good example of an “occupational" group is Search Engine Marketers

A good example of a “marketing medium” or “website-based” group is Twitter for Internet Marketers

Though you are a group creator, make sure to also use the group as a member of the group. As you create intelligent and stimulating discussions and comments, people will naturally want to check out your Sta.rtUp.biz profile. On your profile page, they will see your business website link and go there. This way, you are not pushing them to your business, but pulling them through the quality of the reputation you are creating by showcasing your expertise.

Guideline #2: Promote Your Group Through Welcome Comments

Read the forum post Getting Massive Traffic Through Value Added Commenting for templates on how to effectively promote your Group to get members to join and maximize your traffic. Hint: Emails and comments which say “Join me on ABC! Join us on ABC" are NOT effective and typically are regarded by members as spam).

Guideline #3: Nurture Your Group Daily

Visit your group daily to monitor the discussion and comment posts that are being left in your group. You want to delete irrelevant posts and anything your members may perceive as spam. If you maintain your group integrity, you will avoid members from “tuning out” valuable messages from your group and leaving your group.

After deleting off-topic messages, you could educate the poster of the comment/discussion by reminding them that the “Introduce Yourself & Promote Your Business” section of the Biz Forum, and the appropriate category of the Marketplace are places for self-promotion. Also, a HUGE way to get traffic is through welcome comments. You can let them know about the templates in Getting Massive Traffic Through Value Added Commenting.

Visit your Admin rights. Uncheck the ability for members to send everyone in the group an email with one click. You, as the creator, will still be able to do so. But you don’t want members joining your group, spamming your members, and then members leaving your group.

Guideline #4: Great Group Comments and Discussion Posts

Post an interesting discussion relevant to your group.

Then post a discussion that is survey-style and invites participation from your group members. It could be something like “What is your business and why are you interested in ABC Group?” Or it could be something like “Have you used ABC and if so, what did you think?”

The key to great comments and discussion posts is to keep them “on-topic.” If you have an e-book that you want to give away, spend some time to tailor the title and contents to target the demographics of the group specifically so that you can deliver value. The more the members of the group perceive you to be speaking directly to them, and not just posting something carelessly that you have attempted to post everywhere else, the more traffic you will receive and the more you will prosper. People quickly tune out canned posts they have seen elsewhere. So not only are canned posts not effective, they reflect poorly on your online reputation and image, and risk spam complaints.

Feel free to ask any questions here on how to tailor your comments. This is about your success!