Here's why your engagement tactics aren't working
You're focusing on the wrong thing (here's what matters)
The one question I hear from community builders most often is, “How do I get my members to engage?”
It’s the wrong question.
Engagement is not a goal; it’s a side effect. It happens when members are making progress, when they’re finding value – when they feel like their voice in the community matters.
One of my all-time favorite explanations of engagement came from the talk my son’s high school principal gave at freshman orientation.
“Our school should be different because you were here,” he urged the auditorium of nervous moms and dads. “You are amazing parents – amazing individuals and people in your own right. We want you to have your own journey here.
But most importantly, by engaging, you will change who we are as a school.”
Are you giving your members the opportunity to change who you are as a community?
It’s easy to slip into viewing engagement as a transaction.
I host an event; you attend.
I post a thread; you reply.
But that’s not why people join communities.
Sure, they may come to learn something. If that’s all they wanted to do, they could have taken a course or read a book.
They joined a community to make connections. To interact and form real, three-dimensional relationships with other humans.
You can foster those connections with a mix of large-group events and small-group activities.
In The Hive, we do a lot of coaching and learning. But our calendar also includes informal events like weekly co-working. Some of our best moments have come from the spontaneous conversations that arise in that informal setting.
That’s how communities work: large groups help people find small groups, small groups lead to one-on-one relationships, and relationships lead to greater engagement. It’s a virtuous feedback loop.
Someone once told me building community is “hard work and heart work.” At the end of the day, it’s about delivering what we’re all yearning for: a place to be seen, valued and part of something meaningful.
When you stop focusing on what’s best for the community and start focusing on what’s best for the members, engagement will naturally follow – because what’s best for the members is what’s best for the community.
If you really want to drive engagement, treat people like people. Create your community in service to your members, not your mission. It’s that easy – and that hard.
Remember what’s important,
🐝 The Hive is a space where leaders learn together and support one another on their shared journey to build and scale profitable, meaningful communities.
Join the waitlist and be one of the first to know when doors open this fall.