- Mistake 1: Unrealistic Timeline
- Mistake 2: Web 1.0 Thinking
- Mistake 3: Self-Centeredness
- Mistake 4: No Recruitment Plan
- Mistake 5: Nothing Happening
- Mistake 6: Under-Managing the Site
- Mistake 7: Over-Managing the Site
- Mistake 8: Inadequate Technology
- Mistake 9: Making Things Too Difficult
- Mistake 10: Disorientation and Dead Ends
- Avoid These Mistakes
Mistake 5: Nothing Happening
It's not enough to get a bunch of members registered in your community. You'll also need to maintain a minimum activity level on the website. If a user comes to the site and sees that nothing has changed since her last visit, she may not bother to drop by again. Or if she has the feeling that she's the only one participating, she's likely to lose interest fast. So you have a dilemma on your hands. It's a circular problemnobody wants to go to a party if no one else is there.
How can you get past this problem? You might need to invest extra time and resources to create a lively atmosphere in your community until you can build a momentum that will allow it to function on its own. Bribe or bully colleagues into participating on the website. Get your community manager more involved, responding immediately and individually to member contributions so that users don't feel ignored. And make sure that the activity taking place is as visible as possible. You might want to organize the website so that the latest content is displayed in the most prominent position, allowing visitors to see immediately what's new.