Inactive Members: Every Community Builders Nightmare
“Lurkers”, people who are not participating in the community.
Personally, I’ve never liked this term. For me, they are spectators, much like the audience at a sporting event.
If there were no audience in a match, what fun would it be?
Even the players won’t enjoy being on the ground.
It’s exactly like that, the inactive members are the audience sitting in the stands, silently and from afar observing your work.
You might get hit by a bottle or two every once in a while from them for maybe not doing your job properly or just because they don’t like you.
However, that is how they participate. That’s how they announce their presence.
But, on the other hand, we are community builders; we want everyone to participate and everyone to observe; this is impossible, at least with humans, but no one can blame us for trying.
“How to deal with inactive members of the community?” is a question that comes up whenever I speak or attend a talk. It may or may not be in this format, but it exists.
And, no matter how it is asked, how many times it is asked. Community professionals still struggle with inactive members.
The introduction of super fast-paced, transactional communities in Web3 has done nothing to improve the situation. To top it all off, people are rushing into being community professionals without proper knowledge, which is only making things worse.
Now that we know what the problem is, let’s work on a solution.
As Rona Mlnarik once said, “If the challenge exists, so must the solution.”
Let’s start by identifying the reason behind a member being inactive.
- They have got what they came for in the community and no longer need help
- They do not find the conversation meaningful enough anymore
- The community goal didn’t align with their personal goals but they are too polite to leave.
- They feel shy
- They do not feel motivated enough
- They do not feel safe
- They are only there to observe and learn
And so many more.
It’s not humanly possible to get 100% engagement in any community, but you can always try to improve it from the current state.
We begin by identifying and compiling a list of inactive community members. Once we’ve identified them,
One approach would be to directly ask them,
- What is missing from the community, that they think should be introduced?
- How can we transform them from observers to creators?
Sending them a personalized email with old memories of when they were active or when they joined with the “Remember Us” Message is a great way. I base this assertion on a comprehensive psychological research study that demonstrates that people react when confronted with an old memory.
Some other ways would be
- Do Inactive member competitions
- Give a shoutout to active members
- Celebrate small achievements (like their first post)
- Acknowledge their contribution to the community, no matter how small or big
Cleaning is the last thing I would recommend doing. If offered, I would choose any other option besides expelling the community members. However, occasionally it’s best to kick out community inactives who have chosen to ignore your outreach efforts.
This is an excellent approach to keep the community cohesive and make sure there is no dead weight, even though I don’t like doing it.
As community professionals, we are expected to be sympathetic, yet part of our job also entails making tough judgments.
I’d like to finish this with what I feel to be true:
Community Builders are the Unsung Superheroes who don’t wear capes.
If you have more questions that you want to get answered. Join us at Community Folks.
Hello community people, I’m Akash and I write about the growth strategies and the working of communities around the globe. If you like my style of nonchalant writing, then follow me to stay ahead of the normies(people who don’t follow me).
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