If you want someone to join an online community, try talking about them. People are staggeringly self-interested.
If you want a group of people to join your online community, talk about the individuals within the group.
If I wanted employees of Edelman to join my community, I would start debates about who my members most admired at the organisation. Who's the most overrated Edelman employee. Who would be the biggest loss to Edelman. Maybe rate Edelman's prominent bloggers out of 10.
It's good content (content about people usually is) and it's likely to be passed around the offices.
The stronger the emotional pull, the easier it is to overcome the joining barriers.
Using emotions will help further connect the community. Funny videos or sad stories or controversial pictures. People care about other people.
I actually just wrote about this - http://www.timjahn.com/blog/10/22/2008/secret-reaching-someone.
Posted by: Tim Jahn | Friday, 24 October 2008 at 21:42
good post. Emotions, stories, controversy always works. I'd be careful of using hate though. The community will always be looking for the next person to hate - sooner or later that'll be you.
Posted by: Richard Millington | Sunday, 26 October 2008 at 02:27
This is a great idea. I don't have specific groups that I want to come to my blog, but individuals, sure. I might try this!
Looking forward to seeing what other ideas you'll come up with.
Ashley
Posted by: Ashley | Tuesday, 18 November 2008 at 21:15