Promoting Exclusive Communities

This is a no-brainer.

If you have an exclusive community, the sort where only select people can pay to join, promote the membership list – not the features of the community.

Comments

[Peter Davis]

How do you figure that this is only true for exclusive communities? Seems to me that it's true for each and every community.

[Vanessa DiMauro]

Richard,
May exclusive online communities are private for a reason - the members are typically senior professionals who have chosen to join the private online community for the professional exchanges they can engage in, privately, with peers. They are often trying to remain out of the public eye.

While this strategy may be effective as a marketing tactic it can be a disservice to the very members it is endeavoring to serve. My advice, as one who primarily builds private online communities for executives, is to be sure to check with the membership base before making their membership public as it could be viewed as breaking the rules of engagement - and the trust that has been established. But, to your point, perhaps there are ways to bubble up the company or industries that are affiliated with the private community as a "birds of a feather" strategy without leaving the members exposed.

Vanessa DiMauro
CEO
Leader Networks

[Richard Millington]

Peter, not sure that's the case. If you haven't heard of the people in the community it probably makes more sense to talk about is happening in the community rather than who is doing it.

Vanessa, I think you're right. There are some major issues here. However, how would you persuade anybody to join without giving some indication as to who was in the community?

[Vanessa DiMauro]

Peer referral is always the most powerful strategy for growing membership - regardless of whether the community is public or private. However, the peer referral process needs to be especially thought through with exclusive communities as many of the "applicants" are likely not to be accepted into the online community. So, one critical step is to include transparency (this community is dedicated to serving the needs of XY or Z group) with the membership criteria and couple it with a persistent peer referral program - one that can take place both online (through a form or membership drive) as well as through supporting materials that do not rely on site to engage (e.g. PDF or paper invitation process).

In terms of passive awareness about the community - "persuading someone to join without giving any indication of the exact members" - you can easily share member demographic information - by title, by industry etc. coupled with member testimonials or quotes to support the public facing marketing efforts. The difference here is that these testimonials are gathered willfully by the community with the explicit member's permission and not a publication of all members name without written OK. Here, community can work with visible member spokepeople to create endorsements or value drivers (video works very well!). If properly crafted, such testimonials can be of benefit to the member as well as they have been identified as industry leaders which reinforced their position of strength.

There are many tactics that can be take to raise the visibility of an exclusive or gated communities and these are just some examples. But the moral of the story is to always respect the privacy and rules of engagement of an exclusive community as trust is difficult to build and easy to lose.

Hope this helps. I look forward to others comments and ideas

Vanessa DiMauro
CEO
Leader Networks

[Lordorica]

Another tactic for growing membership in an exclusive community is ... doing nothing. Let people seek you out. Work hard on creating value within your community, be selective about who can join. Scarcity drives demand.