The Notification Cycle

If you've made your first post in a community, when will you visit the site again?

After one hour? Five hours? A few days? 

It's quite likely you will forget and never return.

It takes time for visiting a community to become a habit.

There are a tiny number of websites we visit every day. It might be Facebook, CNN News, a few blogs and a community site. You have to force your community into that list. 

The notifications cycle plays a key role in achieving this. 

People are notified by e-mail (not through the platform!) when their discussion has received a response. They visit, read the response and reply. The individuals which replied are notified and visit to reply....and so the cycle continues. 

Visiting the platform soon becomes a habit. 

Notifications also speed up the community. Most people instantly click on the notification to see the response. In that visit they make their own response. Others reply at a quicker pace. The quicker pace equals more posts equals greater familiarity and a stronger community. 

Don't overlook notifications. Set them on by default. Keep them short. Make sure the message is clear "Joe Smith replied to your comment about {topic}, click here to reply". Members are free to change the setting if they receive too many, but let them make that decision, not you. 

You can build a community without notifications, but it's much harder. 

Comments

[DaveCayem]

Agree 100% that notifications are key. Do you believe that notifications should include the entire text of the message? Or should they just include a link that forces people to view the message online?

[AssociCom]

We have experienced the value of notifications ourselves (I work for a company that produces an online community platform for associations). For example, we had a site which was not using notifications and was receiving very little traffic even though we were putting up new content fairly regularly. After we turned on notifications (which would inform members of new content items that had been uploaded to the system) we observed that about 75% of the registered members were now visiting the site at least once a week. Prior to notifications being turned on, the visit rate was more like 10%.

[Uggs Boots]

notifications and was receiving very little traffic even though we were putting up new content fairly regularly. After we turned on notifications (which would inform members of new content items that

[Walter Adamson]

Drip feed works. The Internet Marketers know this as well.

[Charlotte Seo company]

You are right, we tend to easily to forget it!

[Richardbrasser]

This is absolutely correct. Thanks for the post Rich. We have been building communities for many years and see a direct correlation between engagement and notifications. It is very difficult to grow interactions with the notifications off by default. I also agree with Walter that a proactive communication strategy by community administrators has shown good results and should be a part of any community growth plan.