Sven has set his community a lofty target, 2.5m posts by December 2011.
It’s a terrible community goal for the new year. So is gaining 100,000 new members or anything related to more members or more activity.
It’s a bad goal because it’s selfish. It might help you if you get 2.5m posts, or 100,000 new members, but it doesn’t mean much to members. To them, it makes a community they love really noisy. Why would they want that?
When you set community goals they should be things that your community will love. Perhaps produce your own radio show, hold your first annual event, interview 5 VIPs in your sector, be featured on television, create your own products, publish a book, campaign on an issue, raise $1m for refugees, become the top community in the sector.
These are goals members can rally around. These are goals you can create a plan of action for. These are goals members can meaningfully participate in. These are goals that will boost participation and get you both more members and more posts.
Don’t set goals that you love, set goals that your members will love.
