If you ask two friends how their relationship began, they usually answer along the lines of a specific shared experience.
If you can create more shared experiences, you should be able to forge more friendships.
More friendships means more people coming back to visit the community on a regular basis.
Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes these shared experiences just tend to happen. Luck isn't a good strategy. We need to proactively drive these shared experiences.
Invite all your members to submit their best piece of advice/funniest advice for an eBook. Perhaps even call for designers within the crowd to create the pdf document.
Host offline meetups for people in different areas to meet. You can organize it or invite your members to do it.
Highlight a common problem members need help resolving. Create a document of how your members resolved the problem.
Set a fundraising target for members to meet.
Interview VIPs/experts live and ensure members can ask questions of one another.
Guide members to joining relevant sub-groups for those in the same area, of similar age, or in the same job role.
More shared experiences leads to more friendships which leads to higher retention rates. That's not the only reason to do it mind. It's also fun.
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