Community Strategy Insights

The latest insights on community strategy, technology, and value by FeverBee’s founder, Richard Millington

Do You Deliberately Lie About Your Numbers For New Business?

Richard Millington
Richard Millington

Founder of FeverBee

Most people don’t delete their profiles. They simply leave and never come back.

This means you need to make a good, honest, distinction between the number of members that have joined your community in it's lifetime and the number of members that are in your community.

You make this distinction by setting a boundary. A member that hasn’t participated in your community in the last 2 months probably isn’t a member. He might come back, but he’s not a member right now.

Most community managers don’t set this boundary. They cite their registered members as the number of members. It’s a badge of honour. But we both know it’s not true. It’s a deliberate mistake for one single reason: higher numbers make for better promotion.

Bigger numbers are more attractive. You’re more likely to hire me if I’ve managed a community of 100,000 members than 1,000 members. You're a culprit in this sham. The solution doesn’t begin with community builders/managers, it begins with clients asking two questions:

1) How many people joined your community?

2) How many have participated in the last 60 days?

Now you have a ratio. The number of members that participate after joining. You have a solid understanding of the community manager’s skill. Not only are you more likely to hire the better community manager, you’re more likely to hire an honest one.

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