The people with the most seniority, expertise, and influence rarely participate in public communities.
This isn’t a tactical problem, this is a strategic problem.
These same people love to talk to each other in exclusive groups, share advice on stage at major events, and give up hours of time to be featured in trade publications.
If you want them to be involved in your community, you need to craft a setting that makes the community an emotive priority.
Academic journals thrive on prestige. Industry events thrive on status. Private gatherings thrive on exclusivity.
You can’t fake this setting. You might only invite the top 30 people to a private group, only feature the very highest status people in media interviews/events, only allow verified experts to submit long-form content. But it has to be real.
Thankfully, a setting is self-reinforcing. Once you have 1 ‘top’ person interviewed, in a private group, or submitting a detailed post it’s easy to get 2, 4, 8 etc…
This is what a great strategy does. It defines the approach you will take to get members to do the things you need them to do.
Too often we either pester the top people or ignore them. A better approach is to engage them strategically. See what they already do and create a better setting for it within your community.
