An acquaintance recently launched an online support group.
However, he was struggling to make it sticky. Members might join and post, but they would rarely stick around and reply to each other’s comments.
A little digging revealed a fairly obvious problem. It was seen as a depressing place to spend time.
Visiting the community meant browsing through the posts of numerous members sharing honestly (and bravely) the dilemmas they were facing. Each was its personal own story, sometimes its own small tragedy.
When a community is a depressing place to visit, fewer people choose to visit it. People will share honestly and openly (at least with trusted friends), but they don’t necessarily want to read through the countless comments of others doing the same.
In communities like this, you need to balance the need for members to speak openly, with the need to create hope, enjoyment, and success. People who suffer from low confidence or anxiety, for example, should certainly be able to share that in relevant communities. But they should also be able to see the success stories from others and ask questions.
A community shouldn’t be a place for a thousand personal tragedies. It should be a place for a thousand successes. Members shouldn’t be encouraged to share their problem, but to share what’s working for them, what they intend to try, and get feedback from others.
That’s how you pull a community from a depressive downward spiral into an uplifting success for everyone.
The feeling people have when they visit your community will play the decisive role in whether people will stick around or not.
