Growing your community can take time, but it also helps to be
looking in the right places. Here are some helpful places to start
asking around:
- Bloggers. Not the big bloggers, but people
with a blog about your industry. They care so much they spend their
time on it.
- Comments. People that comment on blogs in your
industry, are great to contact. They're interested, know the tools
and have the time to spare.
- News Stories. Most news sites allow people to
add their opinion to the story. Don't be afraid to approach
them.
- Book Reviewers. People that review books about
your genre are becoming more approachable. Visit Amazon, eBay and
other sites to find potential members.
- Facebook, LinkedIn and Other Social Networks:
Learn how to search for people by interest and develop
relationships with people.
- Industry Magazines. Who's been writing into
your industry's magazines? Read the letters and Google the names.
They most likely have an online presence.
- Customer Service. Anyone that's shown such an
interest that they've contacted the customer service team to
complain or improve the product is someone you want.
- Your Inbox. Anyone that's written to you with
a question, or a comment that never really got your full attention.
Invite them.
- Taggers. Who's tagging content about your
sector? Invite them.
- Twitter. Search Twitter for mentions of your
company and your industry. Invite the people you find, unless they
have over 500 followers.
- Conference Attendees. People that attended the
industry conference are usually interested in being better at what
they, or becoming more involved in the industry. You can often get
the complete list of members from the conference site. Use with
caution.
- Regular Visitors/Lurkers. Put up a post
calling for volunteers interested in getting more involved. You
can't announce the project yet, but they can e-mail you if it
spikes their interest.
- People They Know. Ask everyone you get from
this list who else they think would love to be one of the first
members of your new community - approach them.