How to jump start a once active community?

Lets say you have a forum that used to be very active but you and your members have let it go quiet and dead for a while... What steps and things would you do to try to get it active again?

Starting many interesting threads and sending out a newsletter has been quite helpful in my experience.

Yep, I agree with Keera

Before you send out a newsletter, though, you need to have or add something worth coming back to. You can't just leave the forums untouched and send out a newsletter saying "come back, please!". Give them a reason to, whether it's a contest, new/exclusive content (interviews, videos, forum features, etc.)...And don't let them come back to a dead forum. You need to have some fresh content for them when they show up. I run this thing called Postloop that could help on that front

Being a former administrator of a community which is currently in this situation, it is aggravating for me to sit back and "watch" it remain in its current state, so to speak.

For the most part, this lack of activity is due to an additional lack of initiative on the current administration's part, which is why I feel that it is crucial to always maintain an active presence on your community regardless of whether or not the activity is dwindling. While a community is, to me, the coming together of members from all directions, having a leader and/or management figure is something that must be factored into the equation in order to continue on successfully. Without said leader, a community can fall apart with ease due to no clear sense of direction, no "order", and no person to dissolve or resolve matters as they arise. Some administrators feel that if their members are leaving, they should as well. I don't find this particularly becoming.

I'm not saying that this is the case for every community in this rut. However, it never hurts to take a step back, examine the situation, and ask yourself, "Hm. Have I truly been doing all that I can lately for my community?"

That's your courageous, and absolutely honest question and answer.

I've never thought of community's as being a singular entity,but instead of a group of people that are my friends. You can make up with your friends, email/pm them, tell them that you're going to be putting a few hours of work every day into your community, and that you'd like some support and feed back on your posts.

For the next few months, those hours a day will add up and build resonance, a wave, respect and interest. If you've got the wherewithal to bring in content that can get you connected to your friends again, activity will be a cinch, specially if it's engaging and fun to read.

One member, one post at a time.

Good luck!



gogo

I agree. A newsletter usually does the trick. If not, try and reach out to old "regular" members who were once very active and loyal on the forum. Maybe you have their MSN? Maybe they went on to building their own forum(s) or they're registered on another site.

Perhaps this is me, but I would not care to have someone reach me (suddenly) via an instant messaging medium to remind me of the continued existence of a community in which I was once active in. I'm certain that I'd find this to be a bit too "stalker-like" for my taste.

Again, that's merely my own take on this however.

Oh boy. What have I done...

Well I certainly would. A true loyal member would probably feel flattered if that happened. By personally being reached out to by the owner of that forum, the old member would feel as if he/she were important. And isn't that what all humans desire? For a feeling a importance, right?

If I was a once active member on a forum that died out, I would totally go back if the owners were planning on reviving it. That is, if I was actually loyal.

I'd send out a mass email, get a few friends to help me boast things - such as a lot of new threads, a social media campaign, and go from there.
Also, I'd do post exchanges and all that. I had this problem before and in 2 months, we were shocked as to what we were able to accomplish - a major activity upburst.

I had to turn off my entire site for over three years due to my host messing something up. I lost every drop of activity during this time.

I grappled with this exact issue and how to attack it. In the end, I went with just repeating what worked in the first place.

And now 1.5yrs later, traffic levels are 50% of where they were at the peak (It took 2yrs the first time). Even amid new competition from the social networks and growth of competing sites.

I was big before because I was the innovator. And since I'm still the only one being innovative, I'm climbing back to the top. It's only a matter of time, and a lot of hard work.

How were you able to bring back the members? Did you get in contact with a lot of them?

I initially sent out a mass email to the memberlist telling everyone we were back. But I shot myself in the foot a bit by doing this because, one, I didn't have the normal content they were used to, and two, I had a new 'staff' that were touting themselves as the new owners of the site. This turned off over 90% of the existing users.

So I started from scratch--again. I removed permissions of the 'staff' and told them what they needed to do. They didn't agree with me, so I did everything myself like I had the first time. And slowly I made new friends and gained new members as well as regained the trust of a good number of older members by word of mouth.

I'm lucky that my community is the virtual version of a physical one, so I can meet my users face-to-face. There's a sense of trust that they had with me, and it was simply regaining that trust that spawned my traffic again.