Thursday, June 05, 2008 Toral: Working on continuity By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
ONCE you put up a community, effort is invested to make it grow and sustainable. But another concern that comes along is continuity.
The DigitalFilipino.com Club will celebrate its fifth year this December. I’m still fortunate that a good number of members are those who have joined right on its date of creation. However, there’s a reality that some of them won’t continue to stay unless I take the step of taking the relationship to the next level.
This is where the honorary members program comes in handy. I first disclosed this during the e-commerce and e-business owners meet-up in Manila, Cebu and Davao. This is where those who have renewed their membership for five straight years are recognized and have their annual fees waived afterwards. They are also given incentives and a share of the revenue for bringing in and maintaining members, contributing content in the club site, sharing knowledge and participating in activities.
However, how this program will turn out will be seen in the years to come. I’m excited knowing that keeping the community alive will not have to rest on my own shoulders entirely and there are pioneers who have been in the community long enough to understand how it works, what the members like, and bring forth ideas or programs to make it better.
This is a new phase of development for me in terms of community building. I’ve seen others offering reseller or affiliate programs to bring in new members.
So far, this has not worked for me although there were a few who referred some members to join but not necessarily to profit from it.
I feel that not all people are qualified to become resellers if they haven’t been in the community long enough. However, those who have been there long enough will also be more credible in enticing new ones to join.
There are online programs that offer co-branding of an existing service and put all of their available content in that new site. I don’t find this idea attractive as it tends to misrepresent and confuse potential members. Getting honorary members to partner rather than to get a license is perhaps the way to go at this point.
After two to three years, I will have to institutionalize the arrangement for easier management, especially in this case, as some members move up to honorary status every year hereon.
Can anyone lose their honorary member status? Not at this point. I think even if they move up to that level or not, they will outgrow the community and move out eventually. I find it is still best to keep them as they are examples of long-term members who have stayed and benefited from being part of the community.
I’m sure that peers in the online world have different styles in growing their online communities and in sustaining them. The beauty of being online is that the opportunity for growth and flexibility is limitless.
