Online communities rely on the continual recruitment of new members to maintain their vitality. In their book Building Successful Online Communities, Kraut et al. identified five basic issues that online communities face when dealing with newcomers, and offered several design claims to address each problem.
One of the issues identified is recruitment. With a high turnover rate of existing members, online communities need to continually recruit new members to sustain their growth. To recruit new members, Kraut et al. proposed three suggestions:
- interpersonal recruitment,
- word of mouth recruitment, and
- impersonal advertisement.
Interpersonal recruitment involves using personal relationships between existing and potential members to bring in new members.
Word of mouth recruitment relies on the influence of existing members and word-of-mouth to persuade their friends to join the community.
Impersonal advertisement, while less effective than the other two strategies, can still attract potential members with little prior knowledge of the community.
In the context of an online community, recruitment refers to the process of identifying, attracting, and engaging new members to join the community. This process typically involves various stages, such as identifying the target audience, creating compelling content, promoting the community through various channels, and engaging with the potential members. The goal of recruitment in an online community is to build a strong and engaged community that supports the mission and goals of the community. To achieve this, the community managers need to create a welcoming and inclusive environment, provide value to the members, and encourage participation and interaction. Recruitment in an online community is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and adjustment to meet the changing needs of the community.
