⚖️ Would you rather: Grow 200 members tomorrow or 10,000 members over the next 3 years?

[JoelR]

You're a community manager. Would you rather ... 

Grow 200 members immediately tomorrow with a one-time marketing promotion OR 10,000 members through organic growth over a few years?

[Fan Clubs]

That's an easy one - It has to be 10,000 members over the next 3 years. Give me the continuous growth. That, plus the bigger the number, the larger the pool of active members you'll get out of it.

10,000 members over 3 years averages 60+ members a week. That's not too shabby, and I bet there would be a lot more long-term success in that.

[Toni]

Growing 200 members immediately I know would not be the best move and would result in a lot of members who were not active within the community. This would of course show growth quickly but would not help me in the long run. 

Growing 10,000 members organically over 3 years is the better option here. This would guarantee active members and members that have an interest in my community. 

[Nomad]

I look for slow and steady growth. Therefore, I would be happy to have 10 thousand members over the period of 3 days instead of 200 members tomorrow. In my opinion, a sudden influx of new members will also create a lot of issues as you need to suddenly prepared to handle a lot of activities and a user base. There will be a lot of work related to content management and user management. If you are growing steadily over a period of time, you will have plenty of time to manage activities and users, and there are fewer chances of spamming and other rule violations.

[Destiny]

Slow and steady wins the race has always been a motto I have lived by and I am a firm believer that something that is successful will always start at a slow and steady pace before you see growth. 

I would much rather grow 10,000 members over time than 200 members by tomorrow.