BRX Pro Tip: Why Would Someone Invite a Friend Into Your Community?
Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, what I enjoy when going about building a community is when you get to the point where you’ve got your community members inviting other people to the community, not just you doing it. But I don’t know, man. Why would someone invite a friend into the community? What does it take to make that happen?
Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think that’s really an important point of inflection for anybody building a community. It’s one thing to go out and kind of gather likeminded people one at a time to start the community, but in order to kind of get some growth and some momentum, you need to create the community in a manner where everybody that you invite is inclined or incented to invite a friend into the community, because you need those friends to come in, so that the community grows. And you can’t constantly be going out on your own and finding people one at a time to join the community. The community has to kind of grow by its own efforts through the community wanting to organically grow.
Lee Kantor: And people don’t just invite friends because they’re asked. They have to have some sort of compelling reason that is valuable, that is authentic, that makes perfect sense. And you got to figure out what it is that’s going to motivate your friends to invite their friends, so that the community can grow organically. Some things to think about – people invite friends when they believe that the community can genuinely help their friends solve a problem or learn something, or level up some sort of skill. So, keep that in mind. And make sure your community is checking all those boxes.
Lee Kantor: Another thing to keep in mind is when your community feels special or elite, members want to bring friends along to share that kind of status and that perk. And that’s going to boost their own kind of social currency. Another thing to think about is when inviting friends, make it as effortless as possible. Make it as mutually beneficial as possible. That way, more people are just likely to do that. And lastly, it’s important to celebrate and spotlight the members who bring friends in. You want to reward the people who are doing that kind of work and role modeling that kind of behavior. Public recognition turns invitations into a positive cycle of engagement. People invite friends when your community makes them look good, makes them feel good, adds real value. If you focus on those things, your membership will grow.
