Visitor Frequency Committee Launch

On June 27, 2013, Bonnie, Mark, and Jesse met by Skype to discuss how to increase visitor frequency and ensure or increase the quality of the experience on the Alliance. It turns out this is a broad topic because it touches many aspects of the Alliance and overlaps with several other committees.

(Side note from Bonnie: I apologize in advance because I misplaced my notes from the call and have not been able to relocate them in my process of moving house, so I am doing this from memory. We did update the whole board on our call on Friday, July 12, as well, but if anyone has anything to add to this, please do!)

In the course of the meeting, Jesse noted how many members seem to join and then never post or participate. We discussed the idea of reaching out to these members, a few a day, to engage with them and see why they don’t come back regularly. Perhaps they are having trouble navigating the site or maybe they need to feel more included. Some members have shared with me that they feel too intimidated to join in on some of the discussion threads because they don’t know enough or have a formal background or training in depth psychology.

We also touched on the fact that it’s harder for people to come back because the site requires sign in—it’s an extra step, people forget their passwords, etc. That led us to a discussion of the questions new members are required to answer to sign up in the first place and we agreed these should be reduced from ten (though only five are currently required) to maybe three or four so people would be more willing to make the effort to “join.” We also noted how currently, because the site is closed to non-members, any link a current member posts to an Alliance page (blogpost, video, etc) on social media or elsewhere will only take users to the Alliance Home page at which point they’ll be prompted to join before they can read or view linked page. It can be frustrating for members and non-members alike to have that barrier.

We imagined other ways to engage members who are currently online by perhaps personally greeting them using the text/chat function. We also discussed ways to bring people back often the community through use of weekly live events (maybe “firesides” run by board members to discuss the Alliance and it’s future, or to have a recorded presentation and allow open discussion (of the presentation or of anything else that comes up). This might give members more of a sense of community and knowing other members who engage even if they’ve never met. We also wondered what might be the low-hanging fruit, something fairly simple we could do to create regular fresh engaging content on the site and determined we could do a weekly poll question (members see the results after they vote) and also (what’s now being called a weekly “depth discussion” which includes a quote, a visual image, and a discussion question). This is branded so it can be posted on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or other social media and continue to work on behalf of the Alliance even long after it’s featured week is over. The first one was suggested by Mark and we did manage to implement it almost immediately. It has had great response and discussion thread. (We’ve just posted a second week provided by James).

Next steps might be to try a ‘live chat’ hosted by Board Members at a certain time and day and invite people to show up and ask questions or make comments about the Alliance for a set period of time—maybe 30 minutes?  Maybe some need help with navigating and don’t know who to ask? I get at least a couple of these questions per week and those are just from members who took the initiative to message me and ask. Others may be interested in hearing from others what the depth situation is in other parts of the world, or to debate a new book, etc.

Another idea we had was to do something similar by phone, but limit it to a set number of attendees so it wouldn’t be too chaotic and it might generate some excitement for those who “get” to be a part of it. Another idea not discussed but which occurs to me now is having a volunteer committee of greeters or social interactors who would go in behind the initial board member welcome and engage the new member in more detailed conversation. Some members who have lots of time and enjoy the interaction might welcome the chance.