It's one of the questions I get asked most about community.
In my last article, I made the case that you already have a community - and that you're possibly also leading one, whether you meant to or not. If you looked into it, some of you may have found a room with the lights on and nobody in it.
The excited group that went quiet after launch week. The networking thread where the last three posts are the admin talking to herself. The members resource library with two comments on it since 2023.
Or the opposite. The room is busy, but busy with the wrong things. It's drifted from what it was set up for, every question lands on you to answer and you're starting to wonder why you started it at all.
The short answer to both: people engage when a community has a clear job, a reason to talk back and a rhythm that doesn't depend on you. Most quiet (or exhausting) communities are missing at least one of the three.
Here's how to fix it - and how to tell when it's not worth fixing.
How do I get my community members to engage?
Quick caveat first. Last time I covered the five main kinds of community, and not all of them actually need members chatting to each other.
If yours is all about you (the paid newsletter, the members-only podcast, the high-ticket group where the draw is your thinking and your access), people didn't come for each other. They came for you. A quiet room between members isn't a problem there. It's rather the design. The better measure is whether they stay and renew.
It's the same with an organisation's own academy or internal community. It's wired to the work (the trainings, the accountability, the KPIs & CPD), so progress probably matters more than chatter.
The tips below are really for the other three: the community that's all about the members, the one built for a specific purpose (a cohort, a project, a round of mentorship), and the free top-of-funnel group. That's where the sound of crickets - or the wrong kind of busy - actually costs you leads, retention & referrals.
1.Say what the room is for - in one sentence
Not "a space to connect and grow" (which, let's be honest, is what every group says). Name three things instead: who it's for, the outcome they're there to get, and the timeframe, if there is one.
"Where first-year practice owners swap what's actually working, so they land their first ten clients."
"Where this cohort keeps each other going, so everyone launches by week eight."
Who, outcome, when. If you can't say in one sentence why someone would open it, neither can they - and nobody's going to post in a room when they're not sure it's for them.
2.Welcome people in properly
Most quiet communities simply skipped the invitation. People arrive, look around, can't tell where anything is, and quietly close the tab.
Record a short welcome video - your actual face, under two minutes (any longer and, let's be honest, they won't). Cover three things: who the room is for and what it's here to help them do, where to find what they need, and the one thing to do first. Tell them plainly this is their space, not your stage.
And welcome each new batch by name. It's a small thing, but it's the difference between joining a room and being noticed in one.
3.Back it with an onboarding sequence
A welcome video on day one is lovely. But most people join, get busy, and have forgotten you exist within a week.
A short sequence - by email, or inside the community itself - keeps them coming back through the first couple of weeks, so joining feels like being let in, not left at the door. Something like:
- Day 1 - welcome, and the video
- Day 3 - a nudge to post their intro, if they haven't yet (more on that in #5)
- Day 7 - "here's this week's thread, come and join in"
- Day 14 - "what's been most useful so far?"
That last one's your feedback loop sorted - you'll hear straight away what's working, and what isn't.
4.Ask, don't announce
A feed of updates, links and "new replay is up!" is a noticeboard, not a community. If everything flows one way - from you to them - you've built a newsletter with extra steps.
In a safe environment, people love the opportunity to talk about themselves and what they're up to. So give them a reason to. But not with "any questions?" or "how's everyone going?" (crickets, every time). The questions that get answers are specific, quick to reply to, and about them - not you:
"Which is harder right now - finding clients or keeping them?"
"What's the one action on your to-do list this week that moves you a step closer to [your outcome]?"
The second one does double duty. It gets people posting, and it keeps the whole room pointed at the outcome it's there for. One good question a week does more than five announcements - and hands you your next month of content while you're at it.
5.Make the first post easy
"Introduce yourself!" sounds friendly, but it's awks for most people - and easy to glaze over or ignore. Where do you start? How much do you say? Is anyone even reading?
Take the guesswork out. Give them a short fill-in-the-blanks instead:
"I'm ___, I work with ___, and I'm here to ___."
Thirty seconds, done. And that last blank tells you exactly what outcome each person's after (handy, given #1).
Then you go first - and prompt your early birds to follow you. That way nobody has to be the first one brave enough.
6.Reply to everything (for now)
Early on, every post that gets no response teaches the room nobody's listening - or that it's a 'sometimes' space. And most people won't risk posting twice.
So for the first few months, aim to reply to every post within a day. But not with "Love this!" (a like does that job). Reply in a way that keeps it going:
- ask a follow-up question
- share a quick example or resource
- tag in someone else - an admin, or another member you know has the experience or insight to share
That last one matters most. Every time you tag someone in, you're introducing two members to each other - and slowly teaching the room to answer each other, not just you.
Which is where the "for now" comes in. The day members start replying before you get there, step back a little. That's not the room going quiet on you. That's it working.
7.Give it a rhythm
Alive communities have a beat. Left to chance, everyone means to check in and nobody does.
Pick a few regular moments people can plan their week around - and keep them small enough that you'll actually keep them up (three you'll stick to beats seven you've abandoned by week four). Something like:
- Monday - the weekly question (hello, #4)
- Friday - wins, big or small
- Monthly - a live session, Q&A or hot seat
Same day, same time, same place. Consistency matters more than volume - once people know when something's happening, checking in becomes a habit rather than a good intention.
While consistency is key, mix up the posts themselves a little, so members don't become complacent or passively familiar.
And tie each one back to what the room is for. A rhythm that moves people towards [your outcome] builds momentum. One that doesn't is just noise on a schedule.
8.Use the tools that pull people back
Your community is one tab among forty others, and seventy other notifications (and that's on a good day). Even the people who love it will forget it's there.
Most community platforms have what you need built in - it's just often left switched off:
- @mention people by name - it lands as a notification, and it's personal
- use announcements and email reminders for the things that matter, so they go straight to inboxes
- get members onto the mobile app, if there is one, so you're on their phone, not buried in a browser
- send a calendar invite for every live, not just a post about it
- switch on the email digest, if your platform has one, so the best conversations find them
One word of warning - only pull people back for things worth coming back for. Ping them five times a day and they'll mute you by Wednesday.
A brilliant room nobody remembers to visit is still an empty one. But a noisy one gets switched off.
9.Add the bells and whistles - once the basics are working
Points, badges, leaderboards, streaks. A challenge with a prize at the end. Incentives people actually want - merch, a free coaching call, credits off their next programme, a spotlight on your page.
The pay-as-you-go mobile company from my last article had customers answering each other's questions round the clock, incentivised by credits, merch and a decent ego boost. But it worked because the room already had a job to do - the rewards simply said thank you for doing it. (I dug into this in a leadership academy case study, too.)
That's the catch. Gamification amplifies engagement, it doesn't create it. Bolt a leaderboard onto a room nobody knows the point of and you'll get a leaderboard with three names on it (probably yours, and two people after the prize).
So reward the behaviour you actually want - answering someone else's question, sharing a win, turning up to the live - not just posting for the sake of it.
Kajabi does a great job in this respect - try a 30 day free trial here today.
10.Go where they already are
Asking busy people to build a brand new habit - a new app, a new login, a new place to check - is a big ask. Most won't.
So look at where your members already spend their day. Your corporate clients probably live in Slack or Teams. Solo business owners might be on WhatsApp, or never out of their inbox. And some audiences are still firmly on Facebook, whatever we'd like to think.
You don't have to move your whole community there. But you can put a signpost there:
- a weekly email roundup of the best threads, with links straight in
- a WhatsApp message when the live is about to start
- a quick note in the Slack channel they already have open, pointing to the conversation
Keep the home base somewhere you own - where the content, the member list and the relationship stay yours. Then use the places they already hang out to point them home.
11.Seed it before you open the doors
Nobody wants to be first on the dance floor. If the first proper member walks into an empty room, they'll walk straight back out.
So invite a small founding group in first - ten to twenty of your most engaged clients, past or present. Give them a reason to say yes: early access, a founding member title, a say in how it's shaped (people love being asked). And if they need a little extra nudge, call on the incentives in #9.
Then brief them. Ask each one to post their intro, answer a question or two, and welcome the next people in. Load a few threads yourself too - the first weekly question, a wins post, one genuinely useful resource.
By the time you open the doors, there are conversations to join, faces to recognise and a room that already feels lived in.
Already launched and it's gone quiet? Same move. Pick your ten most engaged members, tell them honestly you're giving the room a fresh start, and ask for their help. A quiet relaunch with ten willing people beats a loud one with nobody.
What if my community has gone off track (or it's wearing me thin)?
12.Go back to the original job
Is it still doing what you set it up for - and for whom? The one that worked at fifty members is rarely the right one at five hundred.
13.Ask your members
A two-question poll or private survey in their inbox: what do you come here for, and what would make you come more often? It's the best market research going, and it's free.
14.Get out of the middle
If every question routes through you, you haven't built a community - you've built a help desk with your name on it. Point questions back to the room and let members find each other.
15.Hand some of it over
Member spotlights, guest hosts, a couple of trusted moderators. It takes the weight off you and shows prospective members exactly what's possible in there.
16.Tidy the room
Archive the dead channels, pin the three things people actually need, retire the categories nobody's touched since launch. Fewer doors, more people behind each one.
17.Reset the rules
If it's drifted into self-promo, venting or the same four voices, say so plainly and restate what the space is for. Most members are quietly relieved.
Remember your community is nothing without it's members - but you need to lead the way, shape it and teach people how this space works, from the start.
When should I shut my community down?
Not every quiet community needs reviving. Some did exactly what they were built for. A few signs it might be time to call it:
- It's done its job. The cohort finished, the launch is over, the season's done.
- You've tried the above for a few months (properly, not half-heartedly) and you're still the only one posting.
- Your business has moved on and the room hasn't. You've changed who you serve or what you sell, and it's still set up for the old version.
- The people it was built for have moved on too - or quietly started their own separate group. The community's alive, just not in your room.
- It costs more than it gives back. Not only in revenue - in leads, retention, referrals and goodwill - against your time, your platform fees and your Sunday nights.
- You dread opening it. It's a hard pill to swallow and can mess with our ego, but it's a sign that leaving one thing behind, opens the doors to the next.
If it's time, close it well. Give members a date and a few weeks' notice. Say thank you properly. Save the best content. And point people somewhere next - your newsletter, a new offer, a group that suits them better.
Letting it end on purpose is a strategy. Letting it rot by accident is not.
The thing underneath all of it
Every one of those is really the same question wearing different hats.
Is this community still doing a job worth doing, and for whom?
Treat it like any other product - a course, a membership, an app - and keep checking it's still wanted. Communities don't die from the wrong platform or missing features. They die when they stop earning their place, or being the right solution for your members.
Get that right and engagement stops being something you chase. It's rather the signal the room is working - and in one way or another, it becomes your best retention strategy.
