How to advertise discussions effectively and respectfully!

Hey everyone!

Everyone wants meaningful, active discussions and oftentimes advertisement is needed to ensure participation. Here are a few tips on how to advertise your discussions effectively and respectfully!

Be Present 15 minutes before the start - Whether youre hosting in a pop up or in a 24/7 room, being present before the time of the discussion helps to break the ice with members and also helps increase activity in the room if it was quiet before.

Putting up a banner 5 minutes before you start - Putting up the banner 5 minutes early helps let people know that there is a discussion so by the time youre ready to start, you have a few people ready to participate.

Advertising in the rooms - Sending out a message in other rooms is a great way to let active members know there is a session about to start, however there are a few things we need to remember when doing this:
- Keep it short and sweet: If we send a text wall, members often skip over it as it can be hard to read. Let people know what topic youre leading and where it will be hosted.
- Do not advertise during another session: Sending a message to invite members to your discussion while someone else is leading a session can cause conflict and distract the other leader. So before you paste your message, make sure to check the banner, and follow the conversation to ensure you are not interrupting another session. If you accidentally post in another session, a polite apology to the leader of that session is appropriate.

Advertise 5 minutes before the start of the session: If we advertise too long before the session, members may forget about it and miss the session. The members who come online before the start of the session also might not know it is happening.

Make sure your events are on the community calendar - The community calendar is a great way for members of your community to keep up to date with the sessions planned in the room and not miss out on the ones that interest them! If youre not sure how to add your sessions to the Tockify calendar, you can pm @Kate or @vivelespatates for assistance.

Support Team Leader Tips:

Post a weekly session plan to your feed and tag team members: Posting sessions that are taking place that week and topics that have been planned is an awesome way to keep the community up to date!

Post weekly session plans in your forum community: Having your sessions posted in the forums is a good way to try and integrate both sides of your community and gain new members. Introducing the forum community to a new dynamic! Chatting to CML and Forum mentors about having post discussion activities in the forum is also a great way to do this!

I hope you find these tips helpful and that they can help increase activity in our sessions!