Increased three times the number of weekly new members sign ups

[Vincent Granville]

I requested all members who want to join my groups on other networks (e.g. LinkedIn) to first sign-up with my Ning network, in order to be accepted. I don't have the time to check if all potential members follow my rule, but it significantly increased the number of sign-ups on my Ning network, and also help reduce the number of people who join for spamming purposes.

 

-Vincent

[Vincent Granville]

Also, this is how we did with our LinkedIn groups:

- When a new member wants to join one of our LinkedIn groups (we get about 50 new membership requests per day on LinkedIn), she/he automatically receives an e-mail telling that you need to be an AnalyticBridge member (on our Ning network) to be approved.  One of our LinkedIn groups actually has our brand name in its title, and this makes things easier.

- When a member gets approved (on LinkedIn), another e-mail is automatically sent, telling the new approved member to visit our parent network on Ning.

 

[Steve]

Just did this too - thanks for the idea

[KOCNETWORK]

Interesting, may i ask how you do this?

[Vincent Granville]

When someone signs up on our LinkedIn group, she automatically receives a message saying that membership approval is subject to being a member of our Ning network (we provide a link about how to sign up on our Ning network: go to your LinkedIn group, click on the "Manage" tab then click on "Templates" to see how you can send a template email to people who wants to join your LinkedIn group).  Also, when you sign up on our Ning network, one of our sign-up questions is "what is your website or LinkedIn profile (URL)".

[Heinrich]

Several months ago I started to tell new contact requests on Facebook or linkedin that I can do a lot more for them on my "own network" if they join my www.glovilla.de network. So they do!

[Billy]

This sounds like a great idea, I appreciate you posting this.

 

In addition to my music site, I am starting a niche business site and am considering whether to just do a Ning Network vs both a Ning Network and a Linkedin Group. I'm wondering if the LinkedIn group would water down the focus of my niche business Ning Network. For example, even though you could require folks who are trying to join your LinkedIn group to join your parent Ning network, after they are members of both, would they start a discussion topic on Linkedin (vs the Ning network) because they are probably more active on Linkedin, at least in the beginning? Alternatively, if I focused my marketing of this business niche purely on the Ning network and not start a LinkedIn group, would I get more focused discussions in my Ning network which is where I want them, albeit with probably a slower growth rate in terms of members, but possibly more activity net net because there is no LinkedIn Group to go discuss topics in.

 

Does this question make sense? In terms of net total monthly page views (vs number of signed up members), which is the better approach for a niche business site? I would imagine using the LinkedIn crossover approach described in the original post is the right answer but just want to make sure I think it through before launching this niche/brand.

 

Would love to hear your and everyone's views.

 

Bill

 

[Deb W.]

I'm thinking that they might initially be focused on the linked in group, but if they've joined my ning network, they will start getting my broadcast messages, which I hope will draw them in.

 

[Benjamin Andrews]

Gonna start trying this out especially with linked in, and facebook ... since i get too many request from people i don't really know