Before I start off… pls have a look at the number of views Abhinav’s famous Flat, marriage and family – 3 reasons why young Indians don’t turn entrepreneurs has got as of y’day…!
That’s right… One lakh thirteen thousand something views!
Now we consume shitloads of digital content ALL DAY LONG. We like, we share, we tweet, we re-tweet. We spend time & energy commenting on threads we share on fb. Bashing people up. Ranting or raving.
So what stops us from doing the same on TheRodinhoods??!!
We have great content going. No one can argue that. So why can’t we do a ‘mini-Abhinav’ to every post??
A couple of months ago, a startup dude asked me, “All other startup communities seem to be pretty dead, what makes trhs such a vibrant one?” My confident answer was, “Because WE’RE NOT A NOTICE BOARD! People actually take pains to interact with each other, respond to queries in ASK, with absolutely no personal agenda at all…”
But after that conversation, I did some introspection, and realized if engagement goes down, we could very well become a notice board :(. Many newbies share their new ventures with us in Showcase! They get some great feedback – and then vamoose! They are never seen again… What if every new member started doing that?? And what if every old member got so busy with that next new product…?
Very often some member pings me over chat and says, “I didn’t get any response to my question…” and I’m tempted to ask back, “How many posts in ASK have you answered lately? How many posts have you commented on?? How many startups in Showcase! have you given feedback to…???” But I don’t. Instead, I’m posting this in ASK myself…
Guys… I get it. All of you are busy building your own startups. That’s exactly what I’m doing here as well – building a community! So I know exactly how much sweat & tears go into building something BIG. But for a FREE and OPEN-TO-ALL community to thrive, and EVERYONE TO BENEFIT, all of us need to give & take!
Abhik wrote something similar (but way more refined!) on Alok’s b’day. Guess how many comments his post got? ZERO 🙁
If you care, share!
Each one of us can contribute (not just by writing goosebumpy stories with heaps of learnings) but by making wow posts go viral! Let the whole world read an awesome trhs story that resonated with you. Let Rodinhooders benefit from your social media network! Let other people reach out to our members to help them! Good content needs to start a bushfire. And all it takes is a mere click!!! 🙂
This is what each one of us can do:
i) CLICK the FB LIKE or SHARE or the TWITTER button at the end of a post
ii) Share YOUR OWN posts on fb/twitter
iii) Mention @therodinhoods over twitter so it can be re-tweeted (more work for me but I’m always HAPPY TO RT!)
iv) Share your twitter handle at the end of your post so I can mention it over twitter
v) Follow therodinhoods over facebook and twitter
vi) LIKE & SHARE posts you like on trhs fb page.
vii) Re-tweet stuff you like!
viii) Comment on trhs itself! If we like something the least we can do is encourage the writer. If we don’t like something we ought to say so – it encourages healthy discussions! Share your views/story in a similar situation.
ix) Entrepreneurs thrive on FEEDBACK! ASK & Showcase! are perfect places to earn #karmapoints by taking out time (whenever you can) to check out someone’s website/idea/app and give them some candid feedback. You might end up saving the guy from wasting his precious time on something he might be doing wrong!!
Answering an ASK or giving feedback is probably the greatest way to contribute…
x) Has a Rodinhooder helped you in any way? Write a testimonial so we can all feel proud and other members can benefit.
xi) Have you met someone at one of trhs Open Houses or Meetups who has stayed in touch and added value to your biz? Tell us about it! It inspires people to attend our events and network there!
xii) If you’ve posted in ASK and people have responded to you query, pls ACKNOWLEDGE that someone has bothered to take time out to help you – it’s basic community etiquette plus it helps ensure your post remains buzzing with more insights!
xiii) PLS ADD MORE EASY-TO-EXECUTE IDEAS TO CREATE A SNOWBALL EFFECT!!!
I’ve started sharing a story a day on my own personal fb page for many months now. And I try my level best to connect rodinhooders who have synergies; even ping people to comment on certain threads! (but this is not a scalable idea!)
Alok tries and shares one story a day as well. Over the weekends he takes time out from his reading & writing and goes through the ASK & Showcase! sections. He tries to answer as many queries as he can, gives inputs, even tells someone his/her idea is crap! 🙂
Darshan Bhambiru tries to connect as many rodinhooders as possible and shares all relevant links to almost every post. We call him the Wiki. He’s been MIA for a while and it shows 🙁
There are many other regular Rodinhooders who come by and give much more than they will ever take (classic example Abey John). We have numerous regular contributors and we salute them for writing so regularly and sharing the awesomeness with us!
7535 members and counting…
That’s a big number and it’s growing! Surely we need a better plan to ensure EVERYONE who posts gets enough traction and a good response!
So why can’t all of us be that NETWORKING officer? Or that LIKE officer? Or that SHARE officer? Or that HELP officer? Help me, help you by increasing engagement on the site so your posts get discovered and read and shared and liked a million times! why can’t we think.do.be.click…??
A LIKE a day. That’s all I’m asking. Let’s start this tsunami, what say?!
🙂
ps: I realize all of us had other stuff on our minds in March and nowadays the Election is consuming a lot of mindspace… but I needed to just put it out there!
image sources: atelierdesprit.ca