Growth Guide: Maintaining Members — Part 1 | The Discord Path

Growth Guide: Maintaining Members — Part 1 | The Discord Path

You have your server made, and members are beginning to trickle into your newly made community. You’re getting ready to chat with everyone and- wait… where are your members going? Why are they leaving soon after they join? How can you get your members to stay in your server?

First Impressions are Important

You’ve probably heard that “First impressions are important, for you don’t get a second one.” As cliché as it sounds, it is undeniably true. The internet world is no different. It can take as short as 1 post for someone to form an opinion of you and your community, which can make or break your server.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind when you build/edit your server:

Naming Your Server

The name of your server is the very first thing people will read when deciding to join your server. (Stay tuned for tips about your logo)
Make sure you consider the following:

  • Does it reflect your server’s aim?
  • Is it short, snappy, and memorable?
  • Would it compel a potential member to join?

You’ll want a name that’s catchy, to both the eyes and the ears, as well as something that’s easy to remember.
The best way to go about this is brainstorming any and all ideas for your server name. Write down every idea, no matter how dumb it may sound at first, because you may be able to use bits and pieces of titles you wrote and blend them into each other. Once you finish, walk away from your list for a day and do other things. When you come back to your list, you’ll have a fresh mind set. You’ll be able to pick out which names stuck with you and were memorable while you were away.

Welcome Channel

It is important to greet every new member as they join your server, and point them in the direction of channels they should read first before they do anything else. “When a member joins your server, make sure they get a great welcome. There are plenty of bots that provide automatic welcomes, just in case your server becomes incredibly popular, and the server owner won’t have the time or energy to welcome potentially tens of new users every day!
Some bots even provide image welcomes, meaning they take the new member’s avatar, apply some cool filters to it, and then slot that into a neat welcome image. Small tokens of gratitude like this will make the new member feel welcome, at least a little, and it’ll add a streak of professionalism to your server.”

While welcoming bots are incredible for managing lots of member who come in, it’s also important to personally welcome in new members, as it makes them feel a lot more appreciated for coming to your server. A hearty welcome is all it takes to strike conversation and create lasting members.

Rules Channel

Sometimes, it’s best to have your server invite link directly connected to your “rules” channel, to easily allow your new members to notice and read the rules of your server. Being that the “rules” channel would be the first channel that new members see when entering your server, it is important to A) make the “rules” channel appear as some delicious eye-candy and B) consistently update the “rules” channel when necessary.

Here are some great examples of well-designed “rules” channels:

Join Log Channel

After you’ve spruced up your welcome category, you’ll want to make sure the rest of the channels appear just as nice. It’s hard to keep a tidy announcements channel, but your join logs can look pretty nifty. This isn’t the same as your welcome channel, but rather a list of people who enter your server. There are several bots that are great as keeping join logs, such as Welcomer, Equalizer, Yuki, Lapzbot, deeBot, and many more!

Server Logo

As started before, the name of your server is the very first thing people will read. However, your server’s logo plays an even more vital role in attracting new members to join, as it is the very first thing people will see for your server. Before even reading your server name, people may already form opinions about your server just from looking at your server logo.

Firstly, you don’t need a state of the art, highly professional logo to draw someone to your server. In fact, there are a lot of websites, such as LogoCrisp, that can easily render different types of logos, depending on your server. As long as it fits your server, and connects to your server’s theme, your server logo will stand out among the others.

Overall Theme

Your server should have a specific aim. After all, you don’t want to be just another discord server. You want to stand out and be unique. Some servers are all about coding and programming, some about learning new languages, other servers provide homework help, others are anime-specific, what’s your server’s aim? Another thing to keep in mind is; Who are you targeting? What type of people do you want in your community?

“Some server owners are afraid to be specific with their server’s topic, so they create an overly generalized server “for everyone.” While this usually isn’t a major problem, it might mean that it can be difficult to attract users to this new server, since there are so many other servers that serve the same purpose.” Be different. Remember, there’s no point in having thousands of users on your server if they don’t come to your server and actively interact with one another. By keeping your server’s aim direct and specific, you’ll attract users that are sure to interact with it, be entertained, and make loads of new friends.

Lastly, try not to make a server that’s already been made. This part is usually the hardest, as there are thousands of servers out there. There more specific you are, however, the more likely your server will become unique and stand out from the handful of servers that are similar to yours. Check out an extensive list of discord servers to help you find out if your server idea had already been used. If you’re really passionate about it, why not join their server too!

Organization is Key

It’s highly important to keep an organized and easily maneuverable server. It will make new members linger longer in your server and want to check out your server more. In addition, it makes your server appear professional and welcoming when everything fits into place and makes sense to your new members. This, in turn, may make the new members want to introduce themselves in such a welcoming community and strike up conversation. After all, no one wants to stay in a server that’s messy or doesn’t make sense to the new member.

Below is a basic set-up for what you may want to incorporate in your server:

⌵ Information # welcome # rules # announcements # server guide # join logs ⌵ General # chat # bot_commands 🔊 Voice ⌵ Specifics # <insert YOUR SERVER SPECIFIC channel> # <insert YOUR SERVER SPECIFIC channel> # <insert YOUR SERVER SPECIFIC channel> ⌵ Staff 🔒 mod_chat 🔒 mod_bot_commands 🔒 mod_logs

There are lots of other channels types you can add in, such as #suggestions, #vent_chat, #introductions, #nomic_voice_chat, and many more! Don’t be afraid to try new things in your server, like adding text symbols to your channel names or adding new channels to see if they work out well in your server. You never know what you could stumble upon when your creativity thrives.

Be sure to check out the second guide, “Growth Guide: Maintaining Members — Part 2” ! ~ O(≧▽≦)O

Pictures from Regular Show. Written by SpellCraft Edited by Trey

Starting from Advertise Your Server (AYS), I came over to TDP to try my hand at writing out articles to inspire and encourage everyone seeking to grow their discord servers! I have my BS in Biochemistry from a University… and although that doesn’t help me here, it is a pretty nifty fact. I’m from the East Coast US, which is EST, so if you ever need me, check out what time it is in EST, for I may be asleep~ My DM’s are always open, so if you ever need personal help, please message me and I will get back to you as soon as I can! @SpellyCraft#1464

Originally published at https://path.advertise.racing on September 12, 2018.