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Attract your first members and invite them to participate

Give your first members one useful reason to join, one simple way to contribute, and a reason to return. Start with a small group you can welcome personally, then develop the community with them.

This guide is for community founders and admins, whether you are starting from scratch or bringing an existing audience together. The schedule below is a suggested approach you can adapt to your time and members' needs.

1. Define what members can do together​

Complete this sentence before inviting people: “This community helps [people] to [do something together].” Ask a few potential members what they need help with and what they could share.

For a responsible-travel community, that might mean exchanging first-hand tips for train journeys and finding people with similar travel interests. Choose one starting activity, such as asking members to share a route they have tried. A specific question gives people a clearer starting point than “Share anything about travel.”

2. Prepare a small, useful starting point​

Use Set up your coapp community for the configuration and invitation steps. Before you invite people, prepare:

  • A welcome post explaining who the community is for, what members can expect, and one question they can answer in the comments.
  • A useful contribution of your own, such as a travel experience with practical tips. Show the kind of exchange you would like to encourage.
  • A short explanation of respectful participation and who to contact with questions.

Posts support conversations; pages hold structured information such as a starter guide or shared resources. Add a page when there is information worth keeping together. See Create a post and Create and configure a page for the available entry points and steps.

Check who can see the content you share. Permission to create content and access to read it are separate settings; use the linked guides when choosing them.

3. Welcome the first group personally​

Start with a handful of people who have expressed interest. Tell them why you are inviting them, what is already there, and what you would like them to try first. Ask whether they can help shape the community.

For a travel community, you could adapt this welcome post:

Welcome! This is a place to exchange practical experiences of responsible travel and meet people with similar interests. To get started, tell us in the comments: which train journey would you recommend, and what would you have liked to know beforehand? I will share my own example first. Please respect each other's experiences and ask before sharing someone else's personal details.

Reply to early contributions, ask a follow-up question, and encourage members with relevant experience to join the conversation. Members can use comments and replies to exchange advice; React to, comment on, and share posts explains how.

4. Give members a reason to return​

Choose a rhythm you can maintain, such as one practical question each week. Follow up on earlier discussions: ask whether a recommendation helped or invite someone to share what they learned.

Share the hosting work as interest grows. One member could suggest the next question, another could share an experience, and you could bring the useful answers together. Agree with each person before giving them a role. If you plan a get-together, use the event guides to prepare it.

5. Review the first few weeks​

After two to four weeks, ask members what was useful and what was missing. Look at whether questions receive helpful answers and whether members start talking to one another. You can review this manually; you do not need an analytics setup to begin.

Keep the activities people find useful. If participation is low, ask a few members personally what would make it easier, try a more specific question, and reduce competing activities before adding more features.

Keep learning​