Over the years, I've participated in several coaching and mastermind programs, most with a forum of one type or another and very few of them successful.
In preparing my Get It Done Right -- The FIRST Time program, I thought back to all the forums I've been a part of and what worked (and didn't work) for each of them and THEN I created my forum.
Here's some of the do's and don'ts of creating a successful forum:
- DO define what "successful" means to you when it comes to your forum. For me, it meant daily participation by members...aka, an "active" place where members build a community with each other and me and create a forum to meet your definition.
- DON'T let someone (or the members) take your place in coaching/mentoring on the forum.
- DO include resources your members will find helpful and make them easy to locate.
- DON'T leave previous months' call recordings, etc. on the forum unless program is closed.
- DO put event information on the forum, as well as call recordings.
- DON'T let the forum discussions replace email and other communication with your members.
- DO ask for frequent feedback about how things are going on the forum and adjust as necessary.
All in all, think about what YOU would want in a forum and then give that to your clients.
I'd love to hear what you're doing in your forum -- please let me know below! :-)
Sandy,
As a person who does 'Signature Programs" coaching, I've long been on a quest for the 'perfect' program forum tool.
To quote U2 "I still haven't found what I'm looking for".
That said, I agree with your points. The important things for me include ease of navigation for the user, a place for private interaction w/ me and a public place for discussion.
I'm redoing my forum for my next CYSP program, so your post got me thinking how to make it even better! Thanks!
Shawn Driscoll
Posted by: Shawn Driscoll | March 07, 2010 at 04:25 PM