**[i]Check out the new, more detailed version [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/68318296/0/0]here![/url][/i] Groups are amazing. They're why I joined Bnet in the first place, and they're, in part, why I've stayed as long as I have. With Destiny coming up I'm seeing tons of groups and clans sprouting up and I wanted to part some wisdom to all would be group/clan founders. I've run several groups, and been a part of many more. Some of my groups I had a hand in still rank amongst the first pages of the all time most popular groups. Heck, I've had active groups with member counts in the triple digits, and one with a four digit member count. The point of this isn't to boast, or to claim I'm some god. I've spent my entire time on Bnet perfecting my understanding of what makes a group succeed, and hopefully I can impart some knowledge that you might find useful to continue such a wonderful aspect of Bungie.net. The guide isn't nearly as long as it could be, but it should suffice, and if you've got any questions or want to discuss anything, I'd love to lend a hand however I can. Hope this helps. [b]Step 1: The Idea[/b] The first step to creating any successful community is coming up with your own idea, and I want to stress the "own." There are hundreds, if not thousands of groups on Bungie.net with more flooding in every day, and the first thing you need to ask yourself before you make one of your own is "why?" What do you have to offer that others don't? Consider the following points first: [i]Audience[/i] When contemplating your idea it's important to first consider who you want to appeal to. It needs to be specific, but not limiting. If you try to appeal to everyone you run the risk of becoming bland, and general, which takes away from the reasons why people should join your group and not another, but if you get too specific you might alienate potential recruits. This is, in part, the hardest thing to balance, because you need to find a fine line between being as welcoming as possible, while still being specific. [i]Originality[/i] Are you looking to make a group of fun loving, close knit, individuals looking to have a good time while playing games? Epic, that's great, really, but it's not original. Your intentions, simply put, don't matter. It's how you sell yourself. Like with any kind of advertising you need to sell your audience, and being general wont help. You need to be something people don't already have access to; even if you know you can do it better, you need to re-brand it as something new, because if you don't there will be no way to distinguish you from the rest. [i]Member Count[/i] In a way this should be one of the first considerations because it plays so strongly into the others, but it is crucial that you consider how many members you want before you get started. Are you looking to make a massive goliath of a group, or have a small cluster of tight knit individuals. How you approach many things in the first stages will be the same, but bigger groups require more steps farther down the road. [i]Long-term[/i] Really the last step of consideration, long-term is an important, but risky aspect to consider. You need to come up with a general game plan of what you want your group to look like one day, combining all the aforementioned points and more. What do you see the group being like in a few weeks, months, or years. And remember, while planning ahead is important, you need to give yourself time. You can't rush plans otherwise you'll do too much too quickly. [b]Step 2: Creation[/b] Sweet, things are underway. You've got an idea, you know where things will hopefully lead, so now you need to create the group. Really the only major consideration for this step is the name, but don't think it's simple. Strive for, as always, being original. "Epic Guardians" or "107th Battalion" or whatever might sound cool, but it's far from original. Remember how your English teacher always told you to start an essay with a hook? That's your group name. It needs to be something that is appropriate for what you're aiming for, and something different from the rest. It needs to be special, and most importantly, it needs to be cool. [b]Step 3: Getting Underway[/b] This is make it or break it. This is where your group will either become one of the greats, or become another of the inactive rabble: [b]Recruiting[/b] Getting those first members is the most crucial aspect of having a successful group. Always start simple by inviting some friends, people you know that, if even for only a little while, will post and give your group some activity, but remember that no matter how good these friends are, they're not going to be enough to sustain your group. Your next step should be scouring the forums, looking for individuals that embody what you want to see as your typical group member. Once you've found someone that fits the bill, send them a *personal* and *honest* PM inviting them to join. Don't copy and paste some letter, people can tell and it's a giant turn off. Once you've got a healthy amount of dedicated, quality individuals, hopefully people will start coming in off of word of mouth alone, I mean, everyone's got friends, but if not don't worry. Once you've got a solid foundation see if you can get some people to invite their friends, or make the occasional forum post to garner attention, but don't spam. People can see if you're desperate, and that doesn't make anyone want to join a group. Sell em, be cool, and give them a unique, legitimate reason as to why they should join. [i]Sustainability & Activity[/i] Come up with ways of keeping your member entertained. Give them a reason to come back and visit as often as possible, be it game nights or contests. Keep fresh content coming to your group, but don't be the sole provider. This is why you need a strong initial user base. If you visit a group and see that every thread is created by the same person, or a small handful of them, that group is obviously not very active, and it doesn't convey a confident message. Come up with big ways to keep people coming back, and find ways to encourage your users to generate as much content as you can. [b]Step 4: The Long-term[/b] Congratulations. If you've made it to this step your group is off to a strong start. This is the part where you try to advance the image of your group, maybe getting a few more administrators to help out, and getting your users to generate as much as the content as possible, not only things like threads, but game nights, community newsletters, whatever, too. The goal is to get to a point where if you suddenly walked away for however long, your group would be just as, if not more active when you came back. And this doesn't mean don't interact with your group; it's very important for an administrator to have a face of sorts. Embody what an ideal user is, and set the standard, but try to get your users as independent as possible as well. This is also the step where you start adding new feature to your community. Maybe you started off with a monthly game night, but now you're going to start doing them weekly because you've got enough members to fill the spaces. Maybe you'll do your own weekly update, or a specific podcast for your community. Come up with new things to keep the old from getting stale. Variety is important, but don't bite off more then you can chew. [b]Fatal Flaws[/b] These are the biggest killers of any group. Beware: [i]Huge member count, no activity.[/i] Don't mistake having a ton of members as a sign of success. I once had a group that reached over 150 members in three days. It was dead a week later. Member don't mean anything if they don't post, and if you don't give them a reason to come back. A high member count is impressive, but it's no measure of success. [i]Unoriginal idea.[/i] Face it, you might do a great job running a group, but if you can't come up with a unique idea to win the people over, you're group will most likely never take off. Sometimes you just need to accept that you got beat to the punch, and go contribute to another person's community. It's just as rewarding, I assure you. [i]Too much, too soon.[/i] Expand slowly, come up with new ideas slowly, and never rush your foundation. If you go to fast you'll get overwhelmed, you'll get sloppy, and things will die. The most successful group I had a part in running has over 1000 members and has been active for four years now. For most of that there were maybe 20 of us just giving each other crap for the longest time, but we built a strong base, and we had a unique idea, and the people came. Be patient.