Guide to Successful Guild Recruitment

TIP ONE

Make your posts personal!

Premade guild advertisements can be great if you are new to recruiting, but they lack the personal aspect. Try to use the board owner’s name, even if it means visiting their userlookup. You are asking them to take a look at your guild and all the links that may follow, the least you can do is making sure you know their name! Making a personal post to the board owner shows that you are interested in having them specifically in your guild, and that you are not just looking for any member. If the board owner is seeking specific things from a guild, make sure you let them know if you have them and what it entails! By the time they get to read your guild website or other pages, they should have a general idea of what your guild is about and if it is a fit for them because of your personal post.

TIP TWO

Post full links to guild pages you post

While Neoboard post length restrictions can make it difficult to post full links sometimes, try to have a full link to at least one of the links you post. Utilizing your Neosignature for a guild website can be very useful in this case! When a board owner is presented with many guilds on their board, you want to make it so that viewing and learning more about your guild is easy - not a chore!

TIP THREE

Scope out the account of the board owner!

This tip is more for guilds that have requirements. If your guild has a set of requirements that members must meet, it is in good practice to make sure that the person you are recruiting meets all or most of them before you post! You do not want the board owner to be excited about joining your guild, only to read the website and find out that they do not meet the requirements and will not get in. If your guild council allows members who do not meet requirements to still join whether it is just a special exception, or a buddy system, make sure to let the board owner know!

TIP FOUR

If you say you will stick around for questions, make sure you check the board!

This can be difficult if you are recruiting on multiple boards and the board owner seems to have disappeared, but try your best to visit every board you posted on to make sure the board owner does not have any questions. If the board owner is deciding between your guild and another, your answers to their questions may help them decide which guild is best for them! By answering questions, you are showing the board owner that you really are interested in them and want them in your guild!

TIP FIVE

Do not bash other guilds!

Recruiting can be difficult sometimes, and you may run into another guild that is getting in the way of your recruiting. Remember that you are a spokesperson for your guild and your actions reflect on your guild! If an issue arises, stay calm and civil. Potential members will notice! If a guild has a similar theme to your guilds and similar events to yours and they advertise it, you can definitely say that you have the same things. You just want to make sure you are not saying that yours are better - let your recruitment and guild pages speak for you!

TIP SIX

Look at the date/time of the board’s original post

So many times I have clicked on the Guild Chat board page to see ten or more guildless boards! The recruiter in me gets SO excited, until I click on the board and see that the board owner created it a week ago. The Guild Chat board is slow, and when you are looking to recruit you may be tempted to go back a few pages to post on some boards! There are a few problems with this though. The first problem is that more than likely the board owner is not going to come back. If it has been more than a day, they probably have forgotten that they made a board or they may have already joined a guild! To remedy this, you can view their userlookup and if they are not in a guild, you can send them information about your guild through a Neomail! The second issue in bumping old boards is that other guilds will follow you. Now you have six or seven guild posting advertisements on a board that will result in none of the guilds gaining a new member. The final issue is that it takes away from the current guildless boards that may be in the mix with old ones. If there is a whole string of guildless boards and the first or second one is old, you may skip over the whole set of boards which means you could potentially be missing a current board of someone looking for a guild!

TIP SEVEN

Get to know the board owner!

If you are recruiting someone, it means you want them in your guild! What better way to begin to know them than when you are recruiting them! Chatting on the board with the board owner keeps their board bumped which helps them maximize the amount of guilds they will be able to see. It also shows the potential member that you are interested in them specifically and that they are not just a number to your guild. This is also helpful if join your guild, because they already have a familiar name to chat with on the guild boards. Recruitment is only half the battle - you want to make sure that you are keeping the members you worked hard to recruit!

Creating a guild is tough and there are so many guilds that vanish over the months because they are unable to keep enough active members to keep the guild going. Being able to successfully recruit and keep the members you recruit is an essential part to running and being in a guild. I hope these tips aid in your recruitment for your guild!