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The goal of the SparkPeople Community Team is to help members reach their goals in a positive and supportive way. We like to make people feel as welcomed as possible so that they find success and then choose to join our Team to help even more people who need it. We often hear that being welcomed by other members and getting early encouragement can make all the difference for getting a positive start on SparkPeople. So how do you find new members to offer your support? There are a number of different areas you can check out: 1. Introduce Yourself Forum on the Message Boards. New members will often stop here to make their first post after they join the site. Also notice at the bottom of your post, there is a box to check to also post that comment on the person's SparkPage. That can be a good way to populate their SparkPage with a few introductory comments. Just keep in mind that sometimes too many welcomes to a first post can be a little overwhelming. So if a new member has 5 (or so) welcomes, then consider moving on to find someone else who could use a "hello". 2. First blog posts. Sometime after a new member creates a SparkPage, they will start blogging. If they are new to the site, they might be a little unsure about putting all of their thoughts out there for the world to see. So it always helps when they get lots of positive comments, especially on their first blog. That feedback can encourage them to continue writing more entries. 3. Community Highlight email. This isn't a typical way you'd expect to find new members. But we find that a lot of members make their first (and sometimes only) post on the site when they read the Community Highlight email and decide to comment on it. So by checking those responses, many times you can find members who are new to the Community and then can comment on their SparkPage or send them a SparkMail to encourage them to keep posting. If you aren't subscribed to that email, click here to sign up for it. 4. SparkPages. Check out the "Recently Added" section on the main page to find members who have just created a SparkPage. You can also find new members in your SparkTeams or other Message Board forums (such as the Café.) By taking the time to look for those who have yet to be welcomed by other members, you can make their Community experience a positive one! |
