We need to increase the traffic to this forum!

Let's talk about how we could attract new members (or bring back people we miss).

Social media? Personal invitations? MAG "business" cards? All ideas are welcome!

I just sent tree-mail invites to the upcoming seed swap to everybody within 40 miles of me. I skipped active forum members when making my recipient list, but here's the text of what I sent:

The Mid-Atlantic Gardening forum has resumed in-person swaps! You're invited to join us for our upcoming "Think Spring!" Seed Swap Party, Feb. 11, from noon to 4-ish, at Chef Lin Buffet in Frederick MD.

Here's the sign-up thread with information about the swap: The thread "2023 "Think Spring!!" Seed Swap in Frederick MD" in Mid Atlantic Gardening forum

First, we'll chat and have lunch, then we'll swap seeds! This is not a 1 for 1 swap, more of a seed sharing party with great food and conversation.

I hope you'll be able to come to the swap, but even more, I hope you'll drop by the Mid-Atlantic Gardening forum https://garden.org/forums/view... and join the ongoing discussions there. We're a friendly bunch, with experts as well as beginners, not to mention "must try a little of everything" people like me.

I'm sending this to all NGA members within 40 miles of me. I realize some names are likely inactive, but I didn't want to miss anybody. Feel free to forward this invitation. I'm encouraging using social media to let people know about the MAG forum, but I'd rather not post blanket invites to the seed swap (envisioning people just wanting free seed and otherwise not interested in participating).

Please reply by going to the MAG forum, or tree-mail me (critterologist) directly. Replies to this tree-mail will go to everybody on the group list at the top, not just to me.

Hope to see you soon!

:-)

Critter (Jill)

Jill - I meant to respond to this when I first saw it. I think I'll try to grab a couple more pictures from the yard when the lighting is better today and I will do a public share on Facebook with a link to our mid Atlantic form I don't really do much of Instagram but, I'm definitely on Facebook.

Thanks, Chantell!

I sent a "blast" invite (all usernames within a 40 mile radius of me, excluding those active here) to the seed swap and to the forum in general, and I think that may have found a couple of folks. But a lot of those usernames have probably been inactive for years. I may ask if there's a way to search new usernames (I remember being able to do that in DG).

Posted this just now and then also shared the post in a plant group

That's great, Chantell. I shared it in the Loudoun Gardeners Facebook group and just got a heart from a reader. Hopefully we'll get more interest and attendees.

Great "plug" Chantell!!

Thanks to both you and Pat for sharing it.

I love love love the friends I have here. Over the years our group has drifted and dwindled, though, so it would be wonderful to have more active members!

I tried sharing it too on Everything Frederick, but apparently even though it was open to Frederick folks, it was not taking place there, so that didn't work out. Six likes/loves from the Loudoun post though so far.

Hi all. I just joined up here. I'm an old (reformed?) MAG gardenwebber who followed over to Houzz (hated it) and then onto Facebook. Like you, we lost a lot of our active posters during the pandemic and with the shutdown of our Spring and Fall Swaps. We're planning a Spring Swap for mid-May. But I'm looking for an active on-line community too. Maybe we can cross-pollinate since Meta/FaceBook seems to be so busy trying to turn people off.

Welcome Kim! So nice to see new posters. What kind of gardening do you like? I do mostly perennial gardening but would like to get into vegetable gardening as well.

I got a tree-mail from somebody in the group "blast"... actually, she wrote to about 100 people since she just hit "reply"... She was sad that she hadn't seen the seed swap invite in time and wanted me to email her next year so she'd be able to come.

I responded privately (since I didn't think all 100 people needed another "you have mail" alert) and asked her as nicely as I could to join the chat in this forum and/or check for a thread in January. Not only will I never remember to privately email people, I also think the swaps are for active (or new!) people in the MAG forum here (and their friends, of course). Joining us once a year for seeds -- that's not the kind of participation we're trying to encourage.

That said, should I send out a "blast" about the spring plant swap to the same group once we've set a date? I don't have any way to filter out inactive members. I did choose not to include userIDs of people I knew were active and would see the notifications.

I agree with all that you stated above and that being said, were there any responses to the group blast you sent out other than the individual that wanted to know about the seed swap? If not, I would I would lean toward following your thoughts about the seed swap.

Should I send out a "blast" to the same set of names for the plant swap once date/time are firmed up?

I only got a couple of other responses, but I think the new people who came to the seed swap were there in response to my invite.

I did a 30 mile radius from my address. We could expand that if one or more people who are 20-25 miles from me could get a list of people in a similar radius from them and either do their own invite or send me the list of userIDs. (Go to memberlist link at the bottom of the page.)

There are a LOT of totally inactive names in the memberlist. I wish there were a way to sort by date of most recent activity.

Bumping this up, since this was a topic of discussion during our seed swap party...

I wasn't privy to all the suggestions, so please post them here!

One thought I had was that it would be great to utilize social media as a way to encourage people to check out garden.org in general and this forum in particular... But, I didn't want to just post announcements about our swaps and end up with 200 people showing up for free plants and food. We want to encourage active participation in the forum, I think, not just increase the number of swap participants.

I'm only occasionally on Facebook and not at all on other social media platforms, so help & advice is very welcome!

Great post, Channel! I will forward it to my neighborhood mailing group.

We probably can also get the information out at some garden events. Montgomery College has annual plant sales.

Welcome on board, Kim! ❤️

Kim, when/where is the spring swap your FB group is planning? Cross-pollinating is a great idea!

What do you all think about trying to publicize this forum & website rather than publicizing our actual swaps? Posts on various platforms can definitely include the information that we gather regularly for plant & seed swaps and other events.

Just trying to avoid getting a mob of people who have come for free plants and free food and will never be seen again...

This does NOT mean you shouldn't invite personal friends -- of course you should!!

Now and then you see a local newbie post a question , that is a fine time to invite and link this forum and let them take it from there.

I try to do that whenever I notice somebody with a location near-ish to me, whether they are new or just somebody I haven't seen in the MAG forum.

I stay pretty active on FB so I'm happy to post there if you like. I always have a couple other friends (and a few others) that I'll again let know about the plant swap. I think it's helpful for folks to meet one another - helps with the bonding for posts etc. Hope that makes sense. I do agree we're not ISO a huge group only showing up for 'plants and food' - never to be heard from again.