[NOTE: This diary was originally published to Readers and Book Lovers and has been modified for publication to Meta Groupies.
Any Group is nothing without compelling content for readers, followers, and Kossacks with any status to read and react to. Response and interaction in the comment thread of a diary by readers are what make a Group, and more basically, a diary successful. It’s hard to escape, then, that the most important persons to a blog and to its groups, are Contributors.
Becoming a Contributor is the step you take after you decide you want to do more than read, comment, rec, and rate. You’re ready to take on an additional role: write content that reflects your thoughts, concerns, and personal interests for an audience who you feel wants to know what you think, or may share your concerns, and might even possess common interests with you.
It’s very easy to go from Group Follower to Contributor. You simply send the Founder or Admin an email asking to join (become a Member) of the Group. As soon as you accept the invitation one of us, you automatically become a Contributor and are ready to author diaries and queue them up for publication for all to see.
Further Note: While the following discussion on being a Contributor is tailored to R&BLers, the general message can be adapted to groups of many types. Naturally, the diary will be more valuable to Founders and Admins of groups that feature more original content produced by Members other than themselves, or that engage primarily in re-publishing.
Now to the subject of the Group Contributor. Because my original vision for R&BLers was that it would be a publishing house devoted to topics literary, and that it would focus on creating, featuring, and developing series as its primary content in a Weekly Magazine format, I quickly realized that attracting a "stable" of writers was crucial. With such a mission, the need for ever more Contributors who will bring fresh ideas and a broader range of interests along with the new points of view is the lynchpin on which all depends.
A Contributor is a person who writes a casual diary, say one titled "Let Me Tell You about my Paperback Habit,” on a one-off basis. [Anybody want to write that diary? I want to read it!] When the newly composed diary is ready for publication within the Daily Kos New Diary template, the Contributor selects the PUBLICATION MANAGEMENT tab at the bottom of the draft document. When the pop-up menu appears, the Contributor then selects button three – “Queue to Group.” Naturally, in this case, the Group selected is “Readers and Book Lovers.”
Once that is done, the diary automatically appears in the Group’s queue and is ready to be scheduled by one of the Admins for publication. But that can not go forward until the Contributor completes the publication process by messaging any Admin (or all of them!), notifying them that the diary is in the queue, and suggesting a time/day for publication when the Contributor is available to tend comments and keep the thread going. Admins then do their best to accommodate the publication wishes of the author, keeping in mind the slots when series appear and the requirement to keep a time buffer around diaries to insure good “stage time” for all diarists. Admins are responsible for avoiding content conflict.
Another way that a Contributor provides content to R&BLers is by writing an installment for a series, for instance, My Reading Life (maryb2004, Editor) or DK Political Book Club (Freshly Squeezed Cynic, Editor). A Contributor takes a slightly different approach to the publishing process when creating content for a series rather than writing a casual diary. This time the process begins by getting in touch with the series Editor and pitching your idea for a diary installment. Another way is by signing-up to do the next diary if the series Editor solicits volunteer writers in one of his/her diary comment threads.
Once the Contributor and series Editor agree that the intended content is a go, the publishing process of getting the diary into the queue is the same as for a casual diary. The only other new wrinkle is that once the diary is queued to the Group, the notification message the Contributor writes is directed to the series Editor only – not an Admin. Only series Editors are allowed to schedule content for their series. Admins are not to schedule them unless requested to by the series Editor when circumstances make it impossible for the Editor to meet that obligation.
That’s it. Oh, one last thing! Even if you are a Member of R&BLers, and just got your status changed to Contributor, don’t forget to become a Follower of the Group by clicking the HEART symbol next to the Group Name. Unless you do, you won’t receive all of R&BLers’ content in your stream – and you may miss seeing your diary when it’s published to R&BLers HP. Perish the thought!
As readers of Meta Groupies can see, there is little in the original diary on the subject of how Founders & Admins can woo Contributors. I'll address that here.
I am a shameless hunter of writers who even stoops to raiding other groups for them. I recommend the direct approach -- drop a comment in the thread that you are republishing this diary to your group and let the diarist know that you are interested in them becoming a featured writer in your group. Then take the conversation to private messaging where you can make your offer. Assuring the Contributor that their work will not be edited without their specific consent is important at this stage.
Once a targeted writer becomes a Contributor, I immediately refer them to this reference diary, and other of the Group's reference diaries that are relevant to a Contributor's status very Group needs at least one reference diary that is the go-to referral, which clearly lays out Group policies and practices. It's important to also refer new Contributors to your Group profile page and direct their attention to your Mission Statement that should appear there.
Tyro Contributors may need hand-holding initially because, if you're doing your job right, you're probably recruiting new voices, which likely means writers with little or only maiden experience as DK diarists. Be sure to state in your welcoming message that you will be available to answer any questions via the messaging system.
Provided step-by-step instructions to queuing a diary; DK4 group functions are at best a mystery and at worst a daunting obstacle to writer participation. Be co-operative when negotiating a time slot for publication. As a Founder or Admin, you want to do whatever you can to promote best practices, and they include diarists' babysitting their diaries and attending the comment thread.
Likewise, it's incumbent upon Founders and Admins to recommend, tip, rate, and comment on diaries that they publish or re-publish. Doing so demonstrates your involvement, interest, and concern to Contributors. Doing so skillfully can help popularize the heretofore unknown diarist and lead to their becoming another household name on DK4. Whenever I can, I also post a plug about new diarists and diaries in FP Open Thread diaries, and the like.
I think that fostering new talent is one of the most important duties and responsibilities of a Founder or Admin, second only to being an effective mass communicator/people manager. It's done by making the group publishing experience as easy and straightforward as possible throughout the entire process; by being accommodating to the scheduling needs of authors as well as taking into consideration your Followers' receptive time for active participation in your Group; and by demonstrating a caring concern in such a way as to promote diarist's work and confidence.
Those three principles of group administration can do a lot to attract and retain writers, and keep your Group a vital presence on the DK4 scene.
Please comment on how you're recruiting Contributors, how you're keeping them, how you manage them, and tell us, as well, of particular difficulties you may be having with them. You're not alone, and someone here will probably have a suggestion or an even an answer for your particular problem.