In the first article of this series, I told you how crucial it is to identify who your ideal teammate is, and in the second article I talked about some ideas on where to find that person and how to carry yourself in dealing with people. These were not idle exercises. This last article in the series brings these two ideas together in the form of your recruiting pitch or call.
Are you seeking newer players or seasoned veterans? Is your team an open community more focused on fun and relaxation or possibly more interested in competition and training? Are you running a strictly PvP or PvE team or possibly both? Or, maybe you’re only focusing on a particular in-game faction. Whatever qualities, skills, or interests you would like your teammates to have, you must write them down somewhere. Once you have that figured out you must turn those characteristics into a pitch, and once you have your pitch you must play Johnny Appleseed and spread it around.
I have a pitch that I have been working on for years. I have honed it, polished it, changed it with the changing games but at its core it attracts the exact type of player I look for.
First, I state what kind of attitude I am seeking in a player. Second, I state some minimum requirements for entry (attitude is part of this) such as a microphone, age, etc.. Third, I give some brief points on the types of activities a prospective member can expect to find themselves participating in. Lastly, I tell them how to join or where to go to find out more information about our team. That's it.
It's very simple and short but what it does is creates a desire in the person with those qualities and desires (or someone who wants to be part of a team of players with those qualities) to find out more.
Many players will hunt around different forums looking for a team to join. This is great because we can typically create a small ad and post it in the proper place for those prospects to see.
There are some generalizations that I employ when crafting and posting my team sales-pitch (sorry, that is exactly what it is). Some of you will take these gems and put them to use while others will skip past them… consider yourself forewarned.
So you now have your pitch and are ready to spread it around for players join your team. But where should you put it? This is going to take some time in the beginning but once you get it setup it's usually just a matter of maintenance. You need to find the official website(s) for your game and as many unofficial fan-sites as you can find. Find all the competition (i.e. ladder, leagues, etc…) websites you can, and any generic game forums too. Some examples of generic game forums are IGN, GameSpy, or FPS Admin. There are many more out there.
Be careful where you post. Most forums have rules about posting and in particular are fussy about teams recruiting players and where you can post it. I have been banned from forums for not reading their posting rules. This exercise usually takes me a few days of searching and sifting through candidate websites, but in the end I usually come up with a list of 2-10 website forums where I post my pitch.
Make sure when you post that you specify that you want to be notified of any replies. Some boards have this feature defaulted to off. I've often had people post questions or comments in my thread and if I didn't have notifications turned on I would have never known about it.
Keep track of where you post and tell your teammates where you post. Some might actually pitch in and help keep your recruiting threads bumped.
After you have posted your recruiting ad you have to stay on top of it to get the maximum benefit. For the first couple days you should revisit the forums where your posts are at. Is your post still on the front page of the forum? If not, you need to bump it. Be careful and be sure to know each forum's bumping policy.
In time it will be apparent which forums are getting traffic and which are not. The ones that get heavy traffic should be looked at and bumped frequently. Why? Because if you're recruiting post is not on the first page of the forum your chances of recruiting players from it goes down significantly.
As I mentioned above, you should notify your current team members of where you posted so that they can also bump threads and help keep them on the front page. I typically do this by creating a post in my own forums with links to each post that I've made. This makes it easy and accessible to all your members.
Also, if possible you want to use something like Google Analytics to see which threads are bringing traffic to your website. You want to be double sure you attend to the websites that are coming from your most highly trafficked posts. You will only know this if you have a way to see how people come to your website.
You cannot out run the Law of Diminishing Players. Like taxes and death it is here to stay and will never go away no matter how long your team has been active or how large it is. It is simply a matter of whether you are engaging your airfoil (recruiting) or not. Are you rising above, using the Law as a touchstone to future greatness? Or, are you stagnating by not recruiting new members and allowing your player base to dwindle away? There is no in-between, no grey, only black or white. If you are playing a game or games that are dying and the community is small, then you may want to consider moving to a newer more vibrant game. There is only so much you can do when a game is in its final phase.
It is vital that you determine exactly who you want to join your team then craft a pitch for that player and entice them to visit your website or game server. It is vital that you are active and are active in server. If you don't have regular team activity yet, then you must stubbornly resolve to create it yourself. Time and again you will hear me preach how you are the key to the success of your team. No one else. Your daily positive actions are what separate your team from glory and from becoming digital dust.
Maxim #17 - Enthusiasm for your game mixed with initiative produces the fuel that fires growth in a team.
Maxim #32 - No one here gets paid, we are a volunteer army. Therefore, there is absolutely no room for "primma donnas."
Maxim #34 - 80% of the work in TAW is done by 20% of the membership. Always try to improve these odds.
Sometime after I developed my Maxim's 1.0 I realized a proven tactic for recruiting massive numbers, at the same time as others were learning this same idea... When I first wrote this article I didn't include the tactic, and I thought it was so powerful that I should put it here in case you don't know about it. I know that some of you reading this know it, so this is not for you. :) Here it is...
Often times, in a game's forums there will be clan recruiting sub forums or threads. Sometimes admin's are nice enough to even divide sub forums into CLAN RECRUITING and those LOOKING FOR A CLAN. Here is the point... when someone expresses an interest in joining a community, usually the first team to respond to the person that is looking will recruit that person.
So, in practice, the team that contacts the prospect first will most likely recruit them... Another way to say it is the faster you can talk to the players who just posted that they are looking the greater the odds of bringing them into this team rather than another. And coupled with this idea is the fact that the faster you can get them into Teamspeak the greater the chances of them sticking around.
If your desire is to have a successful and thriving team, you need to read this article through to its conclusion. Much of the content in here is common sense, but I've tried to organize it in a way that is (hopefully) fresh and with some new insights. My hope is that this article transmits the true sense of weight behind the concept.
In my previous article in this series I talked about the law that governs every clan, guild, or esports team. It is the Law of Diminishing Players. It affects all teams at all times, even teams that have been around for ages and seem to have a large stable member base like The Art of Warfare. All teams are subject to The Law.
Thus far, man can never truly break free of the earth's gravity while on the surface or in the atmosphere. But man has developed a tool to counteract the force of gravity and in fact uses gravity with the atmosphere to take flight. It's called an airfoil. I'm hoping that this article coupled with your determination and action will be your airfoil. Because no team can ever truly break free of the Law of Diminishing Players, you can only counteract against it. The moment you stop caring about the effects of the Law is the moment your team stagnates and begins to decline.
The tool I am presenting is no surprise, its called recruiting. Duh. I know, sounds stupid to say this right? It's completely obvious. But mark my words, recruiting new members onto your roster can have the potential not only to counteract the Law, but also to remedy a host of maladies that can often plague teams that are in the latter stages of the game cycle. On the average team, only 1% - 2% of members actively recruit, if at all. If it is substantially more, then you are an anomaly and I'd like to know your secret.
The first dose of reality is that you may be one of the only people on your team who is the most interested in recruiting new members. More succinctly, you're probably one of the only ones who will do the things necessary to recruit new members consistently over an extended period of time. So if you have trouble getting other members to take your orders, or your request to recruit new members, don't feel alone. I'm right there with you and so is 99% of all the other team leaders out there.
I have established teams where I found members who were very passionate about recruiting new teammates… and one team in particular I had an individual whose passion for recruiting new members surpassed mine… we had to run 4 servers to contain all our members.. but he and people like him are an anomaly.
At the end of Part 1 I talked about what you need to do to start taking positive action. You need to have your mission/vision/goals established and you need to know who your ideal teammate is.
In marketing this is called identifying your customer. Who is she? Is she an adult? Is he a beginning player, or is he a top-of-server raider?
Does this person need to have disposable income to support a server or some other infrastructure? Who ever that person is you need to figure it out. Because you will attract exactly who you put the call out for.
If your call for players is not precise, you will get aimless players (no pun intended!). If you appear like a clan-noob, like you are a beginner, then you will attract beginners or no one at all, or maybe possibly people who will try to take advantage of you.
This leads me to another concept that I want to bring to you that you may be familiar with. Either way, you may already have this concept down even if you don't realize it, or you may not even be aware of it. In embarking on establishing or running your team, as the leader, you must have the correct posture. I'm not talking about how you sit in your chair, or how you stand, etc.. I'm talking about your mental or spiritual attitude.
When you are recruiting new members the correct posture to have is that you will take the people on to your roster that you are specifically looking for, you know exactly who it is you're looking for, and no matter what an individual claims they bring to the table, you don't need any one individual. Does that make sense? I'll repeat that last bit: You don't need any one individual.
A key ingredient of the correct posture is to have a healthy dose of skepticism at your command. Be skeptical of words, but pay close attention to actions. If your in-game recruiting messages or your forum posts sound whiny or like you are desperate for members, you're opportunities to attract quality players is much lower.
BE SKEPTICAL OF WORDS, BUT PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO ACTIONS.
I used to believe that the success or failure of my team would hinge on certain people. I thought that my success hinged on an in-game pilot who owned the skies and really helped my team achieve key victories, or a maxed out healer that brought all the right gear and had a massive amount of gold at her disposal. You know what I found out over time? After those people left the team, we carried on and had a great time.
All the things that I got stressed about that wouldn't happen when they left didn't come true. There were others that eventually came onboard and filled their roles either immediately or over time… but only because I persevered to counteract against The Law of Diminishing Players.
Whether you are recruiting in game or on a forum don't chase after players. If you chase after players you are in a state where you believe yourself desperate. And, by “chasing players” I don’t mean to not actively try and engage potential teammates. On the contrary, my greatest personal successes in terms of team building have come from when I personally engaged players and worked to become their friend.
I am talking about stalking after players to join your team after you have delivered your message. Remember, if you have a mission or goal, and you know what your ideal teammate is, then all you need do is conduct the search and your message will draw in the players you are after.
In-game recruiting is your bread-and-butter medium for finding new players. There are so many games and so many variations of in-game interfaces and mechanisms that I cannot go into the details in this article. Each game could probably contain its own article full of information. But, there is one key principle that applies to all games that I can speak about with total authority. The principle that applies to all games is very simple, it's activity. I know, another "duh!" moment… you're probably saying, "like why are you wasting my time with this? It's common sense!" But, like most "common" sense it is not commonly practiced.
If you want people to be interested in what you are doing to the point that they sign up with you, then you must have mucho activity. Every game has different types of activities. Some universal teamwork-based activities are:
Be online playing and logged into the Teamspeak server.
Work together with other players whenever possible.
Compliment other players when they do well.
Help others freely and without expectation of recompense. (Particularly lower-level or newer players)
Give players items they need without expectation of recompense.
When people see you doing these types of things, it will attract them to you. Most players are only out for number one. i.e. themselves. They never think about or care about what other players are dealing with. It is most players' chief goal to level-up or rank-up their player and that is usually all they care about. Will people take advantage of you for behaving in an open and helpful manner like this? Of course. People are selfish by nature, but when you provide help to a person who recognizes your helpful posture and is not so selfish, they will become your friend, and maybe a teammate.
Throughout my many years of gaming I have always enjoyed helping newer players who were cool, and friendly versus getting a teammate that is totally absorbed in their leet-ness and only looks to see who worships the ground they walk on. These latter primmadonnas really repulse me.
One more point on this… think about the person looking at your team. Typically, people join a team to be a part of something bigger than him or her self. They are looking for an experience that will provide entertainment, and camaraderie beyond what they can find running around by themselves in-game. If they come to a team where there is no activity or very little activity they will most likely not join or won't be there for long if they did join.
I have ran several teams in the past where this method of recruiting was actually my most successful path. For my Battlefield 2 & 3 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars teams I had forum posts out that I bumped (posted on) daily and they produced hundreds of members for each team. (Bumping is simply replying to your own forum posts so that they remain near the top of the forum topic listing.)
For each game-team I had well over 200 members each at any given time. Over the life of the team this number ran into the thousands. And, in each case there was primarily one forum for each game that produced the vast majority of the members.
In the third installment of this article I will dig a bit deeper into recruiting in forums, but before I get into that, let me point out a few areas you can recruit new members that you may or may not have thought of…
Maxim #25 - The most important activity for all new units is to focus on the first game-cycle phase, Spin-up. The second most important activity is to prepare for the Critical Mass phase.
Maxim #53 - The chance of losing a recruit for good increases exponentially every day they have to wait for a bootcamp.