How to grow the community?

[beatthegmat]

Dear Beat The GMAT community:

Beat The GMAT has experienced some remarkable growth over the last year, adding about 10,000 new members and over 20,000 new posts! However, I think that there's still a lot of room for growth, and I know that this community could become an even more valuable resource if there were more visitors and more people contributing.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on how to grow this community:

What makes you use this site? What do you like?
What features would you like to see in the future?
How would you grow this site's popularity?

Feel free to shoot me a PM or respond to this thread.

I still consider this website just a baby, since it was founded just last year--we've got a bright future ahead of us, and I want to make sure that this project evolves as a consequence of the community working together to build the best GMAT resource on the Internet.

Thanks for your feedback!

[aim-wsc]

GO BTG!
GO!

[beatthegmat]

Thanks for your support, Johny.

In all seriousness though--I really do want to get people's feedback on growing this website/making it better. The only reason Beat The GMAT has been successful to date is because we have a great community that has chosen to make it successful.

Your comments are very much encouraged!

[aim-wsc]

C'MON guys FEEDBACK WANTED

[beatthegmat]

I mentioned this in another post today, but I wish to re-iterate that I'm interested in growing the activity in the GMAT Verbal areas of this forum. If you have any suggestions for how to fuel this growth, please shoot me an PM or respond to this post.

Thanks for helping me build this wonderful community.

[parore26]

One thing that would've been really useful to me is the ability to publish essays under timed conditions and have members automatically review and rate it. I don't think this is too difficult of an endeavour may take some time to implement and achieve but something worth pursuing.

[beatthegmat]

One thing that would've been really useful to me is the ability to publish essays under timed conditions and have members automatically review and rate it. I don't think this is too difficult of an endeavour may take some time to implement and achieve but something worth pursuing.

Thanks for the suggestion! We'd need to think more to figure out how to automatically get members to rate.

[parore26]

Sure! Let me know if I can help. Bit of a techie myself

[beatthegmat]

Sure! Let me know if I can help. Bit of a techie myself

Thanks for volunteering.

You can already do an automatic rating in the community. When you post your essay in the forums, set up a poll with your post to solicit a rating. Good way of collecting easy feedback.

Thanks again for the suggestion!

[money9111]

Good Afternoon,

I've been working in the digital space for about 5 years now so while perusing through the site this post caught my attention. Word of mouth is definitely very powerful in helping people sort through the plethora of sites thrown at them on a daily basis.

I haven't officially begun my GMAT prep yet... planning on taking Manhattan GMAT in the winter. I already love this message board and love reading each individuals stories. I'm going to score 700 at least (power of positive thinking), so reading the individual stories of those who have Beaten the GMAT is very reassuring.

One of my favorite MBA prep resources is MBA Podcaster. I listen to at least one podcast/day and it has already been very helpful in framing my mindset. I often hear commercials from the top prep programs. Maybe you can promote through that outlet, if you haven't thought of that already. Of course a cost/benefit analysis would be in order, but I believe it would have a snowballing effect.

I'm sure you have a Facebook page, but advertising on Facebook could be beneficial with their new targeting options.

Are there any cross-promoting opportunities available with the consulting and prep programs who are staples here on this site? Maybe a link somewhere on theirs to yours?

I feel that this is definitely the best message board out there for GMAT Beating Hopefuls!

I can definitely do more of a brain dump...but I have to get back to work right now

Thank you much!
Richard Battle-Baxter

[beatthegmat]

Thanks Richard for these very thoughtful suggestions, as well as your kind words about our community. Your perspective was very helpful in that it validated many of the things we are pursuing in the near future to spread word of mouth about this website.

Stay tuned, you are going to see some BIG changes here in the next two weeks.

[dmateer25]

Thanks Richard for these very thoughtful suggestions, as well as your kind words about our community. Your perspective was very helpful in that it validated many of the things we are pursuing in the near future to spread word of mouth about this website.

Stay tuned, you are going to see some BIG changes here in the next two weeks.

ahh the suspense... any hints on what these changes will be...???

[aim-wsc]

Thanks Richard for these very thoughtful suggestions, as well as your kind words about our community. Your perspective was very helpful in that it validated many of the things we are pursuing in the near future to spread word of mouth about this website.

Stay tuned, you are going to see some BIG changes here in the next two weeks.

ahh the suspense... any hints on what these changes will be...???

changes: Few already we can see happening, as Richard mentioned about MBA Podcaster, I'd like to remind you that BTG are now partners of MBAPodcaster.com and we have dedicated forum for their shows where we can discuss about the podcasts and more.