Q: How do you balance friction vs. commitment in your communities?
I recently launched a paid community for Soapbox Project (dot org) and we make social impact easy for busy people. A few people requested a free trial so we have a 14-day one in place. You don't need to put a CC down upon signup, and that's increased our growth noticeably, but it's also resulting in dropoffs and people not going back to update their info + not making an intro post or engaging in any sort of way.
Basically, I'm being ghosted by about a third of the subscribers.
How do you balance making things CONVENIENT for your users/members while still giving them incentives to commit to your community/product/etc.?
Asking specifically for people with paid offerings please!
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I think it's better to have a small committed community than a large flaky one. You can build on a community that is engaged. The more you interact with and reward that committed bunch, the more it will attract others who have a similar level of commitment. That said, a 30% dropoff doesn't seem that bad. Don't worry about people who don't engage, foster the ones who do.