A Guide to Guild Recruiting.

[Cascade]

So..this is to help guild masters and officer on the art of guild recruiting (Yes guild recruiting IS an art). Anyways here goes!

-How to recruit members effectively-
Instead of sending guild invites to everyone in towne look for someone in towne that looks like a dedicated player that isnt in a guild (Recruiting members from other guild is considered highly rude) and send them a PM about your guild and what events you do ect. then ask them politely if they would like to join. Dont pressure them to make a decision quickly! Add them to your friends list and tell them to get back to you when they make a decision. Most importantly out of all of these is to be a true friend and get to know them well before you recruit them...make sure you dont recruit random people make sure you know their personality! If you are recruiting it is also important to know your guild so you can recruit members that will mesh with the guilds personality!(TIP:Communicate with you fellow guild members via Forums, PM, Guild forums, IGN, and ect communicating with your members is an important step to gaining their trust and loyalty!

-How to keep members in your guild-
To keep players in your guild make sure your guild is active and helpful if they dont have someone to help them or if no one is on they will get quickly bored with the guild. Hold guild events often that all members cab participate in dont leave anyone out! Be friendly. Be talkitive! Make them feel like they are welcomed and loved!

-Dont let hard work go unnoticed-
If a member is working hard and doing alot for the guild make sure to reward them with something it could be anything from just saying thanks to promoting or giving them credits!

-Hold guild meetings often-
This is important because it gives the members a chance to speak up and give feedback about the guild. Make sure to let the members feel like they can say their true opinion about the guild and hold votes if you are gunna implement something new in the guild cuz it gives the members a choice of what they want.

-Help out fellow guild members!-
If someone asks for help on the guild chat help them out! It lets them know that the guild has their back and is ready to help them on a moments notice! Help other people as well ive had many people that i have helped lvl send me a pm and ask if they could join my guild...if you show courtesy to other people besides your own guild members it shows that your helpful to not only your own guild members but others as well!

-Keep your members busy-
It is important to keep your members busy it makes them feel a part of the guild. Also, give your members jobs to do so they can feel useful...If your members feel like they have been overlooked and have nothing to do for their guild they might leave cuz they feel like they are just another number on the member count.

-Be respectful of other guilds.-
I have seen to many fights between guilds arguing about which guild is better ect...ill tell it straight...there is no perfect guild some guilds are better than others yes but there is absolutely no reason to argue/flame on other guilds! If your in a guild and you flame another guild your reputation is gunna go down and your going to endanger your own guilds reputation as well!

-Which guild is for me?-
Ask around check out the guilds forum if they have one...Talk with different guild leaders and members see how their guild runs and what kind of guild it is.

Please excuse the typos i did this on my phone...Anyways please let me know what you think and if i missed anything! Thanks

[dcichoracki]

So..this is to help guild masters and officer on the art of guild recruiting (Yes guild recruiting IS an art). Anyways here goes!

-How to recruit members effectively-
Instead of sending guild invites to everyone in towne look for someone in towne that looks like a dedicated player that isnt in a guild (Recruiting members from other guild is considered highly rude) and send them a PM about your guild and what events you do ect. then ask them politely if they would like to join. Dont pressure them to make a decision quickly! Add them to your friends list and tell them to get back to you when they make a decision.

-How to keep members in your guild-
To keep players in your guild make sure your guild is active and helpful if they dont have someone to help them or if no one is on they will get quickly bored with the guild. Hold guild events often that all members cab participate in dont leave anyone out! Be friendly. Be talkitive! Make them feel like they are welcomed and loved!

-Dont let hard work go unnoticed-
If a member is working hard and doing alot for the guild make sure to reward them with something it could be anything from just saying thanks to promoting or giving them credits!

-Hold guild meetings often-
This is important because it gives the members a chance to speak up and give feedback about the guild. Make sure to let the members feel like they can say their true opinion about the guild and hold votes if you are gunna implement something new in the guild cuz it gives the members a choice of what they want.

-Help out fellow guild members!-
If someone asks for help on the guild chat help them out! It lets them know that the guild has their back and is ready to help them on a moments notice! Help other people as well ive had many people that i have helped lvl send me a pm and ask if they could join my guild...if you show courtesy to other people besides your own guild members it shows that your helpful to not only your own guild members but others as well!

-Be respectful of other guilds.-
I have seen to many fights between guilds arguing about which guild is better ect...ill tell it straight...there is no perfect guild some guilds are better than others yes but there is absolutely no reason to argue/flame on other guilds! If your in a guild and you flame another guild your reputation is gunna go down and your going to endanger your own guilds reputation as well!


Please excuse the typos i did this on my phone...Anyways please let me know what you think and if i missed anything! Thanks

Good call, especially not spamming chat in town. There is a private chat feature and this is a perfect reason to use it.

[themars]

Well done cas i couldnt explain it better. And indeed the best guild dont exist if people ask me what the best guild is I always say there isn't a best guild and I just tell them which guilds I like and that they need to look to the guild pages to search which guild they like.

[Thenill]

Nice cas always with the top notch work and this is a great page on how to find members and the way to getting a new member

[octavos]

Fantastic, that's all I can say

EDIT-ill post this on my forums page also

[Redbridge]

I'm thinking this is the basics for every single Guild Leader. If you're NOT doing this sort of stuff then your guild simply won't work.

Nice job highlighting this stuff....

The only thing I'd add is communicate with your members regularly. IE via a forum, PM, webpage, email. I think having a communication channel with your members allows not only you to talk to them but also allows them to contact you also. STS forums have groups and there are plenty of free web/forum hosting site out there, so its easy to have something, even if its basic. Some Guilds have very active webpages.

EDIT TYPO - Added NOT - school boy error...apols

[octavos]

I'm thinking this is the basics for every single Guild Leader. If you're doing this sort of stuff then your guild simply won't work.

Nice job highlighting this stuff....

The only thing I'd add is communicate with your members regularly. IE via a forum, PM, webpage, email. I think having a communication channel with your members allows not only you to talk to them but also allows them to contact you also. STS forums have groups and there are plenty of free web/forum hosting site out there, so its easy to have something, even if its basic. Some Guilds have very active webpages.

Yes, yes! add this

[Flowman]

Personally I think inviting random people to your guild is just kind of mindless recruiting. For all you know he/she could be overly weird,annoying, or just 'not a nice person' to keep it PG...and if you recruit them you're stuck with them for a while. That defeats the purpose to having different guilds.

Everyone is going to say "oh yea we do fun stuff and we kill stuff and we all help each other yeah! awesome! fun! wooooo!!!" There's only so much your guild can be "about" that you can tell someone.

The REAL way to recruit is to interact with people and see if their personality clicks with everyone elses. Figure out what type of guild you want (Friendly pink pony everyone happy have a good time guild, farming and experience first and talking if there's time guild, no filter no rules probably e-drama filled guild, etc etc) and stick to that criteria. If you have 15 people who act and talk like adults, 15 people who act like seeing a word not from the bible will cause the eternal damnation of all mankind, and 15 people who still live with their parents and have a curfew of 10pm...you're going to have problems and little mini-factions. And you can't say that's not true. Anyone who's been to highschool...or even college now-a-days (Greek Life) knows that it's impossble to have big groups of people without little cliques running around. Recruiting people you see standing around purely because they look like theyd be committed players is recruiting just for numbers. It's not hard to level to lvl 21. It takes maybe a day or 2 to get to 20 if you play a lot.

People shouldn't have to be kept entertained to want to stay in a guild. People should stay in the guild because they like the people and enjoy talking to them on a daily basis more so than other people. You shouldn't have to constantly message them asking if theyre happy and stuff...just sounds cheesy to me.

[Cascade]

Wow guys thanks for the positive feedback i will add some of this stuff

[Redbridge]

Exactly Flowman. A very valid point...

Guild recruiting is a very very valid discussion to be having on the forums seeing as guilds are almost upon us. Cascade has highlighted what all guilds should be doing but Flowman is highlighting the point that guilds exist for very different reasons and if you don't know your guild how can you possibly recruit.

Some do go for numbers but if not done properly those numbers will fluctuate immensely. What Flow is suggesting is in addition to all the above great points, if you spend time knowing your guild and what you are trying to achieve and also spend time matching membership recruitment to the aims of the guild you will reduce the chances of new members leaving or even worse destabilising your entire guild.

Guild leadership is very difficult and time consuming. If its not done properly your guild falls on its rear. You need a core of strong and active guild members who know, agree and live the aims of the guild.

It'll be really interesting to see which guilds are successful and still around in a few months time...

[shinchin]

Personally I think inviting random people to your guild is just kind of mindless recruiting. For all you know he/she could be overly weird,annoying, or just 'not a nice person' to keep it PG...and if you recruit them you're stuck with them for a while. That defeats the purpose to having different guilds.

Everyone is going to say "oh yea we do fun stuff and we kill stuff and we all help each other yeah! awesome! fun! wooooo!!!" There's only so much your guild can be "about" that you can tell someone.

The REAL way to recruit is to interact with people and see if their personality clicks with everyone elses. Figure out what type of guild you want (Friendly pink pony everyone happy have a good time guild, farming and experience first and talking if there's time guild, no filter no rules probably e-drama filled guild, etc etc) and stick to that criteria. If you have 15 people who act and talk like adults, 15 people who act like seeing a word not from the bible will cause the eternal damnation of all mankind, and 15 people who still live with their parents and have a curfew of 10pm...you're going to have problems and little mini-factions. And you can't say that's not true. Anyone who's been to highschool...or even college now-a-days (Greek Life) knows that it's impossble to have big groups of people without little cliques running around. Recruiting people you see standing around purely because they look like theyd be committed players is recruiting just for numbers. It's not hard to level to lvl 21. It takes maybe a day or 2 to get to 20 if you play a lot.

People shouldn't have to be kept entertained to want to stay in a guild. People should stay in the guild because they like the people and enjoy talking to them on a daily basis more so than other people. You shouldn't have to constantly message them asking if theyre happy and stuff...just sounds cheesy to me.

That's why your the Speaker of Gears.

[Cascade]

Added some stuff check it out and let me know what you think!

[Feety]

Excellent thread cascade. This will help everyone improve their guild experience. Carpe Spatium Incognita stands by these guides. Since we are a friends clan, we try to get a round about picture of a player before we ask them to join. Also, we wouldn't want anyone to poach our players so we wouldnt do that to other clans. Again, good idea especially with the vast clans now with various differences and similarities, we want the tension to be at a minimum.

[Cascade]

Thanks feety

[KingFu]

Great guide cascade! I can only think of one thing to add that others haven't mentioned (that I saw) and that's for the how to keep players part to add to keep them busy. Have the guild offer something for them and most of all, have them to feel like they're a useful peice in the guild. IE giving them jobs/a job or responsibilities I've left a guild or two because I felt I had nothing to offer them and I had nothing to do. I personally think people like having useful jobs or duties to make them feel useful and not just another member to boost your member count

Overall, great guide.

[Flowman]

Great guide cascade! I can only think of one thing to add that others haven't mentioned (that I saw) and that's for the how to keep players part to add to keep them busy. Have the guild offer something for them and most of all, have them to feel like they're a useful peice in the guild. IE giving them jobs/a job or responsibilities I've left a guild or two because I felt I had nothing to offer them and I had nothing to do. I personally think people like having useful jobs or duties to make them feel useful and not just another member to boost your member count

Overall, great guide.

Yeah agree with this 100%.
I found that when I used to be a youth hockey instructor back when I was 18, the little kids I taught loved being categorized as more than just "winger" or "defense." They loved when I told them that their job is to score the goals or to stop the other team, making them crucial parts of the team. Same applies to this scenario. Tell a guy he's in charge of something even if it's minimal. Just make sure he doesn't go over the top.

[Cascade]

Yeah i agree i added a new section about that stuff