Guild Recruitment Question

[Tailon]

Good afternoon everyone! This is a great site and I've used it in the past for the videos on specific encounters. I recently registered and this is my first post. I have a question regarding guild recruitment.

Basically, a friend and I just started a new guild and it is mainly comprised of our small social circle of various players. Namely, my wife, his girlfriend and a few other coworkers, etc. We have spent a lot of time getting bank tabs and setting up a website and forums, but we have not been able to recruit folks very well.

We tend to be a tight knit group at various levels, different schedules and ability. Some of us just hit 80 right before Cataclysm and others, such as myself, have had max level characters for a while. We want to get 5 to 10 solid people to 85 and begin heroic dungeon and 10 man raid encounters.

The question being: How did you as newbie guilds get new members to join and stay? What strategies did you use and what social activities really enabled you to "bond" well enough to evolve into a "real" guild.

I realize that the Guild Recruitment forum is for established guilds and therefore not for upstarts such as us, so I didn't go there with this. Please, feel free to visit our website if you'd like, but the main goal of this post is for feedback.

Thanks in advance!

[Quinafoi]

I realize that the Guild Recruitment forum is for established guilds and therefore not for upstarts such as us, so I didn't go there with this. Please, feel free to visit our website if you'd like, but the main goal of this post is for feedback.

First of all, that isn't correct. The Guild Recruitment forum is for donors only. They do not discriminate by the size, age, or quality of your guild so long as forum rules are followed. Though generally speaking, unless your guild is a higher end guild it is likely not reaching the desired audiance. Posting on forums like this your audiance spans all realms, however, you aren't very likely to inspire people to pay to transfer a character to your realm. Not to say you couldn't try. Since your recruitment would be more focused on your own realm, posting on your realm forums would be more appropriate.

The question being: How did you as newbie guilds get new members to join and stay? What strategies did you use and what social activities really enabled you to "bond" well enough to evolve into a "real" guild.

What brings people together differs from person to person. In the end, it is common interests and objectives that bring people together. For example if you are interested in hardcore progression raiding, then you group with people who are interested in hardcore progression raiding. If you're interested in being the gnome pride parade through Stormwind, well then you'll probably group with other people interested in role playing... and probably being punted a lot. Everyone is different but it is our similarities that brings them together. A strong guild will focus on those similarities in order to strengthen the bonds.

[Tailon]

Thanks for the reply.

I guess a better explanation would be that my guild is currently comprised of people who know each other in real life. With the dungeon finder making instances much more accessible rather than spamming trade and LFG you don't tend to run into other folks on your realm that are not in guilds. That is purely a personal anecdote from my own experience.

I think our end goal would be to have a healthy number of level 85 members to attempt 10 man normal raids. The rest of the ranks would probably be leveling players or players interested in running 5 man heroics. So, in summation, a very casual and modestly ambitious guild. Definitely not "hardcore".

That being said, I think you're right regarding interests. I suppose we just haven't identified a common theme to attract other players with. I'll have to think about that come up with something.

All of that aside, does anyone else have any other suggestions aside from posting on forums, random pugs and spamming chat to recruit? Namely, something novel?

Thanks.

[Banterloft]

A good way to start is building a website. Have a application process and a good guild charter/rules. Make sure these apply to everyone. Try not to be "clic" even thought its going to be hard since you are all RL friends. Be sure that your rules apply to everyone and I wouldn't just officer all of your friends because as soon as people realize that there are 10 chiefs and 5 Indians then they are going to find somewhere else to be an Indian.

Start pugging people in. When you find one that fits and comes back a couple of raids then talk to them about recruitment. Of course the /2. OMG WE NEED PEOPLE TO JOIN OUR GUILD will always work too.

One of the best things I've seen a guild do is start a facebook page for the guild. Get to know people, care, and of course vent all the time.

[Tailon]

Those are some more things to think about. Thanks for the reply!