Detailed launch strategy: Part Five - Growth

Congratulations! Your parent community is now well and truly estabished on Classlist thanks to all your hard work. Now you get to experience all the perks of a thriving and attentive Classlist community.

Here are just a few tricks that will help ensure your Classlist site is a long-term success:

1. Use ideas from the Classlist Blog to encourage parents to create content.
2. Create some parent groups.
3. Follow up the parents who have not yet signed in. 

You Will Need:

• Some ideas for conversation starters, events and activities which will appeal to your school community
• A handful of people who are comfortable using social media and who aren't afraid to have their voices heard

1. Creating Content

Classlist isn't just a way for you to talk to your parents, it's a way for your parents to communicate with each other. For a truly connected community, make sure everyone feels like they can share their voice on Classlist's uniquely parent-centric platform.

• Lead by example. Some parents might feel a little tentative when they first sign up. Make sure you and your media-savvy parents post and comment regularly, encouraging other parents to do the same. You can share articles from the Classlist Blog to get you going.
• Informative, interesting, fun. Classlist is all about parent life. You don't have to stick to school-specific topics. Raise awareness of local authority consultations, recommend a recent film, or just share a funny picture of a cat.

2. Create some Parent Groups

Parent groups work like classlists, allowing a group of parents with a common interest to communicate with each other. Parent groups can be open (anyone can join themselves) or closed (require approval from group owner) and are visible to all parents.

• Parent groups can be about anything. Dog walking, the PTA volunteer group or even a group to share recipe ideas. Try asking your parents to discuss what kind of groups they would like; be as inventive as you like.
• Size doesn't matter. Don't worry about whether a group will have lots of members. Different groups serve different causes, you can create as many as you like. 
• To create groups go to the Groups page in the blue Parent Mode and click 'Create Group'.  Here are more details

3. Follow up the parents who have not yet signed in

There could be many reasons why a parent hasn't yet signed up to Classlist. Now is the perfect chance to chase them up.

• Rely on the 'Fear of Missing Out'. No-one likes to be left behind: organise an event through Classlist and make sure the details are only available there, but signpost it in your previous communication channels like the school newsletter, bookbags or Facebook. Encourage comments and chat on discussion threads to get people talking in the playground so that the stragglers realise they might miss out on things if they don't sign up.
• Use your Class Admins. You don't have to do the work alone. Ask your Admin users to help you out, they can talk to the parents in their classes on a one-to-one level. They could even give a little Classlist demonstration. 

4. Keep up the good work!

By now you and your school parents should be really seeing the benefits of using Classlist. The more traffic the site sees, the more active your parent community will become. As long as you give the parents a reason to visit, they will begin to create their own content, keeping everything fresh and exciting!

Congratulations from the Classlist Team.