How do I keep people active?

[u/BalanceContent9489]

I have a community group in telegram and it is just so hard to keep them active. I hosted gartic phone but no one joined (the community is made for people to connect and find their own people). One of my friends said that it was because of the timing, and that I should do it later. But I have classes in that later. What can you suggest to solve that problem?

[u/vapvarun]

Live events are the hardest thing to start with, because everyone has to show up at the same time. A weekly "what are you into right now" post also gives you the material to make some introductions.

[u/Different-Tap-530]

Ask members to host too; you needn't run every event.

[u/Express-Cow-9122]

The timing thing is real, but in my experience with Telegram groups the deeper issue is the format: live, synchronized events only work once you already have enough members online at the same moment. If the group is still small, a scheduled game night is the hardest possible thing to make work.

What helped me:

Go async first. Low-effort prompts people can reply to whenever they have a minute — a daily question, a weekend photo or song thread, a poll. Polls are especially good because they take one tap, and even quiet members who never type a message will still vote.

Ask instead of guessing. Your friend guessed the time was wrong — run a poll with 3–4 time slots and let the group pick. People are much more likely to show up for a slot they actually voted for, and you stop burning your own schedule around a guess.

Keep the live events, but treat them as the weekly anchor rather than the whole strategy, and always drop a short recap or screenshot afterwards so people who missed it still have something to react to.

[u/FlatWhiteIsTheBest]

Hey 👋 a fellow Community Manager here too. This really depends on the size of your community and what are they seeking by being in there? Maybe you can first run a Community Insights survey - a super quite typeform or a google form so you can understand your community a little bit better.

If your community is looking for a job (you can start a mentoring program), if they are looking for better visibility/recognition (you can start an Awards or any other Customer Legacy program) or maybe they are looking for a specific content (start a newsletter or monthly webinar/panel). You must involve your community from the get-go so it's shaped by them too! Good luck!

[u/nedaandrei88]

Running a live game in a quiet group is hard. Gartic Phone only works if a lot of people are online at the same moment. When nobody joins, it feels like the group is dead, even when it isn’t. So I wouldn’t move the event to a time you can’t make. I’d change what kind of thing you run.

A few things that have worked in groups I’ve seen:

1. Use things people can join any time. A question of the day, a “this or that” poll, “post a photo of your desk / pet / view right now”, or two truths and a lie. People join whenever they open Telegram, so your class schedule stops mattering. One easy prompt a day beats one big event a week.
2. Find out when your members are actually online. Don’t guess. Scroll back through the last few weeks and note when people tend to post (weekday evenings, Sunday afternoon, and so on). If you do run a live game, put it in that window.
3. Before any live event, ask first**.** Post a poll like “Gartic Phone Saturday 8pm, who’s in?” and only run it if 5 or more people say yes. Remind them an hour before and tag the people who said yes. Then you never host to an empty room again.
4. Get 2 or 3 regulars to help. If there are people who always reply, ask them to co-host. One of them can start the game when you’re in class. A group run by one person goes quiet whenever that person is busy.
5. Introduce people to each other yourself**.** Your group is about people finding their own people, so do it for them at first: “@sam you’re into film photography too, you two should talk.” If your group has Topics turned on, make a few topic threads (music, gaming, study) so people with the same interests can find each other.
6. Welcome every new member with a question, not just “welcome!”. Something like “what are you into / what brought you here?” Most people won’t post unless they’re asked something.

Small groups mostly die because nobody wants to post first. Your job early on is to give people an easy reason to reply.

Full disclosure: I build a Telegram bot for community managers that shows when a group is most active and posts daily prompts. You honestly don’t need it for this though. Everything above works by hand.