Imagine the following situation. You accidentally bump into a former classmate from 20 years ago. Although you’ve never spoken to each other, your classmate starts asking you questions that you either don’t know the answers to or that are so general that you don’t see the point in answering them. In other words, you’re not interested in the conversation at all.
Did you imagine? Wonderful. The former classmate persona is exactly what many moderators and community managers look like when trying to get members to “talk” with general questions like, “How can the community help you today?”, “What questions would you like to answer?”, and the like.
There are several reasons for this. Here are the main ones.
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General questions lack context. People perceive the world around them through stories. Stories usually have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Through the story’s plot, we can follow the logic and understand what the conversation is about, who is asked what, and, importantly, why it’s needed. The story sets the context and helps them decide whether they want to share their thoughts on the topic. If you do not provide the context (the plot of your question), you jump right to the conclusion.
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General questions are asked to everyone, which really means to no one. Since general questions have neither context nor a specific addressee, it’s completely unclear to whom they’re being asked. In this case the so-called “bystander effect” also plays a role, where uncertainty and the fear of making a mistake and being judged lead people to remain quiet.
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General questions rarely of interest to anyone. In offline conversations, sometimes we start a conversation with a general question but immediately follow with a question on the main topic of our interest. This is something cultural. At the same time, the culture of online communication implies getting straight to the point. So the general “intro” questions are not needed.
What questions receive answers?
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First of all, your questions should be of interest to users. If people are not interested in the topic you are talking about, they will not bother to spend their time on it regardless of how you present the information. No exceptions.
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As we discussed above, you need to provide context for your question. For example, explain how the problem or task you’re describing arose, why it’s important to solve it, who the solution will help, who you are looking help from, how and in what way.
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Address your question to a specific person or a particular group of people. This can be done either through a direct ping or through context.
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Your question should assume several different, detailed answers. Consider how you would respond to your own question if you were a regular user. Can you suggest three to five different detailed answers? If you can only give a brief, one-word answer, there’s no point for users in engaging in such a discussion.
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Asking for feedback, advice, or thoughts on a particular topic is a good way to get people engaged.
Let’s look at what we’ve just discussed on another example. Imagine this: You come to a campus, stand in the hallway, and ask people walking by:
What do you want to talk about with me today?
What do you think people would answer? I think they would say nothing and just walk away (and that’s what happens in many community chats).
A good scenario for a question might look like this: You get to the campus, you see a friend, you approach them, and ask:
I got a very low score on my English test yesterday and my teacher gave me the last chance. I was tasked to write a short essay. You are good at English and a domain expert in the topic. Could you please spend just 5 minutes proofreading it? I really need to pass the exam. I will appreciate your help a lot.
It is a good question because it has the context and explains why the help is needed, in what form and from whom.
At the end, I’d like to point out that discussions can be initiated not only through questions but also through sharing stories. For example, if you see some news that might be of interest to other users, simply post it in the chat and share your thoughts on it (be sure to provide context!) If the news is genuinely interesting to users, they’ll join you to discussion it. If not, nothing bad will happen; just keep the conversation going.