Criteria for members' intake into a social media group

One of the concerns after designing and creating a social media group is to attract your ideal audience. You have to make sure that you get the right people involve — the people who will value what you have to offer, as well as who will participate in the forum. In the design of my group — Women in Business — one important design features was having a social interactive component, to encourage social interaction where women can make meaningful networking connections to grow their business. In addition, it also included an educational component, in which members are expected to respond to discussions, share their thoughts and experience in order to contribute to the knowledge development of their peers. I strongly believe in the collaboration of knowledge and the generation of ideas leading to the creation of new knowledge. It was therefore important that my membership meet these criteria. 

It is recommended that you understand and identify what design features you will need to carry out your objective. If you will be the only one allowed to share information include those parameters. In addition, if your space is simply for members to join to promote their products and services, let that be a part of your design. You must also think about your design features in keeping with your goals and objective, proactively. 

When an individual ask to join your group, you can either use a matrix of questions to create a check-list or you can create a questionnaire before making a decision to accept their request for membership. Using either way will help you to determine if the person is a good fit. 

1.  Observe what type of information they are sharing — is the information focused on business or empowerment or just trivia? 
2. What other groups are they involved in? Examine the groups that they belongs to identify their interest. 
3. Check to see how many of their friends are members of your group
4. I also examine their "about page"
5. Observe if they have a business website 
6. Identify if their business type is in keeping with your requirements 
7. Check to identify their interest whether they are a games enthusiast 
8. Check to see if the have a business Fanpage. 
9. Find out if they have legitimate business that they birthed for the initial stage of development though growth and sustainability. 
10. Observe what level of education they have? This sometimes plays an important role in determining people's seriousness regarding your group's purpose
11. Overall try to get as much information that you can possible get to make an informed decision. If the individual meets your criteria, he or she is accepted into the group. On entering, it is welcoming to send out a "welcome message" with directives to introduce themselves. 

In spite of the criteria that you have, you could also inadvertently include individuals into your group who are not a great fit for your group. My group for example is designed for women with a business that they have birthed and developed from a budding idea, but sometimes other business women wander into the group. Sometimes, it is only after they have made their introduction or posted on the wall that you may fully understand what type of business they are involved with. At this point, they are given the choice to accept our other two membership statuses. I hope this helps.