How to get the dialogue going?

New site with existing membership is flat

[willybfriendly]

Within the past month I have uploaded a newly designed site for a small Not For Profit Association (around 50 members). Among other new features is a forum section.

So far about a quarter of the members have ventured into the forums to actually make a post, which I suppose is OK. I would like to encourage more participation though. I have sent out several emails to the membership, including detailed instructions (for the techno-illiterate). We have also "seeded" the forums with some topics in an effort to encourage discussion.

Any other proven ideas for getting the wall flowers out?

WBF

[Casethejoint]

Alright there -- I don't think there's a sure-fire way to get people talking, but you could do worse than strip-mine the Forum Community Building Library [webmasterworld.com] for some excellent dicussion the matter.

[rogerd]

Here's a thread from the library about engaging lurkers [webmasterworld.com].

Congrats on post #1000, willy. :)