Brands and online communities tend to suffer from a lack of qualitative participation when it comes to forums, comments or online conversation in general. After a while, fatigue can arise. It's then important to find tricks and frameworks to keep the conversations alive and kicking.
A (non-comprehensive) list of reasons people stop conversations:
Already-solved issues
In conversations about health, a lot of topics have been created in the last 10 years. For newcomers, the amount of data or the number of forum threads can be gigantic. Adding a comment or an opinion to a very busy ecosystem can be complicated.
Why is that a pity? Because new ideas can come from any place, and not sharing them is actually a loss for all interested people.
Events are done
Some conversations are initiated because of a specific event (i.e.: Olympic Games, world's day for a cause, etc.). After the event, people tend to stop the conversation, either because there is no longer a community manager working on it, or because the event is outdated.
Why is that a pity? Because after investing money and heart, the embryo of community is then left behind.
Violent exchanges
Sometimes, conversations tend to be far too aggressive among users; a minority took the lead, therefore other users leave.
Few ideas to stop the online conversations hemorrhage
Communities need social layers, people in charge with duties and "super powers," but also checks and balances.
Bring social scoring to the community and create a special status
Some communities are fed by a large number of users who only comment once or twice. The role of a sort of "admin" or super-user should be to incite these users to participate more, to go a step forward and to give a deeper point of view. Super-users can be professionals, but they can also be passionate people who already spend a lot of time on a community they like. Rewarding them with new missions is also a way to reward the whole community: the more you give, the more you get. Often, they are also more legitimate in "banning" or promoting another user; because they've been playing in the field for a long time, they are supposed to know the values more and the expectations of the community.
Make people matter in other threads
It might appear very surprising, but most of the topics or conversations start heavily for a few hours and days, and then totally collapse. This ignition is actually a way to bring people to more activities or to discover other threads. We often talk about curation of content, but rarely about curation of people: an interesting idea on a specific editorial part of a website can actually reach even more interested communities in another section of a website.
Make online conversations the opportunity to meet in real life
Eventbrite and Meetups are amazing examples of online topics turned into real-life encounters and discoveries. Trying to engage in deeper ways online communities, is crucial. At some point, people want to connect and meet; most of the successful forum threads quickly transform into more personal conversations and ideas. Try to meet people for real.
Get rid of trolls
Sometimes, threads are polluted by a very tiny group of people. Even if it's not popular at first, clearing a community from its most prominent trolls is actually a great move.
Invite external people to join old threads
A lot of bloggers and digital influencers regularly share related ideas to an existing conversation. It's always good to bring fresh blood to a community and highlight new ideas from someone not yet involved in your community. It's a way to surprise your existing community and to bring the readers of the individuals you spot.