There are many different definitions of successful when it comes to clans. For this post, the term successfulwill be defined by a loyal, donating, active clan.
Out of the many different aspects of CoC, building and maintaining a successful clan is probably one of the most time consuming and difficult, but well worth it in the end. I started my clan because my previous clandidn’t donate, was rarely active, and not a whole lot of fun. I saw so many people playing CoC and I knew there had to be a way to get a good group of people in one solid clan.
The first thing you need to think about when starting a clan is what will the name be? I wanted people in my area to be able to find us and I wanted our name to stick out. I then took a few names to global and had them vote on it. The winner was DetroitDeath. Realistically, you need to think of a name that will be searched for when someone is looking to join a clan. I figured a lot of people in the Detroit area would type in “Detroit” inthe search function… this would help me get that target audience. Something catchy makes them remember it. You don’t want to be generic, search the clan names before you make one. If you live in Minnesota and name your clan “The Twin Cities” and there are 17 other clans named the exact same thing, why would they join yours? In the beginning stages, name is key.
Recruiting:
Getting people to join is different at each stage of the recruiting process (under 10 members, under 30, and over 40). As you recruit and gain members, the types of player your are looking for significantly change. In the beginning you want anyone that will join, usually looking really desperate. Later on, you want loyal members that will contribute, not just fill the ranks, because there is nothing worse than having a clan full of non-donators. Nope, not even having an entirely empty clan. A clan of non-donators is a bummer because if you kick them all, you look like an ass and run the possibility of losing some really cool members. It’s a gamble. I have had members (you will not be named… yet) that have not donated at all, but when my bouncer (mexi) or the brains (googler) tells them they need to donate, they do. Sometimes becoming a very important part of the clan. Sometimes it’s a crap shoot when it comes to kicking.
Under 10 Members: I would suggest not creating a clan unless you have one or two trusted people that will be in it with you. Real life friends work really well. In my case, my best friend and husband also played, so they joined my clan from the start. Saved me a big hassle there. A clan with three people will gain more interest than a clan with one. On that note, don’t lie when you are pitching it in global. Tell them it’s a newclan and you are looking to build it up, that your focus is on members and not numbers at this stage. Random thought, please, please do NOT start a clan if you are under level 30. It will just frustrate you. NO one wants to join a clan where the leader is level 14 and is the only person in the clan. Patience is key in CoC, start practicing it from early levels because you will only need it more as you go on. NOTE: When you are under 10 people, the members that join will leave frequently. In the first night you will probably get 20 people that join and then leave. That’s fine, let them. Don’t get stressed out about it. If you build it they will come On that note, you will want your clan to be “open” for the first few days… with a smaller trophy count – I suggest 600. This will allow people to come and leave as they choose, instead of waiting on you to approve them. I promise you will wake up one morning with 15 members and wonder where they came from!
Under 30 Members: The people that will join you at this stage are who you need to make strong relationships with. Learn where they are from, what they like donated, etc. These are the people that are likely to stay. These people are the most important to maintaining a strong, successful clan. 90% of my elders came from this group. Recruit them by pitching your group in global honestly. My clan is mature players only. You would be surprised how many unclaimed players wanted a mature clan, but couldn’t find one.
Over 40 Members: These people will join because of your trophy score. The higher you are, the more likely you will get people to join. No offense to the over 40 crowd, but I don’t dwell too much on it. If you have 40 active, good members the other ten will fall into place. Once you get to this stage, you will see what I mean… You will go through a lot of different players, but if your core is solid these don’t matter. To recruit over 40, all you need to do is go to global and ask them (the higher level you are the more apt they will be to join you). You can also click the trophy icon and invite players of similar trophy counts to you. This works rarely, but I have gotten a few this way.
Maintaining a Strong Clan:
The best advice I can give you for this is to focus on the people and not the trophies or quantity. Everyone wants to have a full clan with awesome, loyal members that donate up the wazoo. In order to get that to be a reality, you have to cultivate relationships with each member. Make friends, learn where they live, what they like donated to them, how old they are, etc. This is the best way to create loyalty. If you are kicking people or not letting them in because they have too few trophies, you are just being one of those bullies no one likes. Each member of your clan will get better. It just takes time and if you put the effort into cultivating the relationship, they will still be in your clan when they are level 101 with 3,200 trophies.
Farming & trophying together is also important. Give your members freedom to do what they choose, but have clan “activities” to do with them. Teach the lower levels how to farm (or write a blog about it. ha) and make a craptastic amount of money, so their bases will be stronger during your trophying. Organize scheduled “Trophy Runs” (which my clan refers to fondly as trophying). I have found giving members two weeks to prepare and having the trophy run last for less than one week is ideal. It gives them a chance to prepare and farm before racing to get those trophies. Make a fail and a win for the run. ie give the winner a dragon and the loser gets kicked or demoted (or just threaten it). Also make a clan goal… each member raises their trophies by 300/we get in the top 1k! Stuff like that is fun and gives people something to work for.
Keep the clannies on their toes. Kick people that don’t donate. Kick people that bother other members, especially if the members being bothered are in your core 30.
Last one: make a Facebook group for your members to join. Give them a place to talk about stuff outside of the dumb clan chat. (hate deleting things on there). This also gives you a place to discuss with elders who you will kick that week. Giving your core 30/elders the ability to make decisions makes it feel like everyone’sclan. Which, if you agree with anything I have said thus far, is what you want. If you want to be a dictator, you should find another blog to read.
Elders:
I don’t know how many times people have to be burned by this to get it. DO NOT MAKE new people elder. You may get lucky for the first few, but you WILL get burned. It is just a matter of time. If you can only get people to join your clan because they want elder then 1. They probably aren’t the type of person you want in your clan and 2. you must make everyone elder. If no one can kick anyone else out, then you are covering your a**. So either do NOT make new members elder (until they are trusted) or make everyone elder. Worst thing ever is to wake up to 3 people in your clan because one of your noobs kicked everyone out. (this hasn’t happened to me, because I am not an idiot, but it happens all the time).
Bio:
Be sure to keep your bio updated, informative, and different from the 198,090,339 other clan bios out there. If you are farming, put it in the bio. If you did a trophy run, put who won it in the bio. Keep people updated this way, because this is the only thing they all see when the look at the clan.
