The hardest part of running an open chat room is getting past the first 30 to 50 members. Once you've built an initial base and some trust signals, and you manage the room so conversation never stalls, it starts running itself.
Why the first members matter so much
People want to join a room where people already are. Even if someone finds a room with only 3 to 5 members through search, they'll often think "looks like nothing's happening here" and leave right away. But a room with dozens of members and visible recent chat naturally makes newcomers want to stick around.
In other words, your initial member count isn't just a number, it's a signal that tells visitors "this is a living community" the moment they arrive. Once you get past that first impression, everything after gets much easier.
How do you build up initial members and likes?
- Start with people close to you — Share the link first with friends who share your interests, your existing social media followers, and neighbors from your blog or online communities. Ten genuinely interested people beat a hundred who don't care.
- Optimize for search visibility — Naturally weave in keywords people actually search for into your room title and description. The more specific you are, like "[Topic] info sharing" or "[Topic] study group," the more accurately targeted your traffic becomes.
- Build trust signals with initial members and likes — Your member count and like count are the first things visitors notice. Filling in that baseline to a reasonable level noticeably boosts your conversion rate on organic traffic. It's safer to grow this at a natural pace rather than spiking it all at once.
If you need to quickly build up your initial members and likes, SocialUp's open chat room members & likes service can lower the barrier to getting started. That said, this is really just a way to create your "starting line" — content and active management still have to carry the room from there.
💡 Tip. Instead of boosting members and likes all at once, spread it out over a few days. It mirrors how a real community naturally grows through word of mouth, which makes it look far more natural and stable.
Management tips to keep the conversation flowing
- Create recurring content — Give visitors something to look forward to, like a daily morning news roundup, a weekly question, or a regular event, so they think "something happens around this time."
- Reach out first — A simple welcome message and quick guide to newcomers reduces drop-off and lowers the barrier to their first comment.
- Ask conversation-starter questions — Easy-to-answer questions like "What's everyone using these days?" can break the ice in a quiet room.
- Keep the rules short and clear — Even a brief notice about ad and spam policies makes the atmosphere much more pleasant.
Common mistakes
The most common mistake is abandoning the room right after creating it. In the first few days, the room owner needs to personally drive the conversation. Another common mistake is pushing aggressive promotion that floods the room with uninterested people, who tend to leave quickly and end up making the room feel even more "dead" to everyone who stays.
Rather than obsessing over the member count alone, it's healthier in the long run to focus on growing genuinely active users who actually take part in conversation. If you'd like to grow Instagram or other channels alongside your open chat room, check out our SNS marketing guide.
Get started with SocialUp
If you need initial members and likes for your open chat room, SocialUp offers the lowest prices per service, processes orders automatically the moment you order, and shows real-time progress. Any incomplete portion is automatically refunded, so you can get started risk-free. Browse KakaoTalk services or view services and place an order →