The key to success of a community is "engagement". Part of the engagement success in a community is for participants to maintain an active profile, since that is critical to the community's current and future success. That said, it's very easy to ignore the often simple, tactical things participants can do to keep an online community engaged and growing.

Here's a list of ten things you can tell participants in a community they should consider doing daily. If ten is too much to start (although this list should take all of 15-20 minutes if someone stays focused), they can start with just 2-4 and expand from there. Each piece incrementally will help, and they'll be surprised how quickly these investment come back in the way of opportunities, introductions and more. Here is what you can suggest to participants in the community:

1. Message three people you haven't spoken with in some time, just to catch up
2. Scan a few community profiles for updates in the member directory, and comment on 2-3 that are particularly interesting to you
3. Use "Recent Activity" in your contacts profiles to see what your contacts have done, read or published recently
4. "Send message" thank you or congratulations note to someone
5. Request a connection from someone in the directory. Make it short, but return the connection. You'd be surprised how often these turn into something more valuable.
6. Give someone an unsolicited recommendation in a social network they subscribe to, like LinkedIn (This shouls be listed in their profile)
7. Scan your blog RSS feed, and forward 1-3 articles to people you think will find them interesting or valuable
8. Invite someone to lunch today. You have to eat anyway. If they say no, they're happy you asked. If they say yes, you get a valuable chance to reconnect.
9. Thank someone for the hard work they did yesterday, and copy their manager if sent via email, or better post it as a blog in an informal channel.
10. Send an email meeting request to someone you've always wanted to meet, asking for a quick phone call or coffee. Do this daily, and the response rate will be better than zero.
11. Last of all don't build a dull community, make it fun. Here are a few tips on how to do just that.