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A Wintreath Guide to Recruitment

If you're looking at this guide because you're wanting to get into the field of recruitment, welcome! And thank you for looking into this, as recruiting is one of the most crucial jobs in the region of Wintreath. You're probably asking: How do I recruit members? Why should I recruit members...what do I get out of it? And these are questions I hope to answer in this handy guide.
First, why should you recruit? What do you get out of it?
The answer is: new members.
Regions need new members to continue to thrive, so your successful recruiting leads to the continued lifespan of the region. You potentially get some great new long lasting members as well that you're glad you recruited. You may also get some bad apples, but that's just the potential casualty while working to get the good ones.
Second, how do you recruit new members? Well, first let me explain the different types of recruiting:
Or
Buying the means to send mass telegrams at once. You can buy stamps for $1 per every 1000 nations to send mass telegrams to (you can up the amount when you go to buy them here: the store page). This can be useful for areas such as WA campaigning, but specifically for recruiting if you do it correctly...though has the potential for being misused if the person sending does not use the correct special filters when sending out their telegrams (which will be explained in the HOW TO portion).
Likewise, since you're spending money on this method it can contribute to faster disinterest in recruiting overall if the number of folks recruited versus amount of stamps sent out ends up being super low to practically 0. So this one is kind of a "buyer beware" area unless you end up being incredibly lucky.
Or
Sending telegrams to each founded nation individually, making sure that they haven't already settled into a region. This can be the most tedious method, but sometimes it can be much more effective (surprisingly) than stamp recruiting...and minus potentially recruiting already settled nations by accident.
Or
Using a program/script to help in the recruiting process. Some regions use a program/script to be able to pull up newly founded/refounded nations on their own websites (similar to how NS has a page that does it), and allow folks to hop into a nation easier to send their recruitment telegram. Other regions may use script/API to be able to practically auto-send a Telegram to the nation at the click of a button without having to go into their nation to do so. Overall, this can be the second best method to recruitment (the first being stamps since it's faster)...but depending on what you're using can also have a higher potential of accidentally recruiting nations already in a region.
More info can be found
here
Keep in mind, how to use this method is completely dependent on the API being used, so that won't be explored in this guide due to the different varieties.
So now that you know the different types, the big question comes up: How do you recruit?
A Quick Step-by-step Process on how to Recruit
First, make sure you let the founder know that you want to recruit for the region. This is because some regions keep it exclusive who can send out recruitment telegrams, so you'll need to let them know that you want to join the team (So in this case, let
Wintermoot know so he can add you).
After that, just follow these simple steps:
1. Create your recruitment telegram that you want to send out to other nations (or if there's a regional one, look for it), making sure that it's given the go ahead by the person in charge of Recruitment before you use it.
2. Go to this page for the consistently updating list of newly founded/refounded nations.
3. In a separate tab/window, start the process to create a new Telegram and start adding nations to the TO box, keeping in mind to only write down everything after the first "of" (For instance, the Free Kingdom of French Toast, you'd just copy down "French Toast"). Keep in mind you can only wire Telegrams to 8 nations at a time without stamps. Also be sure to separate every new nation with a comma.
4. Make sure to hit the upside down triangle at the end of the TO box, make sure it says "This is a (Recruitment) Telegram" and click the box next to it to check it.
5. Paste your recruitment telegram into the main message area, make sure everything looks good and that there's no mistakes.
6. Click "Preview" to see how it looks, fix any mistakes that you see.
7. Click Send, repeat process with 8 new nations.
1. Create your recruitment telegram that you want to send out to other nations (or if there's a regional one, look for it), making sure that it's given the go ahead by the person in charge of Recruitment before you use it.
2. Begin a new Telegram.
3. Click the upside down triangle next to the "To" box to bring down a little menu.
4. Click Add: Special and choose either New (100/500/2500) and/or Refounded (100/500/2500)
5. Make sure to hit the upside down triangle at the end of the TO box, make sure it says "This is a (Recruitment) Telegram" and click the box next to it to check it.
6. Paste your recruitment telegram into the main message area, make sure everything looks good and that there's no mistakes.
7. Click "Preview" to see how it looks, fix any mistakes that you see.
8. Click Send, repeat process.
Use (%)NATION(%) (minus the parentheses around both %) to make it personalized. Folks like to feel like you're directly talking to them instead of just being some robot, and addressing them personally in your Telegrams by doing this is a step towards being more personable to them.
Remember that only Bold, Italic, Underline, and the Nation/region tags work in a recruitment Telegram. Dispatch links will work, regular URLs will not. Think Regional Messageboard limits where you're only given a small handful of formatting tools, because telegrams mimic that setup.
Make your recruitment Telegrams engaging. Talk up the high points of the region (such as an engaging Roleplay sector), but don't lie/embellish on details. You want to promote the region truthfully, and talk up the areas that really pop out in a good way. Also be fun and original in your recruitment Telegram...think casually professional. Remember, new/refounded folks are going through countless recruitment Telegrams that they're getting bombarded with, so make sure yours stands out in the best way.
Don't be wordy in your Telegrams. Treat them as a resume where it all should be able to fit on a single page, and that you're not going overly descriptive. If someone were to look at a telegram the size of a novel with exceptionally long paragraphs of describing your region, chances are very high it's going to be ignored as a TL;DR. You don't have to bullet point everything and make it super short, but don't overload on the length either.
Make the reader feel like their time was valued and appreciated. Be friendly, be personable, thank them for their time much like you'd thank your potential employer at the end of your cover letter for taking the time to consider you. It doesn't matter if the person ends up joining or not, thank them in your Telegram just for taking the time to stop, read, and consider.
Don't be discouraged if your recruit count is low. As per the Nationstates FAQ itself:
Sadly (for recruiters), the great majority of recruitment telegrams are ignored, blocked, or never read. In general, you should expect:
10-20% of your telegrams to be blocked by spam filters.
0-1% of your telegrams to convince a nation to move to your region.
So if your turnout is low, don't be discouraged as this is perfectly normal. Sometimes other regions just grabbed their interest first, other times someone refounded with the exact region they wanted to join or they wanted to create their own, and other times you're going to be sending a telegram to puppets of already existing nations who are already heading somewhere.
But there are always nations looking for a home region when they join, so you're always bound to get lucky and snag some new members.
Hopefully, this guide helps all of you aspiring recruiters, and never be afraid to ask someone experienced in the area if you have questions or want some advice!
