Hello all,
After being on the forum for well over a year now, I've come to observe a number of recruitment threads and people looking for a legion. Using the knowledge I've gathered on successes and utter failures, I've made this looong thing detailing effective strategies and methods to respond to a 'Looking for a legion' thread.
Ok, so you're browsing through the GL forum and spot someone looking for a legion. You check it out. The guy's stats are exceptional. His rank is to par with your legion's. You go to post, then realize you are in a competition with several other equal legions, which is the case 99% of the time. How do you get the edge over the others? The key to any successful forum recruitment is to be straightforward, good humored, honest and respectable. Let's go through each one in detail.
Being straightforward is simple really. Don't stray away from the point of your post, go through each aspect of your legion that you are addressing in detail, and most importantly, make you and your legion look good. Straying away from the point of your post can give the impression that you don't really care about the potential recruit. This is the wrong thing to do. You want the person you are recruiting to feel welcome.
Spouting the same thing over and over to each and every person asking for a legion is wrong. It makes you look like a machine and again, does not give the impression that you really want the person in your legion. There are many who fall prey to this, whether by repeating the same thing which was only effective the first few times or by just giving a bland 'Join us!' message.
Diversify your recruitment. Stylize it for each person. Take the time for them to show that you want them in your legion and you are willing to fork out your own time to make it happen. Add your own flare to your posts. Make it a different color or add pictures; something to make it stand out. If you stand out from the others, you are putting your legion at the top of his or her list of options.
Secondly, being good humored can be a deciding factor on how successful you are. Being rude or just plain boring will make the potential recruit just skim over your post, thus the work you've put in is for nothing. Joke around and add emoticons. We all know how those yellow faced thingers attract attention and can put your post into perspective.
Expanding on the emoticons, use the right one for the right area. Adding an eyeroll
to your hopes of him or her joining just doesn't fit. The most common, and most effective emoticons are the tonguey guy 
and the smileys 
. They naturally give off the impression of feeling welcome or relaxed. On the other hand, the aggressive smiles, like the twisted face 
and the geeks 
, can also be used perfectly for pvpers. They want fighting, so adding a twisted face to your comment about how badass your legion is will only make it better.Next, as the old saying goes, honesty is the best policy. It's never failed before and it never will. Don't over-exaggerate what your legion has. Otherwise when the recruit gets here, they will be disappointed. You don't want that. While slight exaggeration is fine, like rounding up on your base payouts or npc alerts, if you can give exact stats, the recruit knows what they will be getting into and when they arrive, will be satisfied.
Keep in mind, there are some things you don't want to include. You obviously don't want to include past affairs that put you or your legion in a negative light, or do what The Mizfits did and Play By Your Rulez. The way I figure, the best way to avoid these things is to not do them in the first place. If you can keep your legion reputation up, then you will have less skeletons in the closet for the recruit to worry about.
Lastly, respect is what alot of forum recruiters seem to forget. Not respect as in not respecting your recruit, that's just plain dumb to begin with. No, respect as in the way you present yourself. Show that you are above the other recruiters by having good grammar, emphasized points in your post, proper organization and lastly, though not nesessarily needed, a nice signature at the end of your post. There's a word that can sum these up: class.
Believe it or not, grammar is very much needed in recruiting. There will be no confusion in what you are saying and you are showing yourself as intelligent. Whether or not you review your post before you post it for any mistakes you've made, or to add or remove something, can make or break your post. Emphasized points and proper organization also fall into proper grammar. Presenting yourself with everything you can bring to the table will maximize your chances of winning over your recruit. The part with the signature, well... it's not needed, though it's a simple touch that can help.
Now, as the mid-legions should know by now, when a leaderboard legion or a top 15 legion gets involved in recruiting, you pretty much know that your chances are shot. Not true. There's never a 100% guarantee on anything, no matter how picture perfect it may seem. All legions have faults, no matter how successful they are. If it came down to it, the person looking for a legion will go to the one best suited for them. If they don't make the wise decision, you didn't need them anyway.
Follow these points when recruiting and you will get more recruits than everyone else. However, one last thing. If you are alone in your recruiting, that will reflect in your recruit's decision. The more people you have on the job, the bigger chance of your recruit going to you. Keep in mind though that too much can leave a bad impression. Don't spam the topic with the same thing over and over. That's basically the same as spouting the exact same recruitment message to several topics. One to two others adding quick input is best. All in all though, the best thing you can do to get that ball rolling is to bring it to your legion's attention.
Use these points well. They come from the guy who's been doing the majority of the recruiting for his legion for a year on the forum.
~ Preliator Xzien, Delta Surfers
See? Signatures help!