Best way to recruit for new FC?

[Vele]

Depends on what kind of FC you're aiming to make. Go around and talk with people, make friends, etc. Maybe you can convince them to join you.

If you're going with quantity however you can pretty much go the extra mile and shout advertisements everywhere, send invites to sprouts who don't have an FC, put up a party finder, etc. There's two FCs on my server that do/have done that... they're huge, but from what I gather, there's a lot of 'cliques' that have formed within them, because there's so many people and hardly anyone know each other. And a lot of people don't like them because of the whole "sending invites to anyone without an FC" thing.

[myahele]

Certainly not blind-invites. That will do more harm than good if the one you blind-invited.

A simple tell asking them to join is good enough. Or shout/ post in the PF like many people, but I found sending a tell is much more personal and makes me consider that FC more than a shout, especially since many people have /shout disabled

[FunkYeahDragons]

Just don't be a jackass, don't spam, and keep it short, and I think anything's game. You can also try /r/ffxivrecruitment on Reddit as I picked a previous FC off there once, or your server's forums. Both options stay up longer than a shout.

I recently started leveling an alt, and I have to say that the few days I spent outside my free company were pretty annoying with some of the ways people have come up with to recruit, if you can call it that. Going into an area, doing a player search, and sending random invites to anyone without an FC is by far the most obtrusive. One FC in particular invited me on three separate occasions (the same person no less) after I'd turned them down. I finally ended up sending them a tell asking them to stop spamming me. After that, I just applied to my own FC to prevent further invite spam from people just looking to pick up every warm body they could.

Basically, just don't annoy people as that can put them off joining. PF isn't a bad option. A lot of it is just going to be patience and time, though. Make friends in the game. Maybe they'll join you later on! My FC started off really small (5 members) and stayed that way for a long time. Recently we've had a few friends join because of various situations with the FC's they were already in, and they ended up leaving theirs to join us. As the FC grew larger even more people noticed and joined and brought their friends with them. :3

I've had someone on an alt send an invite and whisper me offering help if I joined, and they were doing this camping a class guild for sprouts. When I ignored them they followed me around the city spamming angry emotes and accused me of being rude when I told them to piss off. On the same server, another person whispered me and pretended they weren't trying to advertise their FC after I told them I wasn't looking, all the while subtly complimenting it and telling me how people who joined got Bacon Bread.

People are insane about recruitment, even when they wouldn't know what to do with new members, anyway.

[Bladesinger]

Legion and Vele touch on very very good points - Looking to recruit quality members is time extensive and simply alot of work, spamming sometimes works but only for the short term (might even be a violation of ToS rule 3.2: Disruption) ALOT of folks that have joined my free company only did so because of the fact that we took the time to get to know folks through actively using Party Finder or even speaking to them to make sure they're doing ok: Understand your demographic - Alot of folks simply do not like the guild spam because it objectifies them as being nothing more then a "body" a "role" or a "number" and is the reason you have the cliques inside the massive FCs. Best suggestion I can make: Be very social with people - Alot of folks're coming from other games and feel isolated and alone here and're really only looking to make new friends that will make playing this alot more enjoyable (^-^)

Good luck (^-^)

[Yukiko]

Short answer: "Mentor System" will be added in patch 3.2 -> best way

[Joe_Schmoe]

Try running FATEs and stuff, things that you can do with random people on your server. Help out random strangers, heal, res etc. Stuff like that can go a long way towards getting someone to join your FC, rather than doing guerrilla attacks on their chat box, which just gets you blacklisted (at least with me).

[Pheryx]

If you don't target for the high end of players, try to help some new players.
If you are nice, kind and helpfull they will eventuelly join your FC.

This is exactly how I ended up in my current FC. Been a loyal member for more than 2 years now.

[Jynx]

I think the Mentor system will be a great place for new players and Officers of new player friendly companies to connect as well.

Many players don't even know about them until they are targeted by those obtrusive guys who /tell spam and send invites. They are unaware of the benifits of joining a company that can get them geared up, knowledged up, teamed up, and bonused up with FC actions. Also a good way to get to know people from a company before diving in.

[Tabmow]

NO blind FC invites,i personally insta refuse them on principle.

[Paladinleeds]

Unfortunately if you're after the high-end playerbase you're kinda SOL unless you can get hold of a house for your FC (get that and your FC becomes instantly more desirable). But everything people have said here rings true. Know your target market, know what you want from your FC. Do your research, find the right advertising methods. Market market market. Ensure your FC lives up to your vision, and take steps to right it when it goes off the rails. And also, if you're serious about it, expect to spend about 160 hours out of every week's 168 just managing the FC and not getting stuck into the content itself.