Comments on: Rewarding Community Members

By: Incentives to activate community members | Innovation Factory

Incentives to activate community members | Innovation Factory — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:56:24 +0000

[...] incentives and rewards to stimulate members in an online innovation community. According to a blogpost on Fastwonderblog.com it is wise to stay away from monetary rewards and be creative in finding ways to reward [...]

By: Colin Bruce

Colin Bruce — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:55:26 +0000

Cake. Specifically strawberry cheesecake. Delivered to a member that did us a good deed: she took photos, posted them online and loved it.

The equivalent cash expenditure would have been an irrelevancy to her.

By: Innovation Factory Blog » Blog Archive » Incentives to activate community members

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:21:11 +0000

By: Scott Dodds

Scott Dodds — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:10:39 +0000

Great article Dawn, we should always spend some time matching our rewards to the feeling we want to express. It really is the thought that counts, and your members can tell what is something you thought through and something you just pulled out of the air.

But I also agree with Richard and Ryan above, physical rewards of monetary value (as even a fruit basket is) aren’t the first thing you do, they should be the last. Respect, status, appreciation: these are the real coins of the realm in community.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:24:44 +0000

Chris, The M&Ms are a great example of how the gift doesn’t need to have a high dollar value to be appreciated and make someone smile!

Ryan, Excellent point about responding to new people who comment. Janet Lee Johnson and I recently connected this way after I commented on her blog. We ended up getting together for lunch and had some really interesting community / social media discussions.

Dave, My past experience and “common wisdom” suggests that what you are doing shouldn’t work; however, you’ve been doing it for a couple of years, so obviously it is working for you. Expect an email from me – I’m really curious to learn about your experiences.

Sarah, exactly. Once we start comparing the financial incentives to what we would earn doing “real work” it seems like we’re being ripped off. What might have started as a labor of love becomes something we resent. Not to mention the potential negative perception of communities where people are being paid to post.

Craig, it’s funny how a gift card feels different than cash. I’ve been rewarded with iTunes, Amazon, coffee shops, and other gift cards. It doesn’t feel like a monetary incentive to me, since instead I tend to think … “yay! free books!”

By: Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:51:56 +0000

A gift that will delight is always a great reward for positive behavior. Angie’s list once sent me a bag of peanut M&Ms for a referral, and the postage exceeded the cost of the gift, but hey, a big bag of M&Ms made me smile for the balance of the day. Since then I have consistently left referrals when I have used vendors.
Haven’t gotten any more M&Ms though. Hope springs eternal.

By: Ryan Stephens

Ryan Stephens — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:59:18 +0000

Dawn – I have never given monetary rewards or even anything tangible to compensate commenters or enhance my community. Like Richard (what’s up man?) has stated, the intrinsic value should be enough. BUT, often times if I see someone has made their first comment on my blog (or someone has been particularly active of late), I will click their link and shoot them an e-mail (or a message on Twitter) and tell them that I appreciate them engaging my content, and make a genuine attempt to connect.

They should know their comments do matter to me, and when I have time (which I always should) I try to convey that to them.

Excellent read.

Best wishes.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:55:44 +0000

Check out OpenLogic’s Expert Community. It is a community of open source committers, contributors and experts we pay on a per ticket basis to assist us in supporting enterprises with open source. The way it works is we take the first call and solve it if it is a general question. But if it is more complex we turn to the community to help us solve it. We post the ticket, with a dollar value to the community where members can choose to assist or not. They can even negotiate the value if they think it will require more effort. We’ve been hosting this community for about 2 years now and it is working quite well.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:36:55 +0000

Richard,

Excellent point. The intrinsic benefits that people get when they participate without any external rewards are always the best. Ideally you want people to participate in the community because they are passionate and interested, not for the rewards that someone is providing them. The types of rewards mentioned in this post should just be a nice way to say thank you rather than becoming the primary reason for contributing.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:30:12 +0000

iTune gift cards work well. I know that is on the same realm of money, but in a more creative manner that has more of a cool gift vibe from it.

Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com