Web Strategy: “Rewarding” your Social Network

Categories: Web StrategyPosted on July 14th, 2007

This is probably the most important Web Strategy that I’ve written, so please pay attention. After having fun yesterday making fun of people that claim to have been “doing web 2.0 for 8 years” let’s get back on track.

This Web 2.0 or Social Media movement isn’t about technology. RIA, AJAX, XML, RSS, APIs aren’t important. Why? Those are just tools that lead us to what’s really important = people connecting to people.

What many Web Strategists (anyone that drives the direction of a website) forget is that they need to reward their customers. I’ve met many folks who have deployed websites and ask me; “we’ve built it, but they don’t come, how come?” There’s a couple of reasons.

“While we’ve already talked about at great length to “Consider joining communities that already exist rather than building them” (credit to the good citizens Tara Hunt for this idea back in 2006), there’s a few key things that one has to remember when building your website, and that’s building a network that rewards your users.

How do you reward your users? That’s easy, it’s actually more psychological and sociological more than a web feature set. If we’ve already agreed that this movement is about people, then we can look at existing physical people networks and see what rewards them. The beauty is that when the rewards happen within the features, the network starts to become scalable, they’ll stay on your site and invite others, without your extra prodding.

A few examples of how Social Networks Reward

Or maybe it’s that nothing pleases me more than to watch people comment and favorite my flickr photos, why? It’s this intrinsic deep rooted feeling (a reward) that I get from sharing my life with others –and in turn –they enjoy it with me.

Or take networking sites like LinkedIn and Plaxo, for some the real badge of honor is showing to others who connected one is. Sales, Marketing, PR, and recruiters may thrive on this. For others, it’s the small intimate connections one builds with a few quality folks. MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, also have similar elements.

Or maybe individuals want to be recognized, they want to be shown as experts in their field, or someone that helps others. Communities that self reward others can succeed.

Or maybe it’s the collective knowledge that’s made easy to boil up: the how to’s, the current events, the meetups that one never would have found before, there’s an affinity and attraction for all. What is it that your website can do to highlight the usefulness?

So think about your community, and discover what drives them, then reward them.

This is Web Strategy.

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In the paragraph

“This Web 2.0 or Social Media movement isn’t about technology. RIA, AJAX, XML, RSS, APIs aren’t important.”

Are you defining “Web 2.0″ solely as a “Social Media movement?”

Posted by Rob Grady on July 14th, 2007 at 7:12 am

No, I’m saying all of it is a PEOPLE movement. In the end, it’s about people connecting, that’s what’s really important.

The technology is still the lynch pin, and what made it happen, but the changes to culture, companies, governments, and citizens is of far greater importance.

Make sense?

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on July 14th, 2007 at 7:26 am

Bravo! Your point as to rewarding the users is a very important one indeed. Too many times web strategy gets wound up in the tools or features and forgets about what happens after the launch.

The maintenance of a campaign or community is just as important as the setup. The difference between a campaign and community, though, is that you do not have an end date for your community. Hopefully, your community will be there long after the launch. Rewards or incentives being in built into the stratgey from the beginning is key to helping this become a reality.

Thanks for the post!

Posted by Joi Podgorny on July 14th, 2007 at 9:42 am

I think I’ve made the comment here (or somewhere) before about how Cambrian House and their rewards system. They’re all about idea exchange and the rewards system is definitely what makes it successful. A point for submitting an idea. But if you don’t have any ideas of your own, they reward you for refining someone else’s idea (a point for commenting). A point for each referal from your blog. A point for accepting an invitation to be “friends.”

Sometimes I step back and think this is like giving a toddler stickers for each time they went potty…but the rewards system connects people beyond just being part of a list of “friends.” They actually lead to people grouping among themselves to collaborate and work together and turn their ideas into something.

Posted by Lisa on July 14th, 2007 at 9:45 am

You’re right. This is the most important web strategy post you’ve had, ever. Whatever the technology, people making connections drives the whole webosphere, if you will. It doesn’t matter if they’re doing research, shopping, or just out to have fun, giving a rewarding experience is the ultimate in Web 2.0.

I’m writing something about this for web-based business owners - would you mind if I referenced this? There was also a video you did maybe six weeks ago that I thought was really important, too.

Posted by Tinu on July 14th, 2007 at 9:48 am

Tinu, of course you can reference this, just provide attribution by mentioning me, or if possible linking to this location.

Posted by Jeremiah Owyang on July 14th, 2007 at 10:57 am

Lisa

Points are helpful, but this can be gamed, I’ve seen this happen at other online communities.

Posted by Jeremiah Owyang on July 14th, 2007 at 10:58 am

Joi, that’s great, we agree, building for the long term is so important

Posted by Jeremiah Owyang on July 14th, 2007 at 10:59 am

“The technology is still the lynch pin, and what made it happen, but the changes to culture, companies, governments, and citizens is of far greater importance.”

-Yep and it’s interesting to note that the kids who grew up with the Internet don’t have the
“adoption angst” or “fear of the unknown” and have little qualms of actively participating.

“Make sense?”

-Yep, I’m with ya.

Posted by Rob Grady on July 14th, 2007 at 8:35 pm

Thanks Rob, I appreciate that.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on July 15th, 2007 at 7:33 am

Interesting ideas Jeremiah. You’re right; it’s all about connecting people to people. I like your thoughts on the topic and added my own suggestions about how entrepreneurs can reward their own personal networks.

http://www.thepdaproblog.com/2007/07/one-of-the-most.html

Posted by Rick Cooper, The PDA Pro on July 20th, 2007 at 6:25 pm

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Posted by KnowledgeCafe » Framework voor succesvolle community portals on July 22nd, 2007 at 4:49 am

[...] Om gebruikers te blijven boeien en binden moet je ze ook iets teruggeven, ofwel belonen voor hun gedrag. Beloning kan in de kleinste dingen zitten. Het verzamelen van votes op toevoegingen van gebruikers is zinvol (en zelfs misleidend) als je met die verzameling votes vervolgens niets doet. Een lijst met meest gewaardeerde artikelen is bijvoorbeeld iets dat is samengesteld op basis van het stemgedrag van gebruikers en door zo’n lijst aan je gebruikers te tonen beloon je hen voor hun stemmen. Een lijst met meest gewaardeerde gebruikers is een andere vorm van belonen. Ook de reacties die anderen geven op mijn blogs of mijn flickr foto’s is een vorm van beloning. Het belang van belonen is heel scherp opgemerkt door Jeremiah Owyang. [...]

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Posted by MartinKloos.nl » Blog Archive » Framework for community portals on August 5th, 2007 at 3:52 am

But if this “rewarding” is not there community will not be formed in the first place. Sorry, i didn’t like the term “reward”. It sounds like some dictator is giving some concession (national holiday!) on his 1st anniversary. You are not giving importance to the tools but your attitude is the same.

Posted by ravi karandeekar on August 5th, 2007 at 10:53 am

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