Comments on: How are you rewarding members of your online community?

By: Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:32:55 +0000

How does all this change if you “community” is a paid membership club?

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:08:04 +0000

Jeremy - I'm glad you are seeing success. Just be careful about giving away prizes - you don't want to attract mercenaries who have no interest in your community.

By: Jeremy L

Jeremy L — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:52:16 +0000

Great article Martin! I’ve been making an effort to be better at many of these things lately, and it’s paid off in major ways in my community. My big 3 lately have been “guest articles” on my blog, a new Introductions Area for members to introduce themselves and talk about their off-topic interests, and rewarding members with prizes via online contests and promotions. The contests are my favorite. It’s a blast to be able to give prizes to members, and reward them for their support!

By: Footprints (31.03.09) | Chris Deary

Footprints (31.03.09) | Chris Deary — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:16:55 +0000

[...] How are you rewarding members of your online community? [...]

By: Mr Woc

Mr Woc — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:45:55 +0000

Hi there

Some good suggestions, I quite like the idea mentioned above doing some kind of interview with members !

Woc

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:33:25 +0000

As always a very comprehensive and useful post Martin. It’s hard to add much of value! I will say with some communities reward & recognition can come across as ‘head-patting’ from the powers that be which members may not like. After all it is ‘their’ community.

In these instances we try to get the community to nominate and recognise the help of others by putting a call out eg. for member of week. In this way your 10 Ideas can be applied, but it will be the members drawing attention, naming dropping and publicly thanking others etc rather than the community manager or moderators.

I’ve always liked idea of badges/trophies on profiles etc too as a reward.

By: GregR

GregR — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:49:27 +0000

Good ideas thanks. Forums are a neglected part of community building but like comments they need care and feeding too.
Thanks

By: Edward

Edward — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:41:57 +0000

To build on what Mike said, I think there’s a lot more to be learned from the quieter members anyway. I’m sure power members could tell you all the things they LOVE about your site, but less-active members will have more constructive criticism, which is better in the long run as you can improve the experience.

Not that we don’t all love glowing praise.

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:08:55 +0000

Mike – How about you start the interview rounds with a power member, then move onto the quieter members? They’ll be impressed and flattered that you consider them as valuable as the power member you previously interviewed.

Albert – You won’t alienate guests just by referring to other members by name. You just need to ensure you aren’t always mentioning the same names. Share the love!

Don’t sit in no man’s land and not mention any names at all – it’s not a conversation if nobody knows who you are talking to!

Angela – I love the idea of treating the community as though it’s new. It’s definitely all too easy to get a little lax when a community takes off. We have to remember that it’s still our job to ensure new members feel wanted and welcome regardless of the community’s size.

By: Nicole Price

Nicole Price — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:53:31 +0000

Ask any community member and they would agree one hundred percent with your observations. As a community member, all of us require some recognition just as we do in offline community activities. In fact it is more important in online communities as, quite a few of us come there because we do not have much of offline community activities.