Your reputation prodeeds you. No doubt that’s the case. And thanks to E bay, I can see reputation management systems online can be just the thing to grease an economy.
I’m trying to bake a social currency, or reputation system, into mycolts.net because I’ve read that most successful communities have such systems.
Here’s my recipe, or rationale, for a system we’re calling “Colts Cred”.
1. Colts fans tell us they want to be VISIBLE. They want to show off their passion and be noticed for being BIG fans (which could mean they’re loyal, knowledgeable, zany or something else).
2. Experts in sociology tell us that humans like to interact with eachother, and COMPETITION is one of our most favorite means of interaction.
Add these together and I conclude that if we give fans a way to quantify their level of fandom, if we give them a RANK, then they can wear that rank as a badge, and others can enter into dialogue or relationship with that fan knowing in advance they kind of hair pin they’re dealing with.
“Colts Cred” will be a form of “social currency”.
In my earliest days of research for social nets, I stumbled on the concept of social currency. Read a good defitinition here (from OntheCommons).
Here’s an excerpt: A social currency is the reputation score an individual or entity acquires in a particular social network that credibly reflects their value in that network. For example, like a monetary currency, the value of a social currency may be set by the demand that an individual in a given social network can command, as in some kind of supply and demand calculation. Yet the calculation may also reflect a more subtle calculation of value based upon peer ratings of performance that cannot be captured in measures of supply and demand.
D’Arcy Norman takes the concept of social currency even deeper (read this post). Some think social currency might even replace real money some day.
It makes sense to me that we’d have a way for fans to see how they rank versus other fans, however I’m finding it difficult to decide exactly how this sytem should work and precisely why it will matter.
Do I need to offer rewards for achieving certain rankings?
Can points be exchanged for “stuff” or “experiences”?
Anyone out there got any suggestion?
Great topic for discussion. I think the key is social currency can’t be forced–it exists because of something else, not on its own. For example, with Facebook the amount of friends you have and the amount of posts on your wall is a form of social currency, but the main reason they’re there is for you to connect to your friends and interact with them. While it’s obvious that they are a form of social currency (everyone knows if you have less than 50, or even 100 friends on Facebook, you probably don’t have many REAL friends…) they serve a higher purpose than just being there for “social currency.”
I’m not sure fans care about being better fans than strangers, but I could see them caring about trying to be more fanatic than their friends, and having friendly arguments about who is the bigger fan. So maybe play around with that concept/theme. Maybe have it based on # of posts or level of activity somehow, in addition to # of friends and friends level of Colts Cred. I think some kind of loyalty program/points system would be great and in exchange, fans could get exclusive Colts merchandise/experiences. Maybe even reward “groups” with these things as well. I would say rewards are a good way to build the site, since it gives people an incentive for being there and interacting–ultimately I’d assume the goal is for the site to be self-sustaining/maybe even controlled by the community (the people with the most Colts Cred) to some extent, but in the beginning, rewards seem like a good way to get things started and build loyalty. This also fits in with the above point that the social currency fits with something else–you get rewarded for Colts Cred–it’s not just there for the sake of being there.
[...] stumbled upon a very interesting post from Pat Coyle, Executive Director of Digital Business for the Indianapolis Colts, over at Sports [...]
The idea of rewarding groups is an excellent one. It inspires people to organize into small clusters, which is where interaction can be more meaningful and generate loyalty to the site.
I think it is very important to not have ColtsCred be only cumulative, although that should be one way to track it. The football season is blessed with very nice divisions of time - weeks, seasons and years (including offseason). It would be more engaging and inviting to people to be able to make a play at being a super fan with high ColtsCred for a week, rather than have to do it over a prolonged period of time to compete. Cumulative ratings are self-defeating for those who don’t have a chance (latecomers or those with less time to access the site).
There is a similarity with fantasy sports leagues here. With those throw-away leagues run at places like ESPN, there is very little incentive to stay engaged with your team if you start poorly and have no chance of winning. Keeper leagues, particularly ones that value trades of future draft picks and developmental roster spots, give currency to things that are further into the future, where losing doesn’t make participating irrelevant. The similarity to ColtsCred is the danger of disengaging people otherwise interested in participating. Maybe there could be points for accuracy of predictions, things that gain value the further into the future you predict them.
Finally, I think it is important to recognize the many ways people can contribute to an online community. It isn’t all just uploading photos and posting replies in forums. Page views, recruited members, “welcome” interactions with new members, mediation … these may be things to value in your system. It makes it a bit more complicated on the back end, but having many, many more ways to earn points also de-emphasizes any specific way of contributing and thus makes it easier for the member to do so. “I have to upload 6 photos to catch up” can be replaced by “Let’s go visit the site and explore some more.”
I agree that rewarding groups is a great idea.
I honestly don’t see how MyColts could reach it’s full potential without offering real incentives such as tangible items and “experiences.” Why do people join social networks? Is it to be closer and more connected to others in new and different ways? Perhaps people will want to join the Colts social network to be more connected to the team in new and different ways.
There is a point I’m trying to make here. There are Colts fans of varying degrees of “fandom”… from casual fans to those that treat it like a religion. If participating in this social network means I have a chance to win merchandise, I’ll participate. But, I really, really think you need to get really creative AND open minded. How about a chance to win a ticket to watch a game from a suite (maybe a suite full of other MyColts users).
And it doesn’t always have to be huge prizes. Heck, if you could have Manning (or other players) send a few personal emails to some of the top users on the system every month or so, that would be huge. Personal interaction with players would be amazing. Is that hard for you to do? I bet it probably is, but I think it’s very worth the effort.
Make your users feel like they have joined a special club. Make them feel like they are getting the kind of access to the Colts other fans don’t get. Make them feel like fans of other teams don’t have it this good. You not only face the internal competition of getting users to interact, but the external competition between your social network and others.
I know I’m straying a bit from the core social networking aspect of it, but if you can tie in these kinds of personal engagement with the team to the social aspect/colts cred, I think you’ll never have a problem getting your community to produce and interact with each other.
Let’s ask football fans - true fanatics and competitive beyond belief - if they would like something to show off their stuff… good idea? ABSOLUTELY! Your top X visitors will always be fighting and vying for attention, regardless of the reward. I think surprises might be nice for top folks - but I think expected rewards will drive people to cheat and whittle their way to the the top.
[...] Marketing 2.0 | Pat Coyle « “Colts Cred” proving to be a slippery concept Colts Cred - point [...]
guys - thanks for all the great feedback. I posted our points chart on my next entry:
http://www.patcoyle.net/2007/06/06/colts-cred-point-chart/
Even though Im not as experienced with giving lengthy, technical feedback, I think that having medals of some sort for accomplishing or achieving certain tasks should be awarded. The best example I can think of is based off YouTube. They give little medals saying “#1 Most Subscribed, #1 Most Watched, etc.” Or another unique thing for a social networking site that I havent seen but would like to see is user titles. The best example I can think of for this is its use in forums. Many forums will have user titles displaying their experience or seniority on the board. I think that would be neat for a Social site. Like “Colts Clutz for new people, or Colts Maniac for experienced people” not the best examples but I think it gets my point across. And those could be displayed within the information box under the picture or under the picture itself.