The Jordan Rules

Social networks like Facebook & Twitter have massive participation figures. In this post, I offer some thoughts on why people become loyal to certain networks & what marketers can do to encourage community loyalty.

The Loyalty Cycle

The cycle of developing loyalty is pretty simple, you ask users to take action & for every action they take, they receive a reward. The reward doesn’t always have to be a monitory reward; in fact there’s substantial research that suggests intellectual or emotional rewards are more effective than monitory rewards.

It’s also important to understand The Cycle of Social Interaction when trying to build community loyalty.

The Cycle of Social Interaction

It might seem simple, but many marketers abandon this cycle and focus on marketing tactics while trying to build a community. I understand the importance of marketing & the value of building communities to market to.

Here’s the key: Show users you care about them before, during, and after interacting with them. This is best achieved through a deep understanding and empathy toward your customer.

There are several loyalty building strategies that can be exploited to deliver desired results.

Recognition

Description: Is one of the simplest and least-used methods of creating community loyalty. It’s also one of the most effective; which begs the question: why aren’t more marketers making use of this strategy?

All you have to do is single out a member of your community to say something nice about. For instance, if a member posts a movie review on your brands Facebook wall, you could comment on it.

Why it works: It’s human nature to seek approval. If your brand has an active community & a user perceives your brand as an authority in the space, recognizing that a user took the time to interact with you will act as positive reinforcement of their activity.

Badging

Description: Is a specific form of recognition. It involves awarding a ‘badge’ to users that complete pre-defined actions. Badges represent social-capital & can increase a users influence within the community; because of this, badges become coveted.

Why it works: In addition to the reasons recognition works to create loyalty in general, badging employs an effective gaming-mechanic thats easy to understand. If I do what they want, I can be part of an exclusive group.

Points

Description: Is a system that’s commonly used with loyalty programs. It’s one of the simplest reward systems. It involves awarding a specific number of points to users when they complete pre-defined actions.

Why it works: This employs the ‘collecting’ gaming-mechanic. It’s easy to understand because many societies economies are based on the same mechanic. If I collect enough points (or money) I’ll be able to get the stuff I want.

Exclusives

Description: Are most effective for niche communities. When you know what users want, you can offer things the general public can’t get. (i.e. If I manage a community site, offering back-stage, or sold-out tickets to users is a powerful incentive to get users to complete the action I want. Additionally, they’ll be more likely to participate in the community for the potential of more exclusive offers.)

Why it works: Unique or hard-to-find experiences are coveted by the most influential people in the world. For example, I might be able to afford a box-seat at a U2 concert, but if there are only 10 box-seats available, I probably don’t have the clout to get ahold of one.

Rewards

Description: Are so common, they’ve started to lose meaning. It’s a simple premise, if you complete an action you stand a chance of getting a reward. Many times, marketers offer rewards users don’t want in the first place. (example: a free sample, or a 2-for-1 coupon.) If you’re going to use rewards to build loyalty, you NEED to have a deep understanding of what your community wants.

Why it works: People like to get free stuff. If the TV show Hoarders has taught us anything, there’s a certain portion of the population who don’t even care about what kind of stuff they’re getting. The most effective way to use rewards to establish loyalty is to combine rewards with recognition, which would give you recognition rewards. These can be little token rewards given to ‘surprise-and-delight’ users for participating in the community.

Data Storage

Description: Is more of a byproduct of being a part of a community. Part of the reason I actively use Linkedin is because I’ve filled out all my information, have recommendations, and have a rolodex of people I consider valuable. If I were to migrate to another community, I’d have to re-enter all my information, and re-establish connections.

Why it works: Humans inherently look for the easiest way to get things done without sacrificing quality. If a community has successfully gotten a user to join & complete a profile, the user has a personal investment in that community. The more time a user spends contributing to the community, the harder it will be for the user to leave the community.

Summary

If you understand these two cycles & strategies, you can begin to build community loyalty. The more you exploit these strategies, the happier, and more active your community will become. Building a loyal user base for your community is very important. Loyal community members are much more likely to be brand ambassadors outside of the community.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback & comments. I encourage you to post comments, or tweet about this (@thejordanrules).

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