Member Motivations Posted July 25th, 2006 in In The Beginning, Management

Years ago while taking a basic management class, I remember a lesson about motivating employees. People are motivated in 4 ways. It doesn’t matter if it’s a forum, or a job flipping burgers, people fall in to one (or more) of these categories. Knowing how to motivate each group is one key to a successful forum.

• Money - In the business world, these are people who are motivated by financial rewards. If they work harder, they’ll make more. In the forum world, members motivated by money are the ones who participate in contests. Or contribute when there is some sort of monetary reward involved. Since most of us aren’t paying our members or staff, you have to find ways to cater to the money motivated individual. Start discussions about money related topics. Offer content to help these members advance in their careers or businesses. But most importantly, conduct contests on a regular basis to keep these folks around. Most people have some form of money motivation, but there is a small group that could care less about contests, giveaways, etc. Often times these are members who fall in to the self-worth category.
• Self-Worth - Members who are driven by their own self-worth can be the best thing because it involves little or no effort on your part. These are the folks that put “self motivated” on their resume and mean it! They’ll go out of their way to help, contribute, and participate and don’t expect or even want a “Thank You” or a fancy member title. They are usually modest and would prefer to stay out of the lime light. It’s best just to send these members the occasional “Hey, just wanted to say thanks for everything you do” type PMs.
• Recognition - We all love a little pat on the back from time to time, but members motivated by recognition need that pat constantly. They want the special member badge and the fancy title. They love the “Thanks Yous” and “You Rock!” messages and they want everyone to see that. It’s pretty easy to motivate this type of person. Create some special member groups, give out awards or member badges. Anything to set this person apart from the crowd.
• Advancement - One step past recognition is advancement. In business, this is the employee who is always striving for that manager position or trying to get a promotion. They’ll work their butts off to get it, but if they never advance, they probably won’t stick around. These are tough in the forum world because you can’t make everyone a moderator. Find other ways to advance these members with special member groups. You might give them some basic privledges if they deserve it. Keep advancing them and they’ll stick around and continue to contribute to your community

So those are the 4 motivators and the people that fall in to them. Once you can identify things to motivate each of these individuals, you’ll be on your way to a bigger and better community. One of the best things you can do is talk to people. Get to know your regulars and find out what motivates them. You want to keep them around don’t you?!