How to encourage your community to contribute more content
There are plenty ways to get people to contribute to your site, the key is finding something you can offer them, that doesn't cost you much time or money. Here are a few examples:
Q&A sites, and social media sites, often convince people to contribute content by rewarding them with access to features, giving them power, or offering points of some sort.
When you post something on Facebook, people can "like" your post. This is a form of giving points. People feel good that other users enjoyed their post, and this inspires them to post again. It costs you nothing but the time it takes to develop the feature, but people are willing to trade their time for these imaginary "points".
When you post on StackExchange sites, overtime you unlock features (eg: ability to see all upvotes/downvotes, post answers on restricted questions, edit questions), and this makes people aspire to unlocking more features by playing off human ambition. Video games use this same technique to keep people playing. Again, it doesn't cost you any money, just the time it takes to build these features.
On many forums, your post count is a determining factor when asking to become a moderator, or join certain groups. People like to feel like they are not only part of something, but integral to it's success. The best part about this is that you're not just getting content, they actually help run your site.
Q&A sites, and social media sites, often convince people to contribute content by rewarding them with access to features, giving them power, or offering points of some sort.
When you post something on Facebook, people can "like" your post. This is a form of giving points. People feel good that other users enjoyed their post, and this inspires them to post again. It costs you nothing but the time it takes to develop the feature, but people are willing to trade their time for these imaginary "points".
When you post on StackExchange sites, overtime you unlock features (eg: ability to see all upvotes/downvotes, post answers on restricted questions, edit questions), and this makes people aspire to unlocking more features by playing off human ambition. Video games use this same technique to keep people playing. Again, it doesn't cost you any money, just the time it takes to build these features.
On many forums, your post count is a determining factor when asking to become a moderator, or join certain groups. People like to feel like they are not only part of something, but integral to it's success. The best part about this is that you're not just getting content, they actually help run your site.
Responses (7)
Basically, you will have preset standards for what medals are given out. You can give out a medal at 10 posts, 100 posts, or even 1,000 posts and they all show on the users profile. You can also go in a different direction, or combine them, and give out medals for how many times a post was upvoted or liked. So, 10 upvotes/likes gets you a bronze medal, 100 upvotes/likes gets you a silver medal, 500 upvotes/likes gets you a gold medal, and 1,000 upvotes/likes gets you a platinum
Another good system I've seen, that gives out these types of awards or medals, is ThemeForest. They give out medals to buyers and sellers for various things like your first theme purchase or your first theme sale. Top sellers will also have a ton of badges because they will get them for total sales, amount of positive reviews, amount of themes they place on the marketplace, and much more. I only have a few badges on there because I'm solely a buyer
- Razzy
marketing is one of the ways to encourage engagements.
Social media helps in promotion, however, sharing on social media sites is not enough, you also need to gain social signals.