Engaging online participation:

the research
A new, emerging space like social media might seem like unmapped territory. But actually, there's
already a lot of knowledge available about how and why people participate online. Our
methodology for fostering online participation has its roots in Alex's Ph.D. research at Harvard
University and her work for social capital scholar Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone.
That methodology is grounded in three key insights:
1. Online conversations build the social capital that businesses, organizations
and governments need to succeed.
We start with an understanding and appreciation of social capital: what it is, why it matters, and
how to build it. Social capital is created by relationships and social networks; it's often defined in
terms of levels interpersonal trust or the propensity to cooperate. Low levels of social capital
reduce resilience for businesses, organizations and societies, and make it harder for them to
respond to emergent economic, social and environmental challenges.
Businesses, organizations and communities succeed when the people within them trust each other,
look out for one another, and work well together. That trust comes from interaction, collaboration
and, most of all, conversation. The past century has seen an erosion in the social capital that holds
our businesses and communities together; we feel the impact in everything from declining voting
levels and weakening economic performance to poor health and diminished personal happiness.
There's a lot of debate over why social capital has eroded, but it comes down to us having less
time together: as we get busier, and spend more time alone or at home watching TV, we stop
investing in the relationships that hold our businesses and communities together.
Online conversation can help to turn this around. When people create and support relationships
through thoughtful online interaction, they start to understand each other better and have more
trust in one another. That kind of trust can be built through frequent, modest interactions (think
Twitter or Facebook status updates) or less frequent but more intensive interactions (like blog
exchanges or video conversations).
As the density of online interactions thickens, you develop the relationships and trust you need to
succeed: whether that's through your customers' trust and engagement with your brand, your
supporters' engagement with one another and your mission, or your team's engagement and
collaborative power.
2. Online conversations engage participation when they offer compelling
benefits.
If you want to use social media to build relationships, trust and social capital, you have to get your
customers, supporters and team to actually participate in the conversations you launch.
And that isn't easy. With more and more online communities, social networks and social media
projects launching every day, you face increasing competition to get your customers' and users'
time, attention and participation.
Alex's research into the motives for online political participation (PDF) builds on decades of
economic, sociological and political science research into what makes people participate instead
of free riding (getting the benefit from something without shouldering their share of the costs) in a
wide range of settings. This research applies directly to the challenge of online conversations,
where it's easy to benefit from the community's content or knowledge without contributing any of
your own.
Her reserach confirmed that online -- as offline -- the best way to get people to contribute rather
than free-ride is to offer selective incentives: benefits that are available only to the people who
contribute. That's why our projects always offer tangible benefits to the customers, supporters or
team members that participate in your online conversation whether it's knowledge they can gain
or prizes they can win. Since all of our projects are based on offering compelling incentives, we
have a large repertoire of ways to induce participation, and will help you find the particular,
innovative combination of incentives that works for your community.
3. The most powerful benefit an online conversation can offer is a sense of
belonging.
Economic and social research has done a great job of showing how material benefits (such as
money or goods) affect participation. But it also shows that opportunities for interaction,
expression and impact can motivate people, too.
Alex's research into hacktivism was the first to bring social psychology literature on group identity
to bear on the analysis of selective incentives. She found that one of the most powerful
motivations for participation is the desire for positive ascriptive identity: the desire to identify
yourself with a group that you think of positively. Often, people participate in a particular kind of
activity not because they want to say "I do this" but because they want to say "I'm the kind of
person who does this".
That's why every one of Social Signal's projects engages participants with the promise of a valued
identity: the opportunity to become the kind of person they want to be. We've helped shape online
communities that give people the chance to say, "I'm the kind of person who's building my city's
economy"; "I'm the kind of person who cares about conservation", or "I'm the kind of person who
helps fight red tape."
From insight to innovation
These insights are the key to keeping every one of our projects alive and humming with
participation. And along with our extensive and growing experience in creating new social media
projects they provide an overarching framework that allows us to constantly innovate:
envisioning new opportunities for community-building, new avenues for social media marketing,
and new ways of engaging your audiences.