As I alluded to in an earlier blog post,
I firmly believe that it's absolutely crucial to know your community's
audience. Having a good grasp on who is using your community is the
first step, but the second (I would argue more important step) is
knowing why they're using your community.
Back
in the late 00's when I was writing my Master's thesis, social media
was a mere child and very little academic study had been done into
why people get involved as participants. I stumbled across an audience
effects model in a dusty textbook called "uses and gratifications
theory," which was established in
1974, but was becoming more popular within the field of media studies.
Previous models had presented the audience as a single group
of people who were used by the media, as opposed to individuals who all
had their own perspectives, experience, attitudes and personalities
that would affect how and why they interacted with any media content.
In
the original Uses and Gratifications model, the reasons an audience
interacts with a specific piece of media were identified as:
- To be entertained
- To initiate social interaction
- To assist in the formation of identity
- To become educated and informed
- As a mental escape
These
can change over time or with each media interaction and can be a
combination of reasons based on something as simple as how your day is going or who you happen to be watching television with.
In my research,
I applied this theory to what was then a fairly new concept - citizen
journalism. This medium had the added dimension of audience members
being able to produce their own content, so I wanted to see how this
would affect the original theory. The results of the research were that
the motivations to participate changed when the audience could create
their own content to include:
- Personal gain
- Individual growth
- Societal interaction
- Information dispersal
- Collective change
More
recent research (2013) into the motivations for participating in social
media
include: (and not surprisingly, are also significantly affected by a
user's level of narcissism...but that's a story for another day.)
- Social and affection
- Need to vent negative feelings
- Recognition
- Entertainment
- Cognitive needs
If we combine all of these potential reasons that your members might
participate from a audience, content production or social perspective,
we can make decisions and leverage them to increase engagement.
In
a community management setting, this presents each member as an individual that is involved for their
own reasons and has their own motivations for participation and
interaction. By keeping all of the basic motivations in mind,
it gives community managers an opportunity for make each member of the community feel
that their needs are being met, increasing the success of the
community.
Make sure you consider not only your own motivations, but also the
ones that don't describe why you would participate. You may not be
motivated by a need for recognition, but some of your members might.
This is a great reason to use the Most Active Members content item, use
digital ribbons and recognize super users at events and in publications.
By considering each of these motivations for participating and
considering them when thinking of your strategy, your processes, your
design (...basically every part of your community and everything it
touches) you can ensure that all of your members receive the
gratification they are looking for and become true champions of your
community.