You’ve probably seen reaction videos before.
Fans of Game of Thrones might like this:
Or you might’ve seen this one:
Or you might’ve seen one of the many unboxing videos.
Their popularity reveals something fascinating; we really want to see how people like us respond to things.
The more powerful the emotion, the more we want to see it. We want to know not just what members of our tribe think, but what they feel. Some call this bingeing on emotions.
Amongst the biggest value of a community to members is knowing others feel the same way that you do. If you focus activity solely on exchanging information, you’re only providing a fraction of the value your community could provide to members.
Not every situation lends itself to reaction videos (although these aren’t utilized in communities anywhere near as much as they could be). You still however can push members deep into sharing how they feel about topics, not just what they think about it. Knowing your fellow members are happy, sad, and angry about the same thing at the same time is one of the tenets of belonging.
