Spend a minute looking at the New Relic Ambassador Program.
Notice the three intrinsically-orientated benefits of participating in the program?
- Sharing expertise.
- Gaining valuable skills.
- Collaborating with top experts.
These are all based upon intrinsic motivations. They focus on self-improvement, exploration, and the sheer joy of the activity.
My colleague Sarah Hawk has spent countless hours reviewing the top member programs of dozens of communities. Very few target intrinsic motivations.
Picking your top members and building an extrinsic reward program around them can easily do more harm than good. Speaking at events through the years, it’s clear that everyone understands the problem with extrinsic rewards. Yet when it comes to applying it, we hesitate. Offering clear rewards feels safer, more established, more predictable.
It’s what most people do right?
I’ll bet that you will see better results if you focus on messaging (and delivering) on promises like sharing expertise, gaining new skills, and collaborating with top experts.
p.s. I’m speaking about community advocacy at the Summit on Customer Engagement tomorrow in Palo Alto. Tickets available.
