In my last community, one member paid another for their membership number. It was a cool number, 007.
The number only appeared at the end of their profile URL. They had to swap profile details to make this work.
You can really have some fun with membership numbers. They’re fast becoming the new license plates. People that care about them, care a lot. Here are a few ideas:
- Personalised Numbers. Let people pay to have “ROYROCKS” instead of 175, or “McLovin” instead of 2242.
- Generate Early Registrations. If you’re about to launch a new website, make a big deal about the membership numbers. Let these member customise their profiles, offer special avatars or signatures. They will try to register as soon as possible.
- Member Pass-along. Give your top member number 1. Let her select who will be number 2. Then number 2 decides who gets to be number 3, and so on. Up to 100.
- Don’t Give People A Number Until They’ve Proved Themselves. Don’t give new members a number until they have been participating for 21 days or more. Then let the high-ranked numbers select which number they get.
- Rotating numbers. Be fair and give everyone a chance to shine in the top 50. Feature these profiles for the month.
- Democratic Voting. Every 6 months let people vote for who gets the top numbers.
- Offer Popular/Unique Numbers As Rewards. e.g. 007. 666. 999. 1337. 12345, 55378008.
- Strip Inactive Members Of Low Numbers. If those with numbers in the top 100 aren’t participating, strip them of the number.
- Refer To Low-Numbered Members for Advice. Use the numbers 1 – 10 as an advisory council on the community.
I’m sure there are thousands more brilliant ideas about using membership numbers when building an online community. What are your experience about member numbers?
