Park and Gabbard have identified one of the most powerful triggers to get experts (or subject matter experts) to share new information; fear of being scooped.
Once you have set the community objectives, you need to decide what emotional levers you’re going to pull to get people to perform the action.
A common mistake here is to focus on the outcome rather than the process.
Yes, there’s a good chance that members of high status want to increase and maintain their high status. That’s not a strategy though, that’s an outcome of the strategy.
A strategy is zeroing in on a specific emotion that drives them. It’s almost always harder to identify this emotion than you might think.
Fear of being scooped is a potential strategy. It’s emotional and it leads into future tactics you might use.
What might amplify the fear of being scooped among top experts?
- News or content about people being scooped.
- Special badges or commendations for experts who get the information first.
- Interviews with members ‘on the cutting edge’ of the field on how they were able to share the information first.
- Tagging important new knowledge shared as [scoops]
If you’re in doubt, you can even ask for examples or times when they have been scooped and what drives their fear. This often leads into the very tactics you can use.
Now instead of trying a Smörgåsbord of tactics related to status, you’ve got a specific emotion you want to amplify to get the outcome that’s valuable.
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