Want To Increase User Engagement? Here's How
Have you been in this situation? You spend hours thinking about how your innovation challenge is going to solve your organization's problems, only to find the number of participants is way less than expected, while user engagement seems down to a trickle.
What happened? You thought that your users would enjoy this challenge, and that engagement would be through the roof. But before throwing your hands up in frustration, check out some of our foolproof ways to increase user engagement.
Stay Relevant
Say you’re running a program around the topic of “artificial intelligence”. What you’ll want to do is have some engaging and relevant articles on AI front and center on your program page so that users can stay inspired. This is a great way to keep current users engaged, while attracting new users who might just be coming to your site seeking information, and then discover the innovation challenge.
You can stay relevant with a live Twitter feed on your program page, too. This gives your users a “real-time” glance at topics that are related to the challenge. Just make sure to keep your Twitter account curated and follow relevant accounts on this growing social media platform.
Give ‘Em What They Want
Generally, users who are participating in your program have some degree of investment in the outcome. They may have a personal story that ties them to your challenge, be a small investor in your company, or just have a general interest in the topic and field you’re in.
So keep them interested by bringing in some industry experts, celebrity advisors, or company leaders for occasional “check-ins”, webinars, or town hall meetings. Use your platform to host these popular events online and watch user-engagement skyrocket.
And the engagement doesn’t stop there! Design your innovation challenge by using the power of these high profile experts to gain even more visibility. If done correctly, your “celebrity” advisors can co-promote your organization’s program and bring even more users to your platform. This is a good way to engage an audience that you might not otherwise have access to!
I Wanna Be a Star!
Speaking of celebrity status, give your users to experience their five minutes of fame. Design your program platform so that it features star users and high quality submissions. For example, build in a “submission of the week” or “submission star” feature to engage your users and encourage them to put their best work on display.
And provide incentives to your star players. How about setting up a meet and greet with those influencers we mentioned earlier? Or an online chat with a few of your top users and an industry expert? Sky’s the limit when designing an engaging program. Just make sure you align users’ interests with something that’s motivating to them.
Design for Dummies
We’ve mentioned it a few times, so yes, the design of your innovation challenge is critical. First, there’s obviously the technical piece. You absolutely must design an impressive website for your innovation challenge. If you’ve done all of the marketing and outreach to bring people to your site, only to have it be confusing with low quality images, you’ll frustrate possible users and your engagement will plummet. Don’t make your site hard to navigate - make it easy for users to engage!
Another feature of having a well-designed platform for your challenge is providing a way for users to see real time submissions, while allowing quick collaboration and interaction amongst users. When users feel like they are part of an online community, they tend to increase their engagement and participation. Just look at Facebook as an example of the lure of an online community! Most of us have been curious about what our online community of friends and family is thinking, so we’re often checking that online social network a few times a day to keep up. Do the same with your innovation challenge, and design an engaging community from the start.
Need help getting started with an engaging program? Download our ebook and contact us!
