Tiers of Engagement

[Melissa Daniels]

Part of running a successful site or community is allowing users to discover "easter eggs" throughout the site. Ideally, the more engaged you are as a user, the more likely you are to come across a reward or earn one.

Out of curiosity, what are some of the engagement strategies you all use? How do you inspire newbies to become experts, and, once someone is an expert, how do you keep them on the site?

Can't wait to hear examples (and, potentially see some if anyone is willing to share!)

[John Norris]

Some examples from Second Life that I have used-

I have several "freebies" that I give away:

The "Smilie Chat Badge" can be worn anywhere and displays an emoticon that one can change at any time :-) ;-) 8-p etc... It also includes a message to the wearer as to where it came from. This freebie is set up to be found when someone runs a search on the area. One still needs to actually go to the place handing them out.

A tea set. This is hidden behind the major sign for this area. Unless you are really checking out the whole area, it won't be found. It is not to be found using the general search feature.

Once I installed the items that can be found via search, the area had a ~10% increase in traffic.

I am in the progress of arranging the area to provide a narrative arc to take one from the newbie stage all the way to expert. Ideas based on Disney's work described here.

Might be a bit off from what you were thinking, but perhaps you can glean from that what you need!