www2009 Webcentives Workshop – Madrid

Frank Smadja

Mixing Financial, Social and Fun Incentives for Social Voting

Abstract

How to keep users motivated to answer questions and keep attracting new members?

Context: Market research Web 2.0 site

Overview

1. Our Experimental Ground: Toluna?

2. What types of Incentives are available?

3. Financial Incentives – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

4. Incentives and Intent

5. Conclusion

6. References

Our Experimental Ground: Toluna

Community site 100% based on polls and opinions

User generated content

January 2009 activity:– 8,000,000 votes– 35,000 polls created by users– 200,000 full text opinions expressed by users

Users accepting to participate to surveys are rewarded with financial incentives

Sponsored surveys and polls are paid for by customers

New Model for market research - User to user interaction, content, focus on interest.http://toluna.com, http://uk.toluna.com/popular/polls&opinions,

http://uk.toluna.com/people/robby287

Incentives for Market Research

Explicit Incentives– Financial: Points, Vouchers, Coupons

– Lotteries and prize draws

– Test products

Social Incentives:– People answer your questions

– Vote on people, topics

– Communicate with other users

– Be a member of the community

Other incentives:– Curiosity (voyeurism)

– Fun factor

– Design, Speed, Ease, …

Registration page

What you can win - Vouchers

Free lottery ticket upon registration

Free products you can test

Survey page

You win points only

Points page

How you won points

Prize Draws

Vouchers page

You exchange points for vouchers

User page:

http://uk.toluna.com/people/joblack71

Users vote on you - 63 votes, average of 3.8

Your Toluna Rank

How you appear to the community

How your content is of interest to thecommunity

Topic page:

http://uk.toluna.com/opinions/228057/the-pope-reinforced-condoms-what-think-this.htm

Agree / Disagree

Testimonial on the siteFrench: http://fr.toluna.com/opinions/236558/Etes-vous-inscrits-autres-sites-sondages-remuneres.htm Je suis inscrite sur 4 autres sites de sondages rémunérés, mais rien de pareil à Toluna. Aucune interactivité ni possibilité d'échanges entre membres n'est possible ailleurs (du moins à ma connaissance), de plus, sur les autres sites je reçois des invitations à participer à des sondages une fois par semaine seulement, et encore, pas partout. Bref, si la motivation première lorsqu'on s'inscrit est le gain, on déchante assez vite (tous sites confondus) car il faut beaucoup de temps pour engranger un tout petit pécule, en revanche la convivialité et l'originalité de Toluna sont stimulantes et nous motivent continuellement à participer et sur ce point, je félicite l'intelligence du concept. C'est à peu près tout ce que j'avais à dire.. oui c'est la possibilité de communiquer et d'échanger entre nous qui fait la réussite de Toluna !pour répondre à votre question: non je ne suis inscrite dans aucun autre panel   Toluna est vraiment interractif, il nous permet de communiquer entre nous, c'est là le secret de réussite de ce panel.je ne suis pas inscrite à d'autre panel, je manque de temps 

English:http://uk.toluna.com/opinions/233304/Which-other-survey-sites-member-which-your.htmI myself am a member of quite a few different survey sites ,but I honestly prefer Toluna to all the other ones. Toluna though is not just a survey site it is a site that helps you to stay in touch with other members similar to yourself, even though you will never become a millionaire from using Toluna that is not the point I really enjoy using this site and can earn a bit of extra money in the form of tokens also. …

Toluna is my favourite, purely from the interaction point of view.

Social Rewards - Sense of Community

Testimonial on the site:

Spanish: http://uk.toluna.com/topicpagev1.aspx?tid=236420&Sort=recent&Page=1

Muchas gracias! Ya soy experto!Muchas gracias todos y todas por vuestra colaboracion, tiempo y esfuerzo. Me ha hecho mucha ilusion alcanzar el nivel de miembro experto que tanto me ha costado. Pero por fin he llegado y no pienso parar hasta convertirme en VIp y arrastraros conmigo hasta esta categoria. Asi que preparaos a recibir un monton de opiniones de mi parte porque este mes pienso castigaros a todos con mis votos y a algunos subirles de categoria.Asi que andaros con ojo que voy a comerme vuestras opis. Un saludo a todos y enhorabuena a los que hayais subido nivel.

French: http://uk.toluna.com/topicpagev1.aspx?tid=233211&Sort=recent&Page=1Finalement moi aussi je suis passée VIP merci tout le monde!Ce matin j'étais un peu déçue tout le monde avait changé de statut sauf moi snifff j'étais quand même contente pour les autres mais je me disais qu'on m'avait oublié je passe quand même pas mal de temps sur le site! alors merci à tous ceux qui m'ont répondu et bonne continuation à tous dans la bonne humeur et la PAIX!

Social Rewards - Social Levels

Financial Incentives – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good– Some surveys are boring (banking, insurance) or long

(20mn)

– Common practice for market research

– Bring new users

The Bad– Criteria: Speed to receive vouchers, $ per click, etc.

– Attracts speeders, cheaters, …

The Ugly– Relationship: Buy a service from the users

– Low return => Low stickiness

Financial Incentives for Market Research

Typical campaigns for market research:– “Get paid for completing surveys from your home”– “Become an instant cash winner”– “Get paid to give your opinion”

Low Stickiness– Fast turnaround of panelists– People are disappointed and get tired fast– Big chunk of the investment is in the recruiting

Incentives and Intent

Intent: Recruiting– Bring new users from campaigns– Click through rate, conversion rate– Time critical

Intent: Rich Content– Entice users to write and participate– Pageviews, time per visit– Quality is important

Intent: Survey Participation– Ensure users participate to surveys (even long boring surveys)– Response rate (out of 100 invites how many click)– Time critical

http://uk.toluna.com/surveyreport/229725/Satisfaction-Survey-II

Answer from people interested in financial reward

Answer from people not mainly interested in financial reward

Incentive Intent

Improving Content: Mostly Social– Paying for content mostly brings poor quality content– Social motivation is a drive – Yahoo! Answers

Filling out Surveys: Only financial works. – Personal not social– Long and boring– Lots of personal questions there– Nothing fun or interesting

Incentives and Intent: Recruiting

Recruitment type

Click Through Rate

Conversion Rate

Financial 0.2% 9%

Social 0.05% 4%

Comparison of “$ per click” campaigns to “give your opinion” campaigns.

4 times more clicks per impression

2.5 times more conversion

Overall 10 times more effectives

Conclusion

Financial is necessary for:– Recruiting

– Surveys

Social Reward is necessary for:– Stickiness

– User satisfaction

– Rich content on the site

Good Balance is Critical between financial and social

Reward / Intent Recruiting Improving content

Ensure participation

Explicit: Financial 5 2 5

Implicit: Social 1 5 2

Explicit: Lotteries 2 1 2

Implicit: Experience 2 2 1

References

Spreckelmeyer, Krach, Kohls, Rademacher, Irmak, Konrad, Kircher and Gründer, Anticipation of monetary and social reward differently activates mesolimbic brain structures in men and women, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access, January 27, 2009. http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/nsn051

D. R. Raban, The Incentive Structure in an Online Information Market. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 59(14): 2284-2295, 2008.

S. Rafaeli, D. R. Raban, et al., How Social  Motivation Enhances Economic Activity And Incentives In The Google Answers Knowledge Sharing Market.International Journal of Knowledge and Learning 3(1): 1-11. 2007

J. Tirole and R. Benabou, Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Review of Economic Studies , 70(3), 2003

E. L. Deci, Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18(1), 1971.

S. Baker, Will Work for Praise, Business week, Feb 2009. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_07/b4119046650659.htm

Yahoo! Answers: http://answers.yahoo.com