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Designing from Theory
Social Media – Dr. Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore
Introduction
We talked last week about cooperation, public goods, and possible solutions for the ‘social fence’ and ‘social trap’ problems
Now it is time to focus more on ‘social fence’-type problems, i.e. how to motivate contributions to a community, and specifically examine what could work well in an online setting
We will assume here the perspective of a community manager and designer, i.e. someone who has the power to change how an online community functions with specific interventions that may have the desired effects, but sometimes may also backfire
We will also introduce more concepts from social psychology, which will provide a complementary perspective to that of last week’s readings
Finally we will ask whether it is possible to design online communities by mining social science theory, and where design becomes more art than science
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])2
The truth about participation (1 of 2)
The age of web 2.0 has been heralded as an aged of increased civic participation
But many studies have confirmed that it is only a small fraction of online users that are active contributors
Because online resources are generally non-depletable, free-riding is in most cases not so much of a problem; also, the existence of a more passive ‘audience’ can be a motivator for those who actually contribute
But many online communities do suffer from lacking a critical mass of active participants, so we need to ask how we can increase motivations to contribute
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])3
10% 90%
Online communities depend on a small number of top contributors (10% of member base or less). If they leave, a community can fall apart. Most members will contribute very little or nothing at all.
cont
ribu
tions
members
steep decline
short tail
First we need to list again the reasons why people contribute, also taking into account factors that could inhibit contribution, even when the desire to cooperate is present
Then we can ask how to reinforce cooperative behavior and grow the number of valuable contributions
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])4
What drives people to contribute to team efforts?
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])5
The following diagrams are based on the lit. review and findings in Ling et al, 2005 and Tedjamulia et al, 2005…
Personal motivators
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])6
Self-efficacy
Enjoyment (intrinsic)
Need to achieve
Contribution
Goal difficulty
Uniqueness
If we attempt to synthesize the connections between various motivators as discussed in the literature, we may come up with a diagram as below… (see also following pages)
Note: every such attempt will be incomplete, but can be helpful in thinking about interactions between motivations and how they may jointly lead to contributions
Individual goal
Learning (private reward)
ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY AND LIKELY INCOMPLETE IN PARTS
Design levers
Uniqueness
Environmental motivators
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Personal Responsibility
Attachment to group*
Contribution
Importance of goal
Trust in group
ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY AND LIKELY INCOMPLETE IN PARTS
Usability
Group size
Common bond
Visibility (identifiability)
Group goal
Goal commitment
Design levers
*A ‘group’ here can refer to the entire community or a subgroup that a user selects or is assigned to
Common identity
Relative contribution
value
Reinforcers
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Social recognition
Performance appraisal
Financial rewards
Design levers
Providing feedback on an individual’s performance, as compared to an individual or group target or to the performance of others in the community
Demonstrating public recognition for individual or group efforts, listing top contributors, providing commendations or compliments, etc.
Providing financial incentives, e.g., monetary prizes, often in the context of contests where the best entries are eligible for a prize. Caveat: such rewards can have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation and cooperation.
In kind rewards
Providing in-kind rewards, such as items that will be useful to community members in producing higher quality content in the future (e.g., hardware or software). Note: may be more acceptable to community (less divisive) than financial rewards.
Practical advice on reinforcers
Reinforcers must be meaningful to members and fair, i.e. applied in proportion to a member’s contribution
The sources of the reinforcement should be credible in the eyes of the community (i.e. community manager, peers, senior members, or outside parties that are respected by the community)
Reinforcers must be salient, i.e. clearly visible, transparent and recognizable (e.g., badges that users can attach to their profiles, prizes awarded according to well-defined criteria and announced publicly, etc.)
Reinforcers should be applied shortly after a contribution is made, in order to be more effective. Also, their application should be relatively infrequentand in any case should not be allowed to dominate over intrinsic motivations to contribute
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])9
Goals (1 of 2)
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Group goal
Individual goal
Goal difficulty
Goal commitment
Uniqueness
Design levers
Individual commitment to a group goal will generally depend on the individual’s commitment/attachment to the group, and the perceived relative importance of his/her contribution
Individual goals may be more effective than group goals, as social loafing theory would predict that individual goals would lead to greater commitment and satisfaction upon completion; however, empirical testing in online communities did not find support for this hypothesis
Setting more challenging (individual or group) goals leads to greater motivation and satisfaction upon completion. It probably also leads to greater learning, which can also be a motivator for the provision of public goods according to the private-collective model. But too high a goal may have the opposite effect
An individual’s commitment to a given goal may not be fully revealed and is not entirely controllable in any case. But asking for individuals to publicly commit to (self-selected or assigned) tasks could increase their motivation to complete them.
The more an individual perceives him/herself as someone with unique skills, personality or other characteristics that may be valued by a community, the more he/she will be motivated to contribute towards a common goal. This likely also increases the sense of self-efficacy in achieving any goal (group or individual).
Goals (2 of 2)
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Visibility
Uniqueness
Design levers
Making individual contributions visible to the entire community (with every group or individual achievement being traceable back to an identifiable member) boosts motivations to contribute and goal commitment. It is also a facilitator of social recognition for one’s efforts.
The more an individual perceives him/herself as someone with unique skills, personality or other characteristics that may be valued by a community, the more he/she will be motivated to contribute towards a common goal. This likely also increases the sense of self-efficacy in achieving any goal (group or individual). Reinforcing a sense of uniqueness is also a way of boosting individual perceptions of the relative value of a contribution to a group, without having to increase the size or difficulty of the contribution.
Relative contribution
value
When one knows that one’s contribution to a group goal is measurable and essential, one is more motivated to contribute. Contribution value can be artificially boosted, e.g., in funding campaigns, when a donor pledges to double the amount of money donated by individuals towards a cause. Best is when the contribution is meaningful to both the individual and the group.
The truth about participation (2 of 2) The ability of online communities to
break across organizational boundaries and tap into diverse talent as well as find motivated contributors wherever they may be is considered one of their greatest strengths
But people’s limited attention spans and changing priorities (with low commitment to individual communities and tasks) can be the greatest challenge
It is essential then that communities cultivate member bonds and a sense of common identity so as to retain top contributors, as well as take in new members to make up for attrition!
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])12
Groups, bonds and common identityThe distinction between identity and bond refers to people’s different reasons for being in a group, that is because they like the group as a whole – identity-based attachment, or because they like the group as a whole – bond-based attachment (Back1951, via Ren et al 2007)
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Group size
Common bond Common identity
Communication and content
Cohesion
Tendency for smaller group formation and cliques
Easier to maintain larger groups, more open
less resistant to attrition (loyalty with people, not group) and less welcoming to newcomers
more resistant; group identity matters more than individual members; newcomers welcome
off-topic discussions and group/one-on-one communication
discussions on topic, public; off-topic may be banned
Detailed view of group attachment
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Source: Ren et al, 2007
design levers*
* Members may in time develop more bond-based or identity-based attachment, depending on the types of interactions, policies and roles in the community
More thoughts on design… (1 of 2)
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What kind of community are you trying to build and how can you build identity-based and bond-based attachment?
Should you allow for off-topic discussions?
How large do you want the community to become (remember, larger is not always better, but providing for the formation of subgroups can help make it more manageable)
Think about online platforms you know and why some people make
contributions. How would you increase their
motivation to contribute?
Which reinforcers would be more suitable for this community? Consider applicability and appeal to users.
How much information should users be encouraged to disclose about themselves?
How can you make contribution easier and thus more appealing? Some users may want to contribute in small ways while others may seek greater challenges.
More thoughts on design… (2 of 2)
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])16
Is social science a useful source of inspiration and guidance for the design of online platforms? YES!
Can this make design an exact science with provably desirable outcomes? NO (this is anyway not the intent of most of social science, and even if it were, translating general findings into design guidelines is not straightforward)
Is design then doomed to be equal parts art and ‘engineering’ rather than science? PROBABLY
Social science helps us understand how people
operate in social settings. This is valuable for the
analysis and design of social media, but there are no surefire, one-size-fits-all
recipes for success
Does this mean that the best approach is to learn by trial-and-error? NO (insights from social science can be useful guides, and help us understand cause and effect)
What makes this so difficult? It is mainly because any design intervention can have multiple effects, which can cancel each other out and even undermine the intentions of the designer
Credits and licensing Front page photo by celinecelines (license: CC BY-NC-ND)
Team with laptops photo by friendly_terrorist (license: CC BY-NC-ND)
Music instruments photo by brad montgomery (license: CC BY)
Football photo by left-hand (license: CC BY)
Flash mob pillow fight photo by mattw1s0n (license: CC BY)
Phone receiver photo by bondidwhat (license: CC BY-NC-ND)
17 CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])
Original content in this presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Singapore Attribution 3.0 license unless stated otherwise (see above)
