Through a partnership with a company called Badgeville, Philly.com will roll out a rewards program next week that includes Foursquare-like badges and trophies (for the record, not the ones on the right). Users will get one point for visiting the site, one point for reading an article, and one point for commenting, reports Nieman Lab.
Badgeville’s CEO, Kris Duggan, warns that news sites should avoid doing too much with Facebook — “which is kind of your competition” — and instead look to leverage some of the same tactics that make Facebook so addictive. “Right or wrong, it’s just how it is,” Duggan said. “Facebook and Twitter have transactionalized your relationship with content.”
I think that’s a powerful quote that’s worth considering for a moment. As a consumer, you may visit 10 websites in a given day, most via search and social media. You remember many of the stories you read, but not many of the sites you read them on. There’s a new layer between discovery and content with “transactions” in between. I once called it the “debranding” of media.
Personally, I don’t believe this new world order means news sites should downplay Facebook and Twitter. On the contrary, an aggressive social media effort can yield brand and loyalty lift — but it takes work and a real investment. And certainly, on-site community is more important than ever. Are badges the answer? Who knows. But clearly engagement as we know it must be redefined, both on-site and off.
