Create Your Own Status Symbols

[#1]

I'm definitely a fan of Andy Sernovitz's blog, and his recent installment was particularly wonderful - if you haven't seen it yet then be sure to check it out: Home is Where Your Mug Is. The basic idea is simple:

Starbucks should give their best customers a personalized mug.

Giving out free stuff to special customers is nothing new, but a free glass or cup is only the most superficial part of this idea. The key is in the personalization - make your customer feel unique and special by doing something out of the ordinary and personal just for them. Sure, it takes more work. But your customer now knows you care enough about them that you would go to such lengths to celebrate them. Whenever they use it, they have an opportunity to talk about the gift and why they were given one. Seeing someone else with a such unique item may make other customers wonder why they don't have a relationship like that with their shop. And every visit to your place of business becomes a special event.

We know our top super users and influencers in our communities very well - can you imagine what wonderful, personalized rewards you could give them that they can talk about and display, both on-and-offline? What have you done to make them feel special?

photo by Viernest

[#2]

We recently held a "People's Choice" type of awards program in our community where the users nominated and voted for each other in different categories.  In addition to the gift cards that the winners received (which they accepted with great enthusiasm of course), they also got personalized signature banners that identified them as winners in their respective categories.  These were simple to produce on our end and gave the winners (mostly our superusers) something that was made by us specifically for them to display in their profile - they were a huge hit. 

Another suggestion came from a superuser recently - t-shirts.  Seems like sort of an odd give-away for an online communtiy, but these can either be given away as prizes contests, or earned once a user reaches a certain rank.  I actually saw this done quite successfully in the Fender guitar community where they hold a photo contest - take a picture of yourself in your Fender Community t-shirt with your Fender guitar someplace cool and the Community will vote on the best one.  Thought it was a good way to build community outside of the online space but still keep it relevant to the community.

[#3]

Wonderful example with the personalized banners Laura!

I like what Fender is doing too! Energizing members by encouraging them to express themselves through your brand is a great idea. I wonder if they could take it to the next level by giving out something personalized for the top members who participate, allowing the community host to show their appreciation of the super users in a way that brings the relationship closer!