Points are a genius idea...and the bane of this community.
The philosophy behind points is pretty straight forward:
Do the RIGHT things in the community to participate and you get a reward of points that helps the Type A competitive types track their progress up the Leaderboard, gaining at city, county, state and overall rankings.
Legitimate comments of 50 or more characters come with points and reward you for the opportunity to build relationships with fellow Rainers (and maybe a referral later?).
Posts of 50 words or more (for the first 10 posts of the week) provide 225 points, and if you pick your topics to provide what consumers want, you may get found and gain business.
Challenges/contests typically are associated with doing something that promotes a good habit (write consumer facing posts, write relationship building posts, etc.).
At the beginning, points are like the training wheels on a bike, they help you develop good balance and encourage participation. Strive to hit 500,000 points and gain a FREE Rainmaker account.
After a certain time (e.g. passing 500,000), points SHOULD be extraneous, you do the participation things in this community because you KNOW they're the right thing to do. You may post less, you may comment less, but your participation is driven by purpose and not points.
So why are points also the bane of the community?
Because sometimes the pursuit of points supersedes the INTENT behind gaining points. Points are there to encourage good participation, not as an end all, be all reason for doing something in this community, especially if you've already passed 500,000 points.
Maybe it should be a "keep your eyes on your own paper" moment as Susan Emo likes to say, but it does personally irk me to see generic comments that are obviously cut and pasted time after time:
"Thank you for sharing the real estate information.
Buyers and sellers in your area will benefit from your expertise."
What I believe any creator of content would want is some indication that you actually READ the post, and demonstrate that in your comment. That's the social pact. Someone writes, someone comments.
For example, if you're going to comment on a market report, mentioning the geographic area, the agent's name, even a particular fact from within the market report will give a clear indication you actually did read the post, and are willing to take a shot at boosting the post's SEO a bit (yes, comments get indexed too!).
Good faith commenting potentially leads to relationships, and perhaps business or other assistance when needed.
Serial commenting? Most people that work hard on writing their posts will add a serial commenter name to their "I'll refer to them when Hades freezes over" list. It's a lost opportunity sacrificed at the altar of Points for Points sake.
Points, love 'em or hate 'em, they're a key part of this community. How you go about gaining them says a lot about you and how you handle your day to day business.
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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