In online communities, as in offline ones, social hierarchies naturally develop. These hierarchies can be extremely useful for community management and member retention. You can encourage and emphasize hierarchy in your community with visible status indicators on the website based on a member’s activity level.

ciao_profile1
On Ciao.com, status is represented by the color of the dot next to a member’s user name. Members earn “community points” when they participate on the website, and their overall points score determines the color of their dots. Through active participation, the member sghawken has achieved a coveted silver dot.

 

minube_pedroja1
This is a detail of a member profile from the Spanish travel community Minube.com. Each of the icons to the right of Pedroja’s user name is a virtual medal which the member has earned through his contributions. For example, by publishing a certain number of photos on the website, Pedroja has earned a “Photographer” medal. Below Pedroja’s profile image is a title meaning “Compulsive Traveler” (Viajero Empedernido), which reflects his overall activity level.

 

 

ecademy_chart3
In addition to status indicators in the form of icons or titles, many community website publish overall activity rankings. This is a chart of the Top 100 Networkers on the professional networking site Ecademy.com.

 

Benefits of hierarchy:

  • It gives members a sense of advancing toward a goal as they climb the social ladder through their participation. This sense of progress is important for maintaining a member’s interest in your website over time.
  • It allows you to incentivize members to perform specific activities by offering them visible status symbols as rewards. Status symbols derive their value from the hierarchy at the same time as they contribute to it.
  • It strengthens members’ loyalty, deepening their investment in your website the more they participate. They are building up a social capital there, which is a reason for them to stay on your site, rather than going to a new one where they would have to start from zero again.
  • It gives you the option of offering additional responsibilities to senior members, letting them become discussion moderators, new member guides, or otherwise help with community management. Members often enjoy taking on this type of role, and it increases their identification with your brand by making them feel like part of your team, in addition to serving a useful community management function.
  • Visible status symbols serve as a point of orientation for newcomers to the website, letting them know whose content they can trust, and identifying the experienced members to whom they can turn for guidance.