Social Recognition:The Virtual Way to Engage
Transformation
“Social media has transformed our world into one great big
small town, dominated, as all vibrant towns used to be, by
the strength of relationships, the currency of caring, and the
power of word of mouth,” according to serial entrepreneur
and business author Gary Vaynerchuk.6
By its very nature, social media encourages information
sharing, exchanging ideas and participant engagement
through instant communication methods that range from
text messages to blogs and Facebook posts to RSS feeds.
Because social media tools are a relatively new channel for
“word of mouth’ exchanges and “friendly” interaction, they
represent a new virtual path for peer-to-peer recognition
and instant congratulations of employees who demonstrate
company values and achieve goals, allowing leaders to
recognize extraordinary efforts in a more timely and exciting
way.
Social media also offer quick, easy ways to recognize
teammates on a day-to-day basis as the phenomenon taps
into everyday behaviors like sharing, being part of a group,
even interactive touch points that can deepen engagement,
loyalty and a sense of belonging. Much like traditional
recognition and reward methods, recognition delivered via
social media is poised to unleash employee engagement
and directly improve the bottom line.
As Vaynerchuk tells us, “Social media relationships and
personal relationships work exactly the same way—you get
out of them what you put into them” and “you can’t reap the
benefits of social media’s word of mouth without a ton of
patience, as well as commitment and strategy.” Nevertheless,
“when done right, social media is one of the most effective
and least expensive platforms you can use.”7
• 664 Million Facebook Users1
• Average Facebook user has
130 friends2
• 106 Million Twitter Users3
• Average Twitter account
holder has 300 followers4
• 60 percent of online users
access social networks with
half visiting daily5
On the Edge of Opportunity
For several years now, businesses and their employees have had a rough time. Reduced revenues, downsizing, harder
working conditions and fewer opportunities for advancement or raises have taken their toll.
In a June report by LeadershipIQ, 69 percent of North American workers said they are either disengaged or
“underengaged.” (Based on responses from 102,311 employees and managers at 130 organizations, mostly in the
U.S.)…Leaders, as well as rank-and-file workers, are feeling less motivated…More than half of frontline supervisors
www.internetworldstats.com
Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy. New York: HarperCollins, 2011: 20-21.
3
Business Insider. 14 April 2010
4
Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy. 20-21.
5
Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy. 53.
6
Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy. 11.
7
Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy. 63, 78, 80.
1
2
2
report either being disengaged (8 percent) or “underengaged” (44 percent). Fully one-third of middle managers…
voiced similar sentiments, as did 30 percent of executives.
LeadershipIQ’s study echoes a report in January by BlessingWhite Inc…In North America, where only 33 percent of
employees identified themselves as engaged.8
Clearly, the current economy is giving rise to concerns about employee engagement across the board as post-recession,
stressed-out employees increasingly tune out at work and are poised to jump on new opportunities. As Vaynerchuk
reminds us, “the dominant obsession for any leader running a company…shouldn’t be the competition, nor should it be
customer service. It should be your employees.”9
Social media extends the reach of traditional communications and can be a powerful way to spread reward opportunities
by reminding workers about goals and building excitement and engagement around expectations. It directly connects
individuals and can become the platform for a full range of activities, incorporating everything from communication to fullblown delivery of awards. Although tools and practices are rapidly coming to market, social recognition is still in its early
development and adoptive stages with most companies having only limited experience with its full capabilities.
Current Trends
In the IMA Recognition Council 2011 Trends Survey, 85.7percent of the respondents said that their companies use
social media to market products and services. In the same survey, the issue of “understanding social media and its
effectiveness” was listed as one of the top ten employee challenges over the next five years.
While some incentive clients are ready to use public tools like Facebook and LinkedIn, many prefer to keep programs
behind the firewall, using mechanisms that often resemble Facebook and other social media venues. In its 2011
“Incentive Industry Trends” Pulse Survey, the Incentive Research Foundation found:
• 58 percent of respondents use social media prior to an incentive or recognition program
• 36 percent use social media during an incentive or recognition program
• 27 percent use social media following an incentive or recognition program.
Other business studies project that, by 2014, social networking will replace e-mail as the primary form of
communication for up to 20 percent of business users.10
Incentive industry leaders corroborate the need to incorporate social media into employee engagement efforts.
Pollstream’s Founder and President Steven Green believes that, “Social recognition brings to light the contributions
and milestones of employees and transmits the story instantaneously across the corporate intranet.” 11
I Love Rewards CEO Razor Suleman says that “Social recognition is about putting a mechanism in place within your
organization to facilitate easy social interaction and the public sharing of recognition between managers and peers. An
effective social recognition strategy has both an internal and external dimension.”12
Newton Manufacturing’s Executive VP of Sales and Marketing Jay Donlin tells us that “The use of social media
seems to be more relevant to Gen Y and external employees who have grown up with the technology and are more
in need of receiving frequent and immediate accolades. Being able to recognize the desired behavior more promptly,
especially for this group, seems to be an effective way to improve morale and productivity.”
In response to emerging trends, companies like Dittman Incentive Marketing offer platforms that incorporate the
principles of social media in everything from peer-to-peer internal recognition all the way to integrating systems with
public properties like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as a way to recognize community facing components, such as
channel partners, fundraising efforts and innovation contests.
8
Kranz, Garry. “Special Report on Employee Engagement: Losing Lifeblood.” Workforce July 2011. Retrieved 13 Sept. 2011 <http://www.workforce.com/section/
hr-management/features/special-report>.
9
Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy. 89.
10
Dandes, Rick. “The Social Revolution: Using Social Media to Help Recognize & Reward.” Premium Incentive Products 3 Feb. 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011 < http://www.pipmag.com/feature_print.php?fid=201103fe03>
11
Dandes, Rick. “The Social Revolution: Using Social Media to Help Recognize & Reward.” Premium Incentive Products 3 Feb. 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011 < http://www.pipmag.com/feature_print.php?fid=201103fe03>
12
Suleman, Razor.”Using Social Media to Extend the Power of Employee Recognition Beyond Organizational Walls.” Incentive Magazine 1 Dec. 2010. Retrieved 15 July 2011 <http://www.incentivemag.com/print.aspx?id=6841>
According to Dittman Incentive Marketing Digital Marketing Consultant Wendy Flanagan, “Although the capability
has been available for some time, we see social media being adopted slowly by clients. It requires 24/7 monitoring
and a plan for crisis control and communications that many companies feel they do not have the bandwidth to
accommodate.”
One of the side benefits of using social media is the ability to encourage participants to create their own profiles on the
system and share ideas and things like photos which can, in turn, help create a sense of community.
MotivAction’s Director of Marketing Beau Ballin adds that his company uses “social media for incentive travel
programs utilizing Flickr for event photo sharing, Facebook for event marketing, Twitter for audience responses,
YouTube for video promotion and a variety of mobile applications for onsite interactivity.”
In a similar vein, ITAGroup’s Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Technology Stacey Slifka reports:
Social media allows group event participants to communicate and share event information with each other. This
is especially useful at group events, where people often break into groups of familiar faces. Social media allows
participants to interact with each other prior to an event, building a new community to interact with once they are
there, ultimately, enhancing the experience for attendees.
In a business development conference for example, sales representatives from all over the country meet in one
location to build excitement for the coming year. Social media allows these representatives, and event speakers,
to easily communicate with each other before, during, and after the event. Integrating social media communication
strategies into the registration site sets a positive tone for the event, helping to build buzz and inform attendees of
important news along the way.
In an annual meeting, social media can help promote the event, in addition to spreading important information
after its conclusion. Using multimedia, such as photos and videos, along with stories from the event, helps
increase the event’s overall impact on participants.
The social media platforms we recommend allow administrators to easily promote and build a strong community.
We believe this will lead to higher engagement levels and a more effective program overall.
The Rise of Gamification
The development of the
technology that enables social
media has also amplified the
ability to streamline incentive and
reward program participation and
administration. The relative ease
of administering points-based
programs using social media
tools has led to increased use of
gamification as a way
to promote engagement.
Frequent flyer miles and hotel
loyalty points have conditioned
consumers and employees to
engage in game-like behavior
that leads to rewards.
Social media allows
group event participants
to communicate and
share event information
with each other.
Specifically, gamification is
the use of elements from
social game design, like competition, status updates and rewards, for non-game applications like solving problems,
launching products and engaging employees. A recent report predicts that “by 2015, more than 50 percent of
organizations will gamify their innovation processes” and, “by 2014, a gamified
service for consumer goods marketing and customer retention will become as
3
4
important as Facebook, eBay or Amazon and more than 70 percent of Global 2000 organizations will have at least
one gamified application.”13
As ITAGroup attests, games, in varied formats, are now a standard part
of employees’ lives:
• The average age of video game players is 37.
• More than one in four gamers is over 50.
• The average game purchaser is 41.
• On average, Xbox players play 7.3 hours per week; PC gamers play
6.6 hours per week, and PS3 gamers play 5.8 hours per week.14
The changing demographics of the workforce, coupled with the pervasiveness
of electronic game experiences, is paving the way for the use of technology that
will grab attention and help workers to focus on goals. Game mechanics offers a
solution that can drive a deeper level of engagement while multiplying the touch
points and dramatically increasing awareness and connection to a program.15
Games
are now
a standard
part of
employees
lives
Executives and stakeholders tend to think that gamification, or game-playing,
could have a negative influence on an organization’s culture and/or bottom-line. Jane Larson, performance solutions
manager at ITAGroup, notes that:
Leadership not only wants to know how social media will engage and motivate their workforce, but how ROI will
be proven. The functionality around social media can readily control award budget integrity. In addition, offering
award payouts commensurate with performance that aligns with a company’s priorities and goals is readily
managed through these types of platforms. Social media--particularly those that utilize interactive touch points
such as gamification--affords companies the ability to track and assess how expenses associated with such
initiatives are performing and, therefore, justify return on investment.
What Makes a Successful Game?
ITAGroup identifies five key factors for successful games:
1. Flow – The “sweet spot” that keeps a participant motivated to continue playing.
2. Personalization – Creating portions of the games that allow participants to choose images (avatars), names, etc. to make the experience personal.
3. Social goals – Participant set metrics that are visible and can be commented on by others.
4. Competition/Cooperation – The use of tools such as leader boards or forums that allow participants to publicize and celebrate results.
5. Directed reinforcement – Immediate awards such as badges, points and virtual awards that mark milestones and provide immediate gratification.16
What Does Gamification Look Like?
In June of this year, Marriott International launched a novel interactive game, My Marriott Hotel, to help the company
attract as many as 50,000 new employees in 2011. The game allows participants to manage a “virtual” hotel,
beginning with the kitchen and moving on to other areas within hotel operations. Players buy equipment, hire and train
employees and serve guests in their quest to earn or lose customer points and realize a “virtual” profit. Based on the
FarmVille and CityVille games popularized by Facebook, the game had players from 58 countries within its first 48
hours of operation that grew to 99 countries in just three weeks.17
Van Grove, Jennifer. “Gamification: How Competition Is Reinventing Business, Marketing & Everyday Life.” Mashable! 28 July, 2011. Retrieved 9 Sept. 2011 <http://mashable.com/2011/07/28/gamification/>
14
ITAGroup, “Engagement Through Game Mechanics,” June 2011.
15
ITAGroup, “Engagement Through Game Mechanics,” June 2011.
16
ITAGroup, “Engagement Through Game Mechanics,” June 2011.
13
The difference between Marriott’s public game and those that populate the recognition and rewards space is the need
to go beyond and move closer to the psychological foundation of engagement and motivation. Recognition games
can set short and long term goals that encourage participants to socialize their status and make progress towards predetermined milestones that help keep them engaged throughout the program. Think of achievement goals such as
enrollment, profile updates, completion of learning modules, reaching a sales goal, etc.
As ITAGroup’s David Reisner says, “Gamification is merely borrowing from the motivation techniques used in online
games and bringing them into traditional pursuits (product marketing, incentive programs, etc.). The concepts are
proven; we’re just updating them for an interconnected virtual world.”
Success Factors
The consensus of incentive professionals is that social media recognition programs, like all others, need to be clearly
tied to business objectives, values and the culture of the organization.
“The most crucial elements to a successful incentive program are that all the program rules, guidelines, etc. are
well defined and communicated to the program participants and that the awards are achievable by the program
participants,” according to Mary Anne Comotto of Partners for Incentives who also believes that it is important that “a
clear communications plan needs to be developed prior to program kick-off.”
Because social media provides a robust feedback channel, companies must be prepared by dedicating the resources
to monitor feedback and assure that needed adjustments occur quickly.
Dittman’s Flanagan sums it up by saying, “The most critical thing to get right is to establish a personal link between
the organization and the individual…Social media as a means of delivery should not replace more personal one-onone recognition in the workplace, which is so important for establishing deep connections. It is an additional tool for
the toolbox.”
Clearly, this new virtual approach is not for everyone. Corporate Rewards COO Edward Brookshire explained that,
despite the company’s widespread use of web tools, it would not be wise to deliver items like digital gift cards “over
any kind of open forum.” Similarly, Bruce Fox’s Dave Morrison saw it more as a marketing tool for companies like his
that manufacture recognition awards.
Summing Up
“As much as the reward influences behavior, recognition behind the reward carries as much weight…Like the
incentives industry, social media is a very people oriented channel. The most effective media users are the ones that
help promote or mention what people are doing.”18
In the final chapter of The Thank You Economy, Vaynerchuk offers some solid advice for succeeding in today’s social
media business world:
• Care—about your customers, about your employees, about your brand—with everything you’ve got.
• Erase any lines in the sand—don’t be afraid of what’s new or unfamiliar.
• Approach social media initiatives with good intent, aiming for quality engagements, not quantity.
• Don’t be afraid to crawl before you run.19
Siedsma, Andrea. “Marriott Hopes to Win With Facebook Game,” Workforce Management July 2011.
Retrieved 13 Sept. 2011 <http://www.workforce.com/section/software-technology/feature/marriott>
18
Hinda Incentives. “Social Media and Employee Recognition Programs: A Perfect Match.” 4 May 2010.
Retrieved 15 July 2011 <http://www.hindablog.com/blog/month/may-2010?currentPage=2>
19
Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy. 233-4.
17
5
This paper was created by the Recognition Council, a strategic industry group within the Incentive Marketing Association that educates and promotes
the benefits of recognition and rewards to the worldwide business community. More information is available at www.recognitioncouncil.org .
Achievement Awards Group LTD
0 (27) 21 700 2300
www.awards.co.za
I Love Rewards
416-531-1531
www.iloverewards.com
O.C. Tanner
626-796-5544 -or- 800-828-8902
www.octanner.com
Bruce Fox, Inc.
248-701-3000
www.brucefox.com
Intelispend
636-226-2184
www.aeis.com
Partners For Incentives / Schaffer Partners
216-881-3000 -or- 800-292-7371
www.pfi-awards.com
Corporaterewards.Com
212-689-1200 -or- 877-922-GIVE
www.corporaterewards.com
ITAgroup, Inc.
515-326-3400 -or- 800-257-1985
www.itagroup.com
Rideau Recognition Solutions
877-789-0449
www.Rideau.com
Crystal D
800-544-1131
www.crystal-d.com
Marketing Innovators
847-696-1111 -or- 800-401-3698
www.marketinginnovators.com
Staples Promotional Products
314-812-5879 -or- 314-616-9532
www.staplespromotionalproducts.com
Dittman Incentive Marketing Corp.
732-745-0600
www.dittmanincentives.com
Miller Company, The
817-498-6885
www.themillercompany.com
Summit Group, LLC.
301-625-0800 -or- 800-367-2828
www.summitmarketing.com
E Group, Inc.
703-674-5423
www.egroup-inc.com
Motivaction, LLC.
763-412-3000 -or- 800-326-2226
www.motivaction.com
US Motivation
770-290-4700-or-866-885-4702
www.usmotivation.com
Hinda Incentives
773-890-5900 -or- 800-621-4412
www.hinda.com
Newton Mfg.
641-791-4149
www.newtonmfg.com