"A wealth of data". It's an interesting phrase, because the online world increasingly understands that there is wealth in the data.  Intelligence about your users is money in the bank when it comes to encouraging community engagement, increasing conversions, or deepening your visitors' brand affinity. (This is why insight pervades our Community Value Framework.) If you're only looking at the standard metrics like web analytics and demographic information from single sign-on systems, you're missing one easy (and underutilized) way of understanding your users: self-selection.

Web badges tend to come in two flavors: those earned automatically by community participation or reputation; and those awarded by administrators. Add to this mix a number of badges that users can assign to themselves, and the result will be a cycle of self-selection, teaching you things about your visitors that would be difficult to learn any other way. Actionable things.

For instance, take a brand that runs a recipe-centric web site. Imagine them letting users self-identify as bakers, dessert specialists, brunch gurus, Tex-Mexperts, etc. Suddenly, they can now track special offer use, social referrals (Facebook, Twitter, et al), community participation, and the like with these self-assigned badges. Now, there's more wealth in their data.

A retailer that specializes in outdoor goods could let users identify as rafters, trail runners, mountain bikers, etc. Now, they can tailor advertising and marketing messages (and even offers) to the preference that the user herself has asserted.

A publisher could let users divide into clans along the familiar political lines. Surely advertisers would like to plug this kind of tidbit into their targeting algorithms.

While a registration system can certainly gather such identifying information, each form field adds friction, thereby increasing abandonment. Part of the brilliance of using badges is that they allow self-identification without added pressure on the sign-up process. Besides, teams that build web sites are often separate from those that manage SSO systems. Self-selection outside of registration forms can be a single-click task, done at the user's leisure, providing business experts complete flexibility over the design and evolution of the badges themselves.

Naturally, all this brings with it the intensified community engagement inherent to badging. Once users self-select, fellow trail runners (or fans of breakfast tacos) will find and connect to one another. 2nd-party points awards will elevate trusted trail shoe experts (or tortilla geniuses) to positions of prominence—without administrators having to lift a finger. And users will wear their badges with pride, an emotional attachment that will keep them coming back to your community.

The Pluck Reputation Engine makes self-assigned badges trivial for developers, thus freeing up business experts to design the program with the greatest return on social investment.

Squeeze more value out of the data your visitors are giving you every day—and provide users with a fun way to express their individuality—through this simple (yet powerful) application of game mechanics. It will be a win-win for the business and the user. 

Please drop us a line or give us a call. We'd love to show you how the Reputation Engine can be tailored to uniquely benefit your community and business.