Facebook has "likes", Instagram has "hearts", Twitter has "favorites" & "re-tweets", Pintrest has "pins", reddit has "upvotes". Each of these methods of showing you enjoy something have different levels of motivation to get people to actually do them and have different levels of pleasure when you see that other people have done them to your media.

Using a simple photo sharing app as an example and considering all of these methods that already exist and expanded on with ideas of your own, what form of showing you enjoy something fosters the closest community with users wanting to be the most active?


Many sites encourage participation using gamification, awarding things like points and virtual prizes for activity that demonstrates engagement. If you're asking which approach is best, that's hard to say. I'd encourage you to identify a few people who represent your ideal community member, share your ideas about what you might do, and get feedback. Repeat this regularly with your active members and also seek out people who stop participating to find out why. Good luck!

  • I should have also noted what's most important about any community -- content. If people find content on your site that they either can't find anywhere else or can't easily find it (perhaps similar content is found on multiple sites), you'll end up with a community your members love, regardless of how they show how much they enjoy it. Hope that helps. – Stephanie Fox Mar 3 '17 at 15:24

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