  Contests & Activities
This week: Attracting Newbies to Your Activity Edited by: Cinn  
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I have been looking forward to a guest editor spot for the Contests & Activities newsletter for a while now. Mostly, the reason is simple enough: I have information to share that may be helpful to anyone who runs a contest/activity or anyone planning to start one. As some people may be aware, I run "The Newbie Research Center" , and for the past year and a half, I've been gathering information about newbie experiences. It is finally time to share some results with you. |
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As older members drift in and out of WDC at the whim of their hectic real lives, there is one constant here at WDC: Newbies. There are new people joining the site on a regular basis, and these members could be beneficial for any group, contest, or activity. They have the numbers. Sadly, they also sometimes feel intimidated when they find their way to our group, contest, or activity pages. What will make them feel more welcome? What will entice them to join in the fun?
To begin with, here is a general run-down of the numbers I'm working with from "Basic Newbie Experience Survey" :
111 Responses
67% Newbies at the time they filled out the survey (Less than 6 months)
80% Had been online for less than one year.
70% Considered themselves newbies at the time they filled out the survey
In other words, the majority of members who took the time to respond were new enough so that their initial experiences were still fresh in their minds. Before getting into the details, I would like to point out that the sooner you engage a newbie in what the site has to offer, the more likely they are to become an active member of the community. After checking around, it appears that they also remain loyal to those first activities, contests, and groups. It is something to keep in mind.
Newbies may not know how to find your contest or activity. 86% of those surveyed had trouble navigating the site, and 25% had difficulties finding help at least some of the time. In addition, many of the 'further comments' in the survey responses mentioned that it took a month or more before they discovered that WDC has contests.
It doesn't need to be this way. Only 17% of newbies had no interaction with other members in their first week on the site. People are reaching out to newbies... mostly through reviews. 66% of newbies received reviews within one week of joining, and 46% reported that their first interaction on the site was either a review or writing discussion. With that in mind, this first piece of advice seems pretty obvious:
 Advice #1: If you run a contest or activity and also review newbies, include links to your contest or activity when relevant. For example, if you review a newbie's fantasy story, mention your fantasy contest or fantasy group and welcome them to take part. Or, most obviously, invite them to join the review group you affiliate with.
I often do this when interacting with newbies, leaving a note that they might be interested in some contest or activity based on what they write. To be nice, you might want to do the same. I don't run any contests, but I point newbies toward contests if they might want to take part. It only takes us a minute to find the link, whereas it sometimes takes newbies a month or more to discover a contest. It's a simple gesture that could help out both the newbie and your fellow contest/activity organizers. 
Advice #2: Team up with other groups. "Invalid Item" is one of the two groups most often mentioned as the "first group" newbies ever joined, and part of the mission at the Academy is to get newbies involved in the community. If you run any sort of newbie-related promotion, it is likely that they would be willing to work with you. Say, one month you give all newbies 500gp just for entering your contest... let them know over at the Academy. Similarly, "The Newbie Research Center" gets a whole lot of newbie traffic, especially for "Newbie Portfolio Project" . I would be happy to do the same. It never hurts to ask, and in general, newbie-focused groups and activities are more than willing to promote anything that will be beneficial to their newbies. 
Speaking of gift point incentives, preliminary results for "Preferred Gifts Survey" do show that newbies are extremely attracted by gift points. One-third said that they found it difficult to earn gift points, and a significant number of responses said that it took a long time to learn how to earn gift points. Additionally, about half said that they preferred gift points to ALL other gifts or all other gifts except for Merit Badges and Awardicons. Because the sample size for the survey is not large enough at this point (59 responses), I have no concrete numbers for you, but I think that it is safe to say that gift points are of interest to our newest members.
Advice #3: Explain how many gift points people earn for each part of your activity, and offer newbies the option of converting Merit Badges and Awardicons to gift points if they prefer it. Stating that you give 250gp for each task completed in your activity may seem silly to those of us who are accustomed to WDC currency changing hands in comparatively vast quantities, but to a newbie, this might create a concrete goal. I would recommend for review groups to break down their payout structures on their group pages as well, if they don't already.
Alright, I do believe that this is probably more than enough food for thought.  Keep in mind that, the more survey responses I receive over at the NRC, the more accurate the results will become. All surveys are open (and each pays 200 gift points for completion).
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Contests & Activities: March 09, 2016 Issue [#7523]
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