  Contests & Activities
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When you set up a contest or activity, you hope for a 'good' response, of course, in terms of the number of people who participate.
But levels of participation vary, and it is difficult to predict how many will participate. Factors like people's offline schedule, their other commitments on site, the other contests / activities on at the time, the prizes you have offered or the nature of your contest / activity itself may lead to a low response in terms of numbers.
How, then, do you keep the energy going? |
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Dear Readers,
I did a Harry Potter quiz recently, here in Bangalore, India. The response was pretty good, and those who missed out on it were disappointed they couldn't be there. So, I decided to repeat it. Ask the same questions again, for those who couldn't be there the first time.
Since these were once-asked questions, it was to be an informal quiz -- no teams, scores or prizes, just a friendly gathering of Potterheads who wanted to think, dream and speak POTTER.
I wasn't sure how many Potterheads would actually Apparate to the venue. So, I decided to make this repeat quiz serve another purpose. My friend's daughter is eleven years old and showing a lot of potential as a public speaker. I decided to ask her to read the questions to the participants (quizzards, as I like to call them). She and I spent a happy half-day rehearsing the questions, trying to get her volume, expression and pacing right. We had her red outfit and purple cape ready, and silver paint with which to put a scar on her forehead.
The day arrived, the time ticked in -- and there was just one quizzard there.
We could've cancelled, but we chose to go ahead. My eleven year old assistant started shooting questions, the quizzard made guesses as to the answers. But since there was just one of her (the quizzard), we changed things round. When she uttered an incorrect response, I didn't just say 'sorry, incorrect' and pass to the next (non-existent) team. Instead, I prodded her ... told her how far / close she was, and slip in a hint which would lead to the right answer. So, she tried again -- and maybe again -- till she got the answer.
It was great fun.
"Ohhh -- I'm this close, am I? Wait, wait, don't tell me. Um. Is it ... ? What? I was closer before? Oh, heck. Wait, I'm thinking!"
We were at it for an hour and a half, as scheduled, and all three of us had huge smiles on our faces when we were done.
Was it a 'low' response?
In terms of numbers, yes, it was a 'low' response.
But in terms of energy and fun, it was 'HIGH'.
And it's up to you, as the contest host, to make the energy level high.
In April, I did an activity on WDC which was open to any member on site. I'm not sure what exactly I missed out on, but only eight people participated.
How did I keep the energy level going?
Well, I responded each time someone participated, as quickly as I could. As soon as I saw their participation, I gave out some gift points. In the gift point note, I asked them to participate again (the activity allowed for multiple entries in multiple ways) and tell their friends. Many of them did participate at least a second time, one of them was on the forum every other day for the entire month of April! I gave everyone a Merit Badge for participating, so that those who clicked on the Merit Badge would find out about the activity.
So, though there were just a handful of participants, the forum was humming and I had great fun running the activity.
A few suggestions, in case your deadline is nearing and you find you have less entries than you had anticipated:
i. Reward Reviews.
Start giving out extra review credits to those who review any of the items entered in to your contest. Make it a condition that there must be a link to the contest provided in the review.
This not only gets your contestants some reviews, it gets your contest some exposure on the public review page.
ii. Speak up on the Newsfeed.
Put a note in your notebook -- what your contest / activity is and what prizes you are offering. Also slip in a little note that you need entries! People do respond!
(Could you, for example, resist something like this?  "Note: WHERE ARE ALL THE NEWBIE POETS AND SHORT STORY...")
(Or this? "Note: Aw, no entries. *Cry*
[Link to Note #460163]")
iii. Allow multiple entries
If your contest was a single-entry per person activity before, now that you know the response hasn't picked up, maybe you could allow those who have already entered to enter again, with another entry. Perhaps tweaked in some way, depending on your rules. (If it was prose before it could be poetry this time, or it could be based on another of the given prompts, or something like that.)
iv. In addition, those who can afford it can give incentives. I've seen some contests giving out trinkets just for entering (WOW  ), others putting all qualified entries in a hat -- for one or two to get a special prize, and so on. Whatever you come up with and have gift points for.
Above all, if your contest / activity does get a 'low' response in terms of numbers, don't be disappointed. Evaluate the reason why -- was there something you could've done differently? What can you do now, to redeem the situation? What can you do next time? And always remember -- there's a lot going on, here in our online home. Everyone is multi-tasking around here! So, it could just be that this wasn't the time, and it'll be better another time!
Thanks for listening.
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Contests & Activities: May 31, 2017 Issue [#8308]
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