User generated incentive - Incentive programmes in times of social media
Every success-oriented team seeks ways to reward its high performers. Intensification programmes aim to increase the performance of the sales force in particular. Everybody knows, however, that money alone is not a sustainable motivation factor of motivation. In 2005, a VOK DAMS study on the topic of incentivization already showed that the most important success factor of incentivization programmes is the consideration of individual needs. Due to new technologies related to the internet and the great increase in social media, a paradigm shift has taken place in communication.
Today, it is not only about using a feedback channel to create a profile, but it is also about seeding messages in communities. Today, we are talking about the “new dominant logic of marketing”, which means user-generated content or transferring market communication from the realm of marketing to the users. This development can also be observed in live-marketing – which includes incentives. Here we are talking about hybrid events, a term that describes the combination of live event and other social digital media. This development has given us sufficient reason to revisit and update the results of our previous study.
How can the new forms of communication be used to make incentivization programmes more effective? This is one of the central questions this study aims to answer. The answer being the same as above: Incentivization requires a systematic approach and it needs to be geared towards the individual needs of the employees who are to be rewarded. Social media provides an excellent opportunity to elicit information about these needs. Based on the results of this study, we are presenting an approach of how incentivization can successfully be put into practice.