Description of Engagement

The XPRIZE story is just one example of engagement. Customer Engagement is why marketers market: to build relationships with customers that will ensure they choose a product or service over its competition; enjoy and benefit from that product or service; keep coming back for more; and tell their friends, families, or colleagues to try it too.

User Engagement techniques, such as sweepstakes, quizzes, coupons, airline miles, and loyalty cards, have been around for a long time, some for centuries. All capitalize on the fact that user Engagement is the path to user commitment, which in turn elicits user contribution. 

With the development and addition of digital components, Engagement has morphed considerably in recent years. Brands and businesses can no longer rely on catchy slogans or celebrity endorsements. Thanks to social media and mobile phones, they must be always “on,” ready to capitalize on opportunities to engage with customers anywhere, any time. Today’s Engagement initiatives are fully information-enabled, multimedia enriched, and socialized. They include digital reputation systems, online games, and incentive prizes. 

In an ExO, Engagement serves up a quadruple dividend:

1. First, it helps keep current members, users, and clients happy and connected, reminding them of why they joined your organization and of the value of your product or service. 

2. Second, Engagement is a means by which you can convert your Crowd into your Community. Engagement can be a mechanism that lets the Crowd find out about your product or service or as a means by which your current Community members engage their friends and families, encouraging them to join in—also known as “viral marketing.” Importantly, Engagement activates Community and Crowd around your MTP. 

3. Engaged members of your Community add value to your product or service, as we discussed in Chapter 6.

4. Finally, the use of Web3 and cryptocurrencies enables companies not only to monetize their Engagement, but also to create a large body of loyal “investors” that act as a buffer to economic shocks, stock drops, and other events created by non-loyal speculators.

Today’s Engagement universe finds itself with an unprecedented array of tools that can be used to build Communities and Crowds—and to bind them closer than ever: 

• Traditional tools include user groups, corporate external communications, conferences, collateral, and discounts.

• Virtual tools include gamification, incentive prizes, crowdsourcing, and micropayments.

• Web3 tools include cryptocurrencies, digital asset and crypto wallets, NFTs, proprietary user design competitions, and employee/user collaborations.