Recognition of effort is an important to the human psyche. We actually don’t like money as much as society would have us think. We what like is the recognition that people believe money buys. In this sense the human brain of the ‘uber consumer’ breaks it down a little like this:
I want to be recognised as a worthy
I want people to know I have achieved
If achieve I will be rewarded with payment in the form of money
People can’t see my bank account and wont know how successful I am (my self worth)
So I’ll buy things with my money which are on public display (car, house, holidays, clothes)
People will know these things require lots of money
People will know I have earned lots of money
Only people who are successful at ‘something / anything’ get lots of money
I can be happy that people will know ‘I am somebody’.
I am a worthy person
Then there’s people who know all this but take the short cut and just buy stuff they can’t afford on credit cards to define their success through consumption.
Smart startupss can use this human pshyche to their advantage as well. Rather than the success, money consumption trail, they can provide something much more immediate and altruistic. They share reconigition. The reward and promote their people as part of the success process. They provide micro fame.
This can be done is so many simple ways. Ways which rarely have a large financial burden on either party, but create a union between the two players for mutual benefit. Stuff not limited to but including:
– Member ratings
– Access to exclusive services, parties, insider events.
– Recognition in digital and print media
– Crowd sourcing & revenue sharing of such User Generated Content
– View counts
– Followers / friends / subscribers
– Most forms of social quantification
– Overt branding which has ‘user personlilty rub off’
So the question then begs:
What sort of Micro Fame is your startup or business providing its people?
