Whenever I’m doing a social strategy workshop with one of my clients, I like to stress a simple point when it comes to behavior change: Positive reinforcement gets results. This is something I learned years ago when studying to become a teacher. Although I never ran a classroom for long, I suppose you can say this was one of the lessons that took.
It’s also proven to be a belief that goes a long way in social computing.
Earlier this week my colleague Liza Sisler noted the new (long overdue, in my mind) notifications on LinkedIn. Definitely a win for them. They’ve also– and rather more stealthily– provided for another new feature. Now you can give immediate feedback on people’s “skills”, and have it show up in the newsfeed.
It seems to be catching on with people, but I’m wondering if this is telling, or just the the craze of the early-adopters. I’m of half a mind to suggest it won’t last. Why? Because it’s missing any real positive reinforcement, after all.
There’s no incentive to it, beyond doing a nice thing for a friend (which you can already do in far more depth with a written recommendation). No prize (free month of upgraded membership for N number of ratings given?), no reward, not even a silly badge to show you have a 95% positive track record when you rate your friends’ skills.
I’m not sure that’s sustainable. If you really want something to catch on in social networks, you need people to feel there’s something in it for them. Maybe simple altruism will be all that LinkedIn users need… but despite my glass-is-half-full nature, in this case you can color me slightly skeptical.
