Applying a ranking system is probably one of the most effective ways to engage your community. Not only does it create a fun environment that promotes interaction among members, it’s also a great opportunity to recognize and reward members who contribute to your community’s growth and success.
Basically, levels serve two important roles in gamification systems:
- They indicate progress: Rising from one level to another gives users a sense of pride and accomplishment.
- They convey status: Levels help community owners identify their biggest supporters. A member with a level 50 status can be considered more of an expert vs. someone who is level 10, for example.
For Beam.gg, levels provide the infrastructure to our gamification system. It opens up opportunities for us to integrate more exciting game elements like Profile Upgrades, Quests, Badges, and more.
To help you understand better, here are the key elements that play a role in our leveling approach:
- XP Generation: Members earn experience points (XP) for completing quests or receiving reactions and upvotes on their content. The idea is to gear users toward positive feedback and promote interaction inside the community.
- Levels: Experience points let users level up, climb the ranks, and get access to special perks. Each user starts at level 1 and can level up to 99.
- Ranks: For every 10 levels, users gain a new rank which shows up as a title on their profile.
Overall, we’ve designed user levels and ranks to help community owners:
- Retain members: Increase engagement and participation by motivating members to level up.
- Praise progress: Reward efforts by congratulating members for reaching the next level.
- Inspire competition: Leverage on innate competitiveness while keeping it friendly and motivating.
- Unlock perks: Provide access to special perks when a certain level or rank is reached.
Want to learn more about how we gamify the online community experience? We’ve got you covered! This article is only the first of many in our gamification series, so stay tuned to our blog for more content. Next week, we’ll be talking about Profile Upgrades like Avatar Frames and Profile Covers.
