Huffington Post adds badges, reads eMediaVitals
Earlier this year, I wrote that the New York Times should copy Foursquare to reward users for participating and interacting with the brand. My logic was that rewarding users, no matter how trivial, could help spur participation.
Well, it looks like the Huffington Post took my advice. The company announced it is rewarding its users with Frousquare-like badges. HuffPo will hand out the badges for connecting with Facebook, sharing links and will give special designation to powerusers in comment threads.
Seems similar to what I suggested in January:
“The Times could keep track of users that have highly-rated comments and sort them by subject field, giving badges or recognition to those who were deemed knowledgeable by the community on topics as broad as politics or as narrow as the New York Jets. The Times could then deem users “experts” and give them special access and chats with the writers that cover their niche.”
The Huffington Post also borrowed some elements from role playing games by adding “levels” to each badge. For example, users have to flag 20 comments to be a moderator, but they must flag 100 to reach level two with added permissions.
The strategy is the latest chapter in the news website’s effort to incorporate with social networks to facilitate link sharing.
Huffington Post, I'll be expecting my check in the mail.
Newspapers using Foursquare
Since that blog post, several media companies have since partnered with Foursquare to offer specials to readers.