This week we rolled out pins across our publisher platform and all of our mobile social networks. Pins form part of a new rewards system that notifies users when they achieve certain goals in their digital communities.



The pins that are available at launch reward community members for uploading and commenting on photos and blog posts, chatting and having stronger and more frequent social actions.

A key component of the pin system is that it can be extended as part of our “Built for Brands” platform service to help branded communities differentiate themselves by having their own unique pins and by triggering rewards for engagement. Typically these rewards would come in the form of airtime, vouchers or entries into competitions and are the best mechanism for rewarding active and engaged community members.

In some ways Motribe pins work similarly to badges on other social sites, in the sense that they get awarded for one-time cumulative achievements but, in the case of pins set up for our platform customers, a pin can be connected to any set of criteria including external data sources. The treasure hunt aspect of finding and unlocking pins is part of the generally puke-worthy term ‘gamification’ that seems to be invading everyone’s lexicon.

Visible social capital and rewarding users for their contributions to a community is key to maintaining engagement and interest. The end-user experience for pins adds additional flair to the users’ profile pages and produces a news feed of pin awards on the community home pages.