Status game
The power of the media: Be like the media, but better.
Build your network
Every social media network depends on one thing: the power of its social graph. We sign up for new apps because we hear from the people we know about how good they are. Then, as more and more people join the network, our user experience improves—we can see and engage with a greater range of interesting content, which keeps us in the app longer.
As our network expands, the app gains value.
Grow your influence
However, it’s not just about seeing other users’ content. It’s about how you are perceived by them as well as how they interact with your content.
Social capital is a game of creating value for your community to receive recognition. Users grind away for hours to craft the perfect video or storyline that keeps their followers engaged. It seems like a lot of work, but in the end, it’s worth it because the user gets rewarded with precious symbols of status: likes, comments, and shares. In return for providing this value, users receive a type of social capital that gives them a sense of accomplishment.
The value that most users seek lies in entertainment. On some social media platforms, this comes through as fast-paced videos of dance routines or travel adventures, while on others, it is more a game of emotions as users flex their status to others through displays of material wealth.
Inite is different. For us, social capital needs to have real-world applications.
The work that users must do is in the form of idea generation. The value that users create is the inspiration for others to generate ideas. The social capital that users gain is recognition for the quality of ideas.
Idea Meritocracy: Why the Best Ideas Win.
Inite strives to build a community of smart, critical-thinking users who actively engage in intelligent debate over the feasibility of each others’ ideas. As members analyze and discuss ideas, they add to the value of the community as a whole because each idea is essentially building on the other.
This adds an element of friendly competition to the game of social capital. Users are able to see which ideas are gaining more recognition from the community and learn in real-time how to fine-tune their ideas to gain better recognition (and rewards).
This process of natural selection encourages users to challenge themselves to work harder to create better and more innovative ideas, which in turn adds value as more high-quality ideas emerge, and then new users are attracted to participate in this process. A virtuous cycle emerges as the users who put in work get recognized by more users and thus gain better rewards.
Inite is creating a positive-sum game where everyone gains from participation and those who put in the most work gain influence and are rewarded.
Last modified 3mo ago