What is the most valuable metric in marketing, outside of Return on Investment? Participation. Participation is the ultimate engagement metric, sitting between persuasion and confidence. Let’s be honest, advertising aims to persuade. It puts forward a Marketing Promise to consumers. While effective at eliciting response, it does little to build confidence. Word of Mouth is the ultimate driver of consumer confidence. Participation is the desired output of both advertising (persuasion) and advocacy (confidence) investments. Referencing our own visual representation of the relationship between persuasion and confidence (”The Nexus of Persuasion and Confidence“), participation is the starting point of the purchase decision; it initiates both the consumption of content and the researching of a brand’s offering.

The different degrees of participation can be identified through the Power Law of Participation that plots a scale of participation relative to specific actions including commenting, engaging and tagging ads and conversations. In simple terms, user participation patterns transition from content consumption in the tail, to content production at the head.

The value of participation is significant; as it dictates the value of a community and the value of a marketing message:

• In Wikipedia, 500 people, or 0.5% of users, account for 50% of the edits
• 0.16% of YouTube’s total traffic was made up of users who uploaded videos
• Just 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the posted content
• 16% of Internet users account for 80% of all clicks

Participation can be embedded into every element of an online campaign, including the creative, messaging and media. For too long, marketers have broadcast messages to consumers, without providing a mechanic for participation. Equally, publishers and content owners such as Politico.com are realizing they can build critical mass through the participation.

IKEA, the Swedish retailer has embraced participation in the launch of its new store in Malmo, Sweden. A profile for Gordon Gustavsson, the manager of IKEA’s new branch was created in Facebook. Various images from IKEA showrooms where uploaded to  Gustavsson photo album. Consumers where told that the first person to tag their name to a product got to take that item home. As consumers tagged themselves, the IKEA images were seen by friends via profile pages and Facebook’s news feed, spreading the word about the new store.