Concierge: Make Content, Win Prizes

Maybe it is because I am 50, repressed, an old fart…or all three, but I am not plugged into the user-generated content machine. I am the Facebook member who never pokes anyone or even asks someone else to be my friend. I just put my page up there once day because I had to review some new Facebook apps, and now 150 or so people are in my circle. I did the same with Twitter. I never use Twitter, but now I have scores of subscribers to all the things I never say.

So I understand why a site feels compelled to grease the UGC wheels with a contest. Recognizing that a host of travel sites altready ask visitors to rate and recommend hotels, services, etc., CondeNet’s Concierge launches a “Travel Tips” contest this week to help them pump up the user content quickly. The idea is sound, although I can’t say that itis an easy feature to find on the site. Conceptually, however, this is an idea that other publishers might consider. Concierge succeeded in pullling in several sponsors to help provide prizes and support. Generally, we like to think that UGC just flows naturally out of always-communicative users. For many content heavy, editorially driven sites, visitors can be disarmingly passive. Getting them engaged to constirbute is asking them to switch modes. Contests, of course, are a smart way to disengage that passivity and give users a stake in the game.