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In this month's update: Chat reactions, Chat infinite scroll and tips for implementing a challenge join-by date.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Turn on the Friends Feature for your organization
A friendly reminder that this feature is now available to all MoveSpring clients! By default, this feature is turned off for existing clients. If you want this feature available to your users, the admin account owner must turn it on.You can enable this feature by navigating to the Account Settings, then App Settings of the MoveSpring Admin Center. Once enabled, users can add friends within your organization for ongoing, daily competition via a friends-only leaderboard. Users can also send friends direct messages in chat and view more of their profile. Read more about friends here.
We now have infinite scrolling in Chat threads
Catch up on challenge chatter anytime! Users can now scroll back to view the entirety of a chat conversation. This is especially useful for admins who want to highlight and gather fun messages from the duration of the challenge.
FEATURE HIGHLIGHT
CHAT REACTIONS
You can now react to any message posted in chat with emojis. Have more fun in chat by adding a thumbs-up to a motivational post or responding to a cute dog pic with a heart-eyed smiley face. To add reactions on web, hover over the message and click "React." On mobile, press and hold on a chat message, then tap "React" from the menu.
CHALLENGE IDEA
SHOOT FOR THE MOON!
The moon is roughly 238,855 miles away from Earth. To put this into perspective, NASA says that "30 Earth-sized planets could fit in between Earth and the Moon."* Be ambitious: shoot for the moon with this Target challenge and achieve a 238,855 step goal.
- Modules: Target
- Duration: 60 days
- Goal: 238,855 steps
Amp up the fun with these suggested content posts and rewards ideas.
PROGRAMMING TIPS
HOW TO CREATE A CHALLENGE JOIN-BY DATE
There are countless ways to structure your step challenge, and MoveSpring gives you the flexibility to perfect your program. One common challenge configuration is creating a join-by date where users must join a challenge by a given date in order to participate. Users will not be able to sign-up for the challenge if they attempt to join after that cut-off date.
We are frequently asked how to enforce a join-by date when clients are running a team leaderboard challenge. Having a cut-off date is often critical when these clients are also using the admin-assignedteam configuration. Setting up admin-assigned teams allows admins to both create teams as well as assign users to each team.
In this scenario, admins will typically enforce a join-by date that falls 1-2 weeks before the challenge starts. Once challenge sign-ups have closed, admins can determine and assign the roster for reach team to ensure that each team has a mix of high, medium, and low steppers. This task is much easier when you know the definitive list of confirmed challenge participants. Late joiners make it hard to assign even teams. Additionally, having the set number of participants ahead of your challenge helps when budgeting for challenge prizes. Depending on the number of participants, an admin can gauge how much to spend on the grand prize.
To implement a join-by date for your challenge:
- Set the challenge to publicwhen you create the challenge. Note: Do not share the challenge invite link as this link will allow users to join up until the last day of the challenge.
- Instruct participants to join the challenge by clicking on the green "Join" button in their dashboard.
- When you're ready to end sign-ups, change your challenge to private in the Admin Center. Users will no longer be able to join this challenge from the dashboard, which closes sign-ups if you have not shared the challenge invite link.
For more information read our Help Article on the topic.
WELLNESS NEWS
WANT TO FEEL HAPPIER TODAY? TRY TALKING TO A STRANGER
By Paul Nicolaus
Humans may be social creatures, but walk into an elevator with a stranger and you're more likely to encounter steady silence. While this may be welcome to most, we're often cheating ourselves out of a small mood booster by avoiding a smile, a quick hello, or a brief conversation. Read this article to find out how even small social interactions can provide a sense of community and wellbeing.
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
CHALLENGE IDEA: THE OREGON TRAIL
Creativity came to life in Stewart Inc.'s Oregon Trail themed step challenge. Inventive use of game mechanics and reward strategy drove 50% participation in this company-wide adventure. Inspired by the Oregon Trail educational computer game created in the 1970s, Stewart’s admins created a detailed, points-based scoring strategy that combined MoveSpring step averages with real life board game-style dice rolls.
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