MoveSpring’s chat feature enables challenge participants to connect with each other by sharing motivational messages and photos. Chatting in the app is easy and allows for low-pressure engagement in real-time. Oftentimes, participants will share a snapshot from their daily walk, a quick motivational message, or a fun pet photo—a crowd favorite!
Chat threads often start organically and continue to gain momentum during the challenge as participants encourage one another to achieve their goals. But if you find your challenge chat is on the quieter side, don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with our best practice tips to spark up the conversation and get the most of your organization’s chat experience in MoveSpring.
What are the benefits of chat in MoveSpring?
Research has shown that fostering positive social connections in the workplace can not only improve your employee’s wellbeing, but can also help to combat the damaging effects of workplace stress and improve resilience.
We’ve seen success time and time again from clients who enable chat to build a greater sense of community within their workplace. MoveSpring admins and challenge participants alike often share feedback with our team that the chat feature is a highlight of their MoveSpring experience.
And with chat available straight from the MoveSpring mobile app, building positive social connections with fellow challenge participants is simple and seamless! Over 97% of our user sessions are on our mobile app, making it a convenient way to share experiences and connect anytime of day.
Chat also provides a fun and engaging opportunity to connect outside of work platforms like Slack or Teams. Chat keeps the conversation in one, easy-to-follow thread and gives participants the chance to bond over their favorite workout gear, healthy recipes, and more! Plus, chat reactions and photo sharing bring conversations to life and give participants the chance to express themselves.
Chat can be an especially useful tool for a remote or hybrid workforce or for a company with multiple locations. Even if your employees aren’t in the same building each day, chat helps to foster a sense of togetherness that’s hard to replicate outside of an in-person experience.
MoveSpring chat: Get to know the basics
MoveSpring offers 3 types of chat threads that will show up in a user’s chat inbox: challenge chat, team chat, and direct chat. When there is new chat activity, users should receive a notification if they have push notifications enabled to prompt them to view their latest messages.
As an admin, check out this brief video tutorial to learn how to send chat messages to your participants.
Challenge chat
Once a participant joins a challenge, they will automatically be able to view the challenge chat. Challenge chats will be generated automatically for any challenge a user has joined, including challenges created from the admin center and user-created challenges. Challenge chats are a great place to share fun and motivational content with all challenge participants!
Team chat
Team chats will be generated for any challenges that include a team component, such as Team Leaderboard or Team Virtual Race. Once a user is part of a team, they will automatically be added into their team chat thread so they can cheer their fellow teammates on!
Direct chat
Direct chats are 1:1 chat threads between two friends in MoveSpring. If your organization has MoveSpring’s friends feature enabled, users who connect as friends in MoveSpring will have the option to send messages to one another in a direct chat thread.
Getting the most out of chat
1. Promote discussion with chat prompts.
While challenge chats can oftentimes take off organically, it can also be helpful to prompt discussion. For ideas of what to share, check out our chat templates. From challenge updates and reminders to motivational posts, we’ve gathered a variety of short communications you can share with your participants in chat to keep the conversation going.
2. Encourage photo sharing.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this phrase holds true when it comes to chat in MoveSpring as well! Seeing photos shared by colleagues in the chat is a huge motivator, especially when participants are located all around the world.
To encourage photo sharing in chat, we recommend asking challenge participants to share a photo based on a specific prompt you’ve provided. For example, you can ask participants to share a quick snap from their workout location of the day, a photo of their pet(s), or even a photo of a yummy new recipe they tried out!
3. Lead by example.
One of the most important ways to promote engagement in chat is through leading by example. As a challenge admin, regular posts in the challenge chat can serve not only as motivation, but also as a reminder that the challenge chat is available for sharing how the challenge is going!
Beyond posting in the chat as an admin, it’s also important to encourage participation by leadership and management at your organization. Your participants will appreciate seeing buy-in from the top-down, and the challenge chat provides a perfect opportunity for leaders at your organization to show their engagement in your challenges.
4. Highlight and reward chat engagement.
Highlighting chat engagement at the end of a challenge can be an amazing way to recap your challenge. You can get creative by putting together a video or presentation highlighting the positive messages and photos shared throughout your challenge, or you can stitch together a variety of photos in a collage to share through your company’s preferred communication platform.
We also always recommend rewarding employees based on the actions you want them to take, so if your main goal is increasing connection or camaraderie, consider offering prizes to recognize users for posting in chat. For example, you could set up a prize raffle for all participants who posted at least 1 message or photo in chat. At the end of your challenge, use the Challenge Chat Report to download a CSV file listing all of the messages and photos shared during your challenge along with who shared them.
5. Monitor chat regularly and redirect the conversation as needed.
If technical questions come up in chat, it’s best to refer those participants to our MoveSpring support team. Participants can select the ‘Support’ button straight from chat to get in touch with MoveSpring support. Our support team replies 9am - 5pm CST Monday through Friday and will be happy to assist with any technical questions about connecting devices, syncing, or how the app works.
It can also be helpful to monitor the chat for any negative comments and remind users to bring any concerns directly to you rather than broadcasting them through chat. In case you come across any accusations of cheating, check out our best practice tips for managing cheating allegations during a challenge.
6. Get creative.
Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. Your challenge chat can be used to foster authentic connections and engage your challenge participants beyond challenge stats and scores. Some creative ideas we love include asking participants to share a favorite family recipe, posting daily or weekly trivia questions, or even encouraging participants to post one thing they’re grateful for in chat every day.
We’ve also seen clients successfully hold photo contests in chat. Ask participants to share a photo of their favorite local trails, landmarks or businesses, new activities or workout classes they’re attending, or even their walking buddy for the day. Pet photos are always a hit!
7. Have some fun as you build connections together!
MoveSpring’s goal is to make fitness fun for everyone, and the challenge chat should be an extension of the fun and light-hearted competition that a challenge fosters between fellow challenge participants. Sharing messages and photos throughout your challenge in your challenge chat is a perfect way to foster a greater sense of community within your group, so remember to take the time to cultivate camaraderie by sharing in the challenge chat regularly and have some fun. Happy chatting!
