Match-O-Matics
Hi all! We just finished distribution for our goodie bags and wrapped up Match-O-Matics last week. We'd love to hear your thoughts on our event:
What went well:
- Very high participation (~160 students filled out the form)
- Promo went smoothly; PR vid, graphics, email
- Cameo in the PR video
- Goodie bags were pretty substantial while fitting within our budget
What could be improved:
- “Retention” rate: around 70-80 pairs made but 12 submitted
- Asking for email/grade in the matching form from the beginning
- Some questions felt like fillers and did not help in the matching process
- Distribution was slightly delayed
- Made a mistake with the first email and had to send out a correction
What we learned:
- The website we used for our matching form showed us a lot of analytics about who started the form and never finished, what questions had the highest drop-off, and more; a lot of people come to check out the form but don’t actually submit
- Incentives aren’t enough to prompt socialization-- it’s not really controllable
- Possibly provide more time for people to meet up
- Promo has a lot more outreach than we expect and we got a lot more sign-ups than we anticipated
- It’s hard to have questions that completely help with matching, and we didn’t end up using some of them (but they were fun to look at)
- Have to rely on vibe or personal knowledge (to try to avoid making matches with people who know each other previously)
xoxo,
Clink <3
hi clink!
ReplyDeletei want to say first off that this event went really smoothly! i agree that the PR vid, emails, graphics, etc. were effective and concise– not shoving the event in your face but enough to trigger interest and convey information.
for the "retention" problem you had, i think that you did correctly diagnose what was causing it– that people either didn't like their matches or were too introverted to actually meet up with them. in the future, you could do multiple matches, aka groups. (i know this kind of contradicts the "match" aspect, but since this isn't for romance and instead for friendship, i don't think it'd be a problem). this way, even if one of the people didn't "like" the others, there'd be others to meet up with. it would also make it less awkward for people meeting for the first time.
i agree that you can't really control whether or not people meet up or not, even with incentives. but i'm glad you got so much interest! i think in future years that interest will stay the same, and because it'll be in-person school, there will be more hangouts, and therefore submissions.
overall great job!
- kyrsten
hey clink!
ReplyDeletegreat job with match-o-matics - love the high participation! I think it was very useful for clink as well as other commissions/classes to see if students were motivated by goodie bags/incentives (i guess we'll have to try other things).
Addressing the "retention" issue, I think people may have felt that the matching was a bit random. They have no idea if they actually have anything in common besides the supposed fact that they are similar because they're "matched." I'd suggest matching students with a message saying something like "you and victor both love watching movies, going to the beach, and spending time with family!" (you can probably code it). This way they already get to know the other person a little bit and then meeting them doesn't seem as intimidating. Also, maybe have some activities related to the things they enjoy like movie or sports trivia that you suggest along with the message to get them excited (if someone is truly passionate about something, wouldn't they love to talk about it with another person who shares the same interest? Especially if they have conversation starters or general themes to talk about that clink provides based on the questionnaire)
-jonathan
hi clink!
ReplyDeletefirst of all i think that the platform you guys used for the initial survey was really cute and made the questionnaire more fun to fill out than a regular google form so that was a smaller aspect of the event that i enjoyed :)) i think it was also a good call to include which platform you would like to be messaged on because i think that if i'd received an email from my match-o-matics partner or a random phone call i might not have responded
one suggestion i have (that might be somewhat controversial) is the way pairings are made— my friend who lives in texas said that her school did a similar event where instead of just interests, students were able to check off 1) which gender they would like to be paired with 2) if they'd like to be paired with someone from a different grade 3) if they'd like to be matched at all and just be paired with someone random (negates all preferences made on the survey). this might be a way to *spice it up* a little in the future if yall are down, but i can see how that might have potential complications
anyway i think that matchomatics this year was well received and a nice, simple events for students to enjoy so great job!!
-alli
hi clink!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on match-o-matics, you even made IDC want to do a district-wide one ahaha! I thought the form was really cute and A LOT better than doing a google form and it made me super interested in filling it out. As for the retention-rate, I honestly think that it's going to be solved assuming we do this event in person next year. You guys can just have a social where you give out food and announce the matches there and for people to be able to meet up right away. I think for this year, people were just so zoom-fatigued, having another zoom meeting was not something they wanted to do and no incentive was really going to prompt them to do it.
Overall, amazing job!!
- Zoe (This may post twice since. the last one crashed and didn't get saved)
Hey Clink!
ReplyDeleteMatch-o-matics was awesome! It was super amazing to see all of the matches and participation that we had, and this is definitely a product of the amazing work you put into the project! The form design was nice, and for your concern about not using some of the questions, you guys could consider releasing a draft form to the asb class (or just in your commission!) to get some sample answers and just run through a mock pairing of two different people. Maybe that could help!
For the retention rate, one thing that at least occurred to me was that I actually did meet my partner (because I believe the timeline was over break), but I checked the deadline and released that I had already missed the submission deadline for the screenshot and thus didn't turn it in. It's also possible that some individuals didn't know about the goodies. Next year, maybe extending the deadline could be helpful and allowing interaction that isn't purely on Zoom (maybe evidence of a game pigeon game, etc.) could be sufficient for the prize.
All in all a fantastic event!
hellooo clink!
ReplyDeletegreat job with match-o-matics this year, it was really interesting to see the new changes that were made this year and how you guys adapted to virtual year. i think like many people mentioned before, zoom fatigue was definitely a big factor in people being less likely to meet up with their buddies this year, which contributed to the lack of retention with pairs. i thought that the idea docs with things to do was a good way to make meeting up with your buddy less awkward, maybe doing more promo for that would've helped people feel less intimidated to meet up.
overall a great project though! excited to see how it will continue to evolve in the future :))
HI CLINK !
ReplyDeleteMatch-o-matics was a super cool event and I'm glad to see all the participation that you guys received. I think part of what made it successful is that the form itself was pretty fun to fill out esp. doing it together with friends (ex: asking them what color they see you as, etc.) Additionally, I thought the promotion including the segment in the PR video was engaging and definitely caught people's attention.
For my personal experience, my match-o-matics buddy did not respond to my messages and we never got in touch, so that might discourage other participants in the future. I think one thing to help matches meet up is maybe putting people from the same grade or people in the same clubs/interest groups together. Even though it's not completely random, the partners will recognize each other's names and show more interest in meeting up.
Overall, match-o-matics was a fun experience!
- Lindsey
hi clink!
ReplyDeleteI liked Match O Matics a lot! Its pretty crazy (and really cool) that you guys got 160 sign ups and I commend you all for that. Of course with this year being online you were still able to get good student traction. For the retention issue I think that you could make it clear that you should be willing to talk with your match if you sign up.
Overall I like this project and I think it has good use for future years as well.
hi guys!
ReplyDeletecongrats on a successful event!! i was so happy to see match-o-matics continued into remote learning and in such a cute way! ensuring matches actually meet up is always hard and especially online. one suggestion i have for next year is to promote the prize a lot more. i know you guys had promotion saying "a special treat" not sure if that was just because you guys weren't sure what you were going to give out haha or if you wanted to keep it a mystery but i think in the future we can be more specific about what meeting up with your partner will win you and it'll be more eye-catching on promotion like DONUTS...
excited for how this event continues to grow and improve!!
hi clink!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, great job planning such a fun and cute event!! It was so much fun going through the activities with my match-o-matics buddy and receiving the goodie bag at the end (which was super cute!!)
I really liked that there was an activity sheet because we never ran out of things to do, and there wasn't any awkwardness. Also, the prize was really well packaged, but that led me to think that maybe to prize could've been publicized a little more. That way, people would be more willing to send a picture of their buddies.
Another thing was that people seemed to be matched with people in the same grade as them. While that was nice this year, since it was a good chance to reconnect, I think in the future it'd be nice to have buddies from different classes. Most class members know each other already to having inter-class buddies would help students meet new people.
Overall, really great job! This even was lots of fun~
- Emma
Hey Clink!
ReplyDeleteAmazing job on planning this event! It’s great to hear that over 160 students participated! In terms of the retention rate issue, I agree with JJ that we should match people with similar interests based on their responses to some preliminary questions. (Something similar to Maatcha LOL)
We could also link this up to the app with a new “bio” feature to help us match students, a chatting system, and a way to track participation of match-o-matics events (<— particularly when we go back in-person). This way they can also earn spirit points for future rewards on the app. Of course, this would require more moderation but it could be something to look into.
- Joe
Hi Clink!
ReplyDeleteI thought that the new website you guys used to collect survey responses was really nice, and as you mentioned, having more detailed analytics can be very interesting as well as helpful for future events, which is exciting! I also agree that the meet-up time seemed quite rushed, and it was hard to arrange something on such a short notice, which could have contributed to the lack of actual meet-ups. I think that maybe organizing something (like a virtual zoom mixer?) for matches to meet up at might be more encouraging for participants, so it does not just have to be 1-on-1 as that might end up feeling super awkward for some people.
Hi Clink!
ReplyDeleteI think match-o-matics was an overall success this year so good job! Though not as many people met up with their partners, I think that is expected as some students are tired of online events, or might dislike calling people they aren't familiar with, and there aren't many options for in person activities. I filled out the form myself, and I really liked the website you used because it was easy to use. It's good that it includes analytics, so you should definitely use it in the future. Next year, I think it would boost the actual meet up rate if you guys promoted the prize more, or included some kind of gift card raffle because students love money.
ok that's all!! good job
suanna
salutations community link commission!
ReplyDeleteI match-o-matics from last year was one of my all time favorite events so I had high hopes for this year and I was not disappointed. Thank you guys so much for continuing these events which I know were difficult considering the situation we are in. I think one thing that could have been interesting and maybe would help with retention rates is providing a bigger prize or opportunity for the matched pairs to socialize. The gift bags were super cute but from what I saw a lot of people just came by themselves to pick it up. The buddy aspect of it ended as soon as the matches were made. Maybe next time you can do something where there is a social for the matched pairs or have a system where people have to come in pairs in order to receive their prize!
hey clink!!
ReplyDeletegreat job on match-o-matics! the idea was adorable and i really enjoyed filling out the questionnaire. some tips for future events like this one:
- i def agree that the window for meeting time could've been longer than it was. personally my partner and i were busy around that time and we ended up meeting after the due date.
- promo was really good! i heard about it from multiple sources (homeroom, instagram, friends, etc) which ultimately urged me to fill it out.
other than that, the event was really sweet and y'all did an amazing job!!
-anika
Hey Clink!
ReplyDeleteI love that we did Match-o-Matics again this year! Personally, I found that the incentives to meet up with partners were not incredibly motivating, and that the short turnaround window to meet actually deincentivized meeting because I found that I couldn't meet with my partner that quickly. Overall though I thought it was a great, low-stress social event, and could be even better if we gave a longer window to meet.
Again amazing job!
-Michael