Running A Step Challenge
A step challenge is an online exercise initiative run by a company or organisation that encourages participants to get active in their daily lives. Users connect their smart phones or wearable devices to the challenge app and track their daily step counts against a virtual map around the world; the more the users walk, the more they explore!
Challenges can vary in how they are set up, with some pushing for individuals to participate by themselves and others encouraging teams to combine their effort and keep each other motivated.
Creating your own step challenge
Below we will go over some of the steps you need to consider before creating your first step challenge.
Individuals or team challenges?
Are you looking to create an exercise challenge that is focused on an individual trying to complete the challenge, or are you looking to motivate a group of users to work together? Both options have their merits, however the team option can have added benefits of allowing for friendly competition and team building.
Big Team Challenge also has two modes of competition, Teams vs Teams and One Big Challenge. You can read more about these challenge modes or get in touch to learn more.
Choosing a virtual route
It's always fun to choose an exciting idea such as "walk around the world" or "walk to the moon and back", but these goals can often be overwhelming for users.
You should first consider how many users are on each team and what distance each user can comfortably be expected to do each day.
As a simple estimate you can use the following calculation:
Number of users per team x Number of days the challenge lasts x daily step goal = Route length
For example - 5 people per team, over 42 days, each trying to do 7500 steps a day = 1086km (each step is 0.69m)
Big Team Challenge has over 250 virtual routes to choose from, so there's something in there for everyone, regardless of their fitness levels.
Get the word out there
Before you can get walking around the countryside of France, or island hopping around the Caribbean, you first have to let everyone know the challenge is even happening.
Communication with your audience is key part to the success of any step challenge. You will find that your level of involvement directly relates to how much engagement you can expect from your challenge participants.
Some ideas to keep users engaged:
• Weekly or twice weekly email updates to let everyone know of the challenge progress.
• Encourage users to post their progress or achievements on social media using your challenge hashtag
• Run friendly competitions
Big Team Challenge offers challenge organisers their own admin area, where they can create their challenge, launch a user registration page and even keep in communication with all of the users.
To learn more about our system, watch the video below or get in touch for a personalised demo.
