A heated debate has been raging in the blogosphere over the implications of incentivizing people for their participation in online customer communities. Some argue that it taints the validity of the content, leads to positive bias, and generally violates the principles of true, authentic community. What’s the point of having a community, some say, if you’re paying members to tell you what you want to hear?

As a leading provider of private online customer communities, Communispace Corporation has just completed a study that sheds new light on the role of the incentive in online customer communities. Comprising 2,286 members from 16 communities across industries, the results reinforce those from an earlier study that explored whether positive bias resulted from ongoing participation in incentivized customer communities and show that—under the right circumstances—thank-you gifts for members do not hinder, but rather help promote a genuine customer-brand relationship.