Pro-tips for giving great recognition

Learn how to give recognition to groups, add emojis or GIFs, or use formatting options like links and images.

Adrianne Hipsher avatar
Written by Adrianne Hipsher
Updated over a week ago

Intended Audience: For all users.

Now that you know how to give recognition, let's look at some ways that you can make your recognition even more special! This article will show you how to:

When you first log in to Bonusly, you are greeted 👋🏼 with a sample text that is automatically generated as an example of how to give a recognition.

Sample text shown in the recognition box upon login to give an example of a how to put together a recognition post.

The sample text will disappear the moment you begin typing and clicking to add components to your recognition post! 👍🏼

A GIF demonstrating how the sample text will disappear once typing or adding something occurs.

Give an entire team recognition:

Your team really rocked a presentation and you want to recognize everyone on the team. Giving recognition to a specific group, department, or location is super easy!

First, click the multi user icon:

Multi user icon being highlighted to demonstrate its location in the Bonusly application.

A dropdown will appear with the group names. Select the team you would like to give the recognition to:

A dropdown showing various group names within the company once the multi user icon is clicked on.

*If you don't see the group you'd like to give to, start typing the group's name and it will appear.

Then, the usernames of everyone in that group will populate in your give field: 

Names from the selected group populating the give box to give a bonus.

Tag someone in a recognition:

Your teammate did something awesome and you want to make sure their boss sees the recognition you send. You can tag your teammate's boss to send them a notification of the recognition. When you tag a person, it does not give that person points. 

To tag someone in your recognition just click the tag icon: 

Multi user icon being highlighted to demonstrate its location in the Bonusly application.

*The '&' symbol means a user is tagged and will not be recognized with points. You can type “&” in the recognition field as a shortcut to start a tag.

Example post of using the & symbol to recognize someone with giving points.

The posted recognition will have both names highlighted, but only Abby received the recognition:

Example of posted recognition with both names highlighted by only one person receives the points.

Add an emoji to your recognition:

Who doesn't love a fun emoji? 😁 🎉 To add an emoji to your recognition, click the "smile" icon.

Emoji icon being highlighted to demonstrate its location (third from the left icon) in the Bonusly application.

You'll then be able to pick from the drop-down or start typing the name of the emoji you would like to add to your recognition:

Emoji icon selections and search bar showing after clicking on the emoji icon when gibing a bonus.

Typing in a name of an emotion such as "smile" to search for related emojis to use.

The preview of the recognition post will show the emojis you selected!

The recognition post showing all the emojis selected such as smiling, thumbs up, celebration, and thinking emojis.

Here is what the recognition will look like with the emoji(s):

The recognition posted with the emojis showing right next to the written post.

Add a GIF to your recognition:

Sometime words just aren't enough to express your gratitude. If that's the case, click the "GIF" button on the bottom of the give box: 

The GIF icon located fourth from the right of all the icons.

A small window will pop up with a text box. To search for the perfect GIF, type the words you would like to convey! For example, I wanted to show my appreciation to Abby and Pep for their hard work:

Clicking on the GIF icon and typing in the words "high five" to search for GIFs conveying the words "high five."

The GIF will now appear in the recognition box.

A GIF is selected and is now showing in the recognition box ready to post.

When you actually give the recognition, the GIF image will show on the timeline, and be animated: 

The recognition is posted showing the GIF and written recognition in the feed.

Bonus GIF Tip:

Try using one of our many work-relevant GIFs made by Bonusly! Communicate your thanks, appreciation, and recognition towards your peers in the best way. The GIFs are uploaded onto Tenor, so they can easily be used in the Bonusly app.

After clicking on the GIF button, type “Bonusly” into the search box. Scroll through to find the right GIF to communicate your recognition to someone.

Demonstration of how to search for GIF images made by Bonusly when giving a bonus.

Add an image to your recognition:

Want to add a picture to enhance your recognition? Images can be great to show off the hard work your colleagues are doing to the entire team. 

You can attach an image three different ways:

  1. Drag and drop the image into the recognition field.

  2. Copy and paste the image into the recognition field. 

  3. Manually find and add the image, by clicking the "upload an image" button:

The image icon located fifth from the left hand side of the recognition box.

-Select the image from your computer you would like to add:

An image is selected by searching through the poster's computer for the right photo to accompany the recognition post.

We'll add your image to your recognition message as text:

Preview of what the recognition post will look like with the image inserted.

After you click the 'Give' button, the feed will show the recognition with the picture you've selected! 🎉 

Recognition posted with the image on center in the recognition feed, showing a photo of a person with a golden retriever dog going on a walk.

Adding a hyperlink to your recognition is an easy way to refer back to the reason of why you are giving recognition, so the rest of the team can see the excellent work that inspired the recognition.

 First you will want to highlight the words you would like to add the hyperlink to. 

Text is highlighted before clicking on the hyperlink icon sixth from the left-hand side of the recognition box, in order to hyperlink the highlighted text with a URL.

Next select the hyperlink icon. This puts the word(s) you want to hyperlinked into [brackets], and generates a field that looks like this: (url)!

A GIF showing how after clicking on the hyperlink icon, the highlighted text will be in brackets and the a URL can be pasted in the parenthesis provided to hyperlink the originally highlighted text.
The URL words are highlighted showing where you would paste the URL into the parenthesis.

Paste the link inside of the (parenthesis).

The pasted URL is highlighted, showing the URL is inside the parenthesis.

Once you recognize your teammate, the link will disappear and the words you highlighted will show as hyperlinked in the recognition. If you click on the hyperlinked words, it will take you to the linked page! 🎉 

The recognition post is posted with the originally highlighted words hyperlinked with a URL.

*Pro-pro-tip: you can also use the cmd+k shortcut to add a hyperlink

Now you can go beyond just words and have fun with your recognition! 🎉 If you want to learn more about how to write an inspiring recognition, take a look at our article about how to give great recognition


Questions? Send us a note to [email protected]; we'd be happy to help!

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