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Gamification: Making Your Social Media Strategy Invincible

I love games and gamification. As a nerd, I’ve had a console controller in my chubby little hands since birth.

There are actually quite a few benefits to playing games. According to the American Psychological Association, video games can actually help with problem-solving and learning. It’s also been proven that playing Tetris can curb cravings for food and cigarettes.

Millennials play a lot of games, so it’s no surprise that various organizations and brands have tried to capitalize on this. Does anyone remember those slightly unsettling Burger King video games? The process of using gaming elements in other environments is commonly referred to as gamification. It’s been used to reach students in schools and tutoring programs. Companies like SAP have also used gamification in their training materials.

Tetris can help your social media strategy!

How does all of this relate to your marketing strategy in social media? The principles of gamification can easily be implemented into any content strategy plan to garner amazing results. Here are a few common examples of gamification done right.

Comment Ranking is one of the simplest ways to add gaming concepts to your content. Made popular by sites like Huffington Post and Reddit, comment ranking allows users to vote for the best comments on an article or page. Users who comment often or for extended periods become veterans or super users. This ranking system can easily be added to any WordPress page and will give your users a sense of competition and fulfillment when interacting with your blog or website.

Quizzes have become a large part of our social media landscape thanks to sites like Buzzfeed. Quizzes are not new to the internet, but their popularity continues because they allow users to discover and explore in order to gain more data. Quizzes are also helpful to web traffic for the brands that use them. These quizzes can easily be added to a brand’s Facebook page or website. They can also be used to acquire emails from potential customers.

Facebook Games started small on the social media site, but the addition of Farmville dramatically altered the field. Now, a large part of Facebook is devoted to these games. Facebook games are popular due to their innate fun, but also due to their social features. Facebook players can easily share their scores, trade game items with others and invite friends to play with them. Social features make these games quite attractive to players.

Pins fulfill a need many gamers have to complete tasks and earn reputation. Perhaps the greatest example of pinning in social media is Foursquare’s extensive badges. Foursquare users can gain badges for visiting beer breweries or completing a certain number of check-ins. Brands can easily create badges for their customers through Foursquare’s advertising platform.

What gamification elements do you use on social media? Have you tried any of these systems for your own brands? Please tell us about it below!