Gamification Isn't Just Fun and Games

When you are bidding for an item on eBay, you usually don’t feel like you are playing a game. However, eBay was one of the first web spaces to add gamification to their site successfully, as Yukaichou points out. But how does eBay use gamification? Adding a rating system, the competition for items, and the star system all tap into gamification, which is appealing to consumers. Many companies are using that appeal to drive their business up.

But creating a successful gamification strategy isn't just a matter of turning something into a game. It requires research, planning, and the right execution. When determining the best gamification strategy for your business, as Gamification.org explains, you should ask yourself these questions:

What is your main reason for gamifying your product or service?

What are your goals for the gamification?

What benefits do you hope to gain from gamification?

These three questions can help you determine if it is best to create your own game, or simply leverage an already existing and successful gaming platform.


Existing Game Platform

Leveraging an already existing game offers the benefits of having most of the work done and utilizes the existing target audience. Duane Reade recently connected their business with the popular mobile game Ingress, as RetailTouchPoints.com highlights. The mobile based game requires players to visit brick-and-mortar establishments to play. Players collaborated, tweeted, and talked about the store online, and visited their locations.

Best Buy partnered with Zynga’s most popular Facebook game, CityVille to become the first branded shop, allowing the more than 71 million players to earn badges, win prizes, and buy virtual items, according to Yukaichou. Connecting with Zynga improved brand recognition and improved social media presence, but also drove up sales for Best Buy.

Businesses that are seeking a broad target market that is already established should think of leveraging through an existing game. Also, linking your brand in an already existing game is helpful for building brand loyalty, as it links the player's emotion from the game with the brand itself. With the large influx of new games, competition for player's attention can be hard to attract. Leveraging existing games ensures visibility.

Game Creation

Creating your own gaming platform allows you to customize the game to fit your own business, focus directly where you want it, set your own reward system, and gain more attention. Nike created a gamification campaign in 2011 that had players battling against the weather to save virtual athletes from freezing, as Trendhunter reveals. Their current campaign lets players buy a Nike+ Fuel Band, and join the app to compete.

Creating your own game platform can allow you to highlight your products and services. Imagine hidden object games with players finding your products, an adventure game using your company mascot, or an arcade game that mimics your services. These games can often be made available to implement in several places, including your own website, on a gaming site, or on a mobile platform.

Businesses that are trying to reach new markets, introduce new products, and gain more visibility available through leveraging an existing game should consider new game creation. Any business that has a fresh and unique idea may fare better allowing it to stand alone in a new game to test the waters with.

Pinterest Or Facebook: Where Should You Post Your Product Links?

Marketing is the integral part of every company’s social media strategy. Businesses build relationships with customers on social media sites to encourage them to purchase products and services. There is absolutely no point in using social media for your business unless you drive traffic to your sales pages.

The easiest way to do this is by posting links to your products on your social media pages. However, there are quite a few social media sites vying for your attention and many small companies don’t have the time or the money to promote themselves on every single one. The general consensus is that if your products are visually interesting you should promote them on Pinterest.

There are a lot of statistics to back up the assumption that Pinterest is the best place to promote your products, many of which are shown on the fantastic infographic at the bottom of the page. Here are a few of the most persuasive:

• 70% of people asked go to Pinterest to find something to buy, compared to only 17% visiting Facebook.
• 69% of consumers have found a product they’ve wanted on Pinterest, as opposed to 40% on Facebook.
• 43% of Pinterest users have used the site to associate with brands, compared to just 24% of Facebook users.

However, a recent study by market research agency Vision Critical has revealed some interesting statistics which suggest that Facebook is the best place to post links to your products.

For the study, Vision Critical interviewed over 5,000 people from Canada, the UK and the US. They asked the interviewees about their activity on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest – specifically the relationship between the posts they engaged with and the posted products they bought.

According to the results of the study (which are illustrated in this great infographic), 38% of Facebook users will buy something after sharing it, whereas only 29% of Pinterest users will do the same. Also, 24% of users were considering purchasing an item when they researched it on Facebook, whereas only 22% were doing the same on Pinterest.

Although Twitter is mentioned in the Vision Critical study and the infographic below, the micro-blogging site’s stats are lower than both Pinterest and Facebook. The reason for this, it can be presumed, is that Twitter isn’t as image-friendly as its rivals, so products cannot be showed off in the stream as easily.

As well as image posting, both Facebook and Pinterest have a number of great features which can drive traffic to a company’s sales pages. On Pinterest, images which are pinned to your stream can link directly to the sales page where it is featured: on Facebook, clicking on an image enlarges it. One point to Pinterest, then: even though it only takes one click extra to get from an image in your News Feed to a product page, it’s still one click too many.

Pinterest’s ‘rich pins’ feature displays prices and product information alongside the picture, helping users decide on what to purchase directly on the site. It seems strange then, that more people are researching products on Facebook, according to Vision Critical, as there is more product information available on Pinterest.

Facebook, as I said, does have some great features for marketers who want to promote their products and people who want to research the market. Marketers can post product releases and updates, while users can like their favourite shops so that the shops' produce appears in their News Feeds. Pinterest, however, can be used in a very similar, if not slightly better, way.

Earlier this year, Modern communications agency network Isobar launched SeeItShopIt, the first ever interactive shop within the Facebook News Feed. SeeItShopIt is an interactive catalogue that can be posted just like an image. However, small businesses probably won’t be able to afford the niche product considering it amounts to just one post. Pinterest’s ‘rich pins’, on the other hand, just need to be applied for.

So, Pinterest is by far the better platform for marketers in terms of features and audience activity. Facebook, however, has far more users. The question is, are these users going to buy your products? A recent study by content agency Likely found that around 4% of Facebook fans are engaging with the content posted by brand Pages.

Baby and children’s goods retailers have by far the highest engagement rate of 7.1%, clothing companies are in the middle with 4.1%, while telecommunications agencies sit rock bottom with 3.5%.

The companies with the highest engagement are distinguishing themselves from the competition. Primark engages 9.3% of their 750,000 Facebook fans. The discount retail giant posts seasonal products and illustrates products in a quirky and interesting way, making them stand out in the News Feed.

15.1% of LateRooms.com fans engage with the travel agency’s content. As well as posting photographs of beautiful beaches and stunning resorts, LateRooms.com also uses humour to entertain its fans, increasing interaction on the LateRooms.com Facebook page.

So, if you want to drive traffic to your sales pages, and you only have the time to focus on one site, you should market your products on Pinterest. Pinterest’s users are, in general, more open to advertising on the site and Pinterest’s features are better. In reality, though, you should always have enough time to market across multiple social media platforms. Use a social media management tool like Ezeesocial to help you schedule and manage your posts.

Do you prefer to post your products on Facebook or Pinterest?