5 Ways Gamification Can Magnify Social Media Campaigns

With every rising day, the power of social media platforms has been on a significant rise. These platforms have become powerful marketing tools that most companies are now exploiting to promote awareness of their brands. With the worldwide connectivity that social media has, a single video or a tweet has immense ability to reach a global audience. However, to successfully tap and exploit these markets, you need a well-planned social media marketing strategy.

Whether you want to increase social media engagement or encourage consumers to take part in particular activities, gamification can effectively enhance your marketing strategies on social media platforms. Gamification alleviates the participation of users to another level. Promoting your brand requires creativity, and gamification allows you to practically show your creativity in a better way. Here’s how gamification can score you a bonus for your brand.

#1 Giving Rewards

Though it requires careful thought financial planning, offering your users rewards can be a boost for your brand. The rewards don’t have to be huge, but they will go a long way to encourage users of your brand. They feel appreciated, and this increases their loyalty towards your brand.

For instance, companies such as Uber and Lyft adopted this strategy. In their mobile apps, they have a feature named “Earn Cash’’. This feature allows users to share Uber or Lyft to their social media followers and friends. Once the referred person downloads the mobile app and takes a ride, you get a free ride next time you use Uber.

Such strategies encourage a lot of engagement activities on social media. The referral wants a free ride. It will motivate them to share information on their social media accounts. These engagements continue to market your brand. What to keep in mind is financial management.

You wouldn’t want to incur losses when giving rewards. The rewards given should, in turn, boost the revenues for your brand. Another instance, most sites offer significant giveaways and bonuses upon registration. Such incentives are attractive to consumers, and they get drawn to your brand.

#2 Show Statistics

People love seeing statistics as it promotes healthy competition. Accruing points considerably motivates users, and at the same time, it fosters interactions and engagements. Nike + is an example of how gamification has evolved social media marketing strategies.

The application used, Nike + Running, was tracking distance covered, the pace of the user, location of the user, and the calories they have burnt. The application lets users post their statistics on Facebook. They can compare their statistics with other participants.

Enabling users to post their statistics is a feature that enhances the marketing of the product to other prospects. It promotes competition amongst users, and at the same time engagement in social media. Additionally, participants receive messages of encouragement and motivation from Nike’s top-performing athletes. User engagements and motivation can’t get any better.

#3 Perfect Timing Is Key

Timing is crucial, and it goes a long way as far as gamification is concerned. Timing enhances urgency, and in return, necessity tends to stimulate excitement. With enthusiasm, comes more engagement. When time is limited, games tend to be more fun and appealing.

Users get motivated when they know they have a designated period to participate. Users will get motivated when there’s urgency, and in a world where social media has become a norm, engagements get driven by motivation and purpose. What is a better way to motivate someone if not creating a sense of urgency?

#4 Leaderboards

Leaderboards are features of most online games. It’s a way diverse people draw motivation and enhance interactions. Since statistics are paramount among participants, the thrill increases when these stats get uploaded on a publicly displayed leaderboard. Nothing promotes competition like leaderboards.

The thought of seeing your progress, seeing how far you have to go to be on top, gives the participants motivation. For a company that finds it hard to award rewards, a leaderboard is a cheaper and yet effective option. There might be no monetary gain from the points allocated, but it will get people talking about your brand. Different users will want to participate in the competition. They will want to gain points and see their names move up the leaderboard. It’s such a satisfaction.

#5 Treasure Hunts or Puzzles

Games such as crosswords, treasure hunts, or matching are engrossing games that generate user engagements in your social media accounts. They are fairly affordable games, and when spiced up, they put your brand on the map. For instance, in 2017, Volkswagen America, when campaigning their 2018 VW Tiguan, launched a treasure hunt on Instagram dubbed “Rule the Road”.

The treasure hunt ran for 21 days and saw many participants engage in the game as they attempted to win the grand prize. They were daily prizes given, and the grand prize was an all-paid-for trip to San Francisco, Miami, and New York for ten days.

This is how it worked. On their official Instagram page, the VW team posted a daily clue. Participants would use the clue to look for the hidden Tiguan. There were various vehicles, but only one was the right one. Once participants found the concealed car, they would take a screenshot and message the VW team through their official Instagram page. They stood a chance to win the daily prizes and qualify for an entry to win the grand prize. It was a unique, creative, and technical way of getting users to participate in a competition that saw many people talking about it.

Conclusion

Gamification can not only be used to promote education or business purposes, but it can be used as a powerful marketing strategy. Conventional brand marketing is still productive, but the need to have a more interactive user experience is growing daily.

Gamification is shred evidence that this kind of user interaction is attainable. Social media are platforms that have enabled the implementation of this kind of marketing. Having gamification mobile apps that have features such as feedback and posting stats on social media, are tools that generate brand engagement. Whether you are giving rewards, creating urgency, or posting stats, gamification indeed can magnify any social media campaign.

About Author

Carola Richter is a professional esports journalist who reviews the esports events and trends in the industry. Recently, she’s decided to create the blog csgo-bets.org where she could share her passion with the readers interested in the topic.