It’s Friday again! The shorter days and fall weather made the week seem like it flew by. If you missed out on gamification, customer loyalty or social media marketing news, you can catch up with our favorites below.

When is Gamification Not Gamification? Business2Community 10/25/2012 Gamification evangelist Andrzej Marczewski asks and attempts to answer some open ended questions about gamification. How many game mechanics should an implementation use? Should you tell users that they are participating in gamification? Find out what Andrzej thinks, and add your comments to his post.

Marketers rely too heavily on social, need to diversify digital into gamification Marketing Mag 10/25/2012 Marketers and the brands they represent have begun to heavily rely on building customer relationships through social media channels, but what happens when Facebook and Twitter aren’t enough? “Gamification can be coupled with social media and existing online content to add an extra layer and greater motivation to engage in digital programs”. Gamification is a great way to encourage customers to engage with content on multiple social media platforms as well as explore brand websites.

Gartner Reveals Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users for 2013 and Beyond Daily Finance 10/24/2012 Last year, Gartner predicted that, “By 2015, more than 50 percent of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes.” This week, Gartner released its top predictions for IT organizations and making the list was none other than gamification. “By 2015, 40 percent of Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations.”

Using “social” and “gamification” to provide UX improvements Ovum 10/16/2012 Implementing gamification often includes a lot of UX improvements that guide and improve the user experience. Ovum analyst Somak Roy discusses the relationship of social, gamification and UX. This is an interesting read on the role of UX in gamification solutions and features.

Apple, Amazon, Samsung, YouTube, and Twitter Are 2012 Loyalty Leaders Forbes 10/25/2012 BigDoor’s platform is all about increasing customer loyalty and what better way to improve our platform, than by taking a look at the loyalty leaders of 2012. No surprise, Apple tops the charts, but Starbucks, Call of Duty and Costco also made huge gains in the list this year. Many of the new arrivals to the list were brands that create connections in industries like social media, smartphones and tablets. Check out the Forbes article to see the full list of loyalty leaders.