When people talk about loyalty programs, one of the first examples used is airline mileage programs. Not only have these mileage loyalty programs been around for ages, but customers often feel as though these programs come closest to hitting the mark on providing authentic and desirable rewards. While travel loyalty programs, including hotel chains and rental cars are often held up as a shining example of loyalty, rising costs of travel are beginning to make these transaction based loyalty programs more and more expensive for brands, while providing less value for consumers. Brands who have long had programs rewarding frequent travelers are forced to raise the cost of free flights, hotels or car rentals, or limit the quantity of qualifying free experiences. These changes, often feel like slights against valuable program members, who resent the devaluation of their miles, points or memberships.

While many travel brands are experiencing the weight of increasing costs to run a successful loyalty program, few of them have expanded the options for their programs and sought models that exist outside the traditional (and outdated) transaction based model.  By expanding these programs online, beyond the customer transaction, brands open up numerous doors to engage their most loyal members, and reward members with perks far beyond what traditional programs have imagined. Better yet, platform’s like BigDoor’s gamification and loyalty platform, seamlessly tie into social media another important channel for travel brands to monitor and build.

They haven’t moved towards these innovative programs yet, but it sounds like they know the change is imminent. In a recent article in USA Today, delving into the second annual hotel CEO roundtable, CEO’s from companies like Wyndham Hotels, Carlson Hotels and Kimpton mentioned the need for traditional loyalty programs to evolve towards better engagement, innovative rewards and features for customers that expand beyond transaction based models. Brands are increasingly looking towards social media integration, hoping to see more customers reaching out to them through various social channels as well as promoting brands to their own social graphs.

The CEOs participating discussed what they see as important changes in the hotel loyalty space, pointing out that social media, customizable rewards and keeping up with customer expectations are their biggest challenges moving forward. It’s definitely an interesting read, and worth looking through whether you are a brand facing the same challenges, or a customer who travels frequently.

For those travel brands facing the challenges highlighted, gamified loyalty programs seem like an easy solution to a wide range of problems presented.

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Loyalty, Social Media

Keith Smith - CEO/Co-Founder of BigDoor

With 2012 behind us, my team and I at BigDoor have been reflecting on the state of the much hyped and oft derided gamification movement.  Game mechanics are now being deployed in a number of employee facing solutions, but the most exciting and impactful uses of gamification continue to be in consumer-facing experiences.   2012 saw new gamification efforts from a number of big brands; NFL, MLB, Yamaha, Adobe, Universal Music, Starbucks and Random House – just to name a few.  Now that many of the most powerful consumer brands in the world are embracing gamification as a way to increase loyalty and engagement, it is worthwhile to take some time to understand why and what’s coming next.

So as 2013 gets underway, I wanted to lay out my predictions for where I see gamification heading in the coming year:

 1. Gamification will define next generation loyalty programs. There is an ever growing trend that traditional loyalty programs are not delivering the results that marketers want.  A recent Forrester Research, Inc. report noted that, “compared to 2008, 40% more consumers feel that loyalty programs offer them no value at all”¹. Affecting the success of these programs over the last 4 years is the rapid adoption of customers interacting with brands online. Traditional methods of loyalty marketing are not addressing the needs of online customers. But where traditional rewards programs are failing, gamified loyalty programs are rising to the occasion; consistently deliver higher customer acquisition rates, better engagement on and offline, and clearly offering customers value well beyond the traditional transaction based rewards model.  Innovative brands are embracing gamified loyalty programs, and as a result are putting significant competitive pressure on those brands that have yet to deploy this next generation of loyalty programs.

2. The e-commerce/retail sector will deploy gamification faster than any other industry. Despite its increasing lack of success, loyalty marketing has been a cornerstone of the retail industry for a long time. With gamified loyalty programs rising in popularity, the rapid adoption of these programs in the retail and e-commerce industries is inevitable. Gamified loyalty programs – unlike traditional transaction based models – give marketer’s access to key customer metrics from acquisition to engagement.  These insights allow marketers to better personalize interactions with their customers on and offline.

3. Gamification implementations will become more brand specific and allow more personalization of the user experience. One of the regular complaints I hear from marketers using a traditional loyalty program is that legacy loyalty program vendors provide a one-size-fits-all approach to their programs. As more brands embrace gamified loyalty and rewards strategies, gamification experts will need to ensure that their programs are on-brand and authentic, but they should also be personalized.  Truly effective gamified loyalty programs should allow marketers to target specific rewards to their customers based on their buying habits and demographic/psychographic information. A more personalized experience for customers results in higher customer satisfaction, which means more customer loyalty.

 4. Many gamification implementations will fail due to an absence of ongoing program management. Gartner released a report in late 2012 announcing that 80% of gamification implementations would fail. Despite the success gamification saw in 2012, this number seems likely, unless gamification experts embrace gamification as an ongoing strategy and not a bolt-on solution. While this means that gamification requires more work, it has also lead to some truly effective gamified loyalty programs that deliver a huge impact to the brand’s bottom line.

 5. Successful gamification implementations will be cross-device, cross-platform and even available offline. Now more than ever, customers are interacting with brands through a wide variety of channels; mobile, tablet, web and believe it or not – sometimes even in-person. Unless customers are willing to register and login when using these various platforms, most brands have no way of knowing users as they move between them. As brands search for ways to get data from and develop relationships with their customers, the need for knowing who your customers are across channels has become crucial. Gamification implementations give customers a real reason to register and login, and this is a critical first step for a brand to develop a true relationship with their customer across all of their various platforms and touch-points.

 6. Advertisers will embrace gamification as a new growth area. With the popularity of consumer facing gamification on the rise, it is only a matter of time before advertisers realize the huge new revenue potential these programs hold. Consumer facing gamification implementations provide an entirely new revenue stream, allowing higher ad revenues for brands and new advertising opportunities for sponsors. Brands like the NFL have already begun to embrace this trend, partnering with Visa as a primary sponsor for their NFL Fan Rewards program.

 7. Gamification platforms that provide actionable analytics and reporting will succeed; those who don’t will fail.  No gamification implementation is complete without a robust set of real-time analytics and insights. These insights tell marketers what is working and what isn’t working, and allow for real-time adjustments in gamified loyalty programs. Gamification companies will increasingly need to demonstrate the value of their products using detailed analytics and program monitoring. Marketers in 2013 should require simple and relevant metrics that help the iteration process of their program and validate the return on investment that a gamified loyalty program delivers.

¹: “Building A World-Class Loyalty Program”, Forrester Research, September 28, 2012[FRI1]

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Loyalty, Social Media

Happy Friday! This time of year is busy for everyone, whether you were preparing for the apocalypse today or trying to do some last minute holiday shopping. If you got too busy to keep up on gamification, loyalty and engagement news, you can catch up on our favorite articles below.

Ice, Lycra and Nike Plus – Getting Gamification and Engagement Right Huffington Post 12/21/2012 Nike is often used as an example of a brand that has successfully used gamification to deepen brand loyalty and engage their customers. While the popularity of Nike+ leaves no doubt that people love using the program, what is less obvious is what specifically Nike did to achieve this level of success. Kent Valentine points out that Nike didn’t just focus on their own brand requirements, but instead focused on a customer need, that once satisfied would benefit the Nike brand.

On the ninth day…embrace gamification Entrepreneur 12/20/2012 Still not convinced that gamification can provide value for your company? Read this and contemplate the many ways that it can enhance your brand’s marketing efforts. No, gamification is not for every brand or company, but this is a great article with a ton of examples and ideas on how to use gamification.

Rewards and Reward Schedules in Gamification Social Media Today 12/18/2012 Rewards and how to use them successfully in gamification has been left out of the mainstream gamification conversation for a while. Most gamification providers stand by the opinion that rewards don’t enhance a program and haven’t tested using rewards enough to know the benefit they can create when used correctly. It is great to see some great gamification minds joining the discussion around rewards and how to use them successfully in a gamified implementation.

How Gamification Makes Social a Reality NewsGator 12/18/2012 Most people are familiar with traditional loyalty programs and non-digital recognition programs, but these types of programs just aren’t working anymore with so much of what we do heading online. Taking these programs online and enhancing them with social elements is exactly what BigDoor (and this NewsGator piece) believe is the next big trend.

Current Loyalty Programs Are Proving to Be Ineffective Towards Retailers’ Goal of Creating More Loyal Customers, According to New Research Report From Edgell Knowledge Network MarketWire 12/19/2012 We have been saying that traditional loyalty programs need a face lift and now Edgell Knowledge Network has the report to prove it. Surveying 60+ retailers Edgell discovered that while more and more people are signing up for loyalty programs, many of these customers are not loyal to any one program, and they don’t understand the benefits that brands are offering them.

Social integration and loyalty – here are the brands that did it best in 2012 VentureBeat 12/20/2012 The power of social media marketing was a huge trend in 2012. While some brands flopped in their attempts, some brands flew past their competitors using social media to connect and engage their fans. Of the brands that successfully employed social media to engage their fans, Urban Outfitters, American Express, Honda, Starbucks, and Grey Poupon.

Don’t believe us that people want loyalty programs? Check out this posting on the League of Legends Community board asking why senior members don’t get benefits for spending more.

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Loyalty, Social Media, User engagement

Happy Friday! We found some really great articles about building brand affinity, customer loyalty and some interesting critiques on cheaters in gamification programs. Enjoy!

The mechanics of gamification: How to harness perceived distance to benefit your brand Campaign Asia 11/15/2012 Gamification experts often reference basic psychology in explaining the success of gamification and brand loyalty programs but this is by far one of the best examples we have seen. Focusing on how to use gamification to solve customer’s internal needs while promoting your brand, this is an excellent look at how brands should be marketing themselves in today’s online world.

Creating Loyalty With Your Clients Through Social Media Business2Community 11/9/2012 For those of us short on time, this is a very simple and to the point list of ways marketers and community managers can build loyalty online with social media.

The Complex Challenges Facing Advertisers on New Media Platforms Herald Online 11/13/2012 Linda Goldstein, a partner at New York based Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP spoke on today’s marketing landscape at the PMA Marketing Law Conference in Chicago. Focusing on best practices for marketing online, she highlighted gamification and stated, “”We must be thinking about how to use gamification and social engagement in ways that create true human response.”

The irrationality of cheating at gamified learning Wired 11/12/2012 Anyone who has played games or experienced a gamified experience online has probably come across someone trying to cheat or game the system. Focusing on cheaters using Memrise, an online memory improvement game, Robert Barry digs into why people cheat and how to combat this trend in our gamified solutions.

Study: Measuring social media word of mouth drives restaurant traffic Fast Casual 11/15/2012 The importance of social media word of mouth is well established among marketers, but a new study done among restaurants shows that analytics and measurement are important in order for brands to see real success on social media. Brands need access to simple analytics to help measure ROI as well as feedback that shows them how to create success in social media channels.

Brand Loyalty Via Social Media CMV Live 11/12/2012 With so many options for consumers on the web, brands can always use a few more tips on how to engage their customers and create deeper brand affinity. CMV Live lists three tips to build better loyalty. Number two on their list, rewards. We don’t want to toot our own horn, but in consumer facing gamification, we were the first gamification platform to speak to the value of tangible rewards in order to boost loyalty and engagement.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Loyalty, Social Media, User engagement

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.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Social Media

Happy Friday! Here is the gamification and customer loyalty program news from the past week.

How Gamification Can Improve Customer Loyalty Programs Entrepreneur 10/9/2012 Gamification expert Gabe Zichermann talks about using gamification to improve customer loyalty programs, a topic that is near to our hearts. Here at BigDoor, we have seen great success in making customer loyalty programs more fun and engaging by applying game mechanics and design principles. It is great to see Gabe endorsing that concept!

When research is a game, and politicians seize the social media BizCommunity 10/12/2012 The use of gamification in politics is a relatively new idea, but one that seems to be sparking a lot of interest. At a recent conference of the SAMRA (Southern African Marketing Research Association) Kyle Findlay argued that gamification can produce significantly more effective and valuable market research, by ensuring that respondents are more engaged. Findlay says of his research, “It is important to stress though that gamification generally does not imply turning research applications into video games with bright colours, flashing lights and cute mascots. It can be far more subtle than that. Gamifying a research methodology could rely on something as simple as changing the way in which a question is worded by framing it as a challenge to respondents.”

Three More Views on #Gamification Kapp Notes 10/8/2012 In case your eyes are strained from reading too much, you can jump over to Kapp Notes and check out their compilation of gamification videos. Everything from TED talks to animated comedic shorts.

LinkedIn Decides Recommends Aren’t Worthless Enough, Adds Endorsement Gamification Business2Community 10/13/2012 If you are on LinkedIn you might have noticed this change and wondered what the point was. You aren’t alone. Chris Voss talks about the decision and why it is an example of poorly thought out gamification.

The Gamification of Philanthropy Calgary Herald 10/13/2012 A new app is under development in Vancouver called iBeg and its purpose is to help users understand the difficulties of homelessness while raising money for charity. This is a great example of the ‘games for good’ trend and it will be interesting to see what the app looks like when it is released.

Gamification: Some More Views Business2Community 10/15/2012 A few weeks ago Andrzej Marczewski posted an article that featured various experts opinions on gamification, what it is and how to use it. He has posted the same article, featuring random people who filled out his survey. This is definitely an interesting read that highlights how different people think about the gamification trend.

Maximize your collections! BankersLab gamifies debt collection (exclusive) VentureBeat 10/16/2012 A new training simulation has been created to help teach bankers the ins and outs of collections. It’s called BankersLab and it uses gamification principles to coach bankers through the complex process of debt-collection. While many people facing collections may not appreciate the idea of better training for bankers, this is definitely a new and interesting use of gamification.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Social Media, User engagement

I’ve been travelling and unable to stay on top of my usual weekly gamification news recap. This morning. I spent a bit of time playing catch up on gamification and industry news. Without further delay here are my top gamification news articles of the past week (or so).

Does Gamification Work for a Customer Community? Eloqua 10/7/2012 Skeptics of gamification are often asking for proof that gamification is capable of increasing community engagement. Topliners, an online community, produced some of the data from their gamification implementation in July of this year. The chart shows a 55% lift in community activity after the gamification implementation. They also share some user comments about how the changes affected their activity on site. Congrats to Bunchball for this successful implementation!

The Basics Behind How Gamification Increases Site Conversions and Builds Your Brand Business2Community 10/5/2012 As gamification grows and matures as an industry, people are beginning to understand the core value of gamification, namely building your brand’s user base and engagement. This is a great overview of how gamification can boost your brand, as well as a couple of examples of good and bad gamification.

Coursera makes Penn courses more accessible The Daily Pennsylvanian  10/1/2012 If you have checked out the #Gamification tag on Twitter, you have likely seen numerous people talking about the free Coursera gamification course, taught by Kevin Werbach. The course represents one of the many courses offered free online through Penn’s Coursera program. Participants of the courses range from college students to business executives and participants are located all over the world. These courses are changing the way that learning occurs outside a traditional classroom and will be interesting to watch as they grow more popular.

Social Login Buttons Aren’t Worth It MailChimp Blog 10/2/2012 While many of our clients already have their own login system, some of them have chosen to use Facebook or Twitter authorization instead. At BigDoor we decided to offer integration with both options to provide flexibility but many of the people we talk with are still deciding which direction to go. This is an excellent study on social login versus site specific registration and the benefits/downsides of both.

Plea to the Games Industry to Embrace Gamification and Get Involved Business2Community 10/4/2012 Gamification evangelist Andrzej Marczewski put together this plea asking game industry experts who are critical of gamification to do more than just sit and criticize.  The gamification industry could definitely benefit from game designers insight and it is great to see someone trying to bridge the gap.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Loyalty, Social Media

As I pointed out last week, gamification and social media belong together. Gamification is all about boosting customer loyalty and social media channels are vital in that process. At BigDoor, we have focused our platform on social media engagement; rewarding program users for shares, likes, tweets and recruits from their social network. The closer we can get to complete integration with a user’s social network, the more successful our gamification solutions have become.

Marketers know the value of a Facebook like or a Twitter follow. In today’s online world, a large majority of leads, customers and sales are coming in through social media channels, so building a base of followers that is engaged, active and paying attention is invaluable. While there are a variety of blogs and articles on the subject of building a fan base on social media, many of these tactics focus on high numbers of followers, with minimal focus on the true value those followers bring. It has become common for someone with thousands of followers to have minimal engagement  between those followers and their brand. Why? Because like many ‘get rich quick’ schemes, the tactics employed to gather large quantities of followers, don’t focus on the long term investment, namely, are these followers going to buy from your brand? Engage with your brand? Share your brand with their other networks? If not, they are of minimal value other than bragging rights for your marketing team.

Gamification has been held up as the solution for loyalty and engagement issues on the web, and we obviously believe this to be true. Why? Because gamification implementations like ours that focus on harnessing the power of social media are really good at finding fans and followers that are interested, active and ripe for business. By creating incentives for site visitors to become followers, fans and registered users, brands will see an increase in their social media networks and this increase comes from people who are active and out to consume content. But the engagement cannot (and for BigDoor does not) end there. Users need to continue to be rewarded for participating and involving their own networks in your brand and social media efforts.

One of the reasons that I love working in marketing here at BigDoor is that since the beginning, our focus has been on genuine results, strong analytics and practicing what we preach. Our widget is present on this blog, and in the spirit of proving that BigDoor does what we say we do, here is a look at our own Twitter account, taken today.

10K+ Followers is a pretty good start, but are those followers’ actually real active people?

98% of them are. Not only that, but  0% of them are fake accounts to make it look like we have a bigger influence than we do.

For comparison, here is a look at another popular twitter account in the gamification industry, they currently have a much larger following on Twitter than BigDoor’s 10K, but take a look at how their account breaks down:

51% fake. Not to mention 23% inactive. As a marketer, would you spend valuable marketing dollars with this company to achieve that kind of ‘engagement’ or loyalty?

Obviously, gamification isn’t the only reason we have such a high rate of good followers, the marketing team at BigDoor has spent a lot of time finding industry experts, unfollowing inactive accounts and generally managing our twitter. Those numbers represent two things: we understand social media and we understand the importance of an engaged audience. Gamification, loyalty programs and rewards are the tools we use to help marketers achieve their goals.

We aren’t saying that gamification can create an engaged social network without the commitment from a brand to create frequent, good content, but we do believe that our platform and expertise can give marketers a step above the competition in filling their social networks and websites with active and engaged users, in a relatively short period of time.

What does your following look like?

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Loyalty, Social Media

Happy Friday! We scoured the internet over the last week to bring you the latest gamification, customer loyalty and rewards program news. There were a lot of interesting new game mechanics applications this week, so be sure to check out some of the cool ways different industries are using gamification!

How SuMo’s gamification helps firms wrestle with green issues ZDNet 9/27/2012 Gamification and green technology are nothing new, but a new app from CloudApps unveiled at the Salesforce Dreamforce event took the next step in green technology. SuMo is designed to encourage employees to hit corporate sustainability and social responsibility goals and it does this by using gamification elements. The app allows companies to measure their goals and success in a way that previously hasn’t been easy for the corporate environment. Additionally, with the apps game mechanics, it encourages employees to engage in company goals by changing their workplace behaviors.

Gamification of security and video surveillance… Info4Security 9/27/2012 If anyone has ever used software that accompanies security or video surveillance technology, you might understand where this article is coming from. Notoriously hard to use and frustrating, some security system companies are turning to UX experts and gamification to help improve the user experience of their software systems. We’ve seen gamification elements used in software before to help guide new users through training and this seems like an interesting application to help alleviate the challenges these companies are facing.

Can Kia’s gamification change the way we drive our cars? The Next Web 9/22/2012 Quite a few auto-makers are turning to gamification to try to alter driver behavior towards a more sustainable way of driving. Toyota and Nissan have both done this with their hybrid cars, and even American car company Chevrolet has included some gamification elements in their Volt electric car. Now Kia is jumping on the trend with their new Optima hybrid. This is a great dissection of the Kia system, with photos and videos to show how the system operates and what behaviors it attempts to discourage.

NASA, Angry Birds and the Question of Gamification Government Executive 9/20/2012 While we don’t really think this qualifies as gamification, we do think it is pretty cool to see a social game like Angry Birds teaming up with a government entity like NASA. We are seeing more and more that the government is willing to embrace games and game mechanics to improve programs (anyone remember America’s Army?) and this seems like a great step in the right direction. Plus, does anyone dislike the Mars rover?

The Sticky Factor: Social Gaming Drives Brand Engagement Over TV Ads Adotas 9/24/2012 Online brands are not the only ones who are focusing on brand engagement. TV shows are also looking for ways to engage their audiences through mobile apps to connect the visual experience with the mobile phones most users are holding while they watch. This article highlights quite a few different companies that are focused on customer retention and engagement for brands and the way they are working with different industries to combat these issues.

Posted in: Blog, Game Mechanics, Gamification, Loyalty, Social Media, Technology

With every publisher we work with our understanding of how rewards programs and gamification can positively affect customer loyalty grows and changes. While loyalty programs are nothing new, the application of game mechanics to online loyalty programs provides lots of new and interesting ways to change the way that users interact with brands they love. Much of the things we learn, are applied to our product to make it more user friendly as well as provide publishers with the tools and powerful analytics they need. With that said, there are things publishers can do to make their own gamification and rewards programs a bigger success. We’ve highlighted a few tips for publishers (#1 and #2) and now here is the third installment in our ‘Gamification Tips for Publishers’ series.

Tip #3 Gamification should encourage social behavior

Gamification and social media are nearly always talked about together, but many gamification implementations seem to neglect to understand what social really means. Customer rewards programs that utilize game mechanics to increase engagement and loyalty should include seamless integration with major social networks. This is beneficial for a number of reasons. Users can often sign in with a  familiar login (Facebook authentication), share achievements/proud moments, and use the power of their existing networks to boost their status in the program, as well as encourage their friends to join in. For publishers, this means more people seeing their brand, more people participating, and more people talking about their favorite brands on and offline.

It is easy to say gamification should be social, but what does that mean in actual practice? Many brands have offered points or badges for users who like them on Facebook, or tweet about them when joining the program, but this neglects a huge chunk of what social is capable of. Programs should be rewarding users for posting, liking, sharing and recruiting their friends, while also having the ability to compare themselves and their progress to their friends and others in the program. These features allow users to be encouraged and rewarded not just for liking a brand on Facebook, but for getting their friends to sign up, joining the conversation on social media and endorsing brands through their social networks.

BigDoor’s gamification rewards program offers all these features for publishers who want to engage users on their website, as well as through social media channels. Recruiter points encourage users to get their friends to sign up, and can reward users who come to the site through a social connection with extra points. Users can also be rewarded for sharing content through their social networks, and rewarded again when those shares lead to click-backs from their friends. For smaller sites that don’t yet have a login system, BigDoor can power a login using Facebook sign-in, making the barrier to join even more familiar and easy for today’s average web user. For users with a competitive edge, leader boards that can provide site-wide or localized rankings are a great way to create some extra drive to participate and earn rewards.

What do you think about the importance of social media in loyalty and rewards programs? How important do you think social integration is for users participating in gamification? Let us know!

Posted in: Blog, Gamification, Gamification Tips, Loyalty, Social Media