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Gamification 101: Games and Changing Community Behavior

November 3, 2022 By Lindsey Leesmann

When you hear “gamification,” what comes to mind? Video games? Leveling-up? The latest Fortnite emote (a.k.a. the goofy dances you see everywhere)? 

Valid responses, but lacking, especially in the community world. Instead, a term you should consider for gamification is opportunity.

TL;DR: Gamification in an online community is any use of game techniques in a non-game context. Community managers create competitions to engage members in a healthy “race” and incorporate scores, levels, and prizes, as extra motivation. Prizes can be intrinsic (recognition) or extrinsic rewards.

When you incorporate gamification (AKA recognition and reward, or whichever HR/leadership-friendly term your organization prefers) into your community strategy you can see the behaviors needed to drive change for your group, AND how to motivate members to accomplish the desired actions. 

Let’s dive in.

A woman smiles at a computer screen as she plays an online game. The text beside her reads, "Community 101. Gamification 101: Games and Changing Community Behavior."

What is gamification?

Simply put, gamification is organizing community tasks or activities (in this instance) into something resembling a game. 

Community games are usually implemented through point systems, earning badges, things like that. Games are fun, and serve a greater purpose: behavior change. Remember, that’s the main purpose of community. And in this case, change is good — not scary. You just have to convince your members of that!

Meet the players

When you take the leap and add gamification to your community, you first need to determine your target audience. Don’t think too hard, there are only two categories here: customers and employees. And each has its own challenges.

Player 1: Customers

A customer-facing community seems like an easy win. The members use, and are familiar with, your products or services, so they want to interact with other users in the community, too, right? Yes and no. 

Remember in the positive feedback loop post how customers are more likely to speak up when they’re unhappy? The same holds true here. Just because your community members are customers doesn’t mean you have a bunch of built-in cheerleaders. Instead, you’re combining your louder, squeaky-wheel (unhappy) members with the constant competition for members’ time and attention from the likes of social media, so you’ve got your work cut out for you!

Now we’re not saying customer communities should be avoided. Anything but! But you need to go into these situations with realistic expectations to avoid unnecessary struggles.

Player 2: Employees

The other side of the coin are the employee-based communities. Some members want to be there and are excited to participate, sure, but others have likely been volun-told to “have fun” participating in the community versus choosing to. So while an employee-based community might be active, it might not be engaged — yes, there is a difference. 

Additional challenges of working with an employee community:

  • Members consistently choose the path of least resistance (they go with what they know and are accustomed to) often over what’s best.
  • Employee members look for proof of why they should adapt to something new, and how it will benefit them (remember to always express WIIFM – what’s in it for ‘me’ — when introducing something new to the community).
  • The expectation for immediate recognition when achieving tasks within the community. Without it, you can expect an uphill battle to get members to willingly change their behavior.

OK, that’s a lot of challenges. But they can be overcome, right? Of course! And one of the best ways is by understanding your community members’ motivations

Motivators to get [your head] in the game

As you know, there are two types of motivators for community members: intrinsic (internal) and extrinsic (external). Gamification’s extrinsic motivators are driven by the “game” itself — there’s a task to complete before continuing. 

What’s more interesting are the intrinsic motivators satisfied by community gamification:

  • Feeling smart. When a member plays, they prove they grasp the concept while absorbing the information needed to change their behavior. Additionally, sharing this new info with others can help them feel they’re contributing something valuable to the conversation. 
  • Feeling successful. Who doesn’t love feeling like they’ve accomplished something? By successfully completing a task, members feel they’ve achieved something and “won” the game (let’s be honest, though, most community games don’t have a way to win). Added bonus: those who are competitive can see who their success is similar to and use that as an internal motivator. 
  • Feeling socially valued. When a person receives recognition for an accomplishment, they’re able to feel as though they’ve done something of merit that betters the community. Gamification allows for longer-form recognition through badges and accomplishments, which can tie into reputation (a much longer-term prize than something physical that will eventually wear out or lose value). 
  • Feeling purposeful. Everyone wants to feel what they’re doing matters, even in gamification. Show members their participation serves a larger purpose: add accomplishments to their profile; elevate “high scoring” members as subject matter experts for other players to turn to as they progress through activities; make them feel their effort is worth it.

Motivating your members, check. Let’s look at the pieces that make gamification work.

The pieces of the game

There are three things to remember when starting a gamification process:

  • How the game works. Most community platforms come with some form of gamification functionality built-in, so no need to stress over the tech. Instead, focus on the parameters/rules around the game (believe it or not, rules are part of what makes the game fun). The game mechanics also need to detail how users advance or score points. 
  • Recognizing who’s got game. Remember the intrinsic motivator of feeling socially valued? That’s where this comes into play. Members want recognition for their accomplishments and bragging rights. Reputation mechanics showcase game rank and status in the larger community, like an old-school leaderboard on a pinball machine. Word of advice for community managers: Pay attention to those who are consistently on the leaderboard. They may be able to be turned into super users later, if they aren’t already. 
  • Tipping the hat. When you, as the community manager, digitally tip your hat to high-scoring members in the game, you’re using social mechanics. Publicly recognizing these players showcases the desired, high-value behavior AND individually recognizes those who have adopted it. Plus, who doesn’t love a pat on the back?

Feeling like you understand a bit more about gamification? Excellent. There’s one last thing you can’t do, and it’s really important: Don’t underestimate the power of data collection from games. After all, behavior data is important data.

Analyzing member behavior

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Your ultimate goal in community is for members to adopt a set of desired behaviors. To do that, you need to know how your members are doing in the game.

  1. Track and analyze behaviors that exist in your community
  2. Export data to customer analytics tools (or spreadsheet if you have a smaller community or tighter budget)
  3. Design and update the rules or goals of the game based on the results of the behavior occurring versus the desired ones
  4. Apply the rules to the user experience
  5. Track and analyze behaviors …

Remember, the front end of gameplay is just the visible part of your process. Data helps provide a better user experience for members playing the game. After all just like in the real world of gaming, updates should happen frequently based on what the data (and let’s be honest, the members, too) tells you is/isn’t working. 

Gamification is an excellent community tool, and we’re excited to see what you do with it.

Five Things You Need to Know About Community Management

February 26, 2020 By Jim Storer

five things you need to know about community management

Each month our community manager extraordinaire, Kelly Schott, shares a behind the scenes look inside TheCR Network.  She’ll explore the research, programming, and professional development available exclusively to Network members and highlight best practices for community management excellence.

In this webinar, Kelly focused on five things you have to know about community management.

Watch the Community 101: Five Things You Have to Know About Community Management Webinar

Community Management Fundamentals

October 23, 2017 By Jim Storer

Need to bring someone up to speed on the basics of community management? We just revamped our community management fundamentals presentation and it’s a great way to explain the ins and outs of community to someone that doesn’t quite get it yet.

Check out the presentation:

Community Management Fundamentals 2017 from The Community Roundtable

Pretty great, right?

Other community resources you can use:

TheCR Academy

Community training for every level of your organization

Community Case Studies

Learn from real life community success stories!

 Community Management 101

Answers to common community questions!

 

Throwback Thursday – Community Management 101

September 1, 2016 By Jim Storer

By Shannon Abram, The Community Roundtable

community management 101Looking to get started in community management, or just need a refresher on the basics? Check out these community management 101 resources! We’re highlighting the fundamentals of community management in this week’s #throwbackthursday post – including an exclusive glossary of community management terms for members of TheCR Network!

This week’s #throwbackthursday focuses on Community Management 101 – getting back to basics with some fundamental community definitions.

  • Defining Community – The challenge with the word “community” is people mean a lot of different things when they say it, but there are few definitions. Joshua Paul at Socious took a crack at this issue and provided some great suggestions on how to differentiate between several meanings of the word, highlighting the preposition that comes before it. Is it ‘The community’, ‘our community’ or ‘a community’?

  •  Differentiating Between Social Media and Community Management – As someone who works with social media managers and community managers, it seems the line between the two types of positions is not terribly clear – and maybe doesn’t need to be – but I think it would be helpful to distinguish between the two.  Why?

  • Community Types and Terms Defined – There still seems to be a lot of confusion and disconnects when people are talking about their community or talking with The Community Roundtable about how being a member of TheCR Network can help them.  And it’s not surprising.  Much of the lingo and concepts are still very new in organizations and understanding what lens you view community practices through is important.

  • Connection, Friend, Member – Who’s In Your Company’s Online Ecosystem? – We came across this article last week about defining your online community to higher ups, and it resonated because people mean a lot of different things when they use the word community. As the article so aptly states, it is hard sometimes to understand if you are “referring to the online community at large, the community of people that your organization interacts with online, or an online community where your customers, employees, or partners can engage one another and support your customers or members.”

  • For TheCR Network Eyes Only: Community Management Glossary – Are you a member of TheCR Network? Check out this exclusive glossary of dozens of community management terms – and add the ones you think need to be there!

Want even more #throwbackthursday action? Check out all our throwback posts!

Advisory_Banner_July2016_5

How Do You Build A Thriving Community?

November 8, 2012 By Leanne Chase

By Rachel Happe, Principal and Co-Founder of TheCR

No matter what stage your online community is in, there are basics of community  management to be followed.  It is helpful to go back over them again and again to be sure that you are staying on track.  This is probably the reason our slideshare presentation “Community Management Fundamentals” has over 92,000 views and is often shared through social media channels.  Today, I thought it would be good to take a deeper look at one part of that presentation that involves building a thriving community from slides 30-41.

So how do you build a thriving community?  Here are some tips:

Observe Your Audience
Get to know your community.  What are their likes, dislikes?  Where do they hang out online? When do they hang out online? What do they value?  What questions do they ask most often? All these questions will help you better understand who your community is and how you can make their experience more frictionless and pleasant.

Keep a Regular ScheduleScreen Shot 2016-02-16 at 4.10.26 PM
Isn’t it disconcerting when you head to your neighborhood convenience store and it is closed in the middle of the day?  So, too would it be if your community was closed unexpectedly.  However, community managers are asked to do a lot.  You do not have to operate 24-7 to please your members.  But keeping a regular schedule of when questions can be answered and giving your community a heads up if you will be “closed” unexpectedly will go a long way toward gaining their trust and loyalty

Be Welcoming
We all know what it was like to walk into the cafeteria in a new school.  It was noisy, and unfamiliar and you weren’t quite sure how it worked.  You knew no one but it seemed that everyone else knew each other.  It did not feel good.  Wouldn’t it have been great to be met at the door of the cafeteria by a friendly face who showed you around and introduced you to others with interests in common?  So do that for your new community members.  It isn’t hard.  A welcome email, a quick introduction to another member in the same industry or with similar challenges, an introduction through a weekly newsletter is all it may take.

 Provide A Guide
We are all crunched for time and trying to learn new systems is time consuming.  At TheCR Network we have new member orientation calls.  This is where Hillary Boucher, our online Community Manager walks new members through how TheCR Network works, learns more about what each member’s challenges are and suggests specific resources within the community that can be helpful.  It is also where we suggest reaching out to existing members of our community that could be helpful and who already know the ropes at TheCR Network.

Screen Shot 2016-02-16 at 4.10.36 PMBe Valuable
Communities are about relationships, and are not one way streets.  If the community is getting something from the member but the member is not getting something of at least equal value from the community then it is no longer a relationship and chances are that community member will come into the community less and less often until they disappear.  By sharing what is valuable with  your members – be it curated content, discounts, thought leadership, access to experts, or something else – you ensure a healthy community.

Be a Connector
Too often in business people are afraid to share information or help each other out.  But that is at the essence of a community.  Connecting those that may help each other with each other is key.  In our case often  this means connecting TheCR Network members with each other, but sometimes it means connecting them with those outside of the network.

Screen Shot 2016-02-16 at 4.10.43 PM Bring Catnip
All work and no play is dull.  And while we need to work…we also need to play.  What sort of activities can you think of that may not be purely business for your community but will help them better connect?  We find engagement in TheCR Network goes down with everyone’s busy summer schedule.  And that’s okay.  But we don’t want to totally lose connection with members and we want to bring some fun of summer into the community.  Last summer we sent out “Flat Hillary” a play on a project many school children undertake.  “Flat Hillary” had some great adventures with our members around the country.  It was fun and it kept us in touch with our members and our members in touch with each other.

Have Rules
While you may think your community will bring out the best in people that is not always the case.  As many a community manager has experienced, some community members don’t treat everyone as they would like to be treated themselves.  So have rules.  Here’s a great example from Career Builder.

Screen Shot 2016-02-16 at 4.10.51 PMLead From The Back
Community managers do not need to do all the work.  It is great to watch members of the community take over building relationships, adding content and making connections themselves.  But community managers do need to nudge members in the right direction and be sure the community stays on course – much like a shepherd.

Encourage Your Cheeseheads
Once you know who are your biggest champions give them reasons to continue to champion you.  Thank them, tell them how much you appreciate them, help them out early and often and be sure they feel appreciated.

Ride The Waves
Not all will be smooth in your community so be sure to revel in the smooth times so that you may be ready for when the wave crashes.  And don’t panic. This is how life and communities work.  Not all will be smooth but also not all should be overly drama-filled either.  Often the tone you set will be the tone the community follows.

Don’t Ignore
It’s okay not to react immediately to everything that appears a be a problem.  It may work itself out.  But then again, it may not.  If it is persistent or is something that you already know is a problem but you may not have been transparent with your community about, don’t ignore it.  Acknowledge it, figure out what steps to take, take them and evaluate how it went.

Be Multi-Modal
Not everyone in your community will think and act the same way.  You need to be where they are.  This goes back to the first item on this list.  If you get to know your audience you willScreen Shot 2016-02-16 at 4.11.01 PM learn where they hang out and how they like to operate.  But this is not a one-time only process.  You need to do this regularly.  Your audience may shift their likes and dislikes and you need to be ready to shift with them.

Protect The Fish
Congratulations you have built a great community!  Now watch out.  Others will want access to what you have built for their own purposes.  The rules you have set up and communicated should help you here, but be vigilant.  Make sure your members are getting value from you without fear of sharks preying on them.

 

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Need community management resources? Check out our online training courses, our community benchmarks and TheCR Network – a private community for community pros. 

 

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