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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.

The Recognition Your Community Program Deserves

May 31, 2018 By Hillary Boucher

Every day I get to watch amazing community management professionals do exciting, innovative work. The other side of that coin is that every day I also hear stories of how their work go underappreciated, and underfunded at their organizations. If you’re an outstanding actor, you might get an Oscar or an Emmy, and now, if you’re an outstanding community manager your work can be recognized with our annual award for excellence.

The third annual TheCR Awards recognize excellence in community management, and submissions for the 2018 awards are now being accepted. Designed to recognize the best in a variety of community management categories, TheCR Connect Awards are open to members of TheCR Network and their community teams.

Submit your community programs in a variety of categories, including:

  • Outstanding Community ROI
  • Best Recognition + Reward Program
  • Best Community Dashboard
  • Outstanding Community Playbook
  • Outstanding Community Change Agent
  • Community MVP

In addition to the satisfaction of sharing your innovative and effective community solutions, winning one of TheCR Awards can make an impact for you and your team. Past recipients have received increased executive support, expanded budgets, and greater organizational awareness after their wins.

You can learn more and submit your community programs here.

 

How can I use gamification to increase community engagement?

February 6, 2018 By Jim Storer

gamification to increase community engagement

Gamification is the skill of understanding what game-based motivators may drive community members and how to use those motivators to help members get value out of the community that they may not initially recognize. Often times gamification efforts appear in the form of points, badges, or ‘games’ that encourage gentle competition around engagement.

Gamification is one of those things that really resonates with community stakeholders. Badges! Achievements! Unlock this, uplevel that! The reality of using gamification to increase community engagement can be a little tougher. Our State of Community Management 2017 research showed that gamification integrations are becoming more common on community platforms, although their impact on engagement is still less clear. Your community platform may already have gamification elements built in. You should definitely check your platform capabilities before you start defining your program.

If you’re interested in incorporating gamification into your community program you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Electronic Arts Inc., a leading global interactive entertainment software company, delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets to hundreds of millions of players worldwide. With an online gaming network that is home to dedicated global players, EA sought to drive down support costs while also providing enhanced interactive rewards. They built a robust recognition program that has turned their millions of members’ participation into a game – with real rewards.

gamification to increase community engagement

As members rise through the ranks and gain more prestige, they unlock top levels including a multi-tiered super user program. By defining very specific goals for their program they have been able to show how they successfully used gamification to increase community engagement.

Read more about EA’s success using gamification in their community in this case study: Driving Community Participation and Engagement With Gamification. You’ll learn how EA built a gamification-based support hub and a two-tiered super-user program that increased traffic, converted lurkers and deflected contacts from Live Support channels.

Download the case study now. 

 

How to Recognize Your Top Community Members

December 28, 2016 By Jim Storer

 

community trophyAs we close out 2016 I wanted to share some best practices for recognizing and rewarding the top contributors in your community. Whether they are super users who take pride in answering others questions or super-star content creators, everyone likes to be acknowledged for their contributions.

In the State of Community Management 2015, we found that while most communities recognized key contributors in some way – with badges and swag most often – they often failed to provide real, business-driven rewards for community advocates, such as opportunities to test products, feedback opportunities and access to executives.

That’s not to say recognition and badges don’t matter – they are a valuable way to say thank you, and let others in the community see the people you count on to contribute, giving others someone to emulate and see as the leaders you want them to be. Being an advocate takes time and effort, however, and to make advocates a valued part of the community, make sure you are giving them real value in return.

If you’ve got some downtime this week, why not think about ways you can reward and recognize your most active and influential community members? Building in a monthly process for acknowledging these members can go a long way toward building morale and ensuring continued engagement. Check out these post for ideas on ways to make your community advocates and super users feel special:

5 reasons to recognize the superheroes in your online community

Give real responsibilities, and real rewards, to your community advocates

Real rewards for community advocates

 

Announcing The Community Roundtable Awards!

November 22, 2016 By Hillary Boucher

thecrawards_badgeThis year another fun tradition was born at our annual event – TheCR Connect – our first presentation of The Community Roundtable Awards! The winners were announced at the live event, and now we are excited to share the news with everyone online.

Why Awards?

We want to showcase the amazing work members are doing. Our team sees the many ways members are advancing the discipline of community management in their work as well as contributing to TheCR Network in valuable ways. We want to acknowledge and highlight your efforts

and…

It’s fun. There’s no way around it — handing out awards and amazing trophies (wink, wink . . . see below) is a delightful way to . . . well, surprise and delight. And as we all know hard working community practitioners can use a little more fun in our lives.

Without further ado, here are The Community Roundtable 2016 award winners!

The Cheerleader Awardthecr awards - marjorie anderson

You keep up with TheCR Network like it’s your job and never fail to cheer everyone on whether it’s liking, sharing, or responding with support. 

The 2016 Cheerleader Award goes to Marjorie Anderson, Community Engagement Specialist at the Project Management Institute. From day one of her membership Marjorie shows up. She makes visible and valuable contributions to the network. We can count on Marjorie’s engagement to keep the network vibrant and alive. Thank you Marjorie!

The Journaler Awardthecr awards - lori harrison-smith

 You check-in regularly to update us on your work and progress. Your documentation helps all of us better understand what it’s like to be a community practitioner and helps us understand where notable milestones exist. Self-reflection is wisdom earned.

If you work out loud with us regularly you know why this award goes to Lori Harrison-Smith, Enterprise Community Manager at Steelcase. Lori has diligently documented her weekly progress every. single. week. in 2016. When we document a successful collaboration in the weekly Work Out Loud thread she’s almost always involved. Congrats Lori!

The Detective Awardthecr awards - jeff merrell

Who? What? When? Where? Why? Your curiosity and questions help the network get to the bottom of things. Without you how would we get to the bottom of community management’s most difficult challenges? 

This TheCR member asks questions about questions! Jeff Merrell, Associate Director at Northwestern University M.S. Learning and Organizational Change, puts a lot of thought in exploring meaningful discussions in the Network that allows us all to learn together. He leads the charge in unpacking how people learn and influence organizational change. Well done, Jeff!

The Explorerthecr awards - jj lovett

 You’re willing to go where no community practitioner has gone before. Boxes are not in your vocabulary. You walk to the end of the map of everything that is known about community management and dare to take another step further. 

Can anyone find J.J. Lovett, Director, Communities at CA Technologies? We fear he’s fallen off the map. Oh no worries, he’s just discovering and implementing new ways to apply our research and models. J.J. is one of those members who pushes us to evolve our work by applying it and reporting back how he’s using it. Thank you J.J.!

The Social Butterflythecr awards - kirsten laaspere

The social butterfly shows up. No matter the event, in person or online, the social butterfly is busy making connections and building a thriving network. 

Nothing beats showing up to events, online and in-person, to learn, network and collaborate together and we have one member who makes this an art form. Kirsten Laaspere, Community Manager at Akamai Technologies has been a member since 2014 and helps us make TheCR Network events valuable and fun. When I ask a question on a call and get silence in return she’s there to help spark conversation. She holds a wide network and is generous with her connections. Keep on, keeping on Kirsten!

The Super Geekthecr awards - ted hopton

 This squishy community talk is great, but let’s get down to the data. Numbers quake in your presence and excel spreadsheets are putty in your hands. You know that you can prove the value of community and you are on a mission to make it happen. 

Is there even a contest here? Ted Hopton, Director of Social Business at McGraw-Hill Education, walks away with one bedazzled calculator to represent all the incredible work he’s been doing by wrangling community metrics, experimenting with data visualization, and generously sharing his work as he learns so we can all follow along. Great work, Ted!

The Host(ess) with the Most(est)thecr awards - aaliyah miller

You are warm and welcoming and help new and returning members feel like they are seen, heard and valued at TheCR Network. You make the network a much better place to learn and work. 

I used to diligently welcome new members and tried to encourage other members to join in and help make TheCR Network a welcoming place. It didn’t really take off until Aaliyah Miller, Communications Consultant at Aetna, joined and became a champion of new members. Whether it’s in our main intro thread on individual groups she always takes the time read, acknowledge, and welcome people. We’ve watched her thoughtful participation ripple out and encourage others. Well done, Aaliyah!

The Pack Leaderthecr awards - jeff ross

You rally members around a good cause. When you speak people listen, but you also know a good leader listens and empowers a group. You are generous with your knowledge. 

We’re proud to present Jeff Ross, Community Manager at Humana, with The Pack Leader Award for his continued work championing ESNs (enterprise social networks). He saw a gap, organized, distributed leadership and continues to curate knowledge and share generously with all interested. We’re proud of you Jeff!

The Community Manager’s Awardthecr awards - claire flanagan

 TheCR team has your number on speed dial. You answer our emails, quickly, and are always willing to help. You are dedicated, thoughtful, and supportive and our team relies on you.

We’ve known Claire Flanagan, Director of Social Business Value at Jive, for a long time and we lovingly refer to her as one of our original “cheeseheads”. She’s been a strong advocate and never hesitates to respond with our requests for feedback or strategic advice. An original member of our Member Advisory Board we’re grateful for the way she supports us. Way to go Claire!

 

Not a member of TheCR Network?jointhecrnetwork_button

Learn how you can join and benefit from the exclusive programming, resources an d tools available to members. Who knows, maybe next year you’ll be taking home an award!

#ThankItForward – On Building Community and Finding My Place

December 2, 2014 By Jim Storer

By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Once again we are celebrating the concept of #thankitforward at TheCR this December (learn more here) and I wanted to be the first to share my picks. At the risk of veering off track, 2014 was an exciting year both personally and professionally for me. I got married in January, am having a baby any day now (!?) and got to spend the year working alongside a passionate, dedicated team of people that truly believe in the power of community. My one year anniversary with TheCR was in October, and I can honestly say my first year here flew by. I know I am very lucky to have found a group of people that make it a delight to get up and work with every day, so without further ado, my 2014 #thankitforward picks:

#Thankitforward1. The whole team at TheCR: Rachel, Jim, Hillary, Maggie, Jillian and Ted. 

(At right – TheCR takes a break from building community to make snow angels.)

The team behind the scenes at TheCR is pretty small – there are just seven of just spinning the hamster wheels. With the amount of content we produce, partners we support and members we serve that could be a nightmare, but this team makes working hard a delight. I can honestly say I’ve never been part of a team where every member not just pulls their weight, but champions each other, lends a hand whenever needed and contributes to an overall feeling of “team” that makes each work day exciting, challenging and fulfilling. Sounds pretty Pollyanna – but it’s true. Certainly there are stressful days, but the other six people on my team make the challenges we face seem surmountable and I simply can’t thank them enough for just being themselves.

2. The Members of TheCR Network

I spend a lot of time sharing news, ideas and tips here on the blog, so you might not know that another part of my job is to work with our members to get them out in the wider community industry sharing their expertise and generally letting the world know how awesome they are. I am grateful to have such an accomplished pool of community talent to showcase. Over the last year I’ve been lucky enough to learn from a wide array of community folks and can’t wait to continue the work we’ve started to show the world what a unique, diverse and smart group of people that make up TheCR Network.

3. Jeff Ross

This is almost a 2b answer for me, since Jeff is a member of TheCR Network, but I couldn’t help singling him out this year. Jeff, in addition to his day job in community at Humana, founded #ESNchat and is one of the most passionate community builders I’ve met. Jeff was one of the first members I got to spend time working with when I joined TheCR team last year, and his positive attitude, willingness to share his time and knowledge and overall awesome attitude made him a no-brainer for this list. Recently Jeff handed the reins of #ESNchat over to our team, and I’ve gotten to work both with him to continue the amazing program he’s single-handedly built, but also interact with the dozens and dozens of community professionals around the world that make up the #ESNchat community, and without exception these folks have nothing but wonderful things to say about Jeff. So – thank you Jeff! Your hard work and passion is an inspiration to me!

I hope my #thankitforward list inspires you to take a moment to reflect on the past year and reach out to the people in your life that have helped you survive and thrive in 2014. We’d love to hear who inspired you, kept you sane or sparked an a-ha moment this year – just tag it #thankitforward!

Finally, I’d like to sneak in one final #thankitforward to you. Thank you for coming back and spending part of your day with us here on TheCR blog. Here’s to a happy and healthy December, I can’t wait for 2015!

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