How to Apply Gamification for Social Media Initiatives

gamification controller

Are you using gamification to boost your social media results in 2023? According to psychology studies, gamification works because it taps into our natural competitive instincts and desire for reward. By setting goals and providing rewards for achieving them, we are motivated to put in more effort in order to get the desired result. This same principle applies when we play video games or participate in sports—we strive for the highest score or fastest time because we know there’s a reward waiting for us if we succeed. And it’s fun!

Gamification in Business Environments

In a business setting, gamification can be applied to increase employee engagement and productivity. For example, if employees set goals for themselves, measure their performance against that of their peers, and are rewarded as well as recognized for achieving set goals, they will be more motivated to work harder and ultimately achieve better overall results. Gamifying parts of the job—even giving employees virtual points each time they complete a task—can make mundane tasks more interesting and exciting while still allowing managers to keep track of team progress on projects. One study revealed that 90% of employees are more productive when gamification is incorporated into their workday. 

Gamification for Social Media and Employee Advocacy

Social media and gamification are a natural fit. You can give positive reinforcement for taking action on a simple employee advocacy task, such as liking or sharing a social media post. For example, with Please Share, an employee takes 10 seconds to view a social media headline on Slack and clicks on the Like, Retweet or other buttons to share the content on their own social media channels. They immediately get a positive message. 

With the Leaderboard feature of Please Share, the social media team can periodically publish the contributions and performance levels of each employee advocate to build excitement and motivate action. 

This type of tracking lets you create different employee advocacy contests with prizes for the winners or even for all participants. These types of contests have been shown to increase social media engagement and reach by 200% or more.

Final Thoughts

Using leaderboards, ranking and scores, as well as posting results periodically will increase awareness, motivation and excitement for employee advocacy. Gamifying the employee advocacy process doesn’t have to take much time, effort or cost. Contact us today and we’ll show you how to get started!