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Using simple game mechanics to enhance your SEO and user engagement.

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In the first quarter of 2011 this website got as many check-ins as it did in all of 2010.

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Check in to your favourite TV, connect with friends and get stickers in the post.

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“The point system has dramatically improved engagement + contribution on Moz. We’ve grown community content 200%+ in the 24 months”

Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz Inc.

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GamificationUsing game mechanics to motivate your users to perform actions critical to the growth of your business

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.. GAME MECHANICS 101: POINTS

Points are a fundamental unit of measuring performance in a gamified system. They’re everywhere.

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.. LEADERBOARDS

Bunchball’s Nitro platform gamifies a real life situation, driving competition.

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.. LEVELS AND CHALLENGES

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.. SELF EXPRESSION

Encourage commitment by scoring the level of profile completeness to get ownership

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.. BADGES

Badges form a key component to the foursquare ecosystem. People love to collect, and compete.

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.. VIRTUAL CURRENCY / VIRTUAL GOODS

In Microsoft’s Xbox Marketplace, you can exchange points for customisable avatars

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.. GAMIFICATION FOR GOOD - IMOK

I’mOK, an iPhone app that parents can use to track their children – kids check in and receive points

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.. REWARD W/STATUS – A POWERFUL MOTIVATOR

Status is an amazingly powerful especially for heavy users – it opens opportunity

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.. CREATE SIGNUPS / SALES WITH LOSS AVERSION

Loss aversion refers to the tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses than acquiring gains.

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www.codecademy.com teaches users to code using challenges, levels, achievements and social interaction

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.. HELP PEOPLE DRIVE THEIR BUSINESS

I love http://dribbble.com/ - Great designs win business.

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.. GENERATE REVIEWS

Netcars.com reward with points and badges for user reviews, ratings and blog posts

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Increase your sales: Motivate your users to grow your subscriber base like Dropbox and Xbox live

INCREASE SIGNUPS

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.. REWARD FOR GIFTING

Gifting (another game mechanic) a virtual currency and rewarding with tangible rewards

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.. REWARD FOR UPLOADING CONTENT

Lockerz.com – upload photos, (and watch videos), earn points…

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.. GENERATE LINKS

Make it easy for your users to benefit from Word of Mouth marketing via their social and linking activity…

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.. WE COULD INCREASE SOCIAL SHARES

Make it really easy for your users to benefit from performing the actions critical to the growth of your site

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.. GET YOU USER’S QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Create a question, earn points. Answer the question, earn points and status. SEOMoz.org/q

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Month1:

12,188 Page Views

Av. Time on Site up 81%

Implement a minimum viable product and iterate

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.. Reward Users

for the behaviors that are critical to the

growth of your business

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THANK YOU

@RichardBaxterSEOgadget.co.uk

Thanks for listening! Email, Tweet or just say hi!

Email me: richard@seogadget.co.uk