Legions of online businesses are following the trend of integrating game mechanics into their products. Investors used to hear customer acquisition plans that included, “and we’re going to make it social” or “and we’re going to make it viral.” But lately, these pitches have changed to include, “and we’re going to use game mechanics” to address customer acquisition and engagement. However, many proponents of this type of “funware” in product development and marketing miss the larger point: “How” you incorporate game mechanics is just as important as “Why” you should.  A leaderboard alone does not make for a worthwhile or engaging game. Here is a step by step breakdown of how to incorporate gaming mechanics into your business:

1. Start With Your Vision and Work Backwards

Effective games cannot be bolted onto a service after the fact. They must be integrated into the product from the start. To work, they need to be designed with your vision in mind, or they’ll be largely meaningless.

The first thing you need to do is define your end goal. What is it you want to accomplish? What’s the big vision?

2. Make a List of Required User Actions

Now that you have defined the vision, you need to figure out what specific user actions will be required to realize it. What behavior patterns would they need to adopt in order to sustain your business model?

Think in verbs, not nouns. What do you need people to do?

3. Motivate the Most Important Behaviors

Games can be used to drive almost any user behavior. As Marc Metis, President of Digital Chocolate puts it, “Games have the potential to tap into the full range of human emotions and motivate a wide range of behaviors.” That’s the beauty and value proposition of game mechanics. Take the specific behaviors you’ve defined and plan some games that will make people do what you want. No matter what type of game you are designing, a few key principles will help:

• Mechanisms should be layered. Users should constantly be starting one task as a beginner and enjoying a sense of discovery, be in the middle and deeply engaged by another task, and mastering (i.e. getting bored with) a third. The online multiplayer game World of Warcraft is an excellent example of this. Players are constantly working on short-term quests and heat of the moment battles while long-term upgrades keep them logging back in day after day.

  These layers can exist in both tasks and in time. If you can create a sense of shared past, present, and future, your user experience will be more “sticky,” with customers/players investing time and coming back for more to deepen their history with your product.

• Pull the consumer toward the most critical behaviors with rewards. Additionally, adjust the rewards so that the most enticing prizes are offered in exchange for the behaviors that are hardest to motivate. Zichermann says, “There’s no question that today’s tweens are going to have to be rewarded to do anything.” Make sure you’re offering rewards for the essentials.
• Mechanisms should be designed for flexibility and growth

4. Evaluate and Adapt

As with any lean startup process, you’ll only succeed if you’re willing to evaluate and adapt both the game mechanic layer and the behaviors that are critical to motivate. Both will change as you learn about your consumer, and as they learn how to play your game.

“Running a social game is a bit like being a head of a country’s Central Bank, so you are always adjusting,” says Metis. “You really have to pay attention to the finest details of user experience and merchandising.”

Re-rank and reevaluate often. Take honest looks at what users do and why. Remember, make it fun for them, not for you. Zichermann reminds us most entrepreneurs think their users’ primary motivation is to achieve. But, he says, most people — especially on the web — just want to socialize. “They’re not in it to win it, they just want to make friends.”

Make sure you understand your audience, and design your mechanics accordingly.

Ultimately, game mechanics are not about simply having fun. They’re about helping users discover the utility in your product. Like Wile E. Coyote from the old cartoons, you want to get your users to run through the air without noticing the ground’s not there, until they reach the other side. Games can help get them to cross that ugly gap of “Why should I learn about and adopt this product?” And once they’ve crossed, you’ll have them, because they’ll feel the utility of your service and understand why your product is great.

Right now, too many companies are building a bridge to nowhere with their games simply because games are trendy. Design an experience that will delight your users and use game mechanics to show them something useful that will add value and make their lives better.

Perhaps the following 10 Intriguing Twitter Facts will help to clarify the scale, impact, and potential value of engaging on this particular platform.

1. There are 75 Million Twitter users worldwide.
Twitter’s has an unarguable ability to quickly disseminate information and activate participation on a global scale, although it may not be Facebook’s 600 million users we’d best not underestimate the power of that relatively smaller user base.

2. Twitter’s active user base generates 140 Million “tweets” per day.
By itself, this volume of conversation is mind-blowing. What’s even more incredible is the huge spike in tweets that follows a global news incident, like the recent disaster in Japan.

3. Roughly 7% of Americans are currently using Twitter.
460,000 accounts are being added daily and there was a 182% spike in mobile users over the past year. It’s clear that Twitter’s growth chart is skyrocketing.

4. The average Twitter user has 27 followers.
The average Facebook user, by comparison, has 130 friends. At the other extreme are big brands like Zappos that have nearly 2 Million followers.

5. Twitter users are more educated than the general population.
63% of Twitter users have a 4-year college degree or higher, as compared to only 40% of the general population. If your product/service/company is targeting a more educated customer, there’s a good chance they’re tweeting—or will be soon.

6. Twitter users have higher incomes than the general population.
47% of Twitter users earn $50k or more per year; 24% earn more than $75k. Compare that to 33% and 18% among the general population, respectively.

7. Twitter users tend to be “early adopters”.
19% of Twitter users are among the first to buy/try new products, compared to only 10% of the general population. An additional 25% of Twitter users buy/try new products before others (though not “first”) as compared to only 12% of the general population.

8. Twitter plays an active role in purchasing decisions.
42% of Twitter users rely on this channel to learn about new products/services, and 41% of them share opinions about products/services via Twitter. Soliciting opinions about products/services and seeking out discounts/coupons/sales are also popular Twitter-based activitities.

9. 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy brands that they “follow”.
Whether interaction on Twitter is the cause of this greater allegiance or not is unclear—but it certainly seems that extra Twitter love doesn’t hurt.

10. Companies that use Twitter average 2x more leads per month than those that do not.
This, perhaps, is the most compelling reason of all to invest some time on Twitter—particularly if your target customer is educated, affluent, and tends to be an early adopter.

This collection of statistics clearly shows the powerful piece that Twitter plays in social media marketing for business. We hope they provided you with some clarity and that you enjoyed them!

Please feel free to share this with others and leave us a comment with your thoughts and questions on using Twitter in your business!

Many business owners have been finding it hard to build their Fan Pages. They were finding that people were less likely to “Like” a Fan Page than an individual. Yet as an individual, Facebook limits your connections to 5000. Well now with this new feature, Business Owners can interact with their community on behalf of their Fan Page. Let me share a quick video with you about what this means and how this works!

I just performed showing you HOW to log in as a Fan Page.  Don’t worry, I also show how to log back out.

Enjoy!  Please feel free to share this page with others. And as always, leave me a comment!

A rare opportunity to see Brian Tracy Live in San Diego…
At NO CHARGE!

Tuesday, February 8th, 7pm at Del Mar Marriott.  Please fill out the contact form
below to reserve your seat!

Here is a note from Brian Tracy:

If you are interested in learning more about this amazing new discovery
called Zero Point Energy, please join me and my business colleagues (Including
Dr. Howard Cohn) and spend an evening reviewing what we have to share.

Additionally, I am looking for a few local leaders to help me with this new
project and get in on the ground floor of what I think will be a billion dollar
business. You may be able to earn significant money and improve your
health at the same time.

If you want me to hold a seat or if you have any questions, please
fill out the form below, or email James@BrianTracy.com to RSVP.
Guests are welcome - feel free to share this page.

There is no charge for this event.

Del Mar Marriott, 7:00- 8:30pm
Tuesday, February 8, 2011

To your success,

BRIAN TRACY

PS- If you or someone you know is experiencing any physical pain
currently in your life, you are going to want to check attend this event and
feel this technology.

If you can not make this event, I will be hosting future events at my
office in Solana Beach, so please email about your interest in future
events.

–

* Please note: This is a rare opportunity to partner with Brian Tracy;
this is NOT a job offer. Brian is not looking to hire anyone.

Recently I was asked to answer a few questions for a newspaper about Search Engine Optimization.  It was directed at small & medium sized business owners, which is my favorite segment, so I participated.  Here are the questions and my answers….

Q: Importance of quality relevant content and how it helps the organic rankings in the serps.

- Extremely important. Google is not the #2 website (now behind Facebook for no reason. As the #1 search engine in the world, they know when a website is valuable. If you expect to rank for a key term when someone searches that word, you better have relavent content on your site for that word. Not only the word, but also categories and pictures that represent that word. If you have junk, you will get junk results. Period.

Biggest mistake that do it yourselfers commit when taking on SEO.

- I see all types of mistakes from ugly code in the website, to keyword stuffing (when you copy and paste a bunch of random text at the bottom of your site in small letters or in white so that a person visiting can not see it)… and from not filling out the home page’s title to having absolutely no relavent sites linking to their site. I would have to say, the biggest mistake I see is when someone does not even optimize their homepage. I see too many sites with only the name of their company in the title and NO keywords.

What should a business owner look for when choosing an SEO professional/company.

- Start by asking questions. Work with someone in your home country so you get back links that are local. Definitely work with someone you can trust and that has a proven track record. And work with someone that will treat you like their only client, not just a number. It is important to be able to call you SEO company and talk about what they are doing and ask questions about your traffic, analytics, leads!

James SOL Radina
SOL Marketing SOLutions
SEO | Social Media | Web Design | Text Message Marketing

I have worked with Brian Tracy, John Maxwell, Paul Martinelli, & Les Brown… plus major real estate companies, health companies, lawyers and doctors.
Love what I do and do what I love!
619-800-0577
James@JamesRadina.com
Contact Me Today for a free consultation!

Introducing The Young Entrepreneur Mega InfoGraphic, created by our friends at Infographic World! Below is not only the longest InfoGraphic posted on the Internet, it’s also undoubtedly the most useful to anyone with an Entrepreneurial Mind. Scroll through the image below, and take it all in, and you’ll have all the info you need to start, grow, and manage your Entrepreneurial venture!

Image Source: http://maxcdn.youngentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/11.01.10_YE_001-e1288912259984.jpg

1.  Are your goals personal, professional, or both?

2.  Is your desired target audience private (friends, family, co-workers, personal groups), or public (the world or your industry)?

3.  What resources do you have?  List your strengths and weaknesses.

These questions were derived from a recent Harvard Business Review Article.  One important question they left out is:

What are you passionate about?  This is important because you want it to be easy for you to write and interact and be authentic in everything you do on Social Media.

We would love to help.  Let us know what your goals are.  Or if you have any questions, ask them below in a comment and we will respond!

Here is your Facebook short cut.  Enjoy and Please Share this link with anyone else that wants to save some time and is interested in marketing to all their friends.

Step 1:  This is the new, working 2011 facebook select all friends code. When you are sharing a fan page or an event and it asks you to chose which friends you want to email, paste this code below in the address bar (you know, the URL Bar where www.facebook.com is) at the top of your browser, hit enter, and it will select ALL your friends.  :)

javascript:elms=document.getElementsByName(‘checkableitems[]‘);dn=0;ds=0;ac=0;for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === ‘object’){if (elms[fid].disabled == true){ds++;} else {if (elms[fid].checked == true){ac++;} else {elms[fid].click();dn++;}}}};

Step 2:  Everyone will get your invite so enjoy your growth!

Having trouble, well I shot a quick video:

Here is a quick video demonstration:  How to use facebook cheat code to select all friend for invite…

Need Done For Your Social Media? We can help!

More and more business are starting to use Text Message Marketing, similar to how they would send out bulk email messages.  The big difference, Open Rates are over 90%!  Email open rates are well below 30% today and 48 hour is the average time.  Text messages are on average opened in 4 minutes.

How HUGE is the market?

Looking for communication tool for the masses?  Text message marketing, aka SMS, is the only universal platform that anyone with a cell phone can use.   And the market is HUGE.  Plus there are no downloads that people need in order to receive messages.

• 91% of the US population has a cell phone. That totals 285 million wireless users in the USA as of December 2009.
• There are more mobile phones in the USA than there are PCs.
• 23% of all USA households are “wireless-only” households. They have no land-line.
• More than 152 billion SMS text messages are sent out each month in the USA.

SOL marketing SOLutions, aka SMS, except in this post we will not refer to ourselves as SMS for obvious reasons, offers a true unlimited text message plan.  Unlike companies such as T-Mobile, we do NOT charge per message.  Most companies advertising SMS Marketing for business owners are charging per message.  We charge a flat monthly fee and you can send as many messages as you want!

If you do not need unlimited messages, meaning you do not feel that your list will be greater than a few hundred people, then we have packages starting at $100.

If you have a large list of people subscribed to your email list, a large following, and/ or have big goals for building a Mobile Marketing SOLution, then ask us about our True Unlimited Text Message Marketing Plan… under $500!

Here is a little Secret about SMS Marketing:

To be successful with SMS Marketing, you should have a call to action that takes your customers to a mobile optimized landing page.  Or, insert a clickable phone number that will dial your front desk or a sales person.  We recommend a mobile optimized landing page that informs your audience about your offer and gives them the extra information that will not fit in the 160 character SMS message.  Here are SOL marketing SOLutions, we offer simple low costs mobile marketing landing pages.  Contact Us Today to get set up and receive a free Text Message Consultation!  We know the industry and will help you get into the Mobile Marketing Mindset.

Some Truth Requiring Opt In For Text Message Marketing:

The Answer is Yes!
You must obtain an opt-in for Text Message Marketing.

There are specific guidelines laid out by the Mobile Marketing Associate that says you must obtain approval from customers AND prospects before sending a SMS or MMS message, or any other content, to someone’s cell phone for commercial purposes.  If there is a finacial obligation, this MUST be laid out.  And you must also send instruction about how to quit, usually by texting “STOP” or “QUIT” to the sender.

Here are SOL Marketing SOLutions we follow the rules.  And we would never take on a client that has SPAM in mind.  All of your subscribers must know that they are signing up for text messages and they must know how to easily stop the messages.  It’s a simple reply of “stop” or “quit” here at SOL marketing SOLutions.

Contact Us Today to get set up and receive a free Text Message Consultation!

This “New Twitter” is available to all users, all 160 million of them in over 5 languages. And for those that do not like change, you will be able to switch between the “New Twitter” and “Old Twitter” says Carolyn Penner the spokesperson for Twitter.

This roll out process has been in the works for a while. By the time you read this blog post, the site will be completely turn over.

So what’s so special you may ask?? How about multi-media viewing right from twitter.com. Before, when you clicked on a video or audio, you were taken off the Twitter site. Now you may enjoy it right there inside the “New Twitter.” This includes images.

Also, look for new navigation controls, a drop down menu that you will find at the top of your profile, and a favorite among the social media savvy… the ability to see conversations in a thread on your messages page, making life much easier.

Here at Sol Marketing SOLutions, we have to know… How Do You Like Your “New Twitter?” Want to go back to the Old Twitter? Or are you even going to Twitter these days vs a 3rd Party Client such as HootSuite?

Please leave your comments below.  We will respond and strike up a conversation with you.