Environmental Games, Green Games, & Games for Consciuous Living

Welcome to 2013. We now live in a gamified world. It seems as though the marketplace has fully cought on to the ideas behind gaming, so now you can get “points” for just about anything. I wonder how many points I can get for scratching my ass as I sit here updating my blog?  😉

And that’s exactly the problem with poor gamification in your marketing. It’s not about “I”, “Me”, or “My”. It’s about “US” and “WE”. Carrot and stick rewards will only work for so long, but they do not create any type of loyalty. Real rewards that focus on intrinsic values -things that people really care about, is when gamification can show it’s true potential.

At a lovely coffee shop in Nevada City, CA. -I was recently introduced to a fantastic environmental game. This game, unlike most new games, is not played on an iPad or game system, it is a traditional game with board pieces like chess -only much more engaging than chess and for multiple players. The game is called Paradice.

Paradice – A game of give and take.

In the game Paradice, “Two humans, a Giver and a Taker, vie against each other in hopes of conquering Paradice, but eventually learn that they must work together if Paradice is to survive. Opportunity, a key element of the game, challenges the humans to look past their own points of view and meet eye to eye in order to maintain the balance between giving and taking. Although giving back to the land puts players at a disadvantage, taking from Paradice threatens its existence. It is inside this paradox that the humans discover that Paradice cannot be won, but instead, Paradice is one. Only by achieving united consciousness can the land be saved.” -VisionMagazine.com

We had the pleasure of learning to play Paradice with creator John O’Neill, where we learned of many of his other educational and conscious living games like Icecap, Humanity, and OYL. 🙂

John O’Neill showing us how to play Paradice! 🙂

List of gameWhys environmental and conscious games.

It was so refreshing to play a game that actually means something. So in a quick and easy way I am gamifying this blog post. If you care about real educational and conscious living games designed to save the environment, simply tweet this post out and tag me in it @gamifiXation – when I catch your tag I will make sure to check out your profile and info / Retweet you back out to my own social audience!  😉

Happy 2013 -make the most of it!

How to get 20,000 targeted & REAL fans for $500 (+ shipping) :D

In my whatever years of web surfing, I’ve only gotten the gag-reflex twice. The first time, was when an old Navy buddy suggested I look up a website called “2 girls 1 cup” (please don’t do it)…  And the second time, was when coming across this for the first time:

As someone who makes his living online -it embarrasses me to see crap like this. Companies making profit off of crap -and making MY job that much harder! It’s a pain in the ass trying to explain to clients that “buying” Twitter friends is a waste of time. “But I know someone who did it!” can be so annoying to hear from a potential client. Therefore, I figured I’d blog about it -so that 2 years from now when I’m still sending clients the link to this post -they’ll realize just how far behind they are on this info.

When these so-called “Internet Marketers” and “SEO Experts” with 10, 20, 100,000+ Twitter followers read a Klout score under 40,  only influence a few hundred profiles -you know they’re full of… something. Did those thousands of fans all suddenly… die? Klout allows you to identify the spammers and junk profiles -probably why they get hated on so much.

In comparison to a “Internet Marketer” with 10,000 Twitter fans, my 14 year old daughter who uses Facebook as her primary source of communication -actually influences 10,000 REAL people online, more than double the influence of many top celebrities… what does that tell you?

HOW TO GET 20,000 REAL, TARGETED, LOYAL FANS FOR $500 (+SHIPPING)

Enough about Klout, the rest of this post will explain in detail -how your online brand, whatever it may be -can begin to influence the TARGET market -for cheap! When I say target market -I mean the people online who care about what you have to say. The people who are likely to spread the word about your product or your brand naturally.

For example, If you’re a World Famous DJ trying to engage/increase the size of your core audience, Twitter Followers/Likes etc.  -all you have to do is identify and reward your biggest fans. Let’s do the math on some cheap screen printed shirts. At a dollar per hit, you could have t-shirts printed front and back -one color. Bought in bulk, you can get a decent shirt for $3 or less. That’s about $500 for 100 t-shirts…

With a 100 t-shirts in hand -now all you have to do is identify your biggest fans. Who do YOU influence? Find them and send them a free shirt! I may not have taken the time to accumalate 5,000 Twitter fans of my own -but I DO influence several broadcasters in my niche -some of whom influence thousands of their own followers online. When I receive a +K from strong influencers such as these -says a lot about my work! I want to find the people I influence and tell them “thank you” by giving them something cool –for free! Now, I don’t think I could get Yarrow to wear such a corny shirt, but you get the idea -a famous DJ could easily get their core audience to wear a shirt -and they would wear it often -all the while promoting the artist, a walking, target market billboard.

The average number of Facebook friends for Gen X’ers is now about 200. Therefore, if you find 100 of your strongest fans and reward them with something like a free t-shirt… 100 Fans X 200 (Average Number of Facebook friends) = Now you have the potential to reach 20,000 people along your niche!

How would you engage your target market? BTW, I can get you those prices on shirts!  😉

Klout: Successfully Uses #Gamification -No BullShit! :)

In today’s online world, everyone has a voice -and with a little hard work -anyone can become a broadcaster with their own online audience. There are dozens of platforms that allow you to broadcast and build your own audience. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more -all allow you to grow an audience. Klout is a company that often gets bad press, as it measures your social influence and ranks your score on a 1-100 point system. The higher your Klout score measured -the higher your social influence and or size of your engaged online audience is supposed to be. Unfortunately, Klout is often confused as a popularity contest. I don’t see it as that way at all -at least not for any of my uses of this platform. As a curator who carefully builds audiences for every type of niche you can think of -Klout is my favorite Spam filter! When researching the target audience for my clients, Klout allows me to quickly find the industry mavens along my client’s target market niche or category -which always accelerates the growth of their accounts. Once I find the mavens, finding the right audience for my brands is easy.

Klout Topics Identify the strongest Influencers, allowing you to find the most relevant social media profiles along those niches.

 

Klout measures engagement. If your content is shared by others, Klout can see that. For a while there, I thought the effectiveness of platforms like Twitter may be drowned by spam profiles as more and more caught on to real-time search. However, Klout is a spammer’s profile worst nightmare. When was the last time you retweeted a spam tweet? Klout recognizes spam as well -and rewards spam profiles with low scores. Even more so, Klout tells you how many people online are influenced by a specific profile. So if you come a cross a Twitter profile with 100K followers and their Klout says they influence only 100 people -you know somethings up (those followers were probably purchased through services such as Twiends).  I use Klout as a bullshit checker when reviewing a new Twitter profile or potential business partner, to see if their followers are really engaged -or just a number/spam that they are trying to manipulate.

What about Klout Perks?

On eBay.com, the point structure and game mechanics are actually responsible for much of the platform’s quality assurance. If you had millions of people selling their crap on your site -how would you incentivize them to make sure they shipped their items on time? How would you scale and make sure your sellers are doing a good job? eBay chose to gamify with points and feedback scores. Buyers and sellers reward each other with positive feedback points whenever they are satisfied with the transaction. There is great transparency on eBay. A negative feedback will impact your score for a long time. Buyers and sellers can review the other’s scores and other’s feedback history prior to making purchase decisions.

eBay’s Feedback System uses game mechanics to incentivize buyers and sellers into doing a great job with their transactions.

 

On Klout.com, the point structure also rewards it’s users. As your social influence grows -a registered Klout profile becomes eligible for “perks” -which are rewards from 3rd party vendors or brands partnered with Klout. The higher your Klout score, the better your available perks to choose from will be. There’s a reason why celebrity gifting events take place -brands understand the value in placing their product in the hands of these popular artists. Similiarly, brands are now understanding that the artist doesn’t have to be limited to Hollywood fame -Internet Famous artists are just as valuable. My Klout score recently allowed me a free 3 day trial with the Chevrolet Volt. I scheduled my 3 day trial during a busy driving week. In gas alone, I saved over $100 those 3 days! All was free and rewarded to me based off my Klout score. For all the trash talk I find on Klout.com in my searches online –I still can’t think of another website that has put me in a brand new car for three days (for doing nothing).

I drove around in a brand-new Chevy Volt for 3 days, showed it to my friends, didn’t cost a dime.

 

More thoughts on Gamifying

I’m speaking generally, but the goal of a website -ANY website -is for users to spend their time on the website right? Time on site means many things. It means you are doing a good job of capturing an audience and creating valuable content or curation. It means you have eyeballs fixed on your site. If you have eyeballs on your site, then there is a strong potential for revenue. There are many models for potential revenue from an established online audience to a site.  The site can run ads. It can find sponsors, the site can charge for premium memberships, etc. However, my favorite model is when a site is gamified and rewards/engages with it’s loyal fans at no cost to the users. Adding a points or credit mechanics to a website allows the site to then reward those point recipients accordingly.

The problem with most websites is that they are stuck in “storytelling” mode -and could go much further if they switched modes.  The mediums of the past -print, radio, film, and television -did a good job of accommodating storytelling. The world’s newest medium for spreading stories, the internet, is a much different animal than any traditional medium, much more interactive, allowing much greater engagement with the audience. In addition to traditional “storytelling”, the internet is also a great platform for “storyforming” and “storydwelling”. I suggest this video by Jim Banister to explain the differences in detail.

 

What can you do to add game mechanics to your site or blog? Well, say you have an old website for an art gallery. You go to the site and you have your basic layout -about page, contact page, and maybe a gallery of pictures. This website is running off a storytelling model. By updating the site to a platform like WordPress, Blogger, Joomla, etc. -one can then add game mechanics which in essence convert the same site to a “storyforming” type of model. By adding a Disqus commenting system for example -the fans of the art gallery could comment on the same pictures and begin threads around those works of art that would spread to their social networks. BigDoor.com is doing a great job of implementing game mechanics across the web.

Big K.R.I.T. uses BigDoor’s gamification platform to power social rewards for increased fan engagement.

 

The best part about creating a point system, is that then the site has the option to reward those users. Now the artists have the options to pitch third party vendors as sponsors etc.

Big K.R.I.T. points are redeemable for sweepstakes and real swag!

 

What are your thoughts on Klout and game mechanics? Good or bad? Thank you for reading!

How Do YOU Use Twitter?

How do YOU use Twitter?

I recently had the privilege to begin working with a new business in the local area. This is a new “Bikram” Yoga studio in MarinaDel Rey, Ca. I will be assisting the studio with their social media marketing and design, and hopefully a new line of Yoga clothing and gear that they are interested in starting.

Because this is a brand new Yoga studio, the current Facebook and Twitter pages do not have many followers on them yet. The amount of followers is equivalent to having a real-time online audience (that you can promote your branding and message to on a regular basis). Therefore, it is important to spend time building this audience -regardless of the type of business you have.

As a Social Media curator, one of the sites I use to find targeted fans for my clients is Twellow.com. This site allows you to register your social media profiles and select the main categories you would like to appear in. I uploaded the new profile to Twellow and placed it under correlating categories/keywords to be found in for the type of business.

Furthermore, Twellow.com allowed me to search for targeted online influencers to this specific type of Yoga. Because we are in the Hollywood area, we talked about trying to find Hollywood celebrities that are into Bikram Yoga to come to the new studio. Twellow.com allowed me to target my search and find just that with the search result for Samantha Lockwood.

By mentioning Samantha Lockwood’s Twitter handle, @samanthalock, in a public tweet through the Yoga studio profile  -I was able to catch her attention. In addition to appearing in movies, this Hollywood actress is also a certified Bikram instructor. She not only Re-tweeted the studio’s message to her own 3500+ followers, but is also now communicating with the studio to hopefully teach some classes there -and all was made possible through the use of social media tools!

Thank you for reading. How do YOU use Twitter?

How #QRCodes and #SocialMedia Campaign brought over 100K Facebook Page Views to Local Event

Last October, I was invited to attend HATCH festival in Bozeman, Montana and asked to help with the festival’s social media efforts. This was my first year to attend HATCH (now on it’s 8th year) so I was excited at the opportunity, and wanted to help spread the word, (especially in the Bozeman, Montana area) -about the year’s up and coming HATCH festival.
This year HATCH festival’s social media efforts created a big buzz in the Bozeman, Montana area. The following are some things we did to take advantage of social media:

QR Codes

Since I was going to arrive in Bozeman a few days before the festival, I figured I had enough time to create some additional local marketing buzz. HATCH festival had a team of locals willing to assist in passing out flyers etc. to the local businesses and shops. So, I quickly designed some stickers and flyers with QR Codes to the HATCH YouTube promotional video -which the team was able to distribute as well.

Custom Facebook Landing Page

Several weeks before HATCH festival started, we launched a live custom Facebook landing page for the event. This custom landing page (created by Chisel Industries) is much more attractive than the typical wall stream one would normally find otherwise, with social sharing links and content that increased the chances of new visitors “liking” the page and sharing with their friends upon seeing the page for the first time.

Printed Color Flyers and Posters

For the HATCH festival passes and flyer print work, we teamed up with local Bozeman printing specialists, Speedy Print. We printed out welcome signs for our panel speakers arriving at the airport (with the goal of photographing each and tagging them on Hatch’s Facebook page).

When picking up our HATCH print material, I had the opportunity of introducing myself to Tracey, owner of Speedy Print in Bozeman, Montana. I asked her if the business was on Foursquare? She wasn’t at the time, so I showed it to her on my phone. This was how my check-in appeared when shared to my Facebook wall last October. Checking into the business and sharing allowed a link to the business to appear on my Facebook wall, for any of my friends to see. I encouraged Tracey to confirm her business on Foursquare, allowing her to upload her own business “special” to reward her customers.

Here you can see that Tracey has claimed her business on Foursquare -allowing her to update the website link, phone number, etc. and most importantly -allowing her to create a SPECIAL for her customers on Foursquare. Tracey now has two specials offered to her Foursquare fans, a 10% new customer discount for checking in, plus she also offers a Loyalty Special to customers on their 3rd check-in.

The Foursquare app has a “Specials” section which allows you to shop different types of specials by your GPS radius location. In Speedy Print’s case, her special will be seen when mobile phone users of the Foursquare app search for specials in the Bozeman, Montana area.

With HATCH festival flyers and QR Code stickers in hand, our team of volunteers took to the streets of Bozeman, placing flyers and QR Code stickers at all of the top hang out spots in the area. We placed flyers and stickers at all the local bars, cafes, college campus spots, and local grocery shopping location community boards.

Whenever I personally stopped by a location that was promoting a HATCH flyer, I made sure to check-in on Foursquare and take/upload a few pictures of the local business. Here you can see Music Villa, a cool music shop in Bozeman that assisted in selling HATCH festival tickets. I uploaded 8 pics of their sweet guitars and inventory to their listing on Foursquare for others to see.

Social Event Ticketing Service

This year we sold more tickets than any previous HATCH festival, all of the local shows and panels all 3 days were packed. One of the reasons we were able to increase the sale of tickets this year was the help of TicketCake.com, which is an event ticketing site that rewards users for sharing concert and event information with their friends socially.

On a TicketCake.com event listing, you can get additional info, pics, vids, and options to buy available tickets to the event. There are also sharing opportunities for users of TicketCake.com to earn rewards. Whenever someone with a TicketCake profile shares on their social networks, a hidden link to that person’s profile is embedded, so that if someone buys tickets to that event from that original post -the original sharer or person who tweeted the link is properly rewarded by TicketCake.com.

Each event listing on TicketCake.com also includes a QR Code, which allows someone in a hurry to quickly scan the page and take the information with them on their mobile phone.

Partnering HATCH festival with a social ticketing site like TicketCake.com also allowed further exposure to the festival events through @TicketCake’s real-time Twitter updates, which were blowing up the trending topic threads in #Bozeman and #Montana during the fetival dates.

The 3-day events received over 85 mentions on Twitter that week. Below you can see top ReTweets from Bozeman locals @BozemanFoodCoop and @tedxbozeman.  🙂

And the HATCH festival Facebook page received an enormous increase in traction. New Likes were up, as well as Feedback and Post Views. In the weeks leading up to the event and shortly afterward -the HATCH festival Facebook page itself received over 100,000 views! 100K people looking at your ads is about the size of two sold out baseball stadiums.

This type of targeted local exposure to an event would have cost tens of thousands through paid campaigns and traditional media. However, through the use of social media marketing, this year we were able to promote the festival effectively and at a minimum cost.

Have you used Social Media and QR Codes in your events and marketing? How are you using the latest in apps, mobile, and social to increase your brand awareness? Thank you for reading!

PS. What’s HATCH you say? Check out the following vids:

Social Loyalty: The missing ingredient to @BestBuy's success

Today I drove by a busy retail area of Manhattan Beach, CA. As I entered the shopping area, I noticed the largest store with the prime location -a Borders book store that was recently closed. This was disappointing to see, as I always enjoyed going to these large book stores and often spent hours inside them browsing through the aisles. In the blogospheres, similiarly marketed Barnes and Noble stores don’t seem to be faring any better than Borders -the rapid adoption of the iPad and tough competition from sites like Amazon -seem to have been more than Borders could handle.

I parked my vehicle in the abundant spaces in front of Borders and walked a few stores over to the Best Buy, luckily they’re still in business. I had read several online articles regarding BestBuy’s increasing struggles as well (with competitors like Amazon kicking ass online), so with this visit I was wondering if Best Buy is doing anything different -as to not suffer the same fate as Borders book store did next door to them.

At the front entrance I noticed a big sign “Gaming Trade-in Available”. I gruntled at the sight of this ad, disliking it and whomever thought of this ridiculous idea up in the Best Buy corporate headquarters… How is this going to create loyal Best-Buy customers? How is this going to create a renewed growth and interest in the Best-Buy brand? And, is Best-Buy aware that there are already thousands of smaller niche game shops around the country that will always do a better job at gaming trade-ins?

As I entered the Best Buy I was noticing how much it looks like any other big box store inside, this could easily be a Costco or Wal-Mart. There is nothing unique about a Best-Buy was my immediate impression. If I was the bozo in charge of creating Best-Buy advertisements, I would create social loyalty through geo-location social mobile apps -such as Foursquare and recently purchased by Facebook, Gowalla (congrats Andy!). With huge signs at the entrance allowing Best Buy customers to check-in, alerting their social graphs wherever they may be (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

I walked on over to the home theatre area, noticing the holiday signs. There were several of these large holiday signs throughout the store, but they were so boring I thought hardly worth reading. Wouldn’t it be much cooler if the ads sparked the customer’s curiosity? An ad that would allow the customer to engage with the Best-Buy brand? With a QR Code, Best-Buy could easily accomplish that.  😉

So, with all these thoughts racing through my head on how to save Best-Buy from suffering the same collapse as Borders’ book stores, I decided to do Best-Buy a favor and check-in on Foursquare. I was going to share my check-in on Facebook to notify my social graph. Maybe that post would be enough to remind my friends of their own need to complete a holiday purchase I thought. I pulled out my phone to open the Foursquare app, but before doing so, I knew I was going to need a wifi connection. Standing inside the largest electronics store in the United States -I figured I would easily be able to login to Best Buy’s free customer wifi… haha, yeah right!

Upon searching the available wifi networks inside Best-Buy, I did not see anything resembling a Best-Buy service. I showed my phone screen to a Best-Buy clerk and said “Excuse me, which network do I select as a Best-Buy customer for the free wifi”. The clerk looked confused and walked me over to another employee who was busy on the phone. When finally asked, the second employee annoyingly said “It’s called Best-Buy”, but before I could finish responding that there was no “Best-Buy” on the wifi list he quickly said “it goes in and out all the time” -as if I didn’t already know that, and basically telling me to stop asking him. “Oh ok, thank you” I responded.

I was a little disappointed with that answer from the first two employees I asked, and I really wanted to check-in with a wifi service rather than paying for this check-in by using my 3G service. Also, there are a plethora of iPod touch users out there -who could also take advantage of check-in apps, but do not have the option of using a 3G network -Best Buy is missing out on those check-ins as well.  I walked on over to the Geek Squad desk to inquire further about the wifi situation. While standing in line, I couldn’t help but notice the Geek Squad sign that said “Check in” -at which point I was thinking I should make a blog post of these thoughts.

In the five minutes I waited in line to Check-in, I could have actually checked in!

When it was my turn to be helped, I asked the customer service employee about the wifi situation, to which I was told “we have a wifi but it’s password protected”. I asked “so there isn’t a wifi connection for customers to use and test out wifi electronic devices?” to which I was replied “no, we don’t have customer wifi here, when we did, customers would try to hack our servers and would also look up porn”. I was a little shocked by that answer, lol, and said “ok, thank you -no worries” before I started to leave.

As I began to exit, I couldn’t help but think of the missed opportunities for Best Buy here. What a great area to remind customers of the ability to check-in and save on their purchase -at the same time creating Best-Buy brand awareness all across Facebook walls across the country, unfortunately without internet access -the chances of Best Buy customers performing this action is very small.

I had written about Best Buy’s potential ability to take advantage of check-in services and geo-location in the past. This is a new marketing technique that Best-Buy could use to it’s advantage, and hopefully they figure it out before it’s too late. Amazon, as great as a job they are doing online, do not have the ability to create geo-location campaigns and share their branding through mobile phone check-ins. Amazon does not have a physical store location in every major city for their customers to mobile check-in, like Best-Buy does.

As I’m making my last turn out the exit path of a purchasing shopper -couldn’t help but think what a great place to make the final reminder. Why is capturing “Likes” and “Follows” important? Nielsen calls them “earned media impressions”. Being that it was the evening of December 5th when I visited this store, in the prime of holiday shopping season (and not a single shopper in line to purchase) -I really think Best-Buy should pay attention to social loyalty marketing.

Walking out of Best Buy 15 minutes later with no purchases in hand, I decided to grab a coffee before heading home to gather my thoughts for this blog post. Still annoyed that the country’s largest electronics retailer didn’t offer wifi to check-in, I decided to reward Starbucks for doing it right, starting with this picture I took through my phone.

Needing to tap into a wifi source to perform this check-in, I selected the “attwifi” network -which is what Starbucks normally names their networks and I know this from prior uses. However, I think it would be smarter to call these networks “ATTStarbucksWIFI” to be easily identified as Starbucks’s wifi to new customers that may not be aware.

This reminded me of a great guerilla marketing video I wanted to share along this same exact subject!  🙂

With my free customer wifi finally engaged at Starbucks, I was able to open my Foursquare app and quickly find the Starbucks location to check-into.

In addition to selecting the Facebook and Twitter share option, I also decided to upload the photo I took.

In the text description I included the #wifi and #coffee hashtag links, allowing the post further virability on the Twitter copy of this post.

Sharing the Starbucks check-in on Facebook allows the post to be seen on my profile wall, and also appears on the newsfeed section of Facebook. The Facebook post includes “Like” and “Comment” links, which allow any of my 400+ social graph friends to engage with this post.

Foursquare’s successful implementation of game mechanics onto their app rewards me with points and status. If Starbucks wanted to take it to the next level, they could easily create their own app for customers to check-in and earn rewards instantly -as Carl’s Jr. has done for their own customers in line with their rewards app.

With check-in complete and grande (err medium size) coffee in hand, I drove home to begin on this post… What are your thoughts on geo-location apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla, how would you use them to create social loyalty to your brand or business? Thanks for reading!!!  😀

How @BestBuy can #BitchSlap @WalMart & put @Amazon in price check w #Gamification

January 2002. I was living in Salt Lake City going to college under the Navy’s ROTC program. I was 26 years old, not your average ROTC student. I was a ‘prior enlisted’ -someone who had been to the fleet out of high school and made enough a name for themselves that they earned the right to go to college. And I have to admit, I was quite the badass in the military as an enlisted. I can recall that by the time I had served my first 3 years, I had accomplished more than most enlisted sailors do in a 20 year career span.

So, 2002, I was attending Westminster College in Salt Lake City on this scholarship, with the original intentions of going back to the military afterwards. There would have been some nice perks to that return. I would have returned and been saluted as an officer, but even more so -my uniform as an officer would bear the ‘Good Conduct’ medal -which only enlisted sailors were awarded -recognizable immediately by any enlisted sailor who salutes you. Also, I was qualified as an Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist -on one of the newest and baddest ships in the world -and wore the Navy ESWS pin on my uniform because of that -meaning I was a pro in ALL my ship’s systems and ratings -not just my own, and at the time was the youngest sailor on my ship (and one of about 5 on the entire West Coast) to have earned this qualification at the young rank of 3rd class Petty Officer. Going back to active duty would have made me a true role model for the enlisted sailors waiting for me -and I’m sure I would have done great things.

However, the Navy made a few mistakes in their ROTC system for outstanding fleet returnees like myself. They allowed their top sailors and performers a chance at civilian life. Not only that, but they mixed in experienced leaders like myself with 19-21 year old kids who had never stepped foot on a military vessel before -and told these same kids that they had SouthPark Cartman cartoon-like ‘rank’ and ‘authority’ over their ROTC divisions. So, when a rusty and experienced pro like myself was a 26 year old freshman in college -I had to take orders from a senior ‘midshipman’ who was 5-8 years younger than me -and didn’t have a clue! I had literally flushed more seawater down the commode than these midshipman had ever seen.

The Navy tried to make up for this crappy situation with a scholarship. And I was able to use my GI Bill and College Fund I had invested in while on active duty -during these college years. But, the thing is, even with a tax-free GI Bill payment and the Navy’s college fund etc. -I was still making more money working part-time 3-4 days a week at the local Comp USA computer store. I was addicted to electronics having served 5 years on the highest-tech ship in the world. In fact, most of my ROTC friends had part-time sales jobs in electronics retail, I remember a handful of my friends were killing it at the local Circuit City with commissions.

BEST-BUY GONE AND DONE TOOK MY JOB!

Then the zombie-programmed non-commision Best-Buy blue shirts started taking over. I was still working at Comp USA in sales when the Best-Buy’s in Salt Lake City were announced. Shortly afterward, our commission structure at CompUSA disappeared. I stayed around for a couple weeks, but when I saw my next check -it was “see you later” CompUSA! And Best Buy shortly after swallowed them and Circuit City up -and spat out their carcasses to be leased out once a year for selling overpriced cheap China Halloween plastics.

And what can I say, when I first walked into a Best-Buy I thought it was pretty cool. Lots of eye candy for geeks. The internet was still young back then, so Best-Buy took advantage. Instead of a sales commission team -they hired a low hourly non-commission team to man the floor. With their Big-box Wal-Mart methods and low pricing, Best-Buy was able to win that first battle -wiping out most of their competition other than Wal-Mart’s electronics department -which use to be pretty small.

WALMART SAYS I WANT SOME OF THOSE HDTV SALES TOO

Have you seen the electronics department at the “super-size-me” Wal-Mart’s lately? They’ve all expanded since and are taking advantage of the long gone Circuit City’s and CompUSA’s. And now, you’re hearing that the almighty Best Buy is starting to suffer with the rising tide of competitors like Amazon.com and beyond. I can now go to my local Best-Buy to scan all the things I want with my phone –and instantly buy them for less and with free shipping having them sent to my house. Since I gave up my car almost 2 years ago to reduce my carbon footprint –this is an ideal way for someone like me to shop for a new television. And this is an example, I don’t even want one of those big t.v.’s…

WALMART IS CURRENTLY DOING A BETTER JOB ONLINE

I find it a shame that Wal-Mart -a big box company that offers a wide-variety of everything -is doing a better job online than a company who’s focus is supposed to be tech, gadgets, tv’s, computers, etc.

So here’s how Best Buy is doing it. On the Best Buy site, if you go to the ‘Shops & Deals’ Tab -you can select from about 9 items in the drop down -one of which is ‘Featured Offers’.

After about 5 or more clicks from the home page, I found a digital camera on sale on the Best Buy website. They offer a $30 discount on this item, free shipping, customer ratings to review, and they seem social in that I have the ability to tweet and share this on Facebook. That’s cool and all… if I had a reason to share this on Facebook and Twitter -I’m not just going to share this for the sake of sharing it just yet -that would be so dummmmb! 😉

And what about Walmart? How do they promote their featured items? Well, very similar to Best Buy’s setup -Walmart has a ‘Value of the Day’ tab.

However, instead of finding a special item 5 clicks later -on Walmart’s site I instantly see a great deal and price, with a strong call to action and urgency. It’s very clean and everything seems to fit smoothly, unlike Best Buy’s site.

And when I click on that special, Walmart also has FREE SHIPPING, and customer ratings, and the ability to share and tweet –which I still am not going to do -especially for Walmart!!! I’m not about to give Walmart of all companies -free advertising to all of my friends. HOWEVER, do you see the difference? Walmart included a Facebook “Like” button, which Best Buy did not. As you can see, 277 have Facebook Liked this offer -it’s a lot easier to “Like” something than it is to share it for some reason, which has given this page the additional chance to go viral when otherwise it couldn’t. I guarantee you the number of Facebook “shares” is tremendously lower than “Likes” for this page. Best Buy isn’t getting ANY of this.  😛

So, based on their respective target audiences and websites. It would seem that Walmart has the upper hand. It would seem that slowly but surely the bigger box giant will swallow up the big-box electronics-focused giant. How can Best Buy #win?

SO HOW CAN BEST BUY #WIN, KICK WAL-MART TO THE CURB, AND IMPROVE ONLINE SALES TO COMPETE WITH AMAZON?

Have you read any of my previous blog posts? Well, then you already know what I’m going to say the answer to that is… GAMIFICATION.

Yes folks, Gamification can SAVE Best-Buy from their current situation, would be an advantage to them over Wal-Mart, and could even put Amazon’s bitch-azz in in check (just kidding Amazon I ❤ U even tho it’s been a super-pain to convert my first marketing guide in PDF to your eBook format).

This is just a basic basic example of applied game mechanics to get your minds going, but through the use of a FREE Big Door Mini-Bar -Best Buy could reward users of their website with badges and points for things like leaving reviews, checking into the site, sharing on their social networks etc. -even more so, Best Buy could be tying affiliate links into those user shares -so that if I post a Best Buy item on my Facebook wall for example, and somebody buys it from that same link wherever it lands in cyberspace -I can be properly rewarded for that sale.

By gamifying -Best Buy would be giving their mavens and loyal shoppers a reason to promote socially that they previously didn’t have. The points earned for sharing create a virtual economy and even STRONGER loyalty to the Best Buy brand. That Sony HDTV is on Sale at BOTH Walmart and Best Buy -for about the same price. Hmm… they BOTH have free shipping. But wait a minute! All the feedback and reviews I uploaded on BestBuy.com over the past year have totalled more than 5,000 points to date -earning me the ‘TECH REVIEW GURU” badge on their newly gamified system. And it is well known that ALL holders of this coveted Best Buy badge receive an additional 10% OFF on EVERY purchase -in addition to existing sales. Where am I going to buy this TV now??? BEST BUY of course!!!

Do you see where I’m going with this? All of a sudden, with a gamified platform Best Buy could create tremendous loyalty amongst it’s customers. And what about Walmart? Can they gamify? Yes they can, but who’s going to be the first one to start posting Walmart badges on their Facebook walls etc? Not me, I made a vow not to support them over a year ago, promoting Walmart to earn points is not something I would be proud of, -at least not until Walmart stops selling all the crap I’m personally against -which is why I think Best Buy can focus on this niche and win -for them, gamifying should be right up their alley and in keeping with their niche (HDTV’s, phones, gadgets, computers, etc.).

AND DON’T FORGET ABOUT AMAZON

So what about Amazon? Their shopping platform is even better than Walmart’s, has better reviews and user engagement. They also offer free shipping. They even have their own Amazon Price Check App, which allows you to scan or say anything to search for a better price on Amazon. They could also gamify their site and be successful with it and create virtual economies and stronger loyalties.

It would seem as if Amazon is starting to get the upper hand in this scenario. Low overhead, less maintenance, extremely competitive -and can offer the same products as the big box electronics stores now can. So what can Best Buy do to compete with Amazon before it’s too late? They need to start taking advantage of those extra expenses they are paying to have physical stores all around the country. For Best Buy…

LOCATIONS LOCATIONS LOCATIONS = MORE CHECK-INS AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Best Buy needs to pay attention to what they DO have that Amazon.com will never be able to compete with. Stores… hundreds of them all over the country -in comparison to one competitor.

More stores equals more physical locations that their loyal customers could be checking in and earning points for doing so. Points that would add to their existing Best Buy Loyalty points. When customers start performing these check-ins at store locations and sharing on millions of personal Facebook walls -Best Buy would get a dramatic increase in traffic, both online and in-store -dwarfing the Facebook and Twitter impressions created by Amazon users.

Hey Barnes and Noble, you seem to be suffering from the same-type symptoms as Best Buy –pay attention to my blog posts!!!  😉

I guess in the same way a Lakers fan will root for Dallas when they get their asses kicked on the way to the finals -I’m rooting for Best Buy -who took out my old college part-time job back in the day.

And Rest in Peace Circuit City!!!

#Gamification: The ONLY Fair Option for Your Company Sales Team

I was recently blessed with a new business to work with. Interpret  is a leading entertainment, media and technology measurement and market research firm with headquarters located in Santa M0nica, CA. 🙂

In assisting with Interpret’s social media presence, I’m taking my usual steps. However, one of the obvious reasons for even spending effort on Social Loyalty is profits. Yes, there will be plenty of exposure and branding, engagement, etc. -but at the end of the day, we want to see some awesome leads generated -that turn into additional business and real $$$ for the company.

Well, Interpret has 90+ employees. The company hasn’t had to focus on their social media, but as more and more business is being conducted online -it is important to keep up with their online efforts. And if the company Social Media presence is the Lead-Generation tool that it’s supposed to become -then how can the company share that presence fairly amongst all it’s sales staff? Should one control the social media accounts and all passwords to the company blog –dividing leads as they see fit? I’ve worked on sales teams like this before, it’s not cool.  😦

What happens when the BIG lead comes in through social media? You know, the one that can make headlines, lead to early retirements, etc. Who on your sales team gets that lead in this method? If you’re on the sales team this doesn’t seem very fair does it? It doesn’t really make you want to share any of your company’s website amongst your peers. What if you’re new at the company? I wouldn’t want to share in this method either. I have worked hard for my social network -they are my capital R-E-A-L friends that I have worked hard to develop R-E-A-L relationships with throughout my entire life. If I’m going to expose them to my company product in an effort that they or any of their friends seeing my ad become clients, and bring my company $$$ -I want to make sure I’m given credit for that and properly compensated.

Does any of that sound familiar in your situation? Even prior to social media this seems to have always been an issue. What’s the answer? Well, I think it’s obvious that Gamification is the answer.

As mentioned in my previous post, Gamification could give Netflix the boost it needs so that their competition never catches up. Currently, a lot of Netflix’s competition has a chance. As also mentioned in my last post, the BigDoor “Mini-Bar” is a free Gamification tool that you can install on your company’s website -and would rest across the bottom of each of your company’s website pages.

The mini-bar allows anyone to easily login with Facebook. Through points or badges, you can reward your sales staff for checking-into or sharing any of the company pages or blog articles. You would have to be careful when designing the gamification, but could easily accomplish this in a manner that doesn’t turn the staff off by playing. I would highly recommend your company devs and social media gurus to read “Drive” by Daniel Pink and several others before designing any rewards.

Now, before your brain starts to wander and think if this is worth it for YOUR company (you don’t want to add points or badges/games), keep in mind, that NOW your company has the ability to properly reward the originating sharer with their rightly deserved commission for finding the social lead. And you don’t have to be so focused on the game aspect. Through a BigDoor gamified platform, now, your social media manager would have the ability to go to John Doe and say “John, I’ve notified the senior management that the company blog post you shared has received over 1000 views –just from your link, great job! ” (“And we’re taking you to lunch!”) 😉

Through a gamified platform like the BigDoor mini-bar, which has affiliate tracking -all of a sudden, the company knows exactly who in their staff shared what -and who responded to it from where. So, if the big client responds to an ad shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eMail, or whatever method the member of the sales team originally posted from –no matter how many people later RT or continue to share that across the internets -the ad will always be tied to the originating affiliate link poster’s profile -giving that specific sales team member credit for the lead. It was through that persons social network that the lead came from -so there should be NO argument from anyone else as to who gets the credit or commission.

Gamification will take away blame, confusion, and anger over the treatment of your company’s web leads. Instead of anger that another sales team member received a strong web lead as a “gift” from their manager, or because they were ranking in seniority or other reasons -they will be happy that their sales team member earned extra pay from their additional social media efforts. Gamification will then also incentivize the rest of your sales team members to start working on their own social networks to promote with. No more arguments -just a bunch of focused team members!  😉

And what is the end result? Now you have all of your employees -however many it may be –all with their own megaphones and engaging with their social spheres/ target market -on behalf of their company –sweeeet! It’s a win-win-win situation -if that employee ever leaves they’ll always regard this company as the reason they started working on their own social graphs (which always belong to them) -and because of that will surely have nothing but good things to say about the co. even after departure.  🙂

Comments, feedback, suggestions, please share, Retweet, hit the LinkedIn button y’all! 😀

Adding QR Codes to PRINT for @GoogleMaps Directions

Today I picked up the local newspaper to check if a QR Code I created for a local business is working properly. If you are a subscriber to The Park Record -you may be familiar with The Grub Steak Restaurant’s regular placement on the top right of the A-3 page in the paper. However, this week’s ad was a little different -in that their ad also included a QR Code. As you may or not already know, you can easily install a ‘QR Code Reader’ App on your iPhone or Android, which with the use of your phone camera -basically turns your phone into a scanner (like at the grocery stores). With this app installed on your phone, you would simply hold your phone up to the advertisement and let it scan. The scanned code will instantly take you to the designated URL. In this case, we wanted people that scanned to be given directions to the restaurant -so we chose the Google Places listing page for the business as the URL. When the QR Code is scanned -this is what users will see on their phone. And once there, you can take advantage of the Google Map feature to get quality directions. In my case -I choose walking.  😉 QR Codes are awesome. Thank you for reading. How are you using these little guys? Please share! 🙂