Silicon Valley Business Journal covered the event, highlighting Salyer’s assertion that “the term ‘gamification’ is the worst thing to happen to gamification.” According to Salyer, gamification isn’t simply play: rather, it’s more about providing incentives for and reinforcing desired behaviors with rewards.

Check out the full article here, and see the video below for the full panel:

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

There’s no denying that social media has made an impact on businesses everywhere. The affordability and ease of use has given companies with limited marketing budgets a chance to market themselves like never before. It is said that 86% of companies worldwide have a presence on Facebook or Twitter. And while there are many obvious benefits for businesses to embrace social media such as promotions, finding brand ambassadors, and sharing interesting content, there is one very important aspect to social media that is too often overlooked – social media sentiment.

Social media sentiment is the feeling or tone of voice behind an individual’s or community’s comments or interaction on your social media accounts. But this meaning goes much deeper than the positive, negative, neutral classification that is usually based on word indicators. Never before have marketers had a free and easy way to find out exactly how their customer base feels about various company decisions. This immediate and genuine insight into how their customers feel and react, allows marketers to be more agile and adjust quickly to changes in sentiment. Before social media was considered mainstream, marketers would host surveys and focus groups in order to get the details now available to them on various social media platforms. But even today with so much social sentiment data available many struggle to use this information to their benefit.

Since the nature of social media is to share, much of what is shared expresses some sort of feeling. People’s opinions, complaints, praise, and general rants are all data available on the web and when used properly can help businesses succeed. But the data available can be overwhelming with an estimated 100,000 tweets and 684,478 pieces of content shared on Facebook each minute, it’s no wonder people have a hard time marking sense of it. Understanding the pulse of the conversation can help companies avoid PR disasters and even have a sense of how a product release might fare. The key to identifying shifts in sentiment is by actively tracking this as part of your social media efforts.

To get the best understanding of social sentiment it is wise to monitor this metric like you would any other marketing related metric. Check regularly to see how your social sentiment is tracking overtime and around certain events. By paying special attention to sentiment around the time of product releases, busy seasons, expected or unexpected press, product discontinuations, and more you’ll be able to compare the data from these events with your baseline data. This comparison will identify dips or surges in sentiment and have you prepared to react – whether that feeling be temporary or permanent, being aware of your social sentiment is important.

One brand that has recently used social media sentiment to listen and learn from their customers’ experiences is J.C. Penny. The brand has been under fire for the last year for some changes made at the corporate level that affected end users. Hoards of customers took to social media to express their disapproval. Yet rather than ignoring the negative sentiment the brand decided to use social media as a way to connect with their customers and understand why the changes didn’t work. In their recent “apology tour” as some journalists have dubbed it, J.C. Penny asked for feedback, took polls, and acted on this information to get themselves in better standing with their customers.

The immediate changes would not have been remedied as quickly has they not been paying close attention to their social media sentiment. When planning your social media strategy, make sure to include social media sentiment as a metric to track. If you are having trouble capturing your sentiment, use a tool like Viralheat to help you understand and quantify this critical data.

About the author: Courtney Kettmann is the Community Manager at Viralheat, a social media intelligence company. As an early adapter to social media, Courtney has always been interested in the way people interact with one another through technology. During the work week you’ll find her managing Viralheat’s blogger network, writing blog posts and contributed articles, and interacting with Viralheat’s community through social. You can reach online @courtkettor by email at courtney@viralheat.com.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

Below is a rundown of the event, “Breakfast Club: Gamification of Everything,” taken from the official event website:

Bing Gordon of Kleiner Perkins predicted in 2012 that gamification, the idea of using game design and game mechanics to influence people’s behavior in non-entertainment contexts, will see explosive growth within five years. As digital natives increasingly multi-task, and as the social web creates geometric growth in posts, the next battle is for engagement. Looking ahead, as gaming converges with diverse markets from healthcare and fitness to travel, ecommerce, and more, where are the greatest opportunities for innovation and business growth? Don’t miss this candid and visionary conversation with the founder of a leading gamification company who is widely known as the “father of gamification,” the head of a prominent computer science department focusing on gamification, and CEO of a fast-growing social/gamification company.

Find out more details and register for the event here.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

We’ve already espoused the benefits of social data, but it’s just as important for the businesses handling this data to understand how to use it responsibly. In other words, social data is only as valuable as a business’s ability to properly leverage it, which means respecting users’ rights and delivering value to socially registered customers.

Because of the sensitive nature of social data, it’s crucial for businesses to practice discernment and integrity while handling users’ information. To boil it down, here are some tips businesses should follow to handle users’ data like a PRO:

Protection

Users have a right to be protective about their personal data. Partner with your users in protecting their data privacy rights by clearly communicating the terms of use of their data prior to registration. As a rule of thumb, it’s always better to over-communicate than to lose your customers’ trust as a result of some miscommunication over how their data is being used.

Relevancy

Social data always begins with social login. When implementing social login, practice discernment by only presenting the options that are relevant to your users. For example, it wouldn’t be strategic for an e-commerce website to offer LinkedIn as a social sign-in option, as you hardly see any LinkedIn users sharing their latest personal purchases with their professional networks.

Options

Give your users some registration and sign-in options instead of limiting them to a single social network. Not only are users more likely to log in socially when presented with a few different options, but providing more than one choice for social login also allows users to connect multiple social networks to their accounts, which, in turn, increases the data points your business can collect.

To sum it up, businesses would be apt to practice the Golden Rule when asking users to share their information. As a user, wouldn’t you want businesses to protect your data and present relevant sign-in options? The premise is really quite simple: do with your users’ data as you would have others do unto yours–handle it like a PRO.

For the whole overview of what social data is and can do for your business, check out our white paper, Harnessing Big Data to Grow Revenue.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

Other benefits of social login include increased account registrations, increased return on advertising spend, and reduced support costs.

The impact of social login for businesses is invaluable. But we’ll let the numbers speak for themselves. See the following infographic for a closer look at how social login impacts any digital marketing strategy:

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

Last April, the company launched its B Connected Social program using Gigya’s gamification technology and share plugins. An extension of Boyd Gaming’s hugely successful B Connected loyalty rewards program, B Connected Social integrates elements of competition and social sharing to create a highly addictive user experience.

Upping the Ante with Social Infrastructure

Boyd Gaming’s B Connected Online, which personalizes the virtual B Connected experience for members, comprises over 700,000 registered users. With a strong user base already in place, the company enriched its user experience by making it possible for users to earn points for completing and sharing desired activities on the site.

To boost brand awareness, Boyd Gaming incentivizes sharing across social channels by implementing share plugins on its site and offering “social points” for desired user actions such as linking their site accounts with their social network accounts, sharing promotions and events with their online networks, and checking in on Foursquare or Facebook at a Boyd Gaming Casino. Virtual points can then be exchanged for real-world giveaways such as vacations, iPads, slot dollars, and gift certificates.

By amplifying its user base over its online channels, Boyd Gaming successfully combines its offline and online presence while strengthening its brand loyalty and increasing user referrals. In essence, the company turns its customers into loyal PR advocates that continually engage with its site and return to its casino and hotel properties.

Boyd Gaming Hits the Jackpot in User Acquisition

Boyd Gaming’s B Connected Social is the first online social gaming platform connected to a casino loyalty program. As innovators in the space, Boyd Gaming has enjoyed a considerable number of victories since launching B Connected Social, which include the following:

• Over 700,000 visits to its B Connected Online site a month after launching B Connected Social, a record in its site traffic history
• Over 115,000 game-based actions performed each month on average by B Connected members
• Over 35,000 shares across users’ social networks, resulting in more than three social referrals per share
• A 30.4% increase in all social check-ins across all Boyd Gaming outlets

Based on the numbers alone, it’s difficult to deny the value of social infrastructure. Betting on social boosted Boyd Gaming’s user engagement and adoption numbers; and as more businesses begin follow suit with social integration, it’s important that they have the right tools and systems in place to breed an online environment that encourages and incentivizes desired user actions.

If you’re looking to win in the game of social, check out our guide to social infrastructure.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

Despite the talk about big data, though, there hasn’t been much guidance on how it can be responsibly and directly used to add value to businesses and online audiences. To shed some light on some best practices, we’ve put together a white paper that addresses the following big data questions:

• How is social data captured, stored, and managed?
• What are some best practices for collecting user data?
• What are ways that social data can be used to deliver direct value to businesses and consumers?

Download the white paper today to learn how you can start making big data an effective part of your social marketing strategy.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

Today, we’re excited to announce that we have integrated the new Google+ Sign-in into Gigya’s Social Login and deployed it across client sites such as AmericanIdol.com (Fox Broadcasting Company).

To help businesses gain a deeper understanding of how Google+’s new sign-in adds value to websites that offer it as a registration and login option, we’ve pulled together some ways Google+ Sign-in creates more streamlined user experiences.

Over-the-Air Installs Make Mobile App Discovery Quicker and Easier

Today’s connected consumers are likely interacting with your brand on their computers and mobile devices. Google+’s Over-the-Air Installs allow companies to link their mobile apps with their websites, making mobile app discovery and adoption smoother and simpler.

With Over-the-Air Installs, users that log in to a web property with Google+ are prompted with the option to send that website’s corresponding Android app to their mobile devices. The process from sign-in to mobile app download takes seconds, happens seamlessly, and helps drive more engagement both over the web and across mobile devices.

Interactive Posts Drive Desired Actions

Google+’s Interactive Posts enables mobile app users to send personalized, action-oriented posts to their Google+ network. This allows businesses to promote desired user actions within their Android app such as “write a review,” “buy an item,” “check in,” or “sign up” and encourages specific user behaviors by making it possible for users to share unique call-to-actions with their social connections.

By customizing actions within mobile apps, businesses can exercise more direct influence over user sharing and actions. For instance, an e-commerce mobile app that displays a “buy” button clearly communicates its prominent call-to-action. When a user clicks “buy” and shares the action across his Google+ network, his recipients that click through the Interactive Post are redirected back to the corresponding place in the app where they can purchase the shared item.

With the addition of Google+ as a social login option, businesses now possess an even wider spectrum of opportunities when it comes to capturing actionable user data. To learn more about how social login and big data benefits your business, read our Complete Guide to Social Infrastructure.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya

With gamification, both parties win: users have a good time engaging in some friendly competition over your web properties, and businesses get value from these returning customers as they spend more time interacting with the website and sharing their actions across their social networks.

To show just how gamification impacts online user behavior, we’ve pooled data from thousands of Gigya implementations last year. The results? Websites with gamification experienced a 29 percent increase in site actions overall.

The infographic below breaks the data down and settles the question once and for all: gamification isn’t all fun and games. Well, only in the literal sense, at least.

-Emma Tzeng, Marketing @gigya