Harnessing the power of gamification can significantly enhance the impact of your advocacy program. By integrating game mechanics effectively, you can motivate, engage, and recognize advocates, driving the desired behaviors and outcomes. 

What is a Gamification Strategy? 

A Gamification strategy is the integration of game elements, like points and leaderboards, into non-gaming environments. For advocacy programs, it motivates participation, celebrates accomplishments, and fosters a competitive spirit. 

Importance of Gamification Strategies 

Gamification amplifies engagement, motivates behavior, fosters community, and provides valuable insights. It ensures advocates remain active, motivated, and aligned with program goals. 

Recommended Gamification Strategies 

Reignite the Spirit, Reset the Game: Periodically resetting leaderboards can invigorate participation, giving all advocates an equal chance to shine. 

• Contests and Challenges: Design contests with varying durations - weekly, monthly, quarterly. Clearly outline the goals, rules, and rewards to maximize participation. 

• Mix Things Up: Diversify your reward criteria to prevent predictability and ensure a broader pool of winners. Rotate rewards, adjust points, and modify winning conditions. 

• Clear and Constant Communication: Keep advocates informed about leaderboards, point systems, and other gamification aspects through various channels like email, Slack, or Teams notifications. 

• Promote Sharing with Gamification Multipliers: Encourage sharing of critical posts by offering enhanced points. This ensures important messages get the traction they deserve. 

• Channel Level Gamification: Reward users based on the engagement their posts receive. This approach prioritizes quality over quantity and discourages spammy behaviours. 

• Advocacy Site-Level Gamification: Customize gamification elements according to your primary objectives. Assign higher points to priority actions and limit points for excessive activity to prevent spamming. 

• Personalize with Customizable Badges: Offer unique badges for various achievements. Personalized badges can serve as motivation boosters and status symbols within the advocacy community. 

• Diverse Leaderboards: Implement multiple leaderboards for different contests, timeframe, or user categories. This approach maintains freshness in competition and motivates a broader group of advocates. 

• Beyond Monetary Rewards: Diversify rewards. Sometimes, a mention in a company meeting or a LinkedIn recommendation can be more impactful than monetary incentives. 

• Celebrate All Advocates: Recognize everyone's contribution. Ensure that rewards and recognition are not limited to just the top performers but extend to all active participants. 

• Educate and Update: Regularly inform users about any platform changes, point system updates, and reward criteria. A well-informed advocate is an engaged advocate. 

By strategically employing these gamification techniques, advocacy programs can maintain prominent levels of engagement, foster a sense of community, and achieve their desired objectives. It is all about knowing your audience, understanding what motivates them, and leveraging that knowledge for maximum impact.