As entrepreneurs, I’d say the majority of us do this because we want our life to have meaning, and most importantly, we don’t want it to be boring. And never before has this truly been an option. With the advent of modern technology, we are essentially — as Elon Musk calls us — cyborgs, and we can take our professional life entirely off the grid. So much so that I’m writing this article tethered to my phone, looking at this:

That’s fantastic and all, but how do we also make the world fun, and most importantly, engaging for the people who pay us, and our co-workers. Easy… you make it a game.

 

Gigya, a gamification service that supplies 50% of the ComScore 100 with services, has observed the patterns of over 1.5 billion surfers, and found that it increases engagement significantly:

 

Specifically:

 

Commenting: +13%

Social sharing: +22%

Content discovery: +68%

 

Overall, Gigya found that, on average, brands utilizing gamification increased their site engagement by 29%; which is an astounding number by any measure. Especially for generally easy to implement strategies such as leader boards, scavenger hunts, Where’s Waldo and Trivial Pursuit knockoffs, badges, and a whole slew of engaging strategies.

 

As an empirical person — with that sample size, and those numbers — how could you afford not to make your brand more amusing?

 

In the next part, we will discuss the benefits of games in the workplace.