Friday Feminine gamification viewpoint: Ladies lead social media and games

Friday Feminine Gamification Viewpoint: Ladies lead social media and social games

Whilst both genders take part in social media and social games, the ladies are marginally in the lead in terms of usage of both. Ladies are more likely to engage in social games (53%), whilst men lead in the playing of traditional online games (60%). When we look at social media both genders take part but for decidedly different reasons: Men engage socially for business, dating and information (both seeking and sharing), whereas women use social media in the first place to stay in touch with family and friends, then entertainment, information sharing, blogging and photo sharing.

When designing a gamification campaign with a social element, you want to have a a solid business reason for men to engage and an important family/friends reason for the ladies to share. From a design perspective this will create an interesting dilemma and effectively the gender of the majority of your target audience will become the driving force in design choices.

When the ladies look for support, diversion and information, they will turn to networks like Facebook, where a whole bunch of friends can jump in and share information, support and fun. In terms of advertising on social media ladies tend to ignore advertising more than men, men look for the quick deal and are more likely to use a coupon, whereas women will follow a brand and look for deals this way.

With online behaviour so vastly different between genders, designing social aspects in gamification for a business will be an effort of fine-tuning and tweaking to make sure both genders participate. I would even suggest if your business primarily appeals to one gender or other, to create a solution that hits that audience best. If you are appealing to both genders separate campaigns, may be most effective to create interest in your brand.

So far I have found that genders in gamification design have been treated as the same, however from a behavioural, cultural and decision making point of view, most people believe there is indeed a distinct difference. When gamification efforts are aimed at encouraging behaviours, then we can’t ignore the differences.

We found the following info graphic on Facebook, thanks to a male friend sharing it with the question “Really we are different?”. We found it extremely interesting hence we are sharing it here and socially as women would…. 🙂

What do you believe is the difference between men and women in your organisation and for your brand? How will you implement gender different approaches in your gamification projects?