IS Google to Blame for the Decline of Small Business in America?

Starting and running a small business has always been a risky value proposition. The Small Business Administration tells us that 60 percent of them won’t make it past their first birthday.

Historically, that failure rate was eclipsed by the sheer number of new business starts each year. More businesses opened than closed — until 2008. That year, for the first time in more than 30 years, small-to-medium size business (SMB) closings outnumbered openings — and by a big margin. That year, the country was left with a deficit of roughly 100,000 small businesses. And that trend line really hasn’t reversed course all that much since then.¹

Continue reading IS Google to Blame for the Decline of Small Business in America?

Habitica Challenge Design from Rob Alvarez Bucholska: Improving Habitica with Octalysis

In Spring 2017, The Octalysis Group opened a challenge to Octalysis fans and experts.

The challenge was to improve the design of popular productivity app, Habitica, using Octalysis.

Several of these designs were so strong we wanted to share them. Over the next few weeks, we will share some of the best designs.

Local Search Reinvented: LuckyDiem Gamifies the Restaurant Business

Local Search Table

This article first appeared on LuckyDiem’s blog.

Supporting Local Businesses and Fighting Cancer

Imagine if Google or Yelp added unique discounts and prizes to every one of its business listings? Imagine a simple way to not only support local businesses, but help support the fight against childhood cancer as well? You might wonder how it’s possible to offer a service that helps save you money while helping so many others…that is absolutely free and fun to use.  Welcome to LuckyDiem.

 

Just go to LuckyDiem.com

There’s no need to download an app, simply go to LuckyDiem.com and search for what you’re looking for by either category or by “What’s Nearby.” Every business on LuckyDiem offers you a chance to win discounts and/or prizes.  Simply take a spin on the business’s virtual slot machine to see if it’s your lucky day.

Win discounts

Most businesses on LuckyDiem offer three levels of discounts–each one somewhat dependent upon your level of engagement. For example, the lowest level discount can be won simply off a spin of the slot machine. This discount can then be increased by answering a trivia question about the business. The third and highest level of discount is awarded to users who share their good fortune with their friends on social media. Sharing your reward is actually a three-way win on LuckyDiem because it 1) enables you to earn the highest level of discount, 2) helps get the word out about the local business you like, and 3) supports the fight against childhood cancer (more about this later).

Win prizes from every business

With LuckyDiem, you have the chance to instantly win small prizes from all of our businesses such as free drinks and gift cards, as well as entries into a business’s jackpot prize that is won by a user every three months. In fact, some of our current businesses in our Manhattan launch market have some pretty amazing prizes such as a free CoolSculpting session at SkinTheraP Medical Spa (valued at $750) or a $500 Gift Card for Invisalign services through Dr. Michelle Katz.

Win Mega Jackpots

LuckyDiem is leveling the playing field for local businesses to compete with national brands that can afford promotions with expensive prizes. Now even the smallest business on LuckyDiem can offer its customers chances to win awesome prizes such as VIP tickets to sporting events and concerts. There’s no purchase necessary, but being a good customer that makes purchases and shares with their friends, will undoubtedly increase your chances of winning. Like our businesses’ jackpots, our Mega Jackpots have winners every three months. Moreover, if you win tickets to an event that you’re not absolutely thrilled with, we will make every effort to get you to an event that you’ll love. Through our relationship with 8760, we have access to hundreds of major events throughout the year.

Leave your wallet at home

Wallet

Mobile payments are no doubt the wave of the future–super convenient for consumers, but unfortunately, expensive for small business owners to implement. LuckyDiem is introducing a revolutionary new mobile payment solution that allows users to pay with their phones at any of our businesses and immediately receive the discount they’ve earned from playing LuckyDiem. Our technology works without any new hardware or software, so businesses owners don’t have to change a thing.

Not all leaderboards are created equal

Like many of you, we used to love Foursquare (come Swarm) for its leaderboards. We liked competing with our friends to become the mayor of our favorite spots, as well as feeling the love  from being their “best customer.” But then something strange started happening; rather than being welcomed by management, Mayors were given the cold shoulder, some were in fact plainly asked to leave. It turns out, not all Mayors are created equal. Many Mayors had acquired their badge simply by checking into a business without ever spending a dime–they had gamed the system.

Enter LuckyDiem which rewards users based on their true value to a business–the purchases that not only you make, but your friends’ as well. Now a business can quickly view its leaderboard and have no doubt as to who their best customers are (Sharks and Whales in our world), and not worry about the all lame ducks mayors from the old days. And of course, the higher you are on a leaderboard, the more perks you receive such as more spins to win prizes from businesses and from us.

Sharing really is caring

logo.png

Finally, as mentioned earlier, LuckyDiem makes it easy for you to not only save money, but save lives. With every reward that is shared,, LuckyDiem makes a contribution to Hope & Heroes, a nonprofit that funds the life-saving work on childhood cancer and blood disorders at Columbia University Medical Center.

We hope you will try LuckyDiem. Save money, save lives and seize the play!

Continue reading Local Search Reinvented: LuckyDiem Gamifies the Restaurant Business

How Wikimedia, Duolingo, and Headset Engage Users: Gamification Examples April Week 4

Based on the framework by Yu-kai Chou. Written by Erik van Mechelen. Feedback from Octalysis Prime community members. 

Every day in Octalysis Prime, I share a game or gamification example that has captured my attention or persuaded me to do something, whether to simply spend a few seconds longer of attention or to click something or to later mention what I saw or experienced to a friend.

This list is the just a few from last week, with a touch more in detail explanations from the Octalysis design perspective.

Continue reading How Wikimedia, Duolingo, and Headset Engage Users: Gamification Examples April Week 4

Gamification Examples: Slow Game Jams and Epic Hyperloop

Based on the framework by Yu-kai Chou. Written by Erik van Mechelen.

Every day in Octalysis Prime, I share a game or gamification example that has captured my attention or persuaded me to do something, whether to simply spend a few seconds longer of attention or to click something or to later mention what I saw or experienced to a friend.

This list is the just a few from last week, with a touch more in detail explanations from the Octalysis design perspective.

Continue reading Gamification Examples: Slow Game Jams and Epic Hyperloop

How to Design Games to Make Yourself More Social

This article was written by Erik van Mechelen based on a conversation between Octalysis Prime member Russell Lee and Yu-kai Chou about how to design personal games for the practice of being more social. 

Developing a Practice of Being More Social

In our most recent Octalysis Prime Brief (a place to chat for Octalysis Prime members once every two weeks), member Russell Lee asked about how to use gamification principles to be more social.

Even though he waited until the last 5 minutes of the one-hour session to ask the question, Yu-kai had a great conversation with him. It’s something we might all learn from, especially those of us a bit shy or lazy or fearful in social settings.

This post aims to capture those ideas and principles.

Get over the fear of engaging in conversations with strangers

Let’s imagine you wanted to get over the fear of engaging in conversations with strangers. This would help you

  • network at business events,
  • talk to new people at parties, and
  • make the most of chance encounters with people in grocery stores or people you see in a 30-second elevator ride.

Remember, it’s natural to feel some fear.

In Actionable GamificationYu-kai shared (audiobook) that is his experience moving back to Taiwan at a young age (from South Africa) meant he was behind his peers in learning Chinese. This put him at a disadvantage socially, too.

Later, though, he was voted into and took on the role of chess club president and elevated his confidence. You could have a similar transformation.

If you want the above goal, consider the game of getting over your fear of these conversations as your game or business metrics (in the language of the Octalysis Strategy dashboard).

To begin, let’s take the example of a business networking event.

Your desired action could simply be to get people to talk to you. Count every sentence spoken (by the other person) as the desired action. To continue the exchange, reward the person with whom you’re speaking with a compliment.

This feeling of being listened to is a reward and sometimes triggers the next desired action: that person speaking another sentence and sharing a little more. Your response to their next statement, usually with a question or a “tell me more” prompt continues it further.

Strangely, the more someone says to you or shares with you, the more they will trust you. And trust is good for future conversation and relationships.

Do this as long as you can to continue the conversation. Your response to their next statement, usually with a question or comment, might trigger the next desired action.

Don’t worry too much if the conversation isn’t that interesting. You can always level up to a game where you will kindly leave conversations that aren’t interesting.

This is why it’s very important to define these desired actions. Start small and level up later.

As another example: in the case of talking to people at parties, you might create a bingo game of rejections (or short conversations) as a way to strive for more rejections. More rejections mean you will complete your bingo game give you more practice in engaging with people in this setting (the business metric). And by “failing” through rejection, you can still feel great about the practice and completion of your game.

You could have zero good conversations at a party but gain incredible practice.

Some tips to make conversation:

  1. have confidence
  2. radiate enthusiasm and energy (genuinely)
  3. help others feel good (CD5)

From a content perspective:

  1. Add relevant comments to show you are listening (“this part of what you said was interesting, tell me more about that”)
  2. Give relatable feedback (“my friend had the same thing happen, that’s amazing you made it through that difficult time”)
  3. Ask follow-up questions (“how’d you accomplish that?”)

Be brief. When you ask a question, let the other person respond 🙂

This should get you thinking.

Reply to this email (or on the Octalysis Explorers Facebook group) to share what social settings are challenging you. What game could you create to improve your interactions?

Top College Degrees that will Help you Get a Career in Gamification

This article is written by Erik van Mechelen, based on the Octalysis gamification framework developed by Yu-kai Chou.

Choosing a college degree to learn gamification

Approaching university and trying to figure out what courses, or better yet, what degrees to spend your valuable time and money achieving? In this article, we’ll try to dig deeper into what areas in your university system may be a good place to visit and stay awhile.

Remember, degrees aren’t necessarily synonymous with skills. Throughout college, I did side projects to follow my curiosity and learn new skills.

As is becoming more and more the case (hasn’t it always been the case?), employers or heads of teams or startups want to know if you can do the job or not, and if you have the ability to continue growing and learning within the role.

My guess is this holds true for gamification roles, too.

Now, let’s quickly jump over a mental hurdle you may be experiencing. On the surface, gamification-specific jobs might seem rare. If you search major job sites you won’t see many job titles with gamification, but some descriptions are starting to include our favorite keyword.

Regardless of what you call it, we know human-focused design is part of many roles. In this article about roles gaining an edge from gamification knowledge, I discussed how product designers, UI/UX designers, and product managers use gamification to their advantage every day.

For this article, I’ll consider traditional university degrees that might best prepare you for roles where gamification knowledge gives you an edge.

Remember, getting a gamification job doesn’t require a degree, and your foot in the door may simply be the quality of your portfolio and hustle.

Continue reading Top College Degrees that will Help you Get a Career in Gamification