February 23, 2018 by Ronn
Gamification continues to soar in publishing, and for good reason. It's engaging, can convey important information, bring in new email addresses and unleash some fun. Here are some recent uses that I’ve come across:
Convey important information. Education Week has a weekly
sponsored quiz. The one I just took is sponsored by Discovery Education. They also post the following: “Education Week has full editorial control of content.” Once you finish, you can see how your score compares to your peers, get the correct answers with detailed explanations, and be provided with additional readings and resources on the topic.
Have some fun with the publisher. The Atlantic Life
Timeline, sponsored by National Geographic, invites readers to "explore your life in history. Tell us your birthday, and we'll show you how the world has changed during your lifetime." I entered my birthdate and found out that I'm "one of the first people who's never lived in a world without Barbie," was alive to "behold people walking on the moon" and my life can be divided into two halves: before and after Shark Week. Sponsored content also populates this engaging initiative.
Test how much you know. Kiplinger has a seemingly endless section of
quizzes on their website. "Test Your Retirement IQ." "Test Your Small Business Know-How." "Quiz: How Well Do You Know Your Airline Rights When Flying?" "Ethical Dilemmas: Do You Agree With Knight?" - "Here are ten questions about real-life financial quandaries that readers have asked editor-in-chief
Knight Kiplinger... you'll find links to Knight's column archive and other quizzes inspired by Knight's mail."
Find your audience. Randall-Reilly asks people to take their
"quiz," though it works more as a survey, so they can provide "recommendations for reaching your specific audience and accomplishing your goals." Question 10 states, "In order to send your free plan, we'll need to know how to get in touch. Please enter your contact information below."
Improve audience comments. At NRKbeta, the tech vertical of the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, readers must
pass a quiz of three basic questions before being allowed to comment. They say it has a brought a more civil tone to discussions. But the main goal is to ensure that people have actually read the story before they discuss it. "If everyone can agree that this is what the article says, then they have a much better basis for commenting on it." said NRkbeta journalist
Ståle Grut.
Bolster your social media. The
National Museum of Women in the Arts (NWMA) said that their social media campaign “Can you name #5WomenArtists?” achieved unprecedented success for the museum during Women’s History Month last March. During the campaign, NMWA increased its Instagram followers by 140%, Facebook followers by 19% and Twitter followers by 12%.
Join the zeitgeist. Of course, it's almost brackets time—NCAA March Madness starts soon—and you'll start seeing bracket games for everything. I’ve seen them for craft beer, STEM science projects, types of apples and What's the Best Disney Song Ever? Those first-round matchups were priceless: A Spoonful of Sugar (Mary Poppins) vs. Baby Mine (Dumbo) and The Bare Necessities (The Jungle Book) vs. Seize the Day (Newsies).
Promote your archives. The National Archives posted a quiz for Black History Month, using their records. The questions aren’t easy: Who was the first African American Senator of the United States? Who was the first female self-made millionaire in the United States? At the end you can enter your email to see your results and get “fun and infrequent updates.”
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Nevena Jovanovic.
Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 and SIIA in 2013 as editorial director…