With the launch of each Multiply network, we take the platform to a new level. With last week’s launch of SayfieReview.com’s Multiply network, Florida Guru, we have taken the platform to a whole new plane entirely. Working with Justin Sayfie, the publisher of  SayfieReview.com and a long-time friend of the team here at Engage, we have rolled out our most feature-rich Multiply installation yet.

Recognizing the gamification trend and the potential for game mechanics to engage readers in a news environment, Justin Sayfie worked with our team to develop a game that rewards his readers for taking actions that drive traffic to his site and that engage with the brand on social networks.   We believe we have developed the most engaging game in journalism today for the user and the most valuable for the news organization.

The Velvet Rope

This year, there has been a lot of talk about digital velvet ropes – the act of slowly unveiling access to a new service in an effort to generate buzz and excitement. Sayfie wisely tasked us with creating such a system for Multiply, where only certain influential individuals would have access to the game in private beta mode. We developed a private beta invitation system, allowing users with unique six character codes to gain access to the site before everyone else. Sayfie targeted Florida’s most influential political tweeters to join the game first, in hopes that these individuals would spread buzz about the game. And that’s indeed what happened.

Points for viewing content, points for logging in

As an online news organization, SayfieReview.com generates revenue from selling ads based on page views. The more page views the site serves, the more revenue generated from online ads. So Justin asked us, can we gamify page views by Sayfie Review readers?  Our team loved the challenge, and we enabled Florida Guru players to score points each time they visit SayfieReview.com – regardless of whether or not they are logged into Multiply! This is something truly revolutionary for the news industry, especially as news organizations seek to better understand their audience and who their most engaged and active readers are, tied to email addresses, Facebook and Twitter IDs.

Also new to Multiply with the launch of Florida Guru – earning points for logging into a Multiply site, thus incentivizing repeat traffic to your action platform. See the screenshot below of the points I earned for logging into Multiply and visiting SayfieReview.com:

SuperShare

Justin also wanted to reward his readers for sharing content from his website, so we developed a piece of functionality we are calling SuperShare.  This new functionality allows Florida Guru players to score points for sharing content from SayfieReview.com even if they are not logged into Multiply. The trick here was finding a solution that would be unintrusive to Sayfie Review readers who may never play the Florida Guru game, while simultaneously enabling Florida Guru players to easily score points for sharing content from the site.

Our solution, SuperShare, is a simple piece of code that Multiply clients can now plug into their sites to allow for this amazing functionality

Taking the community offline

For more than 9 years, Justin Sayfie has grown one of the most influential audiences in Florida politics. As the site’s readership continues to grow, so does loyalty to the brand and the desire for readers to connect offline. Using Multiply’s robust foursquare integration, the Sayfie Review is beginning to connect this engaged community in the offline world. The first example of this in the Florida Guru game was the awarding of a Presidency 5 “kudo” (Sayfie’s preferred term for “badge”) for players who checked-in on foursquare to the Presidency 5 event in Orlando, Florida last month. Florida Guru players can also score points and earn special badges by checking in on Foursquare to the White House, U.S. Capitol, Florida Capitol and Florida Governor’s Mansion.

Real world rewards

Multiply gives you the ability to reward your community in a number of different ways. Points, virtual badges and exclusive video content are some of the rewards baked into the system. But the platform also allows our clients to give away “real world rewards” – tangible things or experiences that incentivize the online community. Again, Sayfie has taken these rewards to the next level, giving out amazing prizes to top Florida Guru players each month. This month, the top player will receive a $150 gift card to the Apple Store. The first 100 Florida Guru players to score 10,000 lifetime points will receive a $30 Amazon gift card.

Gamifying news consumption

Many are making predictions on “the future of journalism” these days. One prediction that is easy to make is that news organizations will seek to gain more valuable information (data) on their readers by better measuring the impact of each reader online and inspiring them to drive more traffic to the news organization’s sites. SayfieReview.com is doing this today with Multiply. Which news organization will be next?