Adding a few visual game elements to a brand’s site in order to “gamify” a marketing strategy and increase engagement just isn’t enough. To be done right, gamification must take a behavior-focused approach.

For instance, by offering rewards for user actions, consumers are more likely to engage with a brand — that is, visit the site more often, register, linger and invite friends. But while gamification is a major buzzword among interactive marketers today, game use isn’t new.

So what’s making gamification so popular today? Consider these four factors.

via 4 Reasons Every Online Brand Should Explore Gamification Strategies.

Women are more likely to use social networks than men, says a new study by Rebtel, the world’s largest independent mobile VoIP company. The survey (conducted across 2,361 U.S. adults ages 18 and up) examined three key metrics related to social media and voice/phone consumption, specifically:

Expected frequency of use of social media communication methods in the near future.

Social media consumption habits of online U.S. adults when communicating with certain people.

Popularity of social media communication among online U.S. adults if they could only choose one method to communicate with certain people.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, women have been revealed as being more social than men overall, with women being 68% more likely to use social networking or media to communicate with friends other than in-person. Assuming that those surveyed also represent the much-larger U.S. population, that’s 75 Million women communicating with friends via social networks vs. 57 Million men.

via Social media – Women do it longer, but men do the talking.