Well, there's a new startup called SocialSmack that capitalizes on our love of brand talk (both positive and negative), looking to gain a foothold in the crowded social gaming market. The idea is that you give "props" or "drops" (basically thumbs up or thumbs down) to different brands. In order to have your prop or drop count, you have to leave a comment on the brand as well. Also, the comments you leave can be voted up or down in Reddit-like fashion.
You earn points for propping and dropping (I don't know if that's the right terminology, but I'm hoping it'll catch on) and, like Foursquare, you can unlock badges as well. But unlike Foursquare, your SocialSmacking (again, not sure on terminology here) isn't location-based because you're commenting on the brand as a whole instead of a particular store or franchise location.
To sum SocialSmack up in one sentence, it takes brand reputation to the social gaming sphere. Having tried it out myself, I'll end with a couple props and drops of my own for SocialSmack:
Props:
- Great concept from a gaming standpoint.
- Easy-to -use interface that's visually well-designed.
- Prop-to-Drop ratio pretty similar to what I've seen outside of the site, which means SocialSmack could be a fairly accurate barometer of brand sentiment.
- Many of the comments aren't useful or interesting (a lot of one-word comments).
- Because it's not location-based and there's no apparent limit on how frequently you can prop or drop, you could have a situation where people just keep clicking and clicking to earn points and badges without considering what/how they're commenting. This definitely makes the game less fun.
- The big ethical question: is brand reputation something that should even be turned into a game? Or do consumers have the right to a social game like this?