The last few years has shown us that, not only do grown-ups like to play an entertaining game (see Farmville), gamification can be used to trigger a desired behavior. Who could have predicted that leader boards, badges and achievement levels would spawn million dollar companies (see Foursquare and Gowalla)?

Brands and companies are finding new ways to capitalize on the human urge to compete. Increasingly, we are seeing elements of gamification appear in the medical, health, academic, financial and enterprise industries.

There have been many successes and many more failures. Gamification does not automatically lead to engagement, just as having a Facebook or Twitter account does not always mean you have successfully established a social media presence. Take for example, Nike’s Nike + program which allowed runners to share their activity with others. Great idea for the avid runner but a little intimidating for someone who needs more encouragement rather than competition.

While gamification is no exact science, it does require a set of elements that intersect to get to that ‘gamification sweet spot.’ Brands and companies are still trying to figure it out as they pour over last year’s case studies. This Venn diagram shows where the gamification sweet spot lies:

Try going into Wikipedia or Reddit and you will find that both sites have chosen to go black today in protest of SOPA and PIPA. While the internet is buzzing with talk about what this would mean for the internet, there is a surprisingly large percentage of the population that have no clue what it is nor have they even heard the term before. SOPA and PIPA would change the internet as we know it. Nevermind the long-term effects which we might not even see coming for another few years. The language used in SOPA, widely open to interpretation, is just waiting for the legal system to create new precedents.

Mark Zuckerberg has openly opposed SOPA in a post on Facebook, but many question what good it does when Facebook is still operating on a day when many have decided to go dark. What can the rest of us do (if we live in the U.S.)? Call, write or email your senator/congressman. Those of us north of the border should at least sign the Google petition.

I’ll leave you with a snapshot of homepages that have chosen to go dark – Wikipedia, Wired, Google, Reddit, Craigslist (!!) and Buzzfeed:

This past holiday season, over 1,000 shoppers were asked if they purchased anything from a retailer’s Facebook page. Only 9% said yes. In addition, only one in five said that their social media connections influenced what they purchased over the holidays and only one in five purchased an item based on a promotion through Facebook. Meanwhile, Facebook blows past the 1 billion user mark. Yep, one billion users. When is the last time you heard that?

Internet commerce took some time to catch on – though North America has been slower to embrace it than Asian countries like Korea and Japan – but catch on it certainly did. As shoppers continue to rely on the internet to purchase everything from groceries to clothing and even cars, social commerce hasn’t quite caught on as quickly as was predicted.

Clearly, there is something missing.

For one, when most people are looking to shop for either themselves or someone else, Facebook probably isn’t the first site that comes to mind to shop for bargains. I know for myself, I will either Google a specific item for sales or troll various sites for other sales items.

The issue for me isn’t that I’m against actually using a deal or promotion found on Facebook. It’s all about timing. If I happen to catch a news feed post on a specific promotion that works at that moment, sure. Why not? But generally speaking, Facebook isn’t the first place that comes to mind when I’m looking to buy something.

I’m looking forward to what Facebook and certainly also what Google+ has in mind for 2012. I’m sure both are scrambling to have it figured out first.