How to Gamify VKontakte Using a Chatbot

The Active Users service is engaged in gamification in VKontakte groups and allows you to create game mechanics that motivate people to take active actions on social networks, in particular, on VKontakte.

Rates for SMM-coins

Initially, the principle of operation was simple: the user subscribes to communities, likes, reposts and comments within 1 hour from the moment the post was published, and he is awarded points for this – SMM-coins. The faster a person performs some targeted action, the more coins he receives.

Further, we added another opportunity to earn points, not only through VKontakte groups. When you run any parser in Pepper.Ninja, SMM coins are also credited.

What can I spend the collected coins on?

Mini-shops were invented first. Souvenir products were presented in them, such as key rings, gliders, etc.

Then there were auctions. We started with some small lots, for example, templates for stories. Then we switched to the School of Promotion courses, various tariffs from Pepper.Ninja.

How does it all work?

The user is active, for which he is credited with SMM coins.

An auction is announced and a lot is assigned, a minimum bid is set (usually 50 SMM coins).

The user offers his own value (higher than the assigned one) if he has enough points in his account. The bet is held for 7 minutes. If no one interrupts, the lot leaves and the points are automatically deducted. If someone offers a higher price, a message comes up with the text “Your bid is outbid”. You can again set your price if there are enough points, but if there are none, then a corresponding message arrives with recommendations on how to earn SMM coins.

Chat quest

There were two in total. The first one (without integrating Active Users into the Pepper.Ninja service) was simpler. Here they came up with tasks like “find articles”, “find hidden keywords”, so a person could earn points.

It is enough to go to the messages of any of the three groups and write “Start”. You will be offered the rules and the very beginning of the game. If you click “Play”, you will receive the first task. For example, comment on some community post.

The second chat quest was with a greater emphasis on learning – such online education in a playful way. To start it, you need to send a message to the bot with the phrase “Start the second mission.”

Conventionally, this project is divided into two parts: first, some easy tasks in a test form for knowledge of parsing theory, in which cases which parser to use, why. Even if a person is not familiar with this, during the game he will learn the basics. During the test, he is given training materials. In fact, this is an instruction by which the user can learn how to run the parser and work with it.

If you click “Join training”, you will receive those very first test tasks. If you answer correctly, we proceed to the next questions with a detailed explanation of the previous one, if not, a second attempt is given.

Once the theoretical part is completed, you can proceed to the practical. Here you will need to collect the entire audience of the Pepper group. If everything is done correctly, SMM coins are awarded. If something is wrong, another attempt is given with a hint. There will also be several tasks to launch the main parsers.

As a result, every week, the Active Users service generates a rating on Mondays, which is displayed on all community covers. Points and avatars are loaded automatically: the five most active and coin-rich users.

Pepper.Ninja even has its own rank system depending on the number of SMM coins collected.

In total, about 81,000 users take part in this gamified project today. Those who have at least 1 coin are taken into account. And this number continues to grow. Interest in earning points that can be spent on something of value is increasing. This is evidenced by the fact that some users are willing to pay more than 1500 SMM coins for the tariff from Pepper.Ninja at the auction.