Social media badges have quickly started to become an iconic fixture in social media culture. The buttons have become a staple symbol for companies that are thriving and exceeding their competitors as far as customer loyalty and retention.

When you look closely at this phenomena it becomes clear the reason for the badges success. The importance of social media badges becomes easier to understand. Gaming companies were some of the first to incorporate the use of social media badges for their customers. It was a way for their customers to share their success in that game through the posting of their achievement. The badge was worn by the customer with honor and they shared their status proudly.

The gaming industry discovered that when they incorporated badges into their gaming platform their users were more engaged and would actively share their statuses more frequently. The concept of social media badges began to take shape and non-gaming companies began to incorporate the use of badges onto their sites as well.

Already successful and popular companies such as ezinearticles.com were able to seamlessly include the social media badge platform into their system. Today, more small businesses are seeing the advantages of using social media badges. They are discovering the social and financial implications of actively engaging their customers in this manner.

The badges represent different stages in a customers process and the various benefits for a company to incorporate these badges into their marketing and customer retention efforts. These badges are considered “Virtual Awards” and are given to the user/customer for achievements or for reaching certain milestones. The badges are able to be proudly displayed on their personal page and shared on their social media networks.

There are some inherit benefits for using social media badges within your organization or for your customers. The benefits are derived from the objects that are put into place when incorporating badges into your system. For example, one of the main objectives with the badges are to set goals that your customers can work towards achieving. The easier it is to reach the first few goals the more engaged your customers become.

For example, if they can earn a badge for completing their profile, making their first purchase, reaching some kind of goal, sharing with their friends, earning discounts, etc. As you can see there are numerous applications for the badge system.

Badges can also be used in order to indoctrinate your customers to your company so that they have a good idea of what they can accomplish or what the benefits are of being a customer or user of our service. The other less obvious benefit of utilizing the social media badge system is the fact that by having your customers share their success via social media you are in effect advertising/marketing your company through the badges themselves.

The connections may become curious about the business and decide to register for their own account. You now have new customers without an increase in your marketing or advertising budget. This is good news for small businesses that are trying to establish themselves in the industry. The importance of social media badges in the online industry cannot be overstated. It is a worthwhile venture for anyone that is serious about marketing their business online.