Tweeting Badges: User Motivations for Displaying Achievement in Publicly Networked Environments K. Hazel Kwon, PhD, Alexander Halavais, PhD, and Shannon Havener, MA Abstract Badge systems, a common mechanism for gamification on social media platforms, provide a way for users to present their knowledge or experience to others. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of why social media users publicize their achievements in the form of online badges. Five motivational factors for badge display in public networked environments are distinguished—self-efficacy, social incentives, networked support, passing time, and inattentive sharing—and it is suggested that different badge types are associated with different motivations. System developers are advised to consider these components in their designs, applying the elements most appropriate to the communities they serve. Comparing user motivations associated with badges shared across boundaries provides a better understanding of how online badges relate to the larger social media ecosystem. Introduction T he success of social computing applications, 1 or simply social media, relies on their social engagement: the extent to which users interact with one another in creat- ing, sharing, and promoting content. User interaction often bridges various participatory platforms through a range of mechanisms, including rich site summary (RSS), social plugins, and mashups, as well as manual reposting and linking, resulting in a fluid social media environment. De- velopers recognize that the success of a social media platform rests largely in its integration into the wider ecosystem, and provide functionality that encourages users to engage in such integration. Among the attempts to encourage user interac- tion are a subset often referred to as gamification: the appli- cation of game elements to nongame systems to increase user engagement, loyalty, and enjoyment. 2 One way of implementing gaming mechanisms is a badge system, used to signal various forms of participation. Online badges are digital representations of knowledge or experi- ence by which user achievements are encouraged, recog- nized, and communicated across digital platforms. 3 Various online platforms encourage users to earn badges for different purposes, including wellness promotion, information shar- ing, skill and knowledge exchange, and education, as well as a range of entertainment experiences. Many of these badges not only appeal to users’ internal desires for playfulness but also serve as a marker of reputation that signals an individ- ual’s status (via experiences, tenure, level of skills, etc.) within various communities and publics. In turn, a badge may also influence other users’ behaviors, encouraging them to earn similar badges. 3 While the majority of existing research on online badges tends to focus on infrastructure 4,5 or badge-earning patterns within a particular community of interest, 6 relatively little research has explored user motivations for sharing online badges, particularly beyond the badge issuer Web site. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of why social media users publicize their earning of different types of badges. The focus is on badge displaying, rather than earning patterns, given that networked sharing and social visualization of user activities are core elements of engaging in social media experiences. Moreover, the act of display is closely intertwined with the process of goal attainment. After discussing why users would share and display online badges, this study maps the relationship between display-related motivations and different types of online badges offered from various types of social media sites. Online badges and gamification Badges have traditionally been used by various institu- tions to recognize and incentivize performance, providing a marker of accomplishment visible to the community and to the wider public. Examples range from shield emblems in the Roman imperial armies to indicate unit membership to merit School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona. CYBERPSYCHOLOGY,BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING Volume 18, Number 2, 2015 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0438 93