The marketing community has done occasional damage to the English language, and gamification is its finest hour. To rectify this, I'm going to use the words games or play. What do these terms mean for social media strategists?

In short, they mean we will quickly move beyond social media to a rich, contest or challenge-driven web. And we need to get used to the idea that games will become central to social media in a challenge-driven economy.

There are five big impacts play will have on social media. I'm going to describe them, but first a quick definition and explanation.

Play is an acknowledgement that what a lot of us do online is game the system in some way or other.

I think to appreciate the full power of play currently manifesting itself through games we have to own up to the gamer inside us all. And currently the web is becoming a huge games arena. Actually, it always has been. We use the web therefore we game.

Social media strategists play the game too and are in essence long time game addicts.

In social media we try to make sure, for example, that content is SEO optimised. Our readers really couldn't care about this. It has nothing to do with that relationship - it's all to do with Google.

Getting onto the page 1 SERPS is a game we play. A very serious game but it is a game in every sense. We are competing against others, we have rules, we have our cheat sheets and we play to win.

Recognising the game dynamics of normal web behaviour should change our perspective. We are not creating a gamified web. The web is gamified and we are just realising how to exploit that.

The web is set up to let us play because humans are very game centric. They fall into playing games very easily, whether explicit games like Foursquare or implicit games like SEO.

For me as a marketer that raises one simple question. Can I use the natural inclination of people to game, to make the brand experience more rewarding for customers.

Because the answer to that is certainly we need to switch our focus away from static brand websites and ask how can we engage people in activities they enjoy doing together?

Over time I'm not saying we will necessarily replace today's websites with game sites, though it is likely we will see substantial change. New game-like websites can be created by adding subtle game layers like the one Kaushal Sarda talked about here back in June. But in reality a game layer is not game centric.

Websites must fully embrace and integrate game and play where brands want to create experiences that people share with each other. The value of people's natural inclinations to play games lies right there. The brand becomes custodian, mentor, partner of a better experience. It develops better, richer relationships with people in game centric environments.

The reasons this is valuable is overlooked by many people who talk about games and it goes to the heart of how games impact on social media.

In games or challenges or contests, people adopt quite different roles. Games are essentially about role play. In a project that I helped produce last year, 1Click2Fame, we found users more than willing to take on a variety of roles - as talent scouts, talent jury, voters, coaches and of course performers. These people probably don't blog, and might not tweet. They might not yet be properly engaged in the web. They probably keep some Facebook activity going but nothing for social media to get a real purchase on.

But they do play games. In that sense games complete the social media journey on the web. Games are the vital next step of inclusion. And they are important for one additional, very important reason.

When people take on game roles, as they do in games, you learn a lot more about them. Roles create data on human behaviour. The combination of games, roles and data are what will make the big difference to marketers. They are what contribute to a better brand-customer experience.

Here are some of the hidden but very exciting benefits of a game centric approach to social media

1. More interaction caused by playing games

Games that sit as a layer on a website do not create extensive interaction. Game centric websites do, especially if there is a creative contest involves where people need to create, use, adapt, or share content. People in games take on all these roles willingly.

2. More opportunity to understand what big data can do for us

When people interact extensively, and when they take on roles, we can turn to big data not only to track and interpret that behaviour, we can also use data to influence what people do or to serve up content, offers or messaging that we know stands a far higher chance of resonance.

3. More engagement through playing games

More resonance = more engagement. That is on top of the sheer fact of customers enjoying a better experience through interacting with their peers and taking on roles.

4. More scaled intimacy because of games

Good game design can allow brands to scale conversations globally. In good game design people are interacting with each other, so the peer group does the heavy lifting to scale intimacy where as the brand's people, (agency or staff) take on a more valued advisory role.

5. More touch points within games, contests or challenges

Finally good games design gives you more touch points. People are in and out of your site in an evolving game narrative. They are more frequent visitors but they are also more committed visitors and as I said earlier they are taking on roles - roles that give you data and touch points.

That's a lot more for your money. The problem that social media strategists need to address is more number 6. More learning. We practice a trade that simply does not stop evolving and playing games bring a little more learning into your life.

This one is really worth the effort though because one thing we can say with confidence, the web is one big games arena. And as in 1995 when the web cried out for good website design today it is waiting on designers who understand and can create great game dynamics to enable play.