hello Daniel Nolan,

Yes, unfortunately we do not have this such of feature manually assign the badge to the user in current system.

I think you do!.... Go to Users in the Admin Panel and there's an 'Assign Badge' button.... check whatever user(s) you want to give a badge, then click the 'Assign Badge' button and select which badge....

Hello Daniel Nolan,

Sorry for confusing, yes you can follow what Andy mentioned the guideline in his previous reply,
backend > Easysocial > User > tick which user you would like to assign to > click "Assign badges" button > select the badge

Thanks for sharing Andy.