Going social
Making social 'work' for you means ensuring you're clear on what you want to get out of the product or platform.
Traditional online casino brands have been, on the whole, ineffective in exploiting social media.
It’s unfortunate, but most brands see a social media initiative as simply putting up a Facebook fan page and no more. Operators can adapt to the social media industry, but they need to have a clear idea what they want to get out of a campaign.
They need to ask themselves, ‘are we going to market our existing products (social marketing) in order to bring our customers closer to the brand or do we see social gaming as another product/revenue stream, social marketing, social gaming or both?’
The crossover from ‘freemium’, or social gaming, to a pay-to-play model, or more traditional gambling, is often the only thing operators are focused on. Most operators think that if they’re unable to convert free-to-play into pay-to-play casino, bingo or poker consumers, then the initiative has been unsuccessful.
That’s because they’re objectives are incorrect from the outset. They need to understand that social gaming is not about this. You could argue that it’s entirely the opposite. Converting freemium to pay-to-play is extremely hard and as a result we’re often told ‘social doesn’t work’.
Operators must treat their social gaming products as a standalone revenue stream, not as a means to simply convert users into their fully fledged gambling products. In order to make social ‘work’, what’s required is a change in the mindset of operators.
They need to see social gaming as another revenue stream, and not an acquisition channel for their primary products “ a good social product can become as much of a ‘brand’ as a ‘traditional’ online casino; just look at Zynga.
Furthermore, social marketing and presence is complementary to their pay-to-play products and, while it doesn’t necessarily drive acquisitions, it can extend an operator’s reachand when done correctly, can also be a huge influencer in the minds of consumers. It should be treated as a branding exercise.
While some find it tempting to over-state the value of Facebook and its ilk, social media genuinely offers operators the chance to engage with their customers like never before “ with the right understanding, your contributions to the space will be (and should be) as engaging to users as the messages and posts shared by their friends.