Has Your Gaming Business Effectively Transitioned Into a ‘Social Business’?
The advent of social platforms and their applications in the marketplace has resulted in the emergence of the ‘Social Business’. To succeed in this fast-moving and rapidly changing environment, the challenge faced by companies and organizations of all sizes is how to organically transition into a ‘Social Business‘. The malleability or flexibility of social networks allows gaming brands to become social without compromising business goals and brand integrity. Becoming a social business doesn’t mean changing who you are or and what you do. After all, that’s what made you successful in the first place. Rather, becoming a Social Business means expanding your reach into new and existing markets by leveraging the benefits that social opportunities present. The key is to know how.
Through the SocialConnX consulting division, we work with your gaming company to build a Social Business Plan – a road map to build your social business and increase your social equity.
What is a ‘Social Business’?
For your gaming company to truly consider itself a Social Business, there needs to be much more than a simple presence on social networks. Big data presents an opportunity to drill down deeper than ever before into your networks as well as your customers’ tastes and preferences on an individual level. This data can then be leveraged in order to successfully modify your branding, marketing or business strategy in response to market forces and penetrate new, untapped but existing markets. A Social Business takes advantage of the opportunities presented by leveraging big data to customize branding and marketing initiatives; by modifying strategies to improve the player experience and increase revenues or by offering Social Care to customers that wish to reach out to your brand on new media.
How Does SocialConnX Help Your Gaming Business Become a Social Business and Build Social Equity?
In order to transition your business or organization into a successful Social Business, the Senior Partners of SocialConnX draw on years of marketing and gaming experience in order to provide a comprehensive audit of your entire social business relative to your overall corporate and marketing objectives. With the results of this process, we offer an objective perspective and a fresh look of the status, needs and opportunities for your gaming property across social networks and channels. Our comprehensive social audit and Social Business plan includes the following action items:
- Social Media & Strategy Audit: Review of existing social strategy with clear recommendations for improvement supported by our Social Business Plan
- Integrated Social Media: Overview of how your existing marketing program and corporate strategy can and should be integrated with your social media strategy
- Content Strategy: Review and analysis of your social content strategy across any and all relevant social channels including Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and others
- Data Mining: Review and analysis of Data Mining opportunities based on your existing or targeted social audiences
- Responsive Branding: A clear plan designed to identify Responsive Branding opportunities across social channels
- Social Care: Analysis and recommendations for your Social Care initiatives with the goal of helping your gaming business become more responsive and customer-centric through the use of social channel customer service
- Measurement & ROI: A clear plan to measure ROI in direct relation to goals and objectives and to modify processes and content in order to achieve results
Social Media & Strategy Audit
You may have a social media strategy and program in place, but social media is so new and has evolved so quickly that many gaming brands still don’t know what impact social is having on their business. Our Social Media & Strategy Audit evaluates all current activities on social media and measures your brand’s presence and impact on social networks and within social communities. Each Social Media & Strategy Audit is tailored to evaluate a business based on the goals and objectives it has laid out for itself with regards to running a social media program.
Integrated Social Media
Social media is not a standalone entity. It needs to be effectively integrated into virtually every aspect of your business from player acquisition, retention and reactivation to operations, customer service and support. Effective integration is a key element when it comes transitioning into a Social Business. For social media to provide true Social Equity for your brand, it needs to be properly integrated and understood by your business at every level. Headed by experienced gaming and marketing professionals, SocialConnX analyzes the congruency of your traditional and social media marketing and develops a strategy for a seamless integration between the two. There must be consistency with your brand’s message and initiatives with every campaign your company adopts, and that includes those on social networks.
Content Strategy
Quality content is critical when it comes to search engine rankings, influence, brand awareness and social clout. In order to ensure that the content you publish across all social channels generates the highest ROI, SocialConnX will analyze your current content strategy and present recommendations aimed at delivering optimal results. Understanding the social demographics of your audience, knowing where and when they are talking, identifying sentiment and analyzing what is being said about your competitors will all play a role in the content strategy we develop. Your content strategy is going to be much more than simply sharing a few posts, blogs or tweets with your audience. A-B testing and knowing how to optimize a content strategy for maximum results and return is going to be at the root of a successful social media program and one which drives and engages players while increasing revenues and LTV.
Data Mining
With billions of interactions every day, there is a vast reservoir of big data that can be used to construct marketing initiatives geared towards penetrating new or untapped player markets. The ability to strategically mine this data and gather insights into your audience presents gaming brands with opportunities that were previously not possible. Understanding the individual demographics of your market, where and when they are talking, what they like, who they follow and what their interests are, will let you better understand your audience and focus your efforts on initiatives that stand to generate significantly higher ROI than many traditional marketing platforms. As part of your Social Business Plan, we identify your optimal channels and recommend a data mining strategy based on the social sandbox in which your players are likely to be found.
Responsive Branding
With big data comes the opportunity to engage in Responsive Branding. Imagine knowing how your market would react to a campaign or product before it hits the market. How about the ability to change your marketing campaign in real time in order to react to trends and sentiment? This is the concept of Responsive Branding. Understanding what to do with the data that has been accumulated and how to capitalize on the opportunities it presents means executing strategies driven by the concept of Responsive Branding. These strategies are geared towards appealing to the widest possible market and driving the highest possible returns.
Social Care
Does your business have a Social Care program in place? Today, one third of adults online prefer to engage with a brand on social media rather than through conventional means of customer service. Naturally, this number is much higher in the gaming world as players expect to be helped online. This phenomenon, known as Social Care, allows brands to increase the efficiency with which they run their customer service divisions, a key component to the success of any gaming company. Our review of your Social Care practices along with our recommendations for an effective program will provide you with the best practices guidelines necessary to implement a full-scale Social Care program designed to reduce the costs of customer service while making your gaming business more efficient.
Measurement & ROI
The returns generated by your social media program will only be as good as the strategy behind it. Our team of business consultants, marketing strategists and online marketing & social media experts work together to develop your Social Business Plan, showing you exactly how and where your brand has benefited or can potentially benefit from activities on social media, either directly or indirectly. We’ll show you how to measure the results of your programs and how to establish a framework designed to ensure optimal ROI on all future programs.
Tools & Technologies
A successful Social Business often relies on tools and technologies for effective execution. Today’s market is flooded with product offerings from multiple vendors, some of which offer unique benefits and some of which deliver little value. How do you select the right tools for your gaming business? How do you know if your preferred technology offers the best solution to meet your needs? While these tools can be useful assets when it comes to increasing the efficiency with which a program is run, they can also hinder your growth if not used properly. Technology must be used as a compliment to your Social Business but the selection of the right tool must be dependent on the Social Strategy set against a framework of corporate objectives. Strategy will dictate which tool is best for the job. Not the other way around. As part of our Social Business Plan, SocialConnX will evaluate the best tools and technologies for your business and make recommendations designed to optimize the return generated from each technology.
