GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 13 - June 2010

most half (46 percent) said they get their news from four to sixnewsplatformseach day. Mainstream conventional media are declining in effectiveness and this has led to an upsurge in communicating directly with the end-user. Through the develop- ment of this relationship, the potential to gain valuable insight into feelings about andopinionsof yourproducts andbrands isvast. It reallydoesn’t get anybetter than this—being able to obtain a mountain of feedback and potential ideas by simply paying attention to your consumers and addressing their concerns with genuine reactions. Brandmanagementtool Ultimately, by working on your relation- ships and being supportive, you are in- creasingtheperceivedvalueofyourbrand. Interconnectivity isadriving forcebehind social networkingand it all leads tobrand management. The results of such efforts will be long- lasting; however, they may appear to be intangibleat first. Thegambling space isa saturatedmarket. By effectively using the aforementioned tools, your relationship management and customer retentionwill be strong enough to withstand the flashy attractivenessof a rival skyscraperbanner or sign-upbonus. Another major lesson is that different forms of socialmediahavedifferent func- tions, and thus canbeutilized indifferent ways to efficiently leverage their related strengths whileminimizing the impact of theirweaknesses. Take forexample theTwittervs.Facebook conundrum. Where Twitter excels in its immediacy, convenience and targeting, it is lacking in that itmust deliver anything meaningful in no more than 140 char- acters. It has the valuable ability to help direct your target market to a specific landingpage, but lacks the scaleof achar- acter-unrestricted post. To use it effec- tively, youhave to follow the right people, have the right people follow you, and be able tooptimize140characters togetyour point across in amessage that is interest- ingand relevant toyour audience. Facebook, on the other hand, delivers a wealth of users (amajor increase in scale ofcommunication),offersamorepersonal form of communication and provides the ability to host a discussion, create a fan page and become Google-indexed. How- ever, it has the potential to work against you if your discussion takes a less-than- desirable route. Whenmanaged correctly, anopendiscus- sion can have a wealth of potential. By encouraging dialogue andbuilding recep- tiveness, you are fundamentally building confidence in your brand. Your affiliate marketing software should offer tracking andmonitoring abilities to examine stats, whichwill help you gain insight into your target market’s opinions and their recep- tiveness. Any perceived success must be measured in order to prove the worth of your investment, and such statistics can be invaluable in helping you determine the future courseof your involvement. For example, when your software can track the performance of a social media campaign, the benefits are that you are able to determine the relative success of different campaigns, while comparing ef- fectiveness of certain keywords and veri- fying the click-through rates as well as a varietyof useful stats. By running concur- rent campaigns, being able to tweak them on-the-go andultimatelyhaving the abili- Social Networking and the iGaming Landscape