GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 13 - June 2010

ty todeterminewhicharemoresuccessful, thepotential not only to learnmore about your targetmarkets, but also to effectively communicatewith them, iswhatwill help propel you to socialmedia success. KeystoSuccess Haveastrategy Involvement in social networking is a two-way street. It requires a regularity of communicationand investment,while fo- cusing on a defined, attainable goal. De- termining how your objectives will alter your relationshipswithyour customers is vital toyourstrategy. Ifyourbusinessgoal is to gain x amount of new business dur- ing the year, and you have aligned your social media goal with it, then youmust have a strategy in place to carry out the necessary tasks. Through a combination of social networking vehicles, your com- munication will be offered to the digital world. If there is no strategy behind it, then monitoring its performance serves nopurpose. Understand theprocess Like any undertaking, there is a process by which relative success is measured. Realizing a large financial impact after the first three months of investment is improbable. The initial investment of time, peopleand funds is followedby sev- eral stages before any kind of financial impact can be determined. Once action is taken, and a reaction is established, a non-financial impact will occur. This impact will be the tipping point for the subsequent stage: the financial impact. Non-financial impact includes a number of things suchas increasedbrandpercep- tion, increasedWeb site visitors andblog and forumcomments.Thesewill all affect yourROI in the long-run, as you increase your conversion ratebyusing the various aforementioned tools. Immerseyourself Inkeychannels It isuseful tomaximizeyour involvement in several forms of social media in order to fully realize the strengths that eachhas tooffer. Byutilizing these effectively, you will gain diverse levels of feedback, as various markets experience social media in different ways. By involving yourself in key channels you will remain fresh in your targetmarkets’ minds, and this will increaseyourbrand recognition. Alignsocialmediagoals withbusinessgoals Review your business goals and expecta- tions, and take the opportunity to align your social media agenda and goals to support your bottom line. Thismulti-fac- eted approach toward a shared objective is a great way to remain focused and on course. Social media vehicles can eas- ily become distractions if topics sway off course, so it is important to remember what objectiveshavebeen set. If there is one point to take away from this, it is that socialmedia are a fantastic support vehicle for connecting and com- municatingwith your audience. They of- fer the opportunity tobuild relationships with end-users (players) and promoters (affiliates) while developing a personal- ity associatedwith your program (opera- tors). It is important to remember that social media are a very effective vehicle and are best suited to be accompanied by other marketing efforts. Standing alone, they can be a powerful marketing tool, but to be utilizedmost effectively, a multi-platform approach is usually best. With a variety of marketing efforts sup- porting one another – consistency, focus and social networking– the potential for success is greatly improved. AdamvanVlaardingen Adam is anaffiliatemanager at IncomeAccess. He has an interest inmobilemarketing, social networkingand the future of the affiliatemarket- ing industry. He resides andworks inMontreal. “Foroperatorssearching fornewaffiliates,or affiliatesseeking to garnernewplayers, vehicles likeTwitter andFacebookcanbe excellentways toacquire additionalbusiness.” 10 Social Networking and the iGaming Landscape