Bullet Business

Web 2.0 represents a new breed of online, browser-based applications and many are based on open-source software. Some of the most important online applications that fall under Web 2.0 label include blogs, podcasts, mashups and wikis.

There is a wide range of techniques available via web 2.0, and the skill is in judging the correct one for each vertical.

Social networking for gamers makes some sense, in that tips and form guides can be discussed as well as updates on the latest odds.

Also, widgets and RSS feeds of the latest odds and opportunities delivered directly to gamblers desktops are very powerful. Finally, targeting techniques like re-targeting allow marketers to deliver the right messages at the right time.

However, it is also being felt that the web is still maturing as a medium, and right now there are many more powerful offline techniques to marketing which are providing more demonstrable results, so web 2.0 should be put in context.

“It is clever, it allows targeting and it provides dialogue, but only when the customer is ready for it,” says Mediacom’s group CEO Jane Ratcliffe.

Existing players are having a dialogue with one another in forums outside the operator’s games if the operators themselves do not provide the functionality.

“As long as the cost to run chat rooms is viable, to not do so is a huge opportunity lost for the operator to find out what makes their base play and play more. If targeted correctly, these third party forums, like Messenger applications in particular, can prove effective as acquisition media,” says Jane.

It is also pointed out that everyone is approaching social media/ networking cautiously as you give up control when you open yourself up to `conversational media’ around your brand.

From Mediacom’s perspective, Jane says, “We feel social networking is much less a threat for igaming companies than other businesses, as they are enablers rather than producers, i. e. their product is the process they deliver, not the outcome of consumer decisions (e.g. the outcome of the bets themselves). On that basis, any forums are more likely to be focussed on the form guides than the functionality of an igaming company.”

Jane added, “Having the best functionality, exclusive access to events and the best potential returns are still vital, although this isn’t purely an online requirement.”

Facing the challenge as consumers emerge as today’s publishers

By providing platforms that allow consumers to share their passion and content, it is believed that brands will be able to extend their reach in a much more meaningful way.

One of the experts in this field, Duncan Wardle, VP Global PR Integration & Walt Disney World Public Relations, Disney Parks and Resorts’ recently told Bulletbusiness.com’s correspndent Ritesh Gupta that companies are scared of loosing control of their brand.

“They fail to understand that they never had control of their brand. That has always resided in the hearts and minds of their consumers. What is changing now is that brands no longer have control of the message. However, what brands gain in return, is the ability to leverage the passion of their brand advocates to reach people they cannot reach in a credible and relevant manner,” said Wardle.

In this context, companies can’t ignore social media strategy even though web is still maturing as a medium.

It is believed that the greatest challenge for brands moving into the social media space is to ask themselves if they are ready to engage the consumer genuinely. Once you have opened the doors, there’s no looking back.

Sharing the significance of such initiatives, Wardle said, “One statistic told us we were ready to engage in this new forum. For every one negative comment about a Disney theme park experience posted in the blogosphere, 18 people came to our defence without us lifting a finger.”

Where will this “network” effect take the web?

Earlier this year, Alexander van Elsas, who runs a blog about the effects of new media and technology on human behaviour, highlighted that everyone talks about the network effect in web 2.0.

In his posting, Elsas says there is an underlying need for interaction that drives current web development and social media trend explains the phenomenal growth of social networks. And then he asks - Where will this take us? According to him, there is a limit to the quality effects of the network. “While this effect can be used to explain why Google search improves as more people join, I would be willing to challenge its value in interaction. The network effect improves data, the most important currency in web 2.0 if you listen carefully to the experts.”

“I would argue that the network effect diminishes in value when it comes to interaction. We simply can’t interact with the whole world. Our interactions would become meaningless, lose impact, and our impact would become infinitely small in a global conversation. Our human limitations force us to focus on value, on those things that really matter,” he says.

Despite ambiguity on few counts at this stage, experts stress that successful brands of the future will be those brands that allow their employees and customers to engage in a rich, meaningful dialogue around the topics that both are most passionate about.