Social Media Next Frontier

2010 is done and dusted and I’d be amazed should the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube not enjoy centre stage in most internet gambling operators’ marketing campaigns in 2011. Surprisingly very few gambling sites make use of social media today.

Let’s have a look at internet casinos that presently exploit the advantages of social media sites.

Paddy Power has paved the way and led from the front with regards to promoting and effectively using social media. Numerous social media icons are displayed on their website and marketing warranty for some time now.  Paddy Power has learnt to properly market its business via the social media platform and it works really well for social reasons.

Betfair is yet another grand example; its Youtube football channel is captivating. Taking into consideration the number of football teams partnered with internet casinos nowadays. Betfair’s business venture with Manchester United has seen distinctive content together with the popular “crossbar challenge” feature from Soccer AM. Betfair exploited additional concepts such as the iPhone rattle app, fan v fan for the last Ashes tour and Betfair front room.

Noteworthy social media is not only for betting and event content. The likes of Ladbrokes Casino and 32Red succeeded in establishing communities and engage casino players with their product, by means of introducing selected promotions, video content and opinion polls.  Foxy and Wink Bingo also established a large player base on Facebook, while Party Poker landed 20,000 fans and Full Tilt 74,000 followers/players.

Most internet casinos don’t realise Twitter’s full potential as yet. X-Factor has a huge following in the UK and it clearly showed on Twitter, what lacked was internet casinos doing any post by means of publishing related content pertaining to the casino industry in general. Live search is becoming more relevant even with Google.

Many casinos designed web pages and permit RSS feed from their news section update their social groups. It is very simple to do this and your average Facebook user spends more or less 55 minutes a day on Facebook, therefore it’s imperative that gaming sites tap into this resource as soon as possible.

Enjoy and make use of social media sites, it is essential you also make it interesting to your players/customers. Last but not least you must be able to captivate them and give them a good reason to follow you.