Thursday, May 29, 2008 Toral: Engage your audience By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
“ENGAGE” was the word most often uttered by all speakers in the recent Social Networking and eBusiness Conference Philippines 2008.
Traditional marketing and advertising no longer work in the age of social networks as active Internet users tend to be blind to all the typical ads they see every day.
Friendster.com, sticking to its main purpose of allowing users to keep in touch, has served as framework for many subsequent social networks. Most, if not all, have learned from the Friendster experience.
But still, this site remains number one in the heart of Filipino Internet users who visit the site regularly to keep in touch with family and friends, here and abroad. Mobile phone users can also keep tabs with their online friends through http://m.friendster.com.
What got everyone excited, too, is the launch of Friendster's application development program. This is where you can create an application that can be ported in Friendster. There is no restriction to put a revenue model on these applications and online merchants should grab this opportunity.
Groovenet.ph took advantage of the Filipinos’ love for music to grow its online community. Its continuing growth is highly attributed to offline events where members come together and meet face-to-face. It also created a Philippines inside the virtual world, “There,” where members can join and even interact with (“There”) members in the rest of the world.
Itzamatch.com experience was certainly a show-stopper. The site was first to show that social networks can engage in relevant offline activities for its members at a variety of age groups, such as the search for the perfect campus couple, speed dating for yuppies and date for a cause, which is targeted at matured adults.
Faith Ponte sees Cebu as a key venue in launching these activities and wants to ensure that Itzamatch will be a reliable social networking site with real people taking an active part in its community.
Among the folks I get to talk to, a lot are eager to see these activities get offered outside of Cebu.
Level-Up Games caught a lot of the participants by surprise when it shared that its attempt for a social network failed as most members were seeking for features that are tightly integrated with the games they play within the community. Today, what the company focuses on is the building of embassies or presence of the company and the games in a wide variety of social networks to let players know that they are accessible whenever needed.
They also use these platforms to reach out to new potential gaming audience.
Asia Pay also showcased an interesting payment service where a product can be embedded in a blog or social networking website for promotion. The challenge there is getting your followers or visitors to do the same in their blog or website. This is seen to be helpful for charity institutions where supporters can encourage others to support the group as they embed the product item in their blog or websites or social network profile pages.
Chikka formally launched its application development program during the conference that encourages developers to build offerings that can be marketed to mobile phone users in countries where Chikka has a partnership agreement.
With all these developments, I must admit, Internet, e-commerce, e-business and social networking makes the online world a more exciting place to be part of.
