The Future of Social Games: How Facebook is Connecting Players, Developers, & Dollars

This article is written from the game developer point of view but marketers should take notice.  Now, there is a platform for distribution that makes the development of branded games an option.  Brand managers are no longer relegated to advertising space near a game — there is a cost effective way to drive engagement through a game.

What Big Brands Should Learn From the Little Guy

Small Business owners don’t have the marketing budgets, the world class ad agencies, or the ubiquitous brands that their larger competitors possess.  But they do have several traits that should be envied, and ultimately replicated, by the bigger consumer brands.

The small business owner tends to be networked in his community, on a personal level as well as a business level.  He (or she) is a little league coach, a singer in the church choir, a poker buddy, or a next door neighbor – as well as the heart and soul of his business. He is the living, breathing, walking-around representation of his business and its brand.  In short, he is connected with his community, and he tends to be plugged in very well to what is going on around him.  He is not always in sell mode, because he realizes that taking a genuine interest in others is far better than broadcasting his message 100% of the time.  He is likeable and is the kind of fellow with whom you would like to do business.

Big brands with big marketing dollars can learn a great deal from the small business guy.  After all, for many businesses it has been cost-prohibitive to connect with consumers personally – some even measure “cost per contact” as if talking to their customers was a cost center to be carefully managed.  But technology is now allowing big brands to capture and leverage some of the best traits of the small business owner. By using social tools to start a real dialogue with loyal customers, big brands can now encourage communication and customers can actually provide feedback that can increase the value of the overall organization.

It takes a real effort to effectively engage with consumers, though.  Too often brands will pay lip service to listening to what their consumers have to say.  Social marketing involves a commitment to the relationship over time.  It’s not a campaign.  It doesn’t end when the intern goes back to college after summer break.  It requires a concerted, sustained effort to engage consumers, just like the local business guy.