TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

INTRODUCTION

WHY CONSUMER NETWORKING?

CREATING A COMMUNITY FOR YOUR MARKET

DEVELOPING A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL STRATEGY

GET ON-DEMAND APPLICATIONS

INSTANT WHITE LABEL SOLUTIONS

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Until a few years ago, the term “social network builder”, “social consumer networking” or “social branding” was limited to the realm of big powerful and global brands, well until now.

 

Today with the power of top online social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, and Orkut who started it all, MyPage comes as a simple “social branding tool” to create your own social brand or integrate a live and instant social networking solution to your company.

 

What started as a youth-driven online phenomenon has now

filtered into all age groups, and users can access their communities using

mobile phones as well as computers. Now that social networks have logged

over a billion registered users, it is no wonder that marketers are interested in

the possibility of connecting with consumers through the social media.

 

 

WHY CONSUMER NETWORKING?

 

Does your brand or company need additional sales? Do you need to know exactly what your target market need in reference to a particular service or brand that you have?

 

A few brands have managed to leverage applications like these to successfully engage their customer base.

 

In June 2008, ConAgra Foods launched its new integrated campaign for the Slim Jim snack brand. Broadcast media were used to drive traffic to an immersive Web site that offered gaming and social networking experiences on partner sites, including MySpace and Facebook. On the latter, the brand used the Superpoke! application, created by Slide, which allows users to poke each other and show off their “spicy” side.

 

Tablet Hotels took a different approach in creating the Global Nomad Challenge, a quiz that asks people to identify a new hotel each week from a photograph. The prize is a free hotel stay. Players do not need to rely on their experience alone but can identify the hotel by clicking through a list of other hotels in the same location and so learn more about the Tablet roster in the process.

 

While most people enjoy playing with the various applications on Facebook, they are pretty simple to use and rarely engage attention for long. According to Adonomics, a firm that tracks Facebook statistics, only 138 of the nearly 17,000 applications on Facebook had more than 1 million installations. So, though they

have generated a lot of industry buzz, widgets and applications are not the silver bullet of social media.

 

Some companies have opted for an approach that provides more value and relevance to users. Visa, the world’s largest credit card processor, has introduced the Visa Small Business Network with the aim of bringing together the half million or so companies listed on Facebook by providing them with free tools

and a means to connect. In the Network’s first two weeks, 10,000 companies joined, incentivized with an offer of $100 worth of Facebook advertising.

BUILDING  A COMMUNITY THAT YOUR BRAND-FOLLOWERS WILL LOVE

 

Today with the onset of many cms, social network frameworks, instant community and website builder, it is really hard to differentiate and pinpoint the “perfect” builder for your brands and needs.

 

In order to get the perfect “framework” for you, you need to ask these specific questions to make it a community specifically inclined to create a community for your brand – followers.

 

1. Can you customize it so it can fit your website seamlessly?
2. Can you add only applications that you need?
3. Can you completely brand your community?
4. Can you make more money off it?
5. Can you promote to other communities?
6. Will your community get excellent support, and user experience.
7. Can you manage your database?
8. Can you serve your own ads or allow users to serve their own ads?
9. Is the price right?
10. Is the support helpful and instant?

 

 

If these questions are met, I believe you will have a community that your followers will love and will love to promote as well. Build a community that works for its target market and have them be the perfect advertising medium for your brand.

 

Developing a Successful Social Strategy

While it is clear that many mainstream brands are now leaving the familiar territory of push advertising to engage with their users more directly on social

networks, the results to date have been mixed. A successful social strategy will address the following five requirements:

 

Understand the environment

People come to social networks to interact with their friends and make new ones, not to buy products and services. Therefore, a blatant sell is not welcome.

People may be willing to spend time with your brand but only if they find value in doing so. Also, as mobile becomes a bigger force in social media, those logging

on from their phones will have even less time for traditional advertising than those connected by computer. Also consider which sites may be most appropriate to your brand and communication strategy. Our research suggests that for some brands, MySpace is more suitable than Facebook while for others,

Facebook would be preferred. For many brands,some other community on the long tail of networks may be more appropriate still. And don’t assume everyone will find you through their friends; a successful engagement usually requires a significant media buy to drive traffic to the sponsored group page.

 

Listen, learn and respond

A brand that seeks to engage people through social media is entering into a conversation. The first step should be to listen to what people are already saying.

This may allow you to identify new opportunities for engagement and steer clear of potential missteps.

 

What needs might your brand be able to fulfill that are not already being met online? What sorts of things do people want to hear about your brand? What might they find interesting, enjoyable or valuable? Once you enter the conversation, you must be prepared to continue that involvement by reading comments and responding quickly and appropriately.

 

Create a sense of community and keep it alive

Social networks online reflect the communities built around strong brands offline. Think of Harley Davidson or Manchester United. People are driven to join by

the age-old desires for belonging and self-expression.

 

How can your brand bring people together to share their passion? Nokia has created an opportunity for ardent gamers to come together through its N-Gage

platform, which allows users to download games as well as discuss them and blog about them. And don’t assume that online and offline are separate worlds.

The webkinz.com site draws more than 3.8 million visitors a month. Kids who have bought one of the plush toys can enter the secret code that comes with

it to play virtual games featuring the toy’s avatar.

 

Create unique content

If you want the word to spread beyond your initial contact group, you must offer something of unique value that people can share. This could be entertainment,

advice, or a useful functional tool. Most people think of viral communication as an edgy and subversive video or joke that gets passed from person to person,

but people also value information and advice. They want to hear what others have to say, particularly if the source is trusted because of shared interests or

experiences. Today’s applications may not all represent best practices; in the future, we expect social media applications to be more immersive, engaging and

helpful. Do not assume that the first iteration of an application will be successful. Ask users for feedback and plan upgrades to keep people interested.

 

Be authentic

People respect a brand that has an authentic voice. They distrust brands that seem condescending or duplicitous. Marketers who find ways to engage their

consumers openly and honestly will be the ones to win big. A brand that offers applications of real utility to customers or a distinct point of view on a social or

cultural issue stands a much higher chance of generating real engagement.

 

Those who try to buy praise or disguise their sales pitch as independent advice risk not only diluting the credibility of their brand, but also that of the medium.

Few brands inspire the sort of passion guaranteed to attract a loyal and active following in social networks, but those that do will find them fertile ground for

engagement.

 

Others can use social networks as part of an integrated campaign to offer people something of value. In both cases, a liberal dose of traditional advertising will help generate the critical mass that will make your efforts worthwhile.

The Best Apps to Choose from

We have a wide and varied selection of apps to choose from. By using your community account settings, you may be able to control which apps this certain community you would like your users use.

Others Can Make Your Website Socially Capable but We Believe We can Do More

You can choose from every kind of very nice social community apps to run. Whether running a video site, a gaming site, a corporate intra-net or integrate it with any cms.There are just too many to choose from. We believe with the apps, and dev support that we have, that we are the "most" convenient, the "most" affordable, the "most" easy to integrate than any of the "white label sites" you can see on the net.

 

What is better, hosted or not?

There are "white label" social sites out there who lets you install software on your server or run it on their own, thus giving you advantages and disadvantages of its own. Installable "white label" sites are generally configurable and customizable while "hosted" may be limiting your options but at the same time giving you free server resources attached with a price. What to choose? I believe both would be very convenient for your part if you're a webmaster, a domain owner or business owner for that matter. With MyPage, you can create a social network, fill its content and choose to host it on our very fast server or choose to download it instantly without any installation on your own server.

 

Dashboards for the Social, Website or Domain User.

We Can Build You An Instant Local to Global Live Community Connected to One Social Ring.

What does this all mean? Ok, let me make it simple, if you create a social community and would like to create at least four others, will your members be integrated? Will they be part of each other? Will you be able see all of the changes in all of your communities and be able to manage them in one page? MyPage can.

Another question would also be, is that are your communities part of a "still larger community" which makes it easier for your users to communicate and find resources, people and places that they find most in common with.

Mypage is focused on building communities that are part of a "local to global social ring", which means if you are in Indiana and created a community for Broadripple, your community members can take part of where they feel most connected to, their local community, city, town or country.