Social Media 101: USA Network banks big on Gaming Spin
Posted by Jan in 
The USA Network has recently announced results from a recent campaign to enhance site viewership through a point based, game like system called “Character Rewards”. The points can be redeemed for both virtual and real life branded goods. Ultimately, the system rewards viewers for loyalty and taps into their nature as fans. The result? An over 30% increase in viewership since launch.
This example of social media success begs the question, what is it that keeps customers attracted? While having an attractive site design or a catchy message can capture the attention of a potential customer, the effectiveness of a campaign is limited if that customer doesn’t keep returning.
In this particular example, the force that kept customers returning to the site was one of the most compelling drives in today’s attention starved populace: the desire to game. The same force that keeps millions logging into farmville and makes World of Warcraft a multi-billion dollar industry is the driving force behind USA’s success.
But the real message to be taken from this is that social media succeeds when it is in alignment with the customer’s desires. Taking the habits of television show fans, who consistently develop loyalty for a show, and creating a complimentary program for these habits is what drives success. This same initiative, used for a movie, for example, would most likely not have had the same effect.
Social media needs to be carefully coordinated and in touch with the customer if it is to succeed.
Yaarrr, let thar be downloadz
“The world’s most resilient bit torrent site” is trying to avoid walking the plank, as the four founders of The Pirate Bay make the first of 8 court appearances today in an effort to appeal the charges laid against them in April 2009. Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström are all appealing a sentence of one year in prison and almost a million dollars each in fines ($950,000).
Although you may think this means you won’t be able to download content from The Pirate Bay anymore, rest assured, it’s still running. It hasn’t been the same site since the tracker was shut down last year, but most files can still be found on the site and downloaded fairly quickly. Not that we advocate illegal file sharing. Its no Aaron Sorkin/David Fincher/JustinTimberlake Facebook Party Film, but we’re actually just really excited for the Pirate Bay movie coming out soon
Since its launch in 2004, The Pirate Bay has been one of the most popular and prolific media downloading programs in the world, offering films, TV shows, and music to all those willing to accept it for free. The website has long been funded by both private investors (most from The Pirate Parties of Sweden) and from advertisements that would run on the page while users were downloading/file searching.