OpenSocial apps can help marketers promote their brand through social networks

by Satrajit Sen

If you are a bank, a healthcare provider, a mobile operator, or a consumer product, it’s time for you to involve your brand in social networks through OpenSocial, according to experts operating in the field of OpenSocial applications in India.

OpenSocial is a set of common application programming interfaces (APIs) for web-based social network applications. The initiative was launched by Google and a number of other social networks, including MySpace, in November 2007. The beauty of OpenSocial platform is that applications developed on this platform work with any social network system that supports the platform. Orkut, which is owned by Google, and MySpace are some of the leading social networks that support OpenSocial apps.

“Being a two-way conversational model, OpenSocial apps can provide a practical platform to brands for communicating their message well to the consumers. Of late, marketers are taking initiatives in branding their products through social networks and have started using OpenSocial applications for this,” Manu Rekhi, product manager at Google, told AlooTechie.

In June 2008, MTV partnered with Google to launch the online version of its adventure based reality show MTV Roadies on Google's social networking site Orkut. In order to participate in the contest, users had to first add an application called Sony Ericsson MTV Roadies Battleground to their Orkut profile. According to Manu Rekhi, the app has been successful for both Sony Ericsson and MTV as it allows both the brands to expand their reach among the Orkut users. At the last count, the app had already been added by more than 250,000 Orkut users.

According to Ali Hussein of Viacom 18 (the promoters of MTV), the Sony Ericsson MTV Roadies Battleground app, released on Orkut, was used to promote Sony Ericsson Walkman series among the Orkut users. The app had integrated tasks for the Roadies and allowed users to start discussion threads on music as well as participate in discussion threads started by other users. It also enabled users to highlight the features of Sony Ericsson as a music device. “This helped MTV and Sony Ericsson in gaining viewers and consumers respectively,” said Ali Hussein.

Paul Paturi, founder and CEO of Sapplica , a social apps developer, said, “Social programs leverage the voice of the customer to get messages carried further than ad impressions. If a brand's message resonates with consumers, their word-of-mouth acts like a more effective medium than any of the traditional media.”

Another important advantage with social applications is their cost factor. “Building and using social applications on social networking platforms is considerably cheaper than a typical ad campaign. Besides, the traction that one can build leveraging social applications is measurable. Thus, marketers should start leveraging the potential of OpenSocial apps on social networks as a branding tool,” added Paturi.

According to Lalit Sarna, CEO of Oxylabs Networks , another social apps developing company, OpenSocial apps can help brand marketers in creating highly targeted, engaging and interactive ad campaigns. “For example, we partnered with MTV to create branded content for our app PhotoBuzz. The app enabled users to express themselves to their friends using MTV branded content. Within six weeks of the launch over 15 million people received MTV buzzes from their friends,” Sarna claimed.

However, developing and launching social apps is one thing and getting users to them is another. And even if you get users, getting them hooked on to the app is yet another challenge. So, how do you attract and retain users to your social application?

According to Manu Rekhi of Google, social applications based on cricket and Bollywood can be very successful and well accepted. Rekhi further suggested that apps should be user-friendly and need to offer value to the consumers in order to attract users and retain them. Paul Paturi of Sapplica added, “Brand marketers should also keep in mind that unless a value chain is created within the usage pattern of the application, users will be long gone before you notice.”

Speaking about how the concept of OpenSocial has been accepted in India till now, Lalit Sarna of Oxylabs said, “We are very pleased by the uptake of OpenSocial applications in India and expect the usage to grow over time with broadband penetration. OpenSocial has given us the ability to reach out to users worldwide and become profitable without any external funding. This enables us to sustain growth in India, even in nascent stages of broadband penetration.”

“Indian users are gradually getting used to OpenSocial applications through social networks. The way the page views are increasing, it is very encouraging for Indian developers to devise more user-friendly applications,” added Manu Rekhi of Google.

Paul Paturi of Sapplica said the current usage pattern of OpenSocial apps in India shows that simple apps like those used for sending SMS, chatting, poking fun with one's friends get more traction than the relatively complicated ones. “However, over the next year we expect the Indian users to start using applications that have a deeper integration into their personalities,” Paturi said. He also felt that “as developers see more ways of monetizing the applications, we will begin to see more quality apps.”

According to Paturi, adoption of OpenSocial applications in India is primarily seen on networks like Orkut and Hi5. “Orkut OpenSocial apps are a big hit among the community and newer apps are getting introduced by the day. They are becoming effective means to increase traffic and content distribution and going forward these apps will provide tremendous monetization opportunity. Indian sites such as MingleBox and AOL are also getting active on OpenSocial,” said Manish Malik, general manager, gaming, One Hungama Network .