A lot of casinos are trying to engage their patrons young and old; leveraging multiple social media channels. From Blogs to YouTube and a lot in between they are focused on 'showing off' their brand in an effort to dazzle the consumer.
The key to engagement lies in making things convenient for the consumer, the messaging has to inform & ENTERTAIN, and you have to look for ways to leverage every interaction. Yes, not just online, but you need to involve your direct marketing channels to drive effective engagement across channels.

Here are some practical ideas on how a casino can use Social Media -

1. Twitter - You should tweet about events leveraging your brand, your performers, & special events at the property. Mix up information with an occasional special coupon driven by trivia. Of course, all coupons have to be redeemed in person.

2. Blogs - Take the feedback you get from your consumers and post that on your blog. Invite some of your patrons to write about their experiences. Genuine articles work very well. People can blog about their first visit or special events that they celebrated at your property.

3. Facebook allows you in to the 'living room' of your patrons. Give them an opportunity to share their pictures & experiences on these pages so these can further be shared with friends & family. MySpace can work in the same way as well.

4. Flickr & YouTube allow you to share your experiences. Yes pictures & video are worth a million words. Encourage your kitchen or your bartender to whip up one of their favorite recipes. Capture this on YouTube. Take pictures of cakes & pastries and post these on Flickr. Be sure to tag both video and image with the right captions.

5. Email is your gatekeeper. Encourage & reward your EMPLOYEES to collect email ids from your patrons by focusing on the value of the email program. If you use your social media channels effectively, your employees can talk about whats being shown off on social media. Done correctly, this can help lure the patrons to sign up for email.

You have to be a little careful here not to create too much virtual reality. The experience over the web should be done as 'teaser information' to drive the patron in.

The marketer must create an aspirational destination not limited to the casino floor. You have to engage the patron as someone special.You need to also need to know as much as possible about the patrons preferences so you can make sure that they completely understand everything you offer.

Done correctly, you can keep the patron engaged and leverage them into brand ambassadors.

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