Demand for social networking and community based services are exploding. Social media capabilities are being adopted by all major media companies across the globe. Analyst eMarketer predicts that by 2011, $4.1 billion will be spent worldwide for social network advertising - a dramatic increase from the $480 million spent in 2006. In 2008 alone, global ad spend in the social networking arena is expected to increase 75% year over year, amounting to $2.1 billion (eMarketer, Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage, December 2007). ioko has always been a leader in evaluating, implementing, and integrating emerging technology and trends into the core IT platforms of large media and entertainment companies. Social networking and community based solutions are no different.

In the initial phase of social media, Media & Entertainment companies were left out in the cold with the independents, in the form of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, engaging massive audiences around the world. Today, clearly Media & Entertainment companies have caught up and want to offer the same capabilities for users to contribute content, meet like-minded people, and discuss related topics, share, rate, and comment from their own site. ioko has built a competency around these services, as well as establishing relationships with best of breed vendors that offer community based services & capabilities. As a result, it is now much easier for Media & Entertainment companies to provide a compelling, more relevant experience to their viewers and keep the traffic on their own web site. We also have a unique perspective on how major Media & Entertainment brands can leverage the existing social networking sites, like Facebook, to bolster their brand from other sites. The result is that Media & Entertainment companies can drive higher incremental ad revenue by drawing users into a deeper relationship with the site hence gaining increased ad exposure. The key is to effectively integrate and support those services into their existing platforms to ensure end-users have a consistent and seamless user experience. Enabling a Media & Entertainment platform with community based services means that you have complete control over content contributed by users ensuring the content is appropriate for your brand.

We offer a variety of solutions across social media and community based services. These services include core social networking capabilities like ratings, sharing, User Generated Content (UGC = video, photos, audio, blogs, message boards, etc.), widgets for content syndication, programmable video players, and a variety of management and monitoring tools. Our expertise in integrating and running these services will ensure a scalable architecture and robust set of management tools that give complete control over content and experience and make this once daunting task more manageable.