1. It’s not just a basic information portal but acts like a mini community of its own, which is not only scalable but dynamic too.
2. Users can upload, share and vote on stuff. That’s almost the whole plethora of social interactions that are possible included here. User generated content can be pushed around in the community via a seamless commenting system.
3. Activity streams for featuring new and featured content.
   
4. Taking care of the database via Login / Register functionality, and of course has a Facebook Connect option too.

But there are still some areas where new stuff can be added to make sure user stickiness and brand influence increases. The website gives a chance for users to upload their content, yet does not give any functionalities for telling their stories. And human beings are suckers for telling stories, aren’t we? Check out Gauravonomics article on the importance of story-telling in Social Media Marketing and also Graham Brown’s research on why youth and new media is about giving the audience a chance to tell their story to the brand and other users. Some tips to scale up the engagement and passion at the Cornetto community:

1. After I upload my content, I need a place to tell the story behind it? Maybe a status update or a detailed description.
2. I want to connect to other users who share the same passion as me like acting, singing and movie-making. Why not give me a simple forum or discussions thread based activity stream?
3. The campaign has a Twitter and Facebook presence (obviously), but frankly I don’t think it’s needed here. The Facebook fan page is flooded with content that should have been on this community. Or is either duplicate content.
4. The app on the Facebook page, just redirects me to the site itself (WTF?)
5. The Twitter handle again looks as if it’s being done for the sake of impressing the client and offering ’social media solutions’ .. plus the tonality doesn’t even sync in with the brand characteristics.

Update:

I went back to the handle after two days, and surprisingly all the conversations are gone! I guess someone became wiser, or the client didn’t like such a tactic. Sadly, they have just self promoting updates with links back to the site now.

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/luvhojaanede/status/11752838791"]

To my delight I saw Times Now flashing its twitter handle and facebook url in their tickers while their show on Kasab was on.

Where brands are so apprehensive[ about being present on social platforms] and close minded that they want negative  comments about the brand to be deleted, there Times Now is inviting comments and opinion of the junta on such a controversial topic.

Pretty impressive!

However, the facebook url that they mentioned doesn’t exist. Was it a silly mistake? At such a level?

If you are doing it, at least do it right dear :)

First things first, that’s a killer domain name dude! Read on for more; the text in italics and red is original content from Amit:

We are overloaded with information. During the course of my day I email, tweet, comment, post, chat, message, buzz, check -n, call, SMS, MMS, BBM and sometimes (if I’m really lucky) actually talk to people. We are moving towards an ever increasing flood of content (much of it automated) and it’s only gettin’ worse. One day soon everything will tweet.

Some of the steps from my side that I have taken to curb this overload is move away from email for managing tasks, follow only 50 people on Twitter and *cough* say no to Google Buzz. But still I do invariably feel the need for a single platform which syncs all these media platforms and lets me manage all contacts, conversations and content from one central dashboard.

It’s not the the sheer quantity of information that’s the problem (faster flow of information will only help people achieve more), it’s how we send and receive it:

• Sending: How do I send out information so that it reaches it’s intended audience only. In the upcoming era of persistent, public online identity, how do I can still share my green-beer, toga party pictures with my friends and make sure potential clients don’t see it? Additionally, I want to publicize my boring social media posts without spamming my friends who I know really, really don’t care.
  Very well put. I feel that media platforms have already taken the first steps by giving us more deeper control to our content updates e.g. Facebook now allows very customised privacy control on every status update. But these are just the first steps.
  
• Receiving: With all this content around how do I make sure that that important stuff gets to me FAST, while the stuff that matters stays buried (until I get really bored or have lots of time to look through it).
  Once again, I can add nothing to the insight apart from the fact that we ave already taken the first steps e.g. Twitter now allows us to create lists which works out brilliantly.
  

The idea that’s been bouncin’ around my head tries to address the second point… enter: sign.al.

I have a dream… that one day my phone will ring when my buddy is callin’ me up to go grab a beer, while calls from vodafone bill collectors stay silent. That my blackberry will only flash in meetings only when really really important stuff happens (like the Mets scoring a winning run). That one day, we’ll be able to ignore the tens, hundereds or thousands of messages that don’t matter, and focus our attentions on the ones that do. Here’s how sign.al would work. Let us divide it into steps / interactions:

1st step: Initialising

• You give it all your account information (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter etc)
• It starts off like any aggregator (Seesmic for instance), showing you a timeline of emails, Facebook messages, Tweets, yadda yadda.

2nd step: Learn a user’s interactions preferences

• Aright, now’s where it starts getting cool… after a little while, it moves away from a Timeline view, to a priority view. It starts guessing knowing what you are most likely gonna want to read and respond to and starts moving those to the top. This shift is already happening (FB news feed vs time line, Mozilla Raindrop, Xobni for Blackberry) Also Feedly for smart news aggregation and Hakia for semantic search. Have a look at how the semantic web is evolving here.
  
• Sign.al can know what’s important by:
  • Frequency – How regularly you read and respond to individuals
  • Speed – Of your read/response
  • Popularity – The number of comments, RTs, likes, and mentions
  • Proximity – Number of shared connections
  • Medium – @mentions more weightage then email cc’s?
  • Geo-location – Are messages from Mumbai and NYC more important to me?
  • Time of day – Are certain types of messages more important at a certain time?
  • Content – Am I more likely to be interested in content about the Jets regardless of where, when, how it’s getting to me? (yes)
  • Recency – Moving away from this but still a factor
  • Top readers – Who are your biggest fans? Who reads your content very regularly? Everyone likes a bit of vanity :)
  • Friends of friends – Information networks like Twitter are inherently build to propogate and open up new relationships. Can I have an option to open up a new layer of 2nd degree connections?
  • Type of connections – Do I want people I know only on micro-blogs? Or maybe I just want a good old list of friends on phone? BTW the new Nokia phones on the open source Maemo OS are doing this pretty well, also Windows 7 phones are good in syncing social contacts across various platforms. But they still lag seamless engagement models.
    
• Phase 2 – Phone app
  • Incorporating voice and SMS into the mix of content to prioritize
  • Different types of notifications instead of timeline: ring for an important sms, vibrate for a somewhat important @mention, silent for a newsletter.

I personally think Phase 2 needs to be released with the Phase 1 itself, but then again he’s the Product Development expert and not me!

• Phase 3 – Setting status (implicitly?) in a meeting, driving, out to lunch – reduce/amplify notification methods. If I’m sitting at the airport bored and normally my phone vibrates for an important tweet, now ring.

A very interesting functionality. i doubt if we yet have good enough Artificial Intelligence to classify my state of activity by reading the sentiments in my status updates. Maybe some kinda categorising / rating system?

• Phase 4 – Anticipate – Based on where I am, the type of message, who I’m connecting with, the medium, the format etc… start anticipating how I may respond to them (in a totally not creepy big brotherish way)

Totally against this one. I need to have a personal touch to my central communications console.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, execution’s what matters. Take this idea, build it, I’ll use it and be happy (just be forewarned you need to legal operations in Albania to actually register the sign.al domain name :P )

Amen! Any takers to take this forward?

• Maybe because, in a day and age where land rates are sky high, everyone can have a 24×24 farm at Farmville. You are ready to plow, plant, harvest and grow!
• Maybe city dwellers want a taste of good ol’ countryside. Mooing cows, quacking ducks, meowing cats are all here to add to the zing. It’s a land where ugly ducklings get transformed to beautiful white swans.
• Its not the aspect of farming that attracts players. Its simply the craze for things we cant have in real life with real money. Living in a rented apartment? Fret not, in Farmville you can own a farmhouse.

All said and done, Farmville is the perfect substitute or defense mechanism to get our dreams virtually. It connects us emotionally to a culture that we all desire. It connects us with more like minded people.

What else can be done?

Some social strategies that can be added to enhance the social gaming aspect:

• A social and more central marketplace - The current game plan allows you to interact with the Farmville admins. Users should be able to sell and buy with more ease amongst each other.
• More detailed views – The current game gives us a top view of our farms. We would like more detailed stuff where we can enter sheds, windmills, kitchen etc.
• Work to make gold coins – Let users give each other jobs (post jobs in the marketplace?) and they can complete tasks for other users for a certified amount of gold.
• Move into the Farmville world – Increase your levels to become the landlord of some area and then rule over it by loaning it to others.