Social Media Tracker: How important is it for bingo operators to have a voice on social media?

Many of the biggest operators out there right now have spent a lot of time figuring out the tone of voice that they want to use when producing marketing materials. Brands like 888ladies focus on the fact that every day is ladies day and other brands like Wink Bingo prefer a slightly cheeky approach. While these tones of voice are used on many sites, they also need to come through on social media.

Over time, operators have been starting to use their social channels to bring this tone of voice to life and create a dialogue with their players. How important is this in 2020? We are going to look at this a little closer here.

What is a tone of voice?

While we all know what a tone of voice is when we are talking about how we say something, a brand voice is often slightly different. For many brands, this is a streamlined set of responses and a way of creating marketing materials that are conversational and shows the brand values. In fact, around 89% of customers will stay loyal to a brand that shares their values.

This is something that many brands across various industries have been doing for years. Take the Dollar Shave Club, for example, this brand tries to be blunt rather than take the approach that other shaving companies follow. This works well for the brand both onsite and on social media. This is something that bingo operators need to emulate.

Why is it important?

Having a voice on social media is key to increasing engagement and getting your brand noticed. If you have a tone of voice, you can make your brand instantly recognisable and you can approach your target audience much more easily. You can also build a community around your brand and cut out jargon that can be confusing.

For bingo operators, having a tone of voice is really important when it comes to the target audience. With so many brands out there targeting players, the operators that focus on a particular audience seem to do the best. Speaking directly to this audience through social media with a recognisable voice can go a long way.

Case study: Gala Bingo

One of the latest brands to revamp its voice on-site and across its social channels is Gala Bingo. This brand has a very large following on social media with over 165,000 likes on Facebook. On Twitter, Gala Bingo has 19.5K followers and its engagement is quite good.

On 24 February, Gala Bingo started its Bingo Like A Boss campaign. It released various teasers that caught the attention of their players on Facebook and Twitter. This campaign consists of a TV ad that was also posted on social media and various graphics focusing on the character of Gloria.

It seems like Gala Bingo is using Gloria to present itself as a badass brand. Gloria is a ‘living legend’ and its ‘go-to girl’. Gala Bingo has been sharing a lot of content focusing on Gloria which is sassy with the hashtag #BLAB.

The voice of Gloria is supposed to be relatable and it ties in well with International Women’s Day that was on 8 March. On this day, Gala Bingo celebrated with Gloria giving away a spa day for two on Facebook to help other players be girl bosses. This competition on Facebook received a lot of engagement with players empowering their friends by tagging them in the comments. The post received 98 comments and 76 shares.

While the Bingo Like A Boss campaign by Gala Bingo is still relatively new, it is clear that this is a good concept that will work for the brand. The voice being used here is sassy and fun, which is something that many of the Gala Bingo players aspire to be. Over time, we expect Gala Bingo to continue to use Gloria to promote various promotions and competitions on social media. The TV ad is expected to increase the number of players signing up.

With some of the biggest brands like 888ladies and Gala Bingo focusing on one particular tone of voice across social media, it is clear that this is important. Players want to be part of a larger community and when they can relate to a brand, they feel as though they are achieving this.

The Gala Bingo campaign is one that is working well for now and is expected to progress throughout 2020. We hope to see other operators taking a leaf out of Gala Bingo’s book by starting to really define their voice. It is important that this is echoed across the site and social media to really get the message across and increase engagement.

Keep an eye on operators in 2020 to see how they redefine their voice.

Sharon McFarlane is the managing director of Crystal Content – a digital marketing agency that specialises in igaming. She has eight years’ experience in the industry and has contributed regularly to industry magazines and conferences sharing her expertise on all things digital marketing. Her company (www.crystalcontent.co.uk) offers an outsourced solution for igaming businesses when it comes to content marketing, social media, UX design, website design, branding and conversion rate optimisation.