thismoment.com, a provider of social content management software for brands, today announced that it surpassed 650,000 user generated content (UGC) submissions through its flagship product, the Distributed Engagement Channel (DEC).

Thismoment’s UGC contest engine allows brands to collect video, photo, and text content from users directly through YouTube, Facebook, and brand site pages, and offers full moderation and workflow controls to manage submission data.

Big brands can use YouTube, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Instagram as viable content and sales channels.

Thismoment customers can build and deploy creative and engaging UGC brand channels on YouTube at a faster rate than ever before.

Since partnering with YouTube in 2010, thismoment has launched over 100 YouTube brand channels for customers within all major industry verticals, including more than 100 Fortune 500 brands. Throughout this time, thismoment has powered some of the most inventive uses of YouTube APIs in the deployment of engaging and flexible brand experiences on YouTube.

According to Vince Broady, CEO and Founder, thismoment

“Given our successful relationship with YouTube to-date, we are pleased to broaden the reach and scope of our UGC contest engine. We’re seeing an increasing demand for user content enabled engagement programs in all international regions that YouTube supports. This is a clear indicator that YouTube is approaching brand relationships more aggressively and openly than ever before and underscores the value that custom YouTube channels provide to brands.”

Security in social context

While social networking proves to be a lucrative space for branding and marketing, it could also be risky for sensitive information with privacy issues looming. SocialVolt knows this well, and promises to drive engagement without having to expose customer’s data. With security measures in place, they partnered with DigitalMedia, a leader in digital communications for financial firms to bring cutting-edge social media engagement.

“Given the SocialVolt team’s history in banking security and strong understanding of the unique challenges the industry faces, robust risk and compliance features were of the utmost importance when we developed the platform,” says Scott Oppliger, CEO of SocialVolt. “DigitalMailer’s deep expertise in the banking space will help us reach businesses who understand the importance of social media engagement, but require a platform uniquely suited to their heavily regulated industry.”

To audit social media content, there will be a detailed audit trail and administrators will be assigned to oversee passwords and profiles.  

Capitalizing existing social engagement platforms

Facebook has the benefits of building hype around social advertising, and milking billions from it. Arguably, Zuckerberg’s brainchild is in a league of its own. Capitalizing on this is Offerpop, another social content marketing that runs engaging and viral promotions in Facebook and Twitter for brands that wish to grow fanbase and repeat customers. It’s recently released a Facebook-sponsored feature called Stories. This support will allow marketers to amplify Offerpop campaigns across the social network.

Mark Cooper, co-founder and CMO of Offerpop, briefly explains benefits of the new feature, saying, “Facebook Sponsored Stories is a powerful way for brands to build awareness and engagement around new initiatives. Our Stories feature helps take the guesswork out of running effective Sponsored Stories campaigns – marketers can literally set them up in minutes.”

The Opportunity in Fragmented Social Portals

The fragmentation of media right now, while it may seem a dilemma for brands to break through the barriers, is a sign of distributed opportunities for social platforms. YouTube was a frontrunner, and still is the one to beat when we talk about online video streaming with a “social” component. For brands, building a social presence is the focus to stay relevant in the game. Making sure that they execute efficiently is another story.