Orkut 101: Orkut is a community platform owned by Google. They just launched a redesign today (10/29) that makes it much more Facebook-like, though currently limited to invite only so it's unclear how functions work. Every profile has the ability to promote text, photos, video. Options are pretty basic. Orkut is best known for Brazilian penetration but India is also big. Both countries are battling fb which just surpassed Orkut in India, Orkut just disabled friend exporting in an attempt to stop fb migration.

Brand mktg. in Orkut emphasizes targeted ad promotions underpinned by adsense (and brand widgets/experiences built on Google's opensocial platform, there are currently approx. 6k apps. in the directory). In Aug. 09 Orkut launched a StumbleUpon type ad promotions service whereby users vote an ad/video etc. up or down and spread it that way or not...it's called Orkut Promote (see this press release) Brands have to pay...it's not free. Best description of the system can be found here.

Other viral elements include embedded html in scrapbooks, or "scraps" which can be shared across networks (kind of like a widget). Functionality/presentation is limited. Branded communities do exist, but they pale in comparison to fb pages, for ex. see this MTV experience. If you're a big brand there are a number of rogue brand pages ("communities") you could engage, but the level of traffic/activity is often somewhat low. Beyond communities Orkut doesn't seem to offer varied advertising options similar to Facebook’s sponsored groups, social ads, pages etc.

Best practices at this point seem limited to:
1) Monitoring & engaging users on brand community pages (SOP for social media), though this will be complicated by any existing rogue pages. Can or should this be addressed? How to establish an authoritative brand voice if rogue pages exist?

2) Launching adsense programs, targeted ads, scraps widgets, custom apps. and/or Orkut Promote programs. This is simply going down the advertising road...really a similar strategy in many ways to Facebook, but with more limited options and in Portuguese. What are the ramifications of trying to poach Orkut community members and move them into Facebook?

ANNOUNCING: