Tokoni gives brands social networking tools to build customer loyalty

Tokoni launched its new Community Platform today, providing companies with the tools they need to create branded social networks and online communities for their customers. The Cupertino, Calif. company says that providing consumers with a social, interactive channel to offer feedback will inspire greater brand loyalty and eventually hike sales.
Tokoni’s Community Platform provides features that allow customers to share their experiences with particular companies and products with confidence that their voices will be heard by the powers that be. This feedback can be given in photo, video or note form, just like in Tokoni’s other web-based communities. By posting stories (Tokoni has always placed a high-degree of importance on the sharing of personal stories and reflections), these users are giving a human face to the companies they are buying from — it also opens them up to connect with other users, forging bonds through common experience.
Tokoni claims that fostering a more social atmosphere for customers to discuss companies and products provides brands with information extending beyond traditional demographic and keyword data — it gives them a window into people’s emotional attachment to the services and products they provide, which can be an even more powerful marketing tool.
The communities Tokoni creates can be customized to fit in with the brand markings of any company. They’re also less insular than other feedback sites — allowing supposedly organic connections with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, where content about companies can be shared through various viral channels. The idea is to make community sites a destination for users. Once they build visiting a site into their daily routine, and start to make connections with other users there, they will probably stick to the brand being promoted.
Tokoni has been around since 2007, helping major companies shape their social media strategies for maximum effect. Its first community site, Tokoni.com, was a simple forum asking users to discuss life experiences they found educational, influential or entertaining. Since then, the company has built communities for political campaigns and individual companies. This is the firm time it’s provided a flexible product to be easily deployed across many brands at once.
Today it has many top-tier clients, including WomenCount, a nonprofit that helps women participate more in the political process; MegWhitman.com, the official gubernatorial campaign site for eBay’s former CEO; and eBay, the famous auction site.
Tokoni has received an unspecified amount of funding from eBay and its founder Pierre Omidyar. It competes indirectly with simple blogging tool Vox, but emphasizes the importance of sharing personal stories more than plain information.