I received an email yesterday from someone who can only be described as a passing acquaintance inviting me to be her ‘friend’ on an online community site. This prompted a quick check on my own ‘Bebo’ page to review my friends list which was disappointingly depleted compared to that of my peers, in this new popularity race called Social Networking. Perhaps I needed to ‘market’ myself as the email sender who prompted this had.
Online community websites can also however play another role aside from highlighting your own lack of popularity. Big brands such as Philips, British Airways and O2 are launching their own community websites to engage with consumers and test their reactions to new products, adverts and designs.
Community members can offer opinions and suggestions allowing the Brands to gain valuable market research while in turn promoting their products to a mass audience in a more sincere manner than standard advertising.
Similarly online forums can prompt brand interaction and provide valuable feedback to marketers on possible improvements to products and can quash negative feedback at the source by rectifying highlighted issues.
And forums can get your customers talking about your product and interacting with each other. Fundamentally, people have a need to belong and forums, online community sites and consumer panels feed that need.
Activedition as standard is available with forums, polls and blogging included. For advanced features, Activedition integrates with Community Server by Telligent. This provides organisations with the tools to engage their customers make friends and influence people.
Now I’m off to work on my own self- marketing plan and see if I can’t up my number of friends...
