Week 7: MK225 Internet Marketing (Communities)

Reading:

Chapter 10-11

Discussion Question:

Many people participate in social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace, as well as other online communities such as blogs. As a marketer, how would you advise firms seeking to interact with those communities and why that approach? What preference, if any, do you think people give to purchase recommendations that come from within those communities? How trustworthy do you think people consider other members of those communities to be? You will need information from our textbook and perhaps other sources to answer this question well.

Discussion Answer:

As a marketer,  I would advise firms seeking to interact with social network and blogging communities by instructing them to keep their content current (multiple times a day, if possible), creative (using multiple resources to provide many unique points of view) and credible (professions in your industry or similar). I fee that this approach will be the most engaging to most audiences and customers, by keep the content up to date and interesting should keep them interested and coming back (hopefully, daily) for more information. In the blogger community, I feel that the majority of them are trustworthy and sharing their experience as stay at home mom and the products or services they use and how well they work for her. Social network communities are tougher to gauge.

Assignment Question:

You are in charge of a new product launch. In a one page summary, identify five steps you would take as a marketer to develop early feedback using online resources. You should identify the potential benefit of each method, and explain how it could increase flexibility around the design process.

Assignment Answer:

I have been put in charge of launching a new product for our company. I have formatted an online strategy to get early feedback from our current and potential customer base through social media and other online resources. 


Facebook has more than 500 million active users with more than 250 million active users accessing it through their mobile devices. The potential benefit is the ability to access a large number of people at no cost. 


Twitter has more than 175 million registered. Like facebook this service is free and has the ability to reach a lot of people quickly and get instant feedback. Additionally, you can track how your message is through the use of hashtags (#). Formspring is a free online service that allows business and individuals to ask and answer questions. The potential benefit of this method would be the ability to a a very specific and direct question to users and potential users of the product. The customer would also be able to post the same type of questions to us.


Tumblr is a free online blogging service where you can post text, photos,quotes, links, music and video via your browser, phone, desktop, email and more. On the paying end of things, we could advertise via web banner and email blasts to increase exposure to the new product.