Big case Inventory of social Network marketing: Creating or corrupting

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September 10--According to Commerce times, smart companies have found that their customers ' voices (or complaints or compliments) are now widely distributed on the forums. Customers have the potential to become brand partners-or brand detractors.

You've heard the hype about viral, homemade TV commercials on YouTube, and you've read tough, peer-to-peer product reviews on your blog; you've seen some brands that have been courted or attacked in social networking sites.

On August 8, for example, Wal-Mart Stores launched a roommate fashion matching group on Facebook. 1, 000 members participated. The idea of setting up the group was to sell the dormitory furniture to the college audience, but there were hundreds of critical comments focused on Wal-Mart's labor policy, which was damaging to its brand reputation.

It is clear that in this online social media era, companies can no longer nag their customers. They need to cultivate a conversation with their clients or risk being left out. Smart companies have found that their customers ' voices (or complaints or compliments) can now be widely distributed on the forums. Customers have the potential to become brand partners-or brand detractors.

Consumer and social media

There has been a series of brand attacks recently. This trend was studied as early as 2005. Our goal is to study how consumers use social media to influence marketing------or promote brands or attack brands. A young blogger on his site complained about buying a counterfeit north-face wool jacket through ebay. Today, readers are exchanging anecdotes about North Face products on his blog. And, the blogger says, the company's counterfeit product team has pointed customers to his site, turning a potential consumer of branded destruction into an ally.

The three main questions that we are often asked are:

1. What does it mean to have no creative control over your brand?

2. How does social media make the form of collaborative creation possible?

3. How do you make your clients your biggest ally in creating new ideas?

There are no easy answers to these questions, but two interrelated and valuable themes emerge.

First: Companies need to develop and maintain clear and transparent brand information through all platforms. Second, they need to be prepared to accept and process the consumer's immediate response. Social media can produce instant, native communication. Consumers seek honesty from both companies and individuals in these channels.

"People are looking for the facts," says Paul Bennite, chief creative officer at IDEO. Meetup.com (a popular online network, "If you want to surround your brand and produce a strong, church-like community, you have to draw a line in the sand and say," said Douglas Atkin, a spokesman for the group that allows people with common interests to organize offline gatherings. We believe in this, not that.

Three guiding principles

Social media has been developing for some time. There are many examples of companies that benefit or suffer from direct connections to online customers. Here are three guidelines and summaries for networking with online consumers.

1. Be honest and true. Everyone hates being cheated. The young old man was familiar with the plot of Madison Avenue. Avoid dishonest blog posts or "man-made" user videos.

In the 2006, there was a famous event that made Wal-Mart's strategy hot. A group backed by the retail group advocated a trip across the United States. Posted comments in favor of Wal-Mart in their online travels.

More recently, Malibu Rum set two sets of conflicting rules in an online contest this year. The contest promises to reward $25,000 for the best advertising generated by the user. However, the winning works are too professional. The audience immediately had a suspicion. Posted his video on YouTube and mocked the winner, and let the company admit it cheated in the competition.

A spokesman for Malibu Rum declined to say whether the company produced the advertisement and dispelled the fiasco with a communication misunderstanding. However, in the network economy, consumers believe that "open" and "transparent" is particularly valuable. Communication failure can be a costly mistake.

2. Find and pursue existing communities. It is difficult to identify a user community that matches your company's interests and needs. Coca-Cola's attempt was a classic failure. In 2003, MySpace.com released the same year. The drink giant created its own social network, mycoke.com.

Despite the innovative branding strategy, the site is clearly just a marketing tool, not something else. It does not provide consumers with any distinctive value or incentive to surpass the friendster of the purely social sites that prevailed at the time.

Nike, on the contrary, pursues the community-and finds the right community. It started building online networks around specific campaigns rather than products. The sportswear maker released the Joga.com site during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and has 1.5 million soccer fanatics who are sharing video, images and views of the game until the end of the tournament. Some athletes show Nike shoes, but online conversations are largely dominated by fans ' favorite games.

Nike held a "Nike +" event with Apple in 2007, a project to promote ipod products. The program allows runners to listen to music at the same time and calculate the distance they run and how many calories they burn. On the "Nike +" of the online running community, runners send data and songs to their friends, challenge virtual contests, and arrange real-world gatherings. Trevor Edwards, vice president of global brand management at Nike, said: "The program has been remarkably effective, with 40% of Nike + users" converted "to the company's shoes. ”

3. Listen to consumers and build partnerships. Savvy companies can touch consumers to help improve customer service. Blog critics can "define what is better." Buzzmachine.com's blogger, Jeff Jarvis, said. In July 2005, Jarvis wrote articles about Dell's poor service and responded to mainstream media coverage. The PC maker has Jarvis's influence (his blog has risen twice times from the stream), and founder Michael Dell personally apologized to Jarvis. Dell increased the number of telephone representatives and ranked higher in the annual Customer service research report at the University of Michigan.

This year, Dell has released its own blog, direct2dell.com, to promote and monitor conversations between consumers and employees. However, its work on rebuilding connections with users may have just begun; its ranking has fallen since last year, recently published August 14 at the University of Michigan's annual customer Service research report.

Input users may become the company's best marketing business. Three years ago, Andrew Carton, a loyal palm user, built up a blog treonauts.com, where smartphone shoppers could read a lot of articles that would treo to compare their phones, such as blackberries or iphones. The company, located in Sunnyvale, found that the site might be an asset-----even if it could not limit negative opinions.

Charlie Simpson, the company's online retail manager, admits "we can't control it." "Palm does not need to, fans will defend their brand." Today, its customers automatically share trouble-repair tips to help Palm's customer service operations and reduce costs. Palm now directs customers directly to Treonauts.

Such partnerships can be rewarded. Attracting 300,000 independent visitors a month, Treonauts.com also sells phones and accessories that are expected to have a revenue of 2 million dollars. (Zebian Admin01)