This week, I reviewed the following selections -
Introduction: The Dawn of the Human Network" in Crowdsourcing,
"Brand Communities"
Why the Groundswell and Why Now?" in Groundswell,
Web Video: The New, New Thing," in Digital Engagement
The social marketing playbook
I was able to stay on task, and complete my goal of reading/listening/viewing almost all of the media. The fundamental theme of this week’s selections is how powerful a tool the internet (and it’s mass of followers) can be when enough users group together and are focused on a single issue. To quote my favorite movie “The Gladiator”, Russell Crow’s character says the following after one of his gladiator battles “ I am at their mercy (rulers), with the power only to amuse the mob”. The answer he receives, “That is power”. Similarly, the internet has created a global network that allows the real power to be placed back in the hands of the common people. For companies and marketing, this has both positive and negatives effects. The best example is P&Gs “Connect and Develop” program, which helped reignite the company’s innovation base and turned around the company’s revenues. While I never participated in this program, I have helped and profited in similar online innovation networks helping to resolve electrical engineering issues for other businesses. As a live collective of knowledge and resources, questions can be answered much quicker and more cost effectively by tapping into this vast potential of public brainpower. This idea can be utilized for tough issues such as green energy solutions or simple problems like asking for help with home improvement questions.
Another similar example is threadless.com, as presented in The Dawn of the Human Network" in Crowdsourcing. I actually intend to borrow this idea, and use it to market products for my wife’s business. My wife owns a wedding invitation studio. Followers can submit their designs, and the community (future brides) vote on the best design, which will be used in her collection. By doing so, you have already ensured the popularity of the design. The social mob can also generate unwanted media for companies. Examples of this are the vast internet public that viewed the Comcast technician who fell asleep on the job or Jennifer Laylock’s promotion of the other white milk as presented in Why the Groundswell and Why Now?. I did find the discussion about open source technology and the motivation behind users improving the technologies very interested. Unlike Windows, Linux is an open source operating software technology. Software coders worldwide help improve this software, but do not do it for any monetary purpose, instead they want to be part of helping something bigger than themselves. Who knows, even though not profit driven, maybe the motives are selfish, and they want to show off how much smarter they are than everyone else?
Also, I would like to learn more about Harley Davidson and their social networking strategy. I’m not sure if it played a major role in their resurgence. Sometimes I feel that too much emphasis and reward is placed on social networking for the success of a business. Yes, it can be very powerful, but it depends on what field the business operates, and how social networking is used.
I also appreciated the statistics presented in the article below –
http://www.marketingvox.com/study-marketing-execs-must-realize-and-learn-to-use-power-of-social-media-036996/
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M
ReplyDeleteI decided to post all of my comments about your past blogs here to "catch up."
Sorry about the delay in responding to your posts. I went through most of the class's
blogs, but a couple slipped through the cracks as I went to the various sites.
F.
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From your blog "Self-monitoring report, week1"
We realize that some of the readings are very long. That's why we made them optional. We expect you to be selective and to review them to find what's interesting to you. This is one advantage of building a course this way. Since the materials are essentially free, we can provide a wide variety of resources. This is especially useful in an emerging area such as new media.
F.
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From your blog "Week 1 - Reflection and Reivew"
Interesting story about the 15 year old in England. I put it up on the X501 Angel site home page under "Communication Links."
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From your blog "Week2 -Retrospective"
Excellent post! I hope your wife's business can make use of the Threadless.com idea. It seems to fit very well.
I agree that the effects of social networks are difficult to pinpoint. We don't know whether businesses such as Harley-Davidson were successful and therefore had the money to create social networks or if it was the other way around.
F.
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