WOM, Buzz, & Viral Marketing Communication: Class 10 Agenda: Programs & Techniques: Blogging & Communities

10; Programs & Techniques: Blogging & Communities

Learning Objective(s):

To understand three different approaches to how companies are using blogs and three different levels of involvement.
To articulate objectives that can be accomplished through blogging.
To identify the pros and cons of gaining customer insight through blogs and customer communities

Readings for This Class:

Blog Marketing. Andrew Corcoran, Paul Marsden, Thomas Zorbach, & Bernd Röthlingshöfer. 2006. Pages 148-158. (CM)
Understanding Blogs and Private Communities. Communispace White Paper. 2005. Pages 1-8 (Bb)
What Companies Gain from Listening: The Effect of Community Membership on Members’ Attitudes and Behavior in Relation to the Sponsoring Company. Communispace White Paper. 2006. Pages 1-11 (Bb)

Content & Activities:

Industry Measurement of Loyalty and Advocacy: Net Promoter Score as an Organizational Discipline.

Example: Nokia – Nokia seeded its new camera phone with a number of cutting-edge bloggers in Finland. They didn’t ask the bloggers to write about the phones but many bloggers did. It generated a lot of traffic to the Nokia website.
Example: Dr. Pepper and Raging Cow (what not to do) – Dr Pepper offered a number of young bloggers incentives to discuss their new milk-flavored product called “Ragin Cow”. Dr Pepper asked the bloggers not to mention that they briefed the bloggers about this but the word got out, which led to tremendous outrage.
Example: Wal-Mart

Example: Stonyfield Farm – uses blogs to create interest around lifestyle issues surrounding their product: The Bovine Bugle (a blog about Jonathan Gates and his organic dairy farm in Vermont) and Baby Babble (a places for parents to meet up rant, offer, and seek advice…).

Example: Sega – Beta 7 – an advertising agency created a fake blog authored by an imaginary videogame tester called Beta 7. The new ESPN 2K4 game was sent to the blogger where Beta 7 posted a review. The review stated that it was extreme that it triggered blackouts and fits of violence. To prevent the software from reaching the stores Beta 7 launched an online campaign to ban the software – all a ruse to stimulate sales.
Example: McDonald’s Lincoln Fry campaign – this featured an imaginary individual who found a fry shaped like Abraham Lincoln. The blog got over 2 million hits and was linked to a McDonald’s Superbowl commercial. When it was found out to be a fake blog the ad spots got even more press.

Sponsored and Paid Blogs – paid blog programs controversial in the blogging world

Objectives for blogging: (“From interruption to engagement, from control to collaboration”)

Generating interest – Stonyfield Farms
Drive action/sales – Treonauts.com
Create goodwill – Microsoft’s Scobleizer
Establish expertise – English Cut blog (Thomas Mahon, Savile row tailor from London)
Customer dialogue – FastCompany, a business publication, invites readers to suggest ideas for stories
Employee dialogue – Variety “Have You Heard” collaborative blog; it’s designed to keep employees up on the latest industry trends

“Monitoring” is a somewhat passive strategy (done without a spirit of engagement; goal is more for “intelligence”-gathering and control)
“Listening” is a more active approach (done with a spirit of engagement; often a precursor to dialogue)
“Joining in” is even more active and involves participating in ongoing discussions and/or creating a space for those conversations to take place. (Sometimes this is not appropriate if it’s perceives as being invasive; sometimes you need to be invited in).

To Do (for next class):

WOM, Buzz, & Viral Marketing Communication