Posts Tagged ‘community’

• Is there still a place for forums?

  Thursday, November 19th, 2009

  Having spent much time over the years in forums, it strikes me that forums are being ignored by many in their internet marketing mix with the dash to incorporate Twitter and other social media.

  However, there is much value in forums, which cannot be replicated in such depth using the likes of Twitter or Facebook. It all seems to hang around community and the level of engagement that occurs in forums, which is difficult to maintain in other noisy and fast-moving environments.

  Additionally, for many people, forums have become a place where they hang out regularly, recognise old faces, welcome new ones, and get to know and respect (or not) each other’s views and thinking over a period of time.

  There are obviously forums which struggle to achieve this ambience and sense of community, often not helped when forums are inundated, as the UK ones are, by people from other countries seeking to promote to the UK market rather than use the forums for their primary purpose – sharing and communication.

  For the many who operate small businesses, SOHOs or one man bands, forums can become a social scene as much as a place to seek expert advice, and threats or dilution of that environment are often taken badly. Beware the guard dogs!

  When you need an SEO or SEM answer or an opinion in a timely manner, do you head to:

  a) Twitter

  b) Yahoo Answers

  c) your favourite forum – which?

  d) a forum from a search result

  e) offline eg colleagues via mobile, phone, email etc

  f) somewhere else? Where?

  Let us know!!

  

  Tags: communication, community, forum, marketing, search, Social Media, twitter
  Posted in Small Business Resources, Social Media | No Comments »

• Seth Godin points out what people really want from marketing

  Thursday, October 16th, 2008

  Seth Godin has written an article about the changes in marketing over the last couple of decades. Interestingly, as he was a large, corporate advertiser in his past life, he talks about the impact of the internet, and in particular, the growth of social media on advertising thinking to bring it round full circle to the ‘personalised interaction’ of the old days.

  He points out that the marketing industry can no longer get away with force feeding ads and marketing messages to the masses. The audience is far more savvy now than in the past, and will retaliate if it is felt that the marketing is just spam. This can backfire profoundly on a marketing campaign, and it is teaching marketing execs to think smaller, local, personal. To try viral, word of mouse, community building. As he puts it, to build a tribe and lead those people to somewhere they (and you) actually want to go.

  This level of thinking by such a respected thinker bodes well for small or cautious companies who wish to be ‘organic’ in the growth of their brand or business. However, as some have found, you can still be too successful for your own good and the brightly burning flame can resemble magnesium – fast and furious, and then out!

  However, anyone seeking to build a community around their products or services should read our previous articles and posts about building subscribers through your blog, using social media successfully, socialising, and Web 2.0 tools.

  Tags: community, marketing, seth godin
  Posted in SEM Industry, Stats & Trends, Uncategorised | 1 Comment »