Theory of Communities - Online Marketing Tool for Companies - Term Paper Example

Firstname Lastname Instructor’s Name Course Number 8 July, 2009 The Theory of Communities as an Online Marketing Tool for Companies The word community was derived from the French word communité, which was derived from the Latin word communitas, which was used as a broad term to define fellowship or an organized society. A community broadly defined is a group of interacting organisms that share an environment. World Health Organization in Stanhope and Lancaster (2006), define community as, “A social group determined by geographic boundaries and/or common values and interests. Its members know and interact with one another. It functions within a particular social structure and exhibits and creates norms, values and social institutions.” Human communities are often characterized by common beliefs, values, intents, needs, resources, preferences, risks etc affecting the identity of the members and their levels of interconnectedness. McMillian and Chavis (1986), say that there are four elements that are typical to a community. The first element is membership. Membership is said to be a feeling of belonging or sharing a sense of personal relatedness. The second element is influence. This refers to a sense of mattering and of making a difference in the group, to the group members. The third element is reinforcement, that is integration and fulfillment of needs. Members’ needs are fulfilled through the resources available through their membership in the community. The last element is shared emotional connection. This refers to the commitment and beliefs that members of the community share, their experiences and time spent together. In short a sense of community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that they matter to one another and to the group and a sense of shared faith that their needs will be met through their commitment to each other. The above four elements are important characteristic aspects of any kind of community. De La Rue (2008), points out that collaboration is an important factor in communities. He says that a community is a group that comes together to share knowledge for mutual benefit. The members participate as they possess common interests and share a sense of community. He also adds that a good sign of a strong community is when members continue to meet even after the community ceases to exist formally. De la Rue states Fred Schoeps’ definition of communities. He says that, “Communities are living organisms and require gardeners, not mechanics, to provide them with leadership.” De La Rue says that communities take on different roles, as do Schoeps’ gardeners. The role of the gardener he says is that of a coach or mentor to the community. This ensures that senior members do not dominate and junior members are not overwhelmed. Additionally, De La Rue gives certain basic characteristics of communities. He says that in most communities not all are equal. He attributes a concentric ring structure to a community. The centre of the structure consists of core participants, a group of members who are active in the community, driving the activities and holding the community together. Around this first circle is a larger group of members who are active and participate regularly in the activities of the community. However these members are dependent on the core members for direction. AT the periphery of the circle are the largest group of members who listen and learn rather than take an active part in the activities if the society. They often have to be encouraged and induced to participate although they continue to learn through interactions in the community. De La Rue further argues that there are two important aspects to a community, namely group identity and group utility. He says that a successful community needs a solid, reasonable reason to exist. To gain group identity they need to feel an affinity towards each other and have motivation for meeting. Additionally the community needs to provide some utility, that is members will need to gain something from it. They come together in order to learn something about certain practices or topics. Communities today are not restricted to and by geographical locations or other barriers. Online Communities are fast developing into the most popular form today with the increasing usage of the Internet. An online community is where a group of people with similar goals or interests connect and exchange information with the help of web based tools and programs. They make use of e-mails, newsletters, discussions forums etc for social, educational and professional reasons. The characteristics of online communities are almost the same as a normal co-located community. The members meet for mutual needs or requirements, have shared goals and interests, relate to one another, form emotional bonds, develop a sense of belonging and believe that they can make a difference to the group as well as others, have access to shared resources and lastly there is shared context of language, conventions and protocol (Preece & Krichmar, 2003). However, online communities are often characterized by barriers such as time and size. Time refers to the time to meet and communicate by members. Size refers to the number of members which may be large and spread over many locations. They also differ from co-located communities and have different characteristics in terms of design, membership, leadership, form of communication and time taken to form the community. Online communities are designed top-down and membership is generally open to all. Leaders of online communities are usually recruited and the form of communication is only through the computer and the Internet and with the help of other web based tools. And lastly it takes a longer period of time to develop and form an online community as it involves extensive and continual technical support which is one of the most basic pre-requisites for an online community (Lai, Pratt, Anderson & Stigter, 2006). Online communities are widely becoming a popular marketing tool for companies. The increasing number of online communities has begun to attract even the most traditional businessman. Popular online community sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace etc have gained an enormous amount of popularity over the last few years and have become very expansive. Today, they attract close to a million visitors a day, communicating, uploading, downloading and transferring all kinds of information. Marketing through online communities offer tremendous advantages to the business. Online communities are said to be like funnels. They facilitate access and movement because of the enormous amount of traffic. Consumer brands worldwide are creating communities for their brands enabling their customers to interact and communicate with each other. Many famous brands such as CNN, Disney, Shell International Petroleum, Pentax etc host online communities which have forums, chat rooms, bulletin boards etc., which helps facilitate interaction between customers and between the brand and the customers (McWilliam, 2000). If a proper strategy has been drawn out and implemented marketing through online communities brings tremendous tangible benefits to the business. Firstly, communities can be used to engage with the customer in a natural setting. It establishes a long-term relationship between customers and the business. Online communities provide act as a point of repeated contact with customers. Secondly, online communities act as a diary or a contact book or a database for businesses and marketing professionals. The availability of such databases offers extensive advantage to the marketer and the business. Demographic information is readily available to marketers through these databases. Marketing through online communities gives the advantage of access to a specific target group with known preferences at a global level. Thirdly, interaction is easy in online communities, thereby facilitating discussions which are usually prohibited by barriers in a traditional research. This interaction also provides for effective and increased opportunity for feedback. Fourthly online communities can be used to strengthen brand image. They facilitate information and knowledge sharing with respect to the brands. Additionally marketing through online communities complements other marketing efforts. Since it is highly community specific it will not hamper any other marketing strategies and rather will complement them. Online communities also serve as test groups to gauge and analyze new products and advertising campaigns. It has greater potential to identify customer reaction to a product or a campaign. Lastly, it is a low cost- high returns venture. Costs are limited to hiring a designer and a technician and the benefits often outdo the costs incurred (Fujiu, 2007). Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of online communities is its ability to facilitate accurate targeting of audience. This eases the efforts of the marketer to identify and target the correct segment of customers. Just like on-ground marketing, where the target audience are strategically identified in their respective unique environments, customers online are located through the social network or community they belong to. People participate in online communities for various reasons, namely to buy, to sell, to play games, to socialize or for a good cause. Marketers can use these readily available online communities to identify their target audience and construct their marketing message accordingly. The specific target customers are all conveniently located at one point and this is a big advantage to the business. Based on what the customers do online and based on their reasons for participation in the communities marketers can target their set of customers (Dotcom Marketing, Online). Online communities and social networking sites are the most popular forms of interaction and communication today. They offer a large number of tangible and lucrative benefits to marketers who make full and proper use of them. There is a need to monetize these networks and use them effectively to further the business. With the increase in their popularity, marketing professionals need to know how and when to use these communities to their fullest potential, well before the market becomes saturated (Miller, 2006). There are two fundamental factors and essential elements in marketing through online communities. To increase the chances of success of marketing through online communities, relevance and distribution are most important. Firstly, the marketing message must be relevant to the interests of the community. The stronger the relevance, the greater the chances are of attracting the attention of a greater percentage of the masses. Relevance can be determined through close, consistent observation and monitoring of the online community. By ascertaining how members of the community value content or information, one can easily identify what appeals to them and what doesn’t. This will help constructing the marketing message appropriately. Relevance or an illusion of relevance can be created by optimizing headlines of the message and all of the accompanying information. One can invoke the persona of the community, the lingo used and other themes and references most popular among users. This not only makes the message highly relevant to the community, it also captures their attention. Relevance can be manufactured to the highest degree in order to gain the attention of the audience. If the marketing message is not made relevant to the audience, a lot of attention from the audience will be lost in the beginning itself and the product or business will fail to develop further. The next fundamental element is distribution. Distribution refers to the spreading of the marketing message through online communities. Distribution involves assigning the messenger and supplying secondary support. Distribution is a key element in online community marketing as it can amplify the scope for any circulating marketing message. Influencers can be used as messengers to distribute the marketing message. This is because influencers lend credibility to the message and escalate the distribution with the help of their broad networks. The main objective of the auxiliary support is to tactically market the message from all angles. Most of the online communities are connected. Hence a lateral marketing strategy which involves cross promotion through multiple platforms will ensure proper distribution of the message. Selecting the correct messenger and providing the necessary auxiliary support will aid the distribution of the marketing message. There are five critical success factors that are a part of online community marketing. Firstly, it is most important to never over market the product of service offering. It is not necessary to add a link to the business website along with each post or comment made in the community. Over-marketing the product will only be detrimental to the marketing strategy. Marketing the product is required in measured doses in order to attract attention. Secondly, it is very important to market the competitive edge that our product has over the others. Giving headlines announcing product or service offering with the name of our company or business alone will not bring out the competitive edge that we possess over the others. For example using titles like “Great Travel Deals” and mentioning the name of our product and service alone will not amplify the competitive edge we have. Additionally it will be the fastest way to show that there is a lack of genuine interest in the community and this can have unfavorable effects. It will serve as a mere advertisement in an online community which may or may not be received well within the community. Hence it is very vital to strike a comparison with the competitors in order to induce the consumers to choose our product or service above the others (Connor, 2009). Thirdly, it is important to build and establish long-term relationships within the community. Long-term relationships begin with slow beginnings. Showing genuine interest in the community is important to gain credibility in the eyes of the members. Hence it is unwise to start bogging about the product or service as soon as the community profile is created. Slow beginning with genuine interest in the community will pave the way for easy marketing of the product or service among the members of the community at a later period. The fourth critical success factor is to build trust. Building trust is most essential for people to buy the product or service. One must always be ready to share important information with the members of the community. Honesty about products, about when and where it will work etc. are very important factors in building trust. Additionally it is most unadvisable to misrepresent oneself as a satisfied customer of the product or service that one is marketing. This will not aid in building trust. On the contrary, compromising on honesty will result in the failure of the marketing strategy. Lastly, respect and patience are key success factors. Respecting the culture of the community is most important to gain the confidence of the members. Respecting the language used, themes etc are most vital to the success of the marketing campaign. Patience is also an important aspect. Enough time must be taken for observation of the community, the activities, and the way members interact with one another and the themes and topics they discuss. Ascertaining member preferences and what appeals to them is very vital to design the marketing message. Observation in silence in the beginning of interaction will bring benefits to the strategy as well as the product as it will help gaining some credibility and trust, as opposed to hurrying into interaction and making mistakes (Connor, 2009). There are certain best practices and recommendations that can be followed to ensure the success of online community marketing. The first step in creating an accurate marketing strategy is understanding audience’s needs and their sensitiveness to advertising messages. This will help in constructing effective marketing messages. In the same context it is important to establish creative and messaging guidelines for marketing to ensure that the message is appropriate. Additionally the advertising message must be appropriate and must add value to the community in order to reach the target audience. While designing the content of marketing message it is essential to ensure the right mix of elements in order to ensure maximum reach. Establishing a strong relationship with the members of the community is also a very good practice which will aid online community marketing. Honesty is also another good practice which is vital to online community marketing. Policies should be made clear and must be readily available to members of the community to read and comprehend. This clarity will ensure credibility and confidence on the part f the members. Involving the audience is another practice which will ensure success of the marketing strategy. Surveying the members to determine which brands or types of messages that appeal to them, will assist in designing the marketing strategy as well as the advertising content. Testing and further refining can be done based on the feedback received from the members of the community. And lastly when introducing marketing messages to the members of the community it is necessary to be cautious and attentive to member reactions and be open to their feedback. This can ensure effective conveying of the marketing message and appropriate response (Online Community Report). Maximizing return on investment is also a good practice while marketing products or services through online communities. Return on investment for online communities are neither direct nor immediate. While interacting with a person in an online community may not bring about immediate benefits, it is building a long-term relationship which can be leveraged anytime in the future. To get good returns on investment it is important to increase efficiency and concentrate on cost management. To do this one must start by recording the time one spends in each online community of interest. Then these figures must be recorded and split up in terms of percentages. After this is done, it must be determined how much time one wants to spend on online communities in general and that time must be portioned according to the time one spends on each community of interest. With this calculation in mind if one operates and adjusts according to the benefits received, this will limit cost and increase the efficiency of rate of return on investment. A very good example of a successful marketing campaign in an online community is that of Wendy’s in MySpace. Wendy’s fast food restaurant MySpace mascot “Smart Square” is very popular within the community with more than 73,000 friends. Wendy’s is clearly taking a correct approach to marketing to the target audience in MySpace. Their success comes from the language they use, the mascot they employ and the group that they have created. With the opening lines, "It takes flare to be a square to be hard core enough to dare to be made the way you like, to be JUICY to be FRESH to be BEEFY to be the best. EAT ME!", Wendy’s is clearly targeting the younger audience in the community. The language used is non-corporate and relates to the younger crowd. The mascot also plays a very important role. While it may look like a simple square with facial features, it concurs with their policy and practice which is to market square burgers. This ensures that their brand image is reinforced and their main differentiation from other fast food companies and brings out the competitive advantage they have. Wendy’s MySpace group has a page that hosts discussion forums where customers are free to discuss their products and services and give their feedback. This gives Wendy’s the opportunity to do research on their target audience. Overall Wendy’s is a great example of how larger corporations use online communities to do effective marketing (Fujiu, 2007). In conclusion, in order to ensure the success of an online community marketing strategy, building long-term relationships, building trust, complete honesty, respect and patience are some of the most essential aspects. Additionally, a considerable amount of relevance and correct distribution of the marketing message will reach a wide range of target audience, thereby ensuring that the business furthers and the product or service sells thereby bringing in profit. References Connor, A (2009). Five Mistakes to Avoid When Marketing Through Online Communities. Growing Successful Online Communities.com. Retrieved July 9, 2009. http://www.slideshare.net/AngelaConnor/five-mistakes-to-avoid-when-marketing-through-online-communities De La Rue, K (2008). The Theory and Practice of Communities. KM Review. Vol 11, Issue 5. Melcrum Publishing. Dotcom Marketing (2009). Marketing Through Online Communities. Dotcom Marketing Website. Retrieved July 9, 2009. http://dotcomarketing.blogspot.com/2009/03/marketing-through-online-communities.html Fujiu, R (2007). Marketing Through Online Communities. Pronet Advertising. Retrieved July 9, 2009. http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/marketing-through-online-communities.html Lai, Pratt, Anderson & Stigter (2006). Literature Review and Synthesis : Online Communities of Practice. Ministry of Education, New Zealand. Retrieved July 9, 2009. http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/7480/lrs-online-com.pdf McMillian, D W and Chavis, D M (1986). Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory. Journal of Community Psychology. Vol 14. McWilliam, G (2000). Building Stronger Brands Through Online Communities. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved July 9, 2009. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/2000/spring/4133/building-stronger-brands-through-online-communities/ Miller, F (2006). Monetizing Social Networking Communities. Random House Publishing. Retrieved July 9, 2009. Online Community Report. Marketing and Online Communities Research Report. Retrieved July 9, 2009. http://www.onlinecommunityreport.com/archives/335-Marketing-Online-Communities-Research-Report-Released.html Preece, J & Krichmar, D M (2003). Online Communities: Focusing on Sociability and Usability. Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Publishers World Health Organization in Stanhope and Lancaster (2006). Foundations of Nursing in the Community: Community-Oriented Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006. p 217 Read More