subject: Brand Networking - Black Board And Drawing Board Manufacturer - China Playground Pirate Ship Center [print this page] History History
The development and growth of social networking in the early 2000 gave birth to brand networking. Brands saw the immediate potential to reach and interact with consumers through online platforms like Facebook and MySpace. At first the ability to reach consumers by way of these platforms was inadequate; brands had the option to join as members or simply advertise on these sites. The potential existed to not only display advertisements to consumers, but to engage them to interact with the brand. This is when brands made the shift to create their own networking platforms. Less evolved attempts to connect brands with consumers via networking typically are built as online platforms meant only to compliment a product/service and are limited in functionality. Typically these sites offer consumers the opportunity to interact through discussion boards and group pages. The Guiding Light Community was built to compliment the popular CBS television soap opera. The site offers members reward points for contributing content to discussion boards and blogs (which is all geared toward the show).
Structure
Brand Networking is more than a social networking platform; it is connecting consumers together and constructing relationships directly with the brand. Three key elements, in unity, create brand networking: relevant content, elements of participation, and a competitive currency.
Websites in conjunction with other media types (TV, radio, print, etc) present relative content around a vertical industry or sector of interest or cultural/social issues for a brand. This can be in the form of weight loss, marketing, or businessny content relative to your brand message. Relative content is not only provided by the brand, but also in the form of consumer generated media. By creating a network consumers interact and create content for online site.
Next a brand provides participation with consumers online and off. This is accomplished through the combination of typical social networking features online (personalized page, friends, groups, messaging), to interconnect fans, and elements of involvement offline. This is not simply connecting online platform with mobile devices, but providing separate mobile features jointly with a secondary media type to drive online usage and build relationship with brand on the go. By participating in mobile campaigns users are interacting with the brand outside of traditional brick and mortar or e-commerce destinations.
The final element of brand networking involves incentivizing participation with the other two elements. The addition of a currency or point system acts as an anchor to your brand and your network in addition to creating a competitive nature between consumers. These points are distributed for activity outside of the networking site. By incentivizing usage offline the brand image is re-enforced for the consumer and strengthens the relationship. Turning a brand message into an interactive competitive element of a network, consumers are turned into promoters for both the brand and the users benefit. When done properly a brand can effectively interact and network with consumers for the long term. Once a consumer is locked into your brand network with the combination of these three key elements they become fans of the brand.
Fan Equity
Fan equity is the idea by locking in consumers to a brand; they are turned into fans of the brand. As fans they are promoting, interacting, and consuming on a daily biases and become assetsApple Inc. is one example of a company possessing fan equity. Customers of Apple are extremely brand loyal and are assets to them.
Existing Communities
There are several examples of brand communities already in existence.
Community Site
Company
Purpose
Engagement
Relevant Content
Participation Element
Score or Ranking
Guiding Light Community
CBS/Procter & Gamble
Connect fans of Guiding Light TV show
Reward Points, Groups, photos, and polls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Mixing Bowl
Meredith Corporation
Users share recipes and cooking tips
Connects to Facebook, Groups, Contests, Blogs, Recipes
Yes
Yes
No
Mom Junction
Procter & Gamble
Connect and interact with moms
Build network of moms, groups, Q & A, local moms
Yes
Yes
Yes
Pink for a Cure
General Mills/myspace
Connect and share stories of breast cancer survivors
Connected through MySpace
Yes
Yes
No
CarSpace
Edmunds.com
Connect with automotive enthusiasts together
Friends, Groups, Blogs, Photos, Mailbox, videos, connects directly to Edmunds for car listings
Yes
Yes
Yes
GDGT
PastFuture, Inc.
Connect with gadget enthusiasts to engage and provide information
Friends, discussion boards, reviews
Yes
Yes
No
References
^ a b c "Brand Networking: Social Media Ownership, Return on Involvement and Open Social Networks" Association of Advertising & Creative Versioning Retrieved on April 5, 2009
Categories: Online social networkingHidden categories: Wikipedia articles needing style editing from August 2009 | All articles needing style editing
