FreshNetworks Blog

Olivier Creiche from Six Apart thinks there are four specific opportunities for buzz and social media; four ways that firms can make the most out of giving power to people through blogs, forums and communities.

• e-commerce. Olivier feels that people don’t talk about this enough, and about how you can use social networks as an e-commerce mechanism. The best known example of this is Amazon who, reportedly, make about 25% of their sales from such distributed e-commerce. Their model is simple - applications on peoples’ networks allow them to say what books they like, they’ve read and they want to read. Amazon provides the thumbnail pictures of the books and when you click on one it takes you to the Amazon site to buy online. If you’ve not seen this application then my bookshelf is below:

• Join the conversation using the same means. If you want to engage people online you need to use the same means that they do. This could mean blogging. It’s important to note that companies don’t blog, individuals do. So if you have a corporate blog it’s important that it’s clear who is writing it and that their individual voice shines through.
• Advertising. In an environment where we know who people are and can gather lots of information about them, advertising can be more targeted, and charged to a brand at a premium.
• Community interaction. There is a huge benefit to watching a community grow, to working with it and letting it do some of your leg work for you.

In order to make the most of these four areas, Olivier suggests a set of guidelines for a brand or marketing agency to adopt:

• Influence the influencers
• Be ready to lose some content
• Be authentic
• It’s not about you; it’s about them
• Provide value to users
• Maintain the dialogue

The last of these is critical - if you start engaging with people online you need a plan for what you will do with them in the future. You can’t (and shouldn’t) just abandon them.