FreshNetworks Blog

At FreshNetworks we know all about using user-generated content for insight. Whether it’s from the activities and discussions we run in our online research communities, to the organic discussions and comments we see across all the online communities that we build.

You can gain a lot by listening to what your customers say, even if you just observe what they are saying on other sites and forums. However, when a brand builds its own online community it gets both the rich profiling information on participants and the right of reply, meaning they can enter into a meaningful exchange with community members.

I was interviewed a few weeks ago for a piece in MyCustomer about how to gain insights from UGC, building on these thoughts and our experiences at FreshNetworks. You can read the full article here.

Some more reading

• When Did We Start Trusting Strangers? New Research from Universal McCann
• National Geographic is embracing user-generated content with photo and music sharing
• Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media

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I’ve been away for a couple of weeks (on vacation in Japan - more about that in a post later) and things have been busy as ever back at FreshNetworks. One of the biggest announcements was the launch of K-Networks, a new joint-venture with independent creative agency Karmarama.

We’ve been working with the team at Karmarama for some time, and in addition to being a really great bunch of people there is also a real opportunity with them to build online communities as part of integrated communications campaigns for brands.

In our experience, online communities can work at their best when they integrate with brand and marketing activities. Whilst some of the communities we build and manage are online research communities, and others are more focused on amplifying word of mouth, they all share in common a connecting of the brand and the consumer. Bringing the creative and communications campaigns together with the online community work helps to maximise the benefit of this.

We have some exciting work in the pipeline with Karmarama and so you’ll probably hear much more about K-Networks soon…

Some coverage of the launch

• Brand  Republic: Karmarama joint venture aims to source social networks
• Marketing Week: Karmarama to launch social networks venture for brands
• Management Today: ‘35 under 35′ spawns its first business

Some more reading

• Reccomended Web Strategy Reading
• The 2 P’s and 4 C’s of Personal Branding
• Eight Considerations to Help Branded Communities Succeed

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