Viral Marketing:
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An entry for Bloggers Park contest, IRIS, IIM Indore
Continuation from Previous post:
Blogs are establishing themselves as an important bridge between sellers and buyers, employers and employees, colleges and applicants. When these blogs are written by credible and honest people, people who are respected in the society, the amount of importance placed on the messages conveyed to the blogs becomes substantial. So much that even Chief executive officers of Fortune 50 companies, Deans of business schools and variety of personalities like actors, sportsperson have started blogging.
GM Fast lane blog. Written and maintained by Vice Presidents and Chief Executive officers of GM, spanning various functions like Sales & Marketing, Communications etc., These top-level executives talk about the latest trends in automobiles, future plans of GM, progress on Environment-friendly cars, Auto shows etc., The Loyal GM customers and auto-enthusiasts frequent this blog and leave their opinions. They also learn about the future car models. When they are satisfied, the message is spread through their individual blogs. As far as GM is concerned, they get to gauge the pulse of their customers effectively. Thus, the blog serves as an effective marketing research tool and advertising tool.
Let’s look at another firm propelled by Billy! Bill Gates. Microsoft has identifitied a bunch of its employees and is encouraging them to write blogs. These employees are highly-knowledgeable, brilliant programmers and know exactly how to convey the message in an interesting way. In a nutshell, they act as evangelists for the firm and the associated products. The audience for these blogs are mainly programmers across the world who specialize in microsoft products and microsoft enthusiasts. If any important and interesting information is shared by microsoft employees, the message spreads like a wild fire through blogs of the readers! More importantly the message reaches only relevant people. Highly targeted marketing at a minimal cost and effort. Google’s blog is another example in this category.
Leading actors like Aamir Khan, directors like Shekar kapoor too maintain their own blogs. In their case, the blog serves as a personal advertising tool and brand-building tool. If Aamir khan breaks a news about his latest movie in the blog, the news is known to all his fans in a matter of minutes or hours. First the message spreads through the blogs, and then it spreads through word-of-mouth!
Some blogs take a different approach by reviewing and promoting specific category of products. Take for example Gizmodo and engadget. These blogs update about any latest developments in the world of electronic gadgets. These blogs have gained immense credibility that product manufacturers are willing to pay significant sum of money to get their products highlighted in the blog!
The recent development about IIPM is another example of the ‘Viral’ power of the blogs. If the ‘controversial’ article was published only by the JAM Magazine, it would have taken weeks for many to know about the news. Because, the JAM Magazine is a highly focussed ‘niche’ magazine. In the absence of blogs, someone would have sent the message through e-mail to his friend, and the mass-emailing would have followed. With the blogs, the story is different. In addition to the faster propogation of messages through blogs, people get to express their comments, opinions, frustrations and anguish through these blogs. This ‘personalized’ propogation of message enhances the news. In a matter of 1 week, the situation turned as a war against “Bloggers” and the institute. The focus should have been resided with “JAM” Magazine. This incident is a glorious example of the ‘viral’ nature and
‘high-impact-potential’ of the blogs!
Blogging as a marketing tool is still in the nascent stages. But there are enough indiciations that companies are employing blogs as a marketing tool. The day when each and every company will have their own blogs is not far away. The ‘cyber-disintermediation’, where companies and their customers speak directly to each other instead of being promoted by third-party websites, reviewers etc., is a becoming a reality.
PS:
There is a even a proposition to introduce courses like “Introduction to Business blogging” in Business schools [Fordham business school to be specific]! This is what they have to say about the course content…
“…Blogs are leveling the content playing field, enabling individuals to amass large online audiences—often times larger, and more vocal, than the online efforts made by well known media giants. By making it easy for anyone with a computer to publish their ideas, blogs are inviting unprecedented amounts of online interaction and knowledge sharing. For business professionals, they are an invaluable source of real-time information and commentary, as well as a tool for self-promotion. For companies, they can be a powerful tool for connecting with consumers.
This hands-on course will answer all your essential questions about blogs and their implications for business communication, management, marketing and technology. Students will learn how to use blogs to find relevant content, as well as create blogs of their own—learning the do’s and don’t of successful blogging. The course will cover how blogs can be a career development tool for individuals and how companies are using them as a means to connect with employees, customers, and potential customers. We will discuss how a company can track what’s being discussed about it in the “Blogosphere” that could affect business performance and why it might want it’s own blog…”
