The Importance or lack of importance for LBS’s

    A LBS is a Location Based Service form of Social Media. Four Square and Gowalla are great examples of LBS's. Prior to reading Loyalty in 4D I thought LBS's were completely pointless. I thought programs that allowed users to check in and get silly rewards like Mayor of a certain location were nothing but games and time wasters. After reading this article I can say that I am wrong. This article helped me see the benefits for companies adopting a LBS to complement their Facebook pages and Twitters.

    LBS's allow companies to advertise in the same way a Facebook and a Twitter does but it also helps companies gather data. Firms can learn the tastes of their consumers. Benefits are offered to customers who participate. Even though customers can gain coupons and other benefits, I still saw this as a game. For lack of a better word, tools like Four Square just seemed so dumb to me that participating was not worth my time even if I could get a 25% off Gap coupon. This article helped me see Four Square and tools that are like it in a better light. I am still not sure if I can see myself engaging in the media. I already spend too much time on Facebook and Twitter and I cannot see myself adopting another form of social media. The article offers an excellent example of how Starbucks can use the data to implement new breakfast menu items or to offer other items that might increase the customers who visit their shop daily and for the customers who do, enable those customers to purchase more. LBS programs are a win-win for consumers and for the companies. Customers get to have fun while playing a game and gaining incentives. Companies get to advertise to a bigger market while learning about the preferences of their customers.

    LBS programs like Whrrl seem a little too specific for me. I think Whrrl will limit its user base based on how specific it is. Whrrl chooses to segment the already small portion of users of LBS systems into even smaller groups. I don't think this is a good plan to do with any LBS system. Prior to this reading, I haven't heard of Whrrl or Murphy's, who is the gas chain who found great uses in Whrrl. I think Whrrl will definitely get crowded out once Facebook Places gets on its feet. The first article helped me see the benefit of using Four Square and some other LBS services but I don't really see any true benefit using Whrrl.

    The HBS blog has me pondering whether there is any correlation between customer check-in's and money spent? Checking-in in itself isn't much of a use for companies besides generating an online popularity for other potential customers to see. Companies want to see the people who check-in all purchase items. I am wondering how many of them do.

    I learned a great deal from this week's readings. We covered a social media form that was foreign to me so it was nice to learn about LBS's. I would rate this week's readings a 9/10 since I learned a lot. How many people in mi621 see benefits to using LBS services?

Web 2.0 is all Powerful

Chapter 5 of Shel Israel's Twitterville deals with how customers can now have a major impact on the marketing strategies used by companies thanks to Web 2.0 tools like Twitter. Back in the day Companies conducted their marketing divisions without really listening to customers. I am not going to say that customers had no say but compared to now, we can say that customers were neglected. Israel takes note of how Best Buy believes customers control their destiny. I feel like in recent history, many companies have forgotten that customers are the factor that thrives their business. If companies still don't realize this, Twitter is here to remind them. Pepsi and Moltron had to learn the hard way that if they disappoint their customers, there will be a public out lash which will hurt business. Companies will be forced to have to solve the problem so they can get back into good graces with their customers. Social media allows companies to get feedback from their customers. This feedback teaches companies about their customers and how to or not to market to them. We live in a social world where people constantly talk. Word of mouth can be more effective than direct marketing. If companies can effectively use Twitter to get customers to talk about their products, then they will be able to cover all bases. They will be able to reach the same market with their direct advertising and they will reach an even greater number of people through social media and then they will get people to talk amongst themselves. A price cannot be put on multitudes of people talking about your product and telling all of their friends. When people talk through Web 2.0 about products, it is really powerful. People being able to share thoughts, pictures, and videos is an entire new revolution that is changing the way business will be done forever. I wonder if tools like Twitter will in the future 100% influence the marketing of products? I liked this chapter of Twitterville but I feel like at this point in the course, the material is starting to get really repetitive. This was a good read but I can only give it a 6/10.

    

Old Article and Source but worth a read. It shows the scope of how many companies are engaging in social media.

 

 

    

How Dell should improve their online communities

    Dell has tested the waters of User Innovation Communities (UIC's), which serve the same purpose as Communispace's online communities. These communities allow users to aid Dell in research and development and to interact with users. When companies effectively use UIC's, they use crowdsourcing to gain great insight into the minds of customers. Dell did not effectively use their UIC so confusion occurred. They wanted to use their UIC to go with Michael Dell's vision of listening to customers to guide innovation. Dell didn't know how to manage their UIC so there were inefficiencies.

    Dell had trouble understanding that they must take UIC customers very seriously. They also struggled with the multitudes of ideas which ended up crowding out good ideas. Ideas often came from individual problems that users faced and therefore the customers made the ideas too vague for Dell to actually implement. More detailed responses to problems that more than one person faced would have made it easier for Dell to understand how to integrate some of these ideas. Users made it difficult for Dell to see good ideas by posting too many ideas that Dell wasn't interested in addressing and posting duplicate ideas. Ideas get split because users are too lazy to do searches, so they often keep posting the same ideas. The same ideas being posted separates the voting for that particular idea. I can relate to this because when I go on a message board, I find it much easier to make a new post than to search the forums for someone who had a similar question or comment. Dell didn't share all of their processes for implanting ideas with the users because Dell didn't want competitors to find out what they were attempting to do.

    Dell made the mistake of not focusing solely on keeping the community happy. A community is not going to work if you tell the users that you're listening but do not demonstrate that to them. Dell did not know how to understand the ideas, pick out the good ones, protect them from competitors, and chiefly to keep the UIC users happy. Insuring the UIC users are happy is more important than keeping regular Dell customers happy because the community users have more of a voice. These challenges demonstrate that running a UIC can be difficult. Maybe Dell would have benefited from letting experts like Communispace run their community instead of trying to implant it internally when they obviously lacked knowledge.

    The writers of the Dell case posed some excellent ideas that I believe will help Dell turn around their community and insure that the users know how to give Dell what Dell wants and to be happy with continuing to contribute. Dell has to be less vague and needs to tell users what they expect. "Defining a clear process that defines for users how to identify and describe ideas," is an excellent idea that will eliminate ambiguity between the users and Dell. Concocting a user tool kit is an excellent idea. The toolkit will educate participants so they know actually what the purpose of the community is and how they can be valuable participants. This will inspire the community members to post good ideas in the right fashion because if people are spending their time in the community, they want to be heard. Engaging the lead users is another excellent idea. The users that are the most active are valuable users and Dell should pay special attention to them. If these users are neglected they will probably flame the community, tell people about how mad they are, and tweet negatively about Dell. Making sure these users are happy can only be beneficial to the UIC and Dell's marketing. Dell must also listen to the popular ideas. If an idea gets more votes than every other idea. Dell cannot ignore that idea because they do not like it. They must attempt to integrate it because of the popularity. If Dell neglects the most popular ideas than what is the point of listening at all? This behavior shows customers that Dell might be listening but if they are the ideas are going in one ear and out the other. I believe if Dell listens to these ideas presented in the case, they should see greater success with their UIC and better ideas shared between users and Dell. I liked reading this case and I would rate it a 9/10. Is it worth it for companies to build their own communities and have to go through trial and error or should companies rely on a third party that knows what they are doing?