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Forums & Word of Web
                                       Best-Practice Guide




                                       By: Tarek Reda Salem



                                             1-Jan-2011




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                    Page 1 of 17
Contents



Executive Summary………………………………………………………………….3

Findings / Analysis…………………………………………………………………...4

        Everybody is talking!………………………………………………………....4

        What is a Forum?....................................................................................5

        Business impact of Forums………………………………………………….5

                 The voice of customers………………………………………………5

                 Forums and online reputation……………………………………….7

                 Forums in a step-by-step process…………………………………..8

                 Case studies………………………………………………………….11

                           The Guild case study………………………………………...11

                           Mozilla case study……………………………………………12

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….14

References…………………………………………………………………………….15




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                                                  Page 2 of 17
Executive Summary

Word of web is a double-edged weapon that can either boost your online reputation or
totally destroy it. Therefore companies must carefully follow an appropriate consistent
set of techniques in order to manage online word of mouth.


Listening to the customer’s voice in online discussion forums and interacting
accordingly, not only provides the company with an excellent opportunity to build up its
online reputation within the industry, but it also brings direct traffic to the company’s
website. Posting valuable content on forums related to one’s industry on a global scale
is a great way to increase inbound links and traffic to the website (Batten 2010). Online
discussion forums have an effective impact on improving the company’s credibility,
reputation and search engine ranking. In an email on 7th November 2010 Monica stated
that there is one truth above all; no business will survive this new shift in communication
if it will not adopt reactive and proactive reply to this ever challenging, dynamic field.


A case study conducted by Nelson (2007) shows the effective impact of online
discussion forums on business decisions and marketing strategies. Online discussions
provide a clearer image of what the customers are really looking for, what they like, and
what they don’t, which helps business owners make much more effective decisions.
Another case study by Philipson (2010) shows how he applied effective methods in
order to boost customer experience and multiply the positive online word of mouth for
Mozilla.




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                       Page 3 of 17
Findings / Analysis

    Everybody is talking!

        •   Word of mouth is for the most part responsible for the
            online success of many big names such as Hotmail and
            the early days of Amazon (Pastore 2000). In an email
            on 2nd November 2010 Faysal stated that if you want to
            understand the importance of online word of mouth
            think of how important offline word of mouth is and
            multiply it by tens if not hundreds or thousands. Online
            channels provide a very easy platform for users around the world to express
            and share their thoughts about anything, what’s very interesting is that your
            brand could be the subject for those conversations.

        •   Komisarjevsky (n.d.) as cited by Pastore (2000) discussed that in today’s e-
            society one influential online person can shape the attitudes and behavior of
            about eight people anywhere around the world. The challenge nowadays is
            for companies to understand the influence of online word of mouth and utilize
            its potential impact to achieve measurable business results in today’s internet
            focused age.

        •   One of the examples of the word of web and its impact on a business is
            musician Dave Carroll. Carroll flew United Airlines to Nebraska for a one-
            week tour where he witnessed the luggage handlers carelessly throwing his
                              $3,500 guitar and totally damaging his guitar. After nine
                              months of trying get United’s attention, Carroll turned to
                              the public. His band wrote a song and filmed a music
                              video titled “United Breaks Guitars,” where he tells the
                              story of his miserable experience and the airline’s
                              careless attitude. He uploaded the video to Youtube and
                              it quickly went viral and everybody started sharing it; so
                              far the video has 9.4 million views and conversations
                              about this video flooded everywhere. Not very good news
                              for United Airlines! (S. Narisi 2009).

        •   In an email on 2nd November 2010 Philipson shared some statistics about
            word of mouth:
            o Consumer research, carried out by YouGov, (May 2010 this year) shows
               that over 80% of online consumers use online reviews as part of the
               journey to purchase in the last 12 months.



Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                       Page 4 of 17
YouGov also found that 62% of consumers have changed their minds
                about a purchase as a result of a bad review or word of mouth warning.

            o PQ Media report “Word-of-Mouth Marketing Forecast 2009-2013” showed
              the following figures:
                  Word of mouth spending to reach $3 Billion by 2013.

                       Word of mouth spending is on pace to grow another 10.2% this
                        year, placing it among the fastest growing advertising and
                        marketing segments.


            o He also mentioned the fact that viral of word of mouth is not a cheap way
              to promote your brand. The planning and investment required to make a
              good campaign should not be understated.




    What is a Forum?

            •   An online resource where participants post, reply, and discuss topics. It
                brings together people from around the world for conversations, opinions,
                and interactions. In order to use a forum, users need to have a web
                browser, a login ID, and a password. (Stroll 2006).

            •   Forums do not show messages in real-time; in order to see new
                messages the forum page must be reloaded. The posted message might
                also need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible on the
                forum (Wikipedia n.d.).




    Business impact of Forums

            •   The voice of customers:
                      o Today's technology provides various opportunities for
                          consumers to start conversations. Every day customers talk
                          among themselves in online product forums and social
                          networks. They share their thoughts to the whole world about
                          products and services, their likes and dislikes, and their hopes
                          for future offerings (Bean 2008).



Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                      Page 5 of 17
o The PostRelease and Synovate 2009 study in USA (cited
                          in Marketing Profs) showed that customers who frequently use
                          forums are considered direct influencers to the business. They
                          are more likely to share links to products, write reviews and
                          ratings, and recommend a particular purchase to other users.
                          The study also shows that forum contributors are active
                          bloggers as well. They are now more engaged and have the
                          freedom to have their own platform and share their experiences
                          with a certain product explicitly.


                        o Another source mentioned that forums are a tool for businesses
                          that forms a semi-permanent archive of consumers' online word
                          of mouth, and therefore digital marketing managers should mine
                          the conversations for consumer insights into their products and
                          even into their marketing programs (Marketing Profs 2010).

                        o A company must always listen to the voice of
                          customers; what information they’re saying and
                          where does it come from so that communications
                          messages can be adjusted quickly in response to
                          emerging opinions (Hampton 2004).

                        o In a conversation on 4th November 2010 Bernier said that his
                          company doesn’t believe in ‘one size fits all’ solution, therefore
                          they have different forums with different languages to make it
                          cozy enough for customers worldwide to interact and consume
                          information more effectively.

                        o He also mentioned that before a company would set a forum
                          with a specific language it should consider how many active
                          users will be speaking that language in order to justify the
                          money spent on such development.




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                        Page 6 of 17
•   Forums and online reputation:
                     o We cannot argue that internet has become the hub of
                        information and the use of online discussion forums has grown
                        by 7,000% in the last four years. Such forums are being used
                        increasingly by consumers to support or criticize products and
                        brands; they are now influencing the perspectives of millions of
                        consumers worldwide. This consumer generated media directly
                        influences a business’s online reputation and that’s why it must
                        be constantly under the radar (Hampton 2004).

                        o Online discussion forums not only shape the corporate online
                          reputation, it also influences the mainstream media due to the
                          fact that Journalists are using online discussion forums to gain
                          an instant image of the consumer opinion (Hampton 2004).

                        o Bean (2008) states that customers do not have much trust in
                          advertising - but rather what others say. Recommendations and
                          opinions are the most trusted and important information a
                          company receives.

                        o In an email on 28th October 2010 Mito discussed his personal
                          experience with the word of web, he said: “I saw the trailer of
                          Julia Roberts 'Eat Love Pray' and thought it was an awesome
                          movie & thought I have to go to the cinema & watch it. Same
                          day, I saw a post on an online forum saying that the film was
                          'way below than expected' and then I saw some 18
                          comments on that post of other users saying the same thing. It
                          was a disappointment so I decided not to go; as a business
                          impact Julia Roberts did lose some of her fortune,
                          Hollywood was affected, and finally the cinemas here in Egypt
                          were affected too, all because of some online discussion forum
                          comments”.




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                      Page 7 of 17
o Jodi (2010) advised forum business users to be helpful, to
                          listen, and to answer questions. In other words, build trust in
                          your knowledge and abilities, then when people on the forum
                          need what you do or sell, they'll turn to you because they know
                          you have the knowledge.

                        o Montalbano (2010) states that one must be very active on
                          forums and give extra time and energy to provide knowledge for
                          those in need and expect nothing in return.




            •   Forums in a step-by-step process:

                        o There are basically 2 sides when dealing with forums and word
                          of web channels; the side where you listen, and the side where
                          you interact.

                        o Listen
                               Freed (n.d.) stated some valid points that should be
                                 followed in order to monitor online word of mouth
                                 efficiently:
                                     • Do not buy recommendations by providing
                                         incentives to do so. What you’re looking for is
                                         ‘earned      recommendation’    not     ‘bought
                                         recommendation’.

                                         •   In order to monitor the actual promoters of your
                                             brand, you need to be more elaborative in your
                                             questions; do not just ask “Would you recommend
                                             us to a friend or colleague?” but rather go for “How
                                             likely are you to communicate about your
                                             experiences?” and give them a scale from 0 to 10.

                                         •   Another metric that should be measured is
                                             ‘satisfaction’ because this is what drives a
                                             customer to recommend your product/service. Ask




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                             Page 8 of 17
your customers how satisfied are they with a
                                                  certain product/service on a scale from 0 to 10.

                                        In an email on 2nd November 2010 Faysal stated that you
                                         need to be active in addressing issues that people
                                         complain about and don't like. You may also want to
                                         thank people who would say positive
                                         stuff about your company and reward
                                         this behavior.

                                   In an email on 1st November 2010 Berry
                                    said that marketers should listen to the on-
                                    going conversations to help define the
                                    emerging trends and future ideas.

                                        He also noted that a good way for a company to get
                                         consumers to take part in a conversation 'around' its
                                         brand is to facilitate a discussion on a branded forum on
                                         its website and keep an eye on the conversations
                                         happening.



                                        A good way to monitor the company’s buzz and word of
                                         mouth is to use Google Alerts; you can enter your
                                         “company name” + “forum” as a search term and Google
                                         Alerts will alert you every time someone mentions your
                                         search term (Vinerean n.d.).

                           o Interact
                                  Bain (c.2008) outlined a framework to interact on forums:
                                      • Search for forums in search engines by typing
                                          your “keyword phrase” + “forum”. Then make a list
                                          of the top 5 to 10 relevant forums to your industry
                                          using *Alexa rank and **Page rank.



    *Alexa rank is a ranking of all the websites based on their traffic; the more traffic, the lower the rank e.g. Google
    has the highest traffic of all websites and therefore in Alexa ranking it’s number 1.


    **Page rank is a tool by Google that ranks websites based on their inbound links on a numeric weighting from 0
    to 10. The more inbound links a webpage has, the higher its page rank.




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                                                 Page 9 of 17
•   Logon to the chosen forums and start answering
                                             specific industry questions to demonstrate that you
                                             are an expert in the industry.



                                         •   Your posts in the forum should be of value so that
                                             people would be interested to visit your website.

                                         •   Don’t be a spammer and start advertising for your
                                             company or business because then people will
                                             lose interest in your posts. You are there to
                                             interact and provide useful content, not to sell your
                                             products.

                                         •   Submit tips and advice, and people will like to
                                             know more and actually refer you to other users.

                                         •   Post on a regular basis, e.g. weekly, to develop
                                             credibility and consistency.


                                         •   Manage your time e.g. half an hour every week.

                                         •   Always remember to include a link to your website
                                             in your post signature. Usually forums don’t allow
                                             you to include links before having 10 or 20 posts.

                                         •   Make sure your link is your main keyword phrase
                                             in order to be optimized for search engines.




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                            Page 10 of 17
•   Case studies:

            •   The Guild case study:

                    o Nelson (2007) demonstrates a case study that shows the effective
                      impact of online discussion forums on business decisions and
                      marketing strategies:

                    o The company:
                          The Guild – a company that represents 1,200 artists and
                            markets their work through its Artfulhome.com website,
                            catalogs, and books.

                    o The issue:
                          Toni Sikes, CEO and founder of The Guild was hoping to
                             grow more traffic to the website Artfulhome.com. However
                             she wasn't certain what her customers really wanted.

                               The Guild was a medium-sized company, Sikes had limited
                                resources.

                               Sikes thought that product reviews might help customers
                                and staff understands what's most popular on the site, but
                                she was worried they might also damage the company's
                                relationship with artists themselves through negative
                                feedback.

                    o The solution:
                          The Guild decided to turn to Networked Insights, which
                            offers a managed customer forum system for monitoring
                            user discussions.

                               The forum on Artfulhome.com included discussion topics
                                such as Ask the Artist Community and Share Your Own
                                Artful Home.


                               The forum showed a huge success; it accumulated 536
                                members, who engaged in 13,850 total interactions and
                                started 87 discussion topics.



Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                     Page 11 of 17
   Sikes found that the home decorating category has pulled in
                                the most number of conversations; accordingly she decided
                                to shift the company’s priority focus to ideas for home
                                decorating.

                               By providing a community for her customers to interact with
                                each other on topics that are important to them, The Guild
                                was then able to mine those discussions for their own
                                marketing needs and gather customer insights without
                                bothering them to join a survey or focus group.




            •   Mozilla case study:

                    o In an email on 2nd November 2010 Philipson reveals a case study
                      of a campaign he recently undertook for Mozilla. The case study
                      shows the impact of positive online word of mouth:

                    o Objective:
                          The recent Internet browser skirmish has been fought out on
                            billboards, television and in media across Europe. In June
                            2010, the European Commission ruled on a landmark
                            settlement.

                               The case cited that if you were running a Microsoft Windows
                                PC inside the European economic area and using their
                                default Web browser, you would see a Browser Choice
                                screen appear offering you a number of different alternatives
                                to the software that navigates you around the Web. It was
                                nicknamed “The Browser Ballot”.

                    o Challenge:
                         The big technology companies including Google and
                            Microsoft spent millions on advertising and marketing to
                            promote their new browsers to gain and sustain lucrative
                            market share during the ballot.

                               Mozilla however is a non-profit with limited marketing spends
                                and a strong reliance on an effective communications
                                strategy that integrates traditional and social media to



Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                        Page 12 of 17
successfully meet the challenges posed by aggressive-
                                spending browser brands.

                    o Approach:
                          Racepoint (Philipson’s company) worked with Mozilla to
                            mobilize their existing community to educate consumers and
                            build buzz through word of mouth and a number of call to
                            actions:

                               A website was set up at called “Open To Choice” which
                                highlighted a variety of ways people could get involved,
                                educating, informing and engaging with the broader public
                                about the importance of choosing a browser that suits their
                                particular habits on the wonderful Web.

                               Visitors could download posters, add Twitter logos to their
                                handles, download flyers to be distributed, organize booths
                                at local events or even give talks. A blog post was published
                                from the CEO and Chairwoman highlighting what Mozilla
                                considered important in regard to having the right to ‘choose
                                your own browser’ and distributed to key national news
                                desks and key influencers through social media channels.

                               Racepoint also organized a number of wide reaching
                                consumer media briefings including women’s lifestyle
                                magazine Good Housekeeping, PA broadcast, BBC World
                                Service, BBC Click, The Guardian and The Financial Times.

                    o Results:
                         In one week alone, Mozilla commented and was referenced
                            as the safest or the number one browser for consumers in
                            over 50 broadcast mediums including the BBC World
                            Service, BBC Click, BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, BBC
                            Radio 1 Newsbeat, Sky News Breakfast, Channel 4 News
                            and Working Lunch.

                               In print and online media including The Financial Times,
                                Telegraph, The Guardian and ZDNet, it was reported that
                                the Mozilla had added more than 50,000 new users within
                                the first week. In that same week, the Web was swamped
                                with Mozilla advocates championing the “Open To
                                Choice” website with over 16,000 visits and the twitter
                                handle gaining 500 influencers including the BBC and
                                Google.




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                         Page 13 of 17
Conclusion

            •   Communications professionals who master the techniques of monitoring
                online discussion forums and interact accordingly will be able to better
                manage their company's reputation and brand as well as bring direct traffic
                to their website.

            •   Word of web brings high return on investment, considering the amount of
                money paid on generating a discussion and the amount of return from
                conversations about your brand.

            •   This digital channel provides insightful resources that can be utilized as
                part of an effective marketing campaign; however it shouldn’t be analyzed
                individually, all channels should be interconnected.

            •   Nowadays, multichannel customers are getting smarter; companies are
                now adapting to the customers instead of the opposite. With all the
                powerful tools available to them, customers now are the ones who shape
                the organization’s culture and processes.




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                      Page 14 of 17
References

       MARKETING PROFS (2010) We're Way More Complex Than That [WWW].
Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/1709/were-way-more-
complex-than-that. [Accessed 31/10/2010].



      MARKETING PROFS (2010) Online Forum Users Are Influential Consumers
[WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3304/online-forum-
users-are-influential-consumers. [Accessed 31/10/2010].



       F. HAMPTON (2004) How to Manage Your Corporate Reputation Online [WWW].
Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/hampton1.asp. [Accessed
31/10/2010].



      H. STROLL (2006) Marketing Challenge: Three Ways to Engage Employees and
Customers [WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/stroll115.asp.
[Accessed 31/10/2010].



        D. BEAN (2008) How to Hear the Voice of Your Customers: Hone First-Person
Intelligence From All Forms of Feedback [WWW]. Available
from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/voice-of-customer-hone-first-person-intelligence-
from-feedback-bean.asp. [Accessed 31/10/2010].



       WIKIPEDIA (n.d.) Internet forum. [Online]. Available
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum. [Accessed 31/10/2010].



       D. BAIN. (c.2008). 26 Week Plan [online video]. Available
from: http://www.26weekplan.com/interacting-on-forums-video.html. [Accessed
31/10/2010].




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                  Page 15 of 17
JODI. (2010) Marketing Profs. Weblog [Online] 1st April. Available
from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=33066. [Accessed
1/11/2010].



       R. MONTALBANO (2010) Marketing Profs. Weblog [Online] 1st April. Available
from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=33066. [Accessed
1/11/2010].



       M. PASTORE (2000) The Value of Word of Mouth [WWW]. Available
from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1703408/the-value-word-mouth. [Accessed
1/11/2010].



      S. NARISI (2009). Angry customer + YouTube = Ruined reputation. HR Morning.

youtube-ruined-reputation/. [Accessed 1/11/2010].
Weblog [Online] 30th July. Available from: http://www.hrmorning.com/angry-customer-



      L. FREED (n.d.) Measuring Word of Mouth Online: Six Key Considerations
[WWW] Foresee Results. Available from: http://www.foreseeresults.com. [Accessed
1/11/2010].


      T. VINEREAN (n.d.). Top 10 Free Tools To Monitor Your Online Reputation.
TonTenz. Weblog [Online]. Available from: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-free-tools-to-
monitor-your-online-reputation.php. [Accessed 1/11/2010].



       M. G. NELSON (2007) Artful Home Mines Customer Forums to Decide Web
Strategy [WWW] Clickz. Available
from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1705361/artful-home-mines-customer-forums-
decide-web-strategy. [Accessed 1/11/2010].



       J. BATTEN (2010) Nine Tools for Your Link-Building Toolkit [WWW] Clickz.
Available from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1712238/nine-tools-your-link-
building-toolkit. [Accessed 1/11/2010].




Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide                                   Page 16 of 17
Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide   Page 17 of 17

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Online Discussion Forums & Word of Web - Best Practice Guide - Tarek Reda

  • 1. Forums & Word of Web Best-Practice Guide By: Tarek Reda Salem 1-Jan-2011 Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 1 of 17
  • 2. Contents Executive Summary………………………………………………………………….3 Findings / Analysis…………………………………………………………………...4 Everybody is talking!………………………………………………………....4 What is a Forum?....................................................................................5 Business impact of Forums………………………………………………….5 The voice of customers………………………………………………5 Forums and online reputation……………………………………….7 Forums in a step-by-step process…………………………………..8 Case studies………………………………………………………….11 The Guild case study………………………………………...11 Mozilla case study……………………………………………12 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….14 References…………………………………………………………………………….15 Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 2 of 17
  • 3. Executive Summary Word of web is a double-edged weapon that can either boost your online reputation or totally destroy it. Therefore companies must carefully follow an appropriate consistent set of techniques in order to manage online word of mouth. Listening to the customer’s voice in online discussion forums and interacting accordingly, not only provides the company with an excellent opportunity to build up its online reputation within the industry, but it also brings direct traffic to the company’s website. Posting valuable content on forums related to one’s industry on a global scale is a great way to increase inbound links and traffic to the website (Batten 2010). Online discussion forums have an effective impact on improving the company’s credibility, reputation and search engine ranking. In an email on 7th November 2010 Monica stated that there is one truth above all; no business will survive this new shift in communication if it will not adopt reactive and proactive reply to this ever challenging, dynamic field. A case study conducted by Nelson (2007) shows the effective impact of online discussion forums on business decisions and marketing strategies. Online discussions provide a clearer image of what the customers are really looking for, what they like, and what they don’t, which helps business owners make much more effective decisions. Another case study by Philipson (2010) shows how he applied effective methods in order to boost customer experience and multiply the positive online word of mouth for Mozilla. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 3 of 17
  • 4. Findings / Analysis Everybody is talking! • Word of mouth is for the most part responsible for the online success of many big names such as Hotmail and the early days of Amazon (Pastore 2000). In an email on 2nd November 2010 Faysal stated that if you want to understand the importance of online word of mouth think of how important offline word of mouth is and multiply it by tens if not hundreds or thousands. Online channels provide a very easy platform for users around the world to express and share their thoughts about anything, what’s very interesting is that your brand could be the subject for those conversations. • Komisarjevsky (n.d.) as cited by Pastore (2000) discussed that in today’s e- society one influential online person can shape the attitudes and behavior of about eight people anywhere around the world. The challenge nowadays is for companies to understand the influence of online word of mouth and utilize its potential impact to achieve measurable business results in today’s internet focused age. • One of the examples of the word of web and its impact on a business is musician Dave Carroll. Carroll flew United Airlines to Nebraska for a one- week tour where he witnessed the luggage handlers carelessly throwing his $3,500 guitar and totally damaging his guitar. After nine months of trying get United’s attention, Carroll turned to the public. His band wrote a song and filmed a music video titled “United Breaks Guitars,” where he tells the story of his miserable experience and the airline’s careless attitude. He uploaded the video to Youtube and it quickly went viral and everybody started sharing it; so far the video has 9.4 million views and conversations about this video flooded everywhere. Not very good news for United Airlines! (S. Narisi 2009). • In an email on 2nd November 2010 Philipson shared some statistics about word of mouth: o Consumer research, carried out by YouGov, (May 2010 this year) shows that over 80% of online consumers use online reviews as part of the journey to purchase in the last 12 months. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 4 of 17
  • 5. YouGov also found that 62% of consumers have changed their minds about a purchase as a result of a bad review or word of mouth warning. o PQ Media report “Word-of-Mouth Marketing Forecast 2009-2013” showed the following figures:  Word of mouth spending to reach $3 Billion by 2013.  Word of mouth spending is on pace to grow another 10.2% this year, placing it among the fastest growing advertising and marketing segments. o He also mentioned the fact that viral of word of mouth is not a cheap way to promote your brand. The planning and investment required to make a good campaign should not be understated. What is a Forum? • An online resource where participants post, reply, and discuss topics. It brings together people from around the world for conversations, opinions, and interactions. In order to use a forum, users need to have a web browser, a login ID, and a password. (Stroll 2006). • Forums do not show messages in real-time; in order to see new messages the forum page must be reloaded. The posted message might also need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible on the forum (Wikipedia n.d.). Business impact of Forums • The voice of customers: o Today's technology provides various opportunities for consumers to start conversations. Every day customers talk among themselves in online product forums and social networks. They share their thoughts to the whole world about products and services, their likes and dislikes, and their hopes for future offerings (Bean 2008). Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 5 of 17
  • 6. o The PostRelease and Synovate 2009 study in USA (cited in Marketing Profs) showed that customers who frequently use forums are considered direct influencers to the business. They are more likely to share links to products, write reviews and ratings, and recommend a particular purchase to other users. The study also shows that forum contributors are active bloggers as well. They are now more engaged and have the freedom to have their own platform and share their experiences with a certain product explicitly. o Another source mentioned that forums are a tool for businesses that forms a semi-permanent archive of consumers' online word of mouth, and therefore digital marketing managers should mine the conversations for consumer insights into their products and even into their marketing programs (Marketing Profs 2010). o A company must always listen to the voice of customers; what information they’re saying and where does it come from so that communications messages can be adjusted quickly in response to emerging opinions (Hampton 2004). o In a conversation on 4th November 2010 Bernier said that his company doesn’t believe in ‘one size fits all’ solution, therefore they have different forums with different languages to make it cozy enough for customers worldwide to interact and consume information more effectively. o He also mentioned that before a company would set a forum with a specific language it should consider how many active users will be speaking that language in order to justify the money spent on such development. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 6 of 17
  • 7. Forums and online reputation: o We cannot argue that internet has become the hub of information and the use of online discussion forums has grown by 7,000% in the last four years. Such forums are being used increasingly by consumers to support or criticize products and brands; they are now influencing the perspectives of millions of consumers worldwide. This consumer generated media directly influences a business’s online reputation and that’s why it must be constantly under the radar (Hampton 2004). o Online discussion forums not only shape the corporate online reputation, it also influences the mainstream media due to the fact that Journalists are using online discussion forums to gain an instant image of the consumer opinion (Hampton 2004). o Bean (2008) states that customers do not have much trust in advertising - but rather what others say. Recommendations and opinions are the most trusted and important information a company receives. o In an email on 28th October 2010 Mito discussed his personal experience with the word of web, he said: “I saw the trailer of Julia Roberts 'Eat Love Pray' and thought it was an awesome movie & thought I have to go to the cinema & watch it. Same day, I saw a post on an online forum saying that the film was 'way below than expected' and then I saw some 18 comments on that post of other users saying the same thing. It was a disappointment so I decided not to go; as a business impact Julia Roberts did lose some of her fortune, Hollywood was affected, and finally the cinemas here in Egypt were affected too, all because of some online discussion forum comments”. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 7 of 17
  • 8. o Jodi (2010) advised forum business users to be helpful, to listen, and to answer questions. In other words, build trust in your knowledge and abilities, then when people on the forum need what you do or sell, they'll turn to you because they know you have the knowledge. o Montalbano (2010) states that one must be very active on forums and give extra time and energy to provide knowledge for those in need and expect nothing in return. • Forums in a step-by-step process: o There are basically 2 sides when dealing with forums and word of web channels; the side where you listen, and the side where you interact. o Listen  Freed (n.d.) stated some valid points that should be followed in order to monitor online word of mouth efficiently: • Do not buy recommendations by providing incentives to do so. What you’re looking for is ‘earned recommendation’ not ‘bought recommendation’. • In order to monitor the actual promoters of your brand, you need to be more elaborative in your questions; do not just ask “Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague?” but rather go for “How likely are you to communicate about your experiences?” and give them a scale from 0 to 10. • Another metric that should be measured is ‘satisfaction’ because this is what drives a customer to recommend your product/service. Ask Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 8 of 17
  • 9. your customers how satisfied are they with a certain product/service on a scale from 0 to 10.  In an email on 2nd November 2010 Faysal stated that you need to be active in addressing issues that people complain about and don't like. You may also want to thank people who would say positive stuff about your company and reward this behavior.  In an email on 1st November 2010 Berry said that marketers should listen to the on- going conversations to help define the emerging trends and future ideas.  He also noted that a good way for a company to get consumers to take part in a conversation 'around' its brand is to facilitate a discussion on a branded forum on its website and keep an eye on the conversations happening.  A good way to monitor the company’s buzz and word of mouth is to use Google Alerts; you can enter your “company name” + “forum” as a search term and Google Alerts will alert you every time someone mentions your search term (Vinerean n.d.). o Interact  Bain (c.2008) outlined a framework to interact on forums: • Search for forums in search engines by typing your “keyword phrase” + “forum”. Then make a list of the top 5 to 10 relevant forums to your industry using *Alexa rank and **Page rank. *Alexa rank is a ranking of all the websites based on their traffic; the more traffic, the lower the rank e.g. Google has the highest traffic of all websites and therefore in Alexa ranking it’s number 1. **Page rank is a tool by Google that ranks websites based on their inbound links on a numeric weighting from 0 to 10. The more inbound links a webpage has, the higher its page rank. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 9 of 17
  • 10. Logon to the chosen forums and start answering specific industry questions to demonstrate that you are an expert in the industry. • Your posts in the forum should be of value so that people would be interested to visit your website. • Don’t be a spammer and start advertising for your company or business because then people will lose interest in your posts. You are there to interact and provide useful content, not to sell your products. • Submit tips and advice, and people will like to know more and actually refer you to other users. • Post on a regular basis, e.g. weekly, to develop credibility and consistency. • Manage your time e.g. half an hour every week. • Always remember to include a link to your website in your post signature. Usually forums don’t allow you to include links before having 10 or 20 posts. • Make sure your link is your main keyword phrase in order to be optimized for search engines. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 10 of 17
  • 11. Case studies: • The Guild case study: o Nelson (2007) demonstrates a case study that shows the effective impact of online discussion forums on business decisions and marketing strategies: o The company:  The Guild – a company that represents 1,200 artists and markets their work through its Artfulhome.com website, catalogs, and books. o The issue:  Toni Sikes, CEO and founder of The Guild was hoping to grow more traffic to the website Artfulhome.com. However she wasn't certain what her customers really wanted.  The Guild was a medium-sized company, Sikes had limited resources.  Sikes thought that product reviews might help customers and staff understands what's most popular on the site, but she was worried they might also damage the company's relationship with artists themselves through negative feedback. o The solution:  The Guild decided to turn to Networked Insights, which offers a managed customer forum system for monitoring user discussions.  The forum on Artfulhome.com included discussion topics such as Ask the Artist Community and Share Your Own Artful Home.  The forum showed a huge success; it accumulated 536 members, who engaged in 13,850 total interactions and started 87 discussion topics. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 11 of 17
  • 12. Sikes found that the home decorating category has pulled in the most number of conversations; accordingly she decided to shift the company’s priority focus to ideas for home decorating.  By providing a community for her customers to interact with each other on topics that are important to them, The Guild was then able to mine those discussions for their own marketing needs and gather customer insights without bothering them to join a survey or focus group. • Mozilla case study: o In an email on 2nd November 2010 Philipson reveals a case study of a campaign he recently undertook for Mozilla. The case study shows the impact of positive online word of mouth: o Objective:  The recent Internet browser skirmish has been fought out on billboards, television and in media across Europe. In June 2010, the European Commission ruled on a landmark settlement.  The case cited that if you were running a Microsoft Windows PC inside the European economic area and using their default Web browser, you would see a Browser Choice screen appear offering you a number of different alternatives to the software that navigates you around the Web. It was nicknamed “The Browser Ballot”. o Challenge:  The big technology companies including Google and Microsoft spent millions on advertising and marketing to promote their new browsers to gain and sustain lucrative market share during the ballot.  Mozilla however is a non-profit with limited marketing spends and a strong reliance on an effective communications strategy that integrates traditional and social media to Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 12 of 17
  • 13. successfully meet the challenges posed by aggressive- spending browser brands. o Approach:  Racepoint (Philipson’s company) worked with Mozilla to mobilize their existing community to educate consumers and build buzz through word of mouth and a number of call to actions:  A website was set up at called “Open To Choice” which highlighted a variety of ways people could get involved, educating, informing and engaging with the broader public about the importance of choosing a browser that suits their particular habits on the wonderful Web.  Visitors could download posters, add Twitter logos to their handles, download flyers to be distributed, organize booths at local events or even give talks. A blog post was published from the CEO and Chairwoman highlighting what Mozilla considered important in regard to having the right to ‘choose your own browser’ and distributed to key national news desks and key influencers through social media channels.  Racepoint also organized a number of wide reaching consumer media briefings including women’s lifestyle magazine Good Housekeeping, PA broadcast, BBC World Service, BBC Click, The Guardian and The Financial Times. o Results:  In one week alone, Mozilla commented and was referenced as the safest or the number one browser for consumers in over 50 broadcast mediums including the BBC World Service, BBC Click, BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, Sky News Breakfast, Channel 4 News and Working Lunch.  In print and online media including The Financial Times, Telegraph, The Guardian and ZDNet, it was reported that the Mozilla had added more than 50,000 new users within the first week. In that same week, the Web was swamped with Mozilla advocates championing the “Open To Choice” website with over 16,000 visits and the twitter handle gaining 500 influencers including the BBC and Google. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 13 of 17
  • 14. Conclusion • Communications professionals who master the techniques of monitoring online discussion forums and interact accordingly will be able to better manage their company's reputation and brand as well as bring direct traffic to their website. • Word of web brings high return on investment, considering the amount of money paid on generating a discussion and the amount of return from conversations about your brand. • This digital channel provides insightful resources that can be utilized as part of an effective marketing campaign; however it shouldn’t be analyzed individually, all channels should be interconnected. • Nowadays, multichannel customers are getting smarter; companies are now adapting to the customers instead of the opposite. With all the powerful tools available to them, customers now are the ones who shape the organization’s culture and processes. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 14 of 17
  • 15. References MARKETING PROFS (2010) We're Way More Complex Than That [WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/1709/were-way-more- complex-than-that. [Accessed 31/10/2010]. MARKETING PROFS (2010) Online Forum Users Are Influential Consumers [WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3304/online-forum- users-are-influential-consumers. [Accessed 31/10/2010]. F. HAMPTON (2004) How to Manage Your Corporate Reputation Online [WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/hampton1.asp. [Accessed 31/10/2010]. H. STROLL (2006) Marketing Challenge: Three Ways to Engage Employees and Customers [WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/stroll115.asp. [Accessed 31/10/2010]. D. BEAN (2008) How to Hear the Voice of Your Customers: Hone First-Person Intelligence From All Forms of Feedback [WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/voice-of-customer-hone-first-person-intelligence- from-feedback-bean.asp. [Accessed 31/10/2010]. WIKIPEDIA (n.d.) Internet forum. [Online]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum. [Accessed 31/10/2010]. D. BAIN. (c.2008). 26 Week Plan [online video]. Available from: http://www.26weekplan.com/interacting-on-forums-video.html. [Accessed 31/10/2010]. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 15 of 17
  • 16. JODI. (2010) Marketing Profs. Weblog [Online] 1st April. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=33066. [Accessed 1/11/2010]. R. MONTALBANO (2010) Marketing Profs. Weblog [Online] 1st April. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=33066. [Accessed 1/11/2010]. M. PASTORE (2000) The Value of Word of Mouth [WWW]. Available from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1703408/the-value-word-mouth. [Accessed 1/11/2010]. S. NARISI (2009). Angry customer + YouTube = Ruined reputation. HR Morning. youtube-ruined-reputation/. [Accessed 1/11/2010]. Weblog [Online] 30th July. Available from: http://www.hrmorning.com/angry-customer- L. FREED (n.d.) Measuring Word of Mouth Online: Six Key Considerations [WWW] Foresee Results. Available from: http://www.foreseeresults.com. [Accessed 1/11/2010]. T. VINEREAN (n.d.). Top 10 Free Tools To Monitor Your Online Reputation. TonTenz. Weblog [Online]. Available from: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-free-tools-to- monitor-your-online-reputation.php. [Accessed 1/11/2010]. M. G. NELSON (2007) Artful Home Mines Customer Forums to Decide Web Strategy [WWW] Clickz. Available from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1705361/artful-home-mines-customer-forums- decide-web-strategy. [Accessed 1/11/2010]. J. BATTEN (2010) Nine Tools for Your Link-Building Toolkit [WWW] Clickz. Available from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1712238/nine-tools-your-link- building-toolkit. [Accessed 1/11/2010]. Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 16 of 17
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