Social communities in today's world

The availability of new communication technologies has contributed to changes in how people form social communities, this is demonstrated by the

declining participation in face-to-face communication (Nie, Hillygus, and Erbring, 2002; Putnam, 2000). 'Online community' encompasses various internet aspects which include auction and market sites, electronic bulletin boards or forums, social networking sites, blogs, gaming communities and shared-interest websites. Wellman et al. (1996) argue that these online communities facilitate “asynchronous, immediate, interactive, low-cost communication, as well as, enabling the formation of interpersonal ties that provide information and social support”.

Online communities which consists of individuals who participate in computer-supported social interaction (Preece, 2000 : 10), allows a medium in which individuals may offer an interpersonal exchange and allow other members to express and access others' opinions, especially in reference to products, services and brands.
Consumer preferences form within communities as individuals exchange opinions about products and services and observe one another’s purchases. Where affluence has spread, essential human needs account for a decreasing proportion of consumers’ purchases, and the social context takes on an increasingly important role in shaping consumer behaviour (Redmond, 2001).

Miller et al. (2009) states that businesses play four roles in online communities which are: “observing and collecting information, hosting or sponsoring communities (by creating and managing Web sites and advertising), providing content to communities (such as music, information, or entertainment) and participating as members of online communities (in peer relationships with other participants)”.

The attention and time spent on social networking websites, not only by teenagers and students but also adults and professionals around the world is constantly increasing. More importantly, the number of users (e.g. 168 Billions users share between Facebook and Myspace in 2007) shows the world penetration and popularity of those websites.

Consequently seen as the unpredicted “newest greatest thing”; social networking websites such as Facebook, Myspace, Ning, Twitter or LinkedIn, are largely use to market companies brands, products or services. Thus, numerous businesses decide to integrate it to their marketing strategy as it is a real, implicit and powerful marketing channel. Possibilities have grown substantially; outcomes and results are potentially very beneficial to an organisation: from advertising, reaching potential customers, launching a product, to simply experiencing them as a “central hub” to keep contact and to be updated within the globalized businesses; the social networking phenomenon still has to be explored.

Different types of websites exist and their use and possibilities vary: Ning for instance offers the possibility to market anything by creating your own social network around a common theme, hobby, industry, etc. Myspace on the other hand is more popular with artists, bands, and musicians to communicate with fans and promote tours, gigs, etc.

Facebook allows you to create you own business profile and business group in order to construct an “opt-in” list of people who can follow and share your interest and your business. This kind of application is really

successful, effective and fast since you can post invitations on your wall, asking all your Facebook friends to join the group. Furthermore, among the hundreds marketing opportunities, Facebook even propose to serve advertisers with higher campaign budgets (above 50 000 USD). These integrated advertising opportunities have been achieved following a Facebook-Microsoft partnership (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/12/09/) (Yankee S. 2009).

Consequently “social networking” has become a mainstream marketing channel with a totally transparent target. In fact users’ demographics and centre of interests are made readily available and displayed on profiles and groups. This in turn enables businesses to target specific markets. It is recommend to professionals and organisations to visit resources websites such as http://www.whyfacebook.com/ in order to have a better understanding of why, how and where to navigate and exploit a social networking websites.

As well as the increase in marketing activities among social network websites, online gaming occupies a great part of peoples leisure time. Players are given the chance of participating with other users in a virtual environment in which they can have different experiences that could be satisfactory for them as they feel part of it. This is important because gaming communities can be seen as a very wide catchment area in which a great number of consumers can be reached. Sheu et al. (2009) states that the experienced players have been directly and quickly affected in terms of their consumption, desire and behaviour. An advantage gained by organisations is the opportunity to segment the users; as people who play a certain game tend to share similar characteristics, for example the same passion and interest, therefore it can constitute a niche that can be targeted by certain products.

Furthermore, placing advertisements into the virtual reality can create in the mind of the player a link between the brand and his satisfactory experience. Brands can be linked to games by sponsoring events, places or directly placing a product itself within the game’s environment.

REFERENCES:

Nie NH, Hillygus DS, Erbring L. 2002. Internet use, interpersonal relations and sociability: findings from a detailed time diary study. In The Internet in EverydayLife, Wellman B, Haythornthwaite C (eds). Blackwell Publishers: Malden, MA; 215–244.

Wellman B, Salaff J, Dimitrova D, Garton L, Gulia M, Haythornthwaite C. 1996. Computer networks as social networks. Annual Review of Sociology 22:213–238.

Preece J. 2000. Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability. Wiley: New York.

Redmond WH. 2001. Exploring limits to material desire: the influence of preferences vs. plans on consumptionspending. Journal of Economic Issues 35: 575–590.

Miller K D, Fabian F, Lin S-J. 2009. Strategies for online communities, Strategic Management Journal Strat. Mgmt. J., 30: 305–322 (2009)

Sheu, J.J., Su, Y.H. and Chu, K.T. (2009) ‘Segmenting online game customers – The perspective of experiential marketing’ Experts Systems with Applications 36 (4) 8487-8495

Yankee S. (2009) ‘Marketing with social networking sites’ Event DV 22 (3) 8-8 [online] available from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=7&hid=7&sid=2152b55f-0200-4a10-9cad-173e91faa5cd%40sessionmgr102 [18 March 2009]