What are useful ways to involve consumers in your brand?

Can you think of any more ways to involve consumers in your brand?  Feel free to post them in the comment section!  And which of these types of involvement do you think is most effective and why?  

 

Below are ways we can involve consumers with our product or service:

 

1.  Forums/message boards/groups - Forums are basically message boards that might look a bit fancier, and groups (such as Yahoo! groups) can be made to look even nicer, but there doesn't seem to be any major difference between them.  They're an excellent place to carry on discussions with like minded people, to trade information and to share stories.  This is an excellent way to garner and build brand loyalty.  There are forums and groups like this for everything these days - a random sampling includes:

 

Harry Potter for grownups

Sustainable Table forum 

 

MySpace has a lot of forums, but they have thousands of more "Groups".  There are 33 group categories, with tens of thousands of groups within those categories.  (For example, the Automotive category has over 50,000 groups in it.) (...yes, that's not a typo - over 50,000!)  Groups are basically mini-forums - when you join a group, you're in a specialized form. 

 

Yahoo! has started up its own message board section with many categories, but you can find message boards on all types of sites, from the Washington Post to Ancestory.com (yes, you can search for your ancestors!)

 

 

2.  Blogs - Blogs are formally known as weblogs.  They're basically online dairies, though many also discuss news, politics and current events.  The main feature of a blog is that the voice of the writer comes through so the blog, in a sense, has its own personality, and readers usually have the ability to post comments.  (Each of you has a blog so just look on the right sidebar for examples.)

 

 

3.  Listservs - Listservs are a bit more formal than forums and are usually private, meaning you have to get approval to join.  They tend to be generated via email, so there are no websites to go to.  They seemed to have sprung from massive email lists people used to have - updating emails was almost impossible if everyone kept their own address book, so Listservs are email lists that have one centralized place where emails are stored and updated. 

 

Listserv posts come directly into your inbox - you usually have the option to receive information as it's posted or once a day in a digest.  The only way to view an example of a listserv is to join one - and seeing as the majority of them are private, I can't really give you any example, but if you visit the Sierra Club site, you can see 816 search results for listservs.   

 

 

4.  Online reviews - Online reviews are product reviews done by consumers and posted online for everyone to see.  The most popular is probably Amazon.com reviews, but other sites that do reviews include:

 

TripAdvisor

MenuPages.com (if you don't know about this site, it's excellent for finding NYC restaurants and looking at the menu!) 

 

 

5.  Sampling/sneak previews - This involves letting key consumers try out your brand in advance of the general public.  This is an excellent way to include your fans/loyalists and make them feel they're getting something other people aren't - that leads to more devoted and loyal consumers.  These key consumers will then use word of mouth to start a buzz about your product or service.

 

Yahoo Search Marketing upgrade - A blogger for the PPC Book blog was invited to a sneak preview of upgrades on Yahoo!'s search upgrades.

 

Sony Playstation 3 - Was sneak previewed at the Nissan stand at the Geneva Motor Show.  (Nissan also happened to sneak preview a new car at the same time...)

 

 

6.  Special fan events - These are events put on by a company for customers/fans.  Very simply, you can say that a concert is a special fan event.  It makes the fan more loyal to the band, more inclined to be interested and want to buy their music, and bringing many people together to share an experiences makes people want to be part of the experience even more. 

 

Saturn picnics - Saturn holds picnics around the country for car owners, including Central Ohio, but they also have Saturn car clubs all around the country, where owners can meet regularly and socialize. 

 

 

7.  Consumer generated content - Allow consumers to create and ad for you, remix a record, make a video.  As the market becomes more and more consumer driven, consumers are being given opportunities to help develop content for brands. 

 

Southwest Airlines - Ran an ad contest for their "Wanna Get Away?" campaign, asking users to send in embarrassing and awkward moments similar to the company's official campaign.

 

SuperBowl commercials - if you check out our page on the SuperBowl, you can watch 3 ads created by consumers.

 

 

8.  Mobile technology - Mobile phone technology is still in its infancy, but there is a lot of potential in this field.  Using mobile technology is mainly good for geographic-specific information that has some type of action attached to it.  For example, you do not want to convert your website and put in on a mobile phone.  But you might want to ask people to sign up to be phoned when an action needs to happen, like a Congressperson needs to be contacted over an issue or when something needs to be done.  Mobile technology is also good for finding places - restaurants and stores for example.

 

Texting has also been used with great succes on American Idol - fans can text in their votes to a specified number, they can play trivia games, and they can chat live with contestants as they leave the show.  This is another area that is open for development. 

 

A positive way to use mobile technology is being down by the Human Rights Video Hub - people and organizations are encourage to film human rights abuses from their phone and to send it into the site. 

 

Mobile Voter used mobile technology to register voters in the 2006 election.

 

 

9.  Polls/questionnaires - Polls can be as simple as a one question yes/no on a website, or a longer survey consumers are asked to take.

 

CNN.com's Showbiz Tonight has a riveting poll on Anna Nicole Smith currently. 

 

The National Academies of Science has questionnaires for for faculty and about their programs.

 

 

10.  Send to a Friend - Get consumers to spread the word for you!  And make it simple by setting up code so that users can easily send the information on your site (or information about your site) to a friend.  Examples:

 

The Meatrix - tell your friends about the movie

 

NASA wants you to tell your friends about what they're doing.

 

 

11.  Other ways to involve consumers in your brand:

 

a.  Mashups - Mashups are the 'hot' new thing with music and video.  Users are given rights to take videos and mash them on top of each other to create a new video.  Same with music.  Tracks are laid over each other to create new tracks.  According to Wikipedia, "A mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience."  To learn more about mashups, go to Mashups.com  or Programmable Web for all the latest mashups out there.  Allowing consumers/users to manipulate and change your product could lead to creative new ways of experience - thus giving you a wider audience and more appeal.

 

b.  Drupals - the latest and greatest in new technology and open source software, drupals are a way to combine your blog, forum, website, polls and other features into one place - all while allowing viewers to upload content and participate in the site.  They are said to be extremely easy to implement, and they are designed to evolve with our quickly changing technology. 

 

Marlow's Tavern 

MTV UK pushed the limits on Drupal's capabilities with their latest site.

Twin Cities Public Televsion

 

c.  Widgets - These are little pieces of software that a consumer can easily download for a many uses on their blog or website.  For example, you can download a piece of software that puts the current weather on your website.  It'll update automatically from the Weather Channel.  You can find various widgets on the yourminis site.   A few examples include:

 

Google map search - with this widget, you can add Google map search on your site without writing any code.

AnswerTips - when you download this widget, you can double click on any word and a bubble pops up with the meaning. 

ClockLink will let you embed clocks onto your website. 

 

And how can you involve consumers in your brand with your widgets?  Well, if you were a clock maker, you could create a cool clock widget that people could download onto their site, giving you free promotion.