Comments on: Brand Communities: Can they Work? 2008 Beckons

By: Harshil Karia

Harshil Karia — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:46:52 +0000

retaining members is indeed difficult – thats why its important to get the most relevant members on board and giving them benefits beyond conventional social networks. The good thing is that with such a strategy, the costs aren’t that high. The is also why generic category related social networks can work if they enter early and position themselves well.

By: indian moms

indian moms — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 05:32:31 +0000

Will they be able to retain the members and at what cost ? With more competion on the way, this may be difficult.

By: Harshil Karia

Harshil Karia — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 10:31:22 +0000

I think the number of blogs was also too low. There were members but true i did not look at the qualitative aspect of the conversations.

I think its fine it marketeers seed conversations – i just dont think sunsilk seeded the right conversations probably.

Zapak girls is pretty ordinary. Btw thanks for the insight – i didn’t really think about the number of boys who may be on the GoG Community.

HUL has stated that its a 15 minute average. But as you would know – thats not something thats visible to everyone. On the other hand they would’nt fabricate such stuff – its not really in their interest.

By: Hanso H

Hanso H — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 05:02:54 +0000

Hi,
Yes, brand communities are the ‘hot-new-it-should-workmakessense’ kids on the block.

I do disagree with the Sunsilk GoG analysis though. As a community manager I’ve spent some time on GoG and found that almost ALL the groups, blogs, etc to be either 1-visit creations or Seeds by the Comm. managers themselves.
There’s a sense of hollowness in it, which tells me that the community has almost no stickiness in it.
What are the repeat visits like? Is it really a 15 minute average or 15 minutes for the first visit with little or no returns?

And, really, where are the real girls?
‘Girls’ looking for meaningful relationships as friends with other girls, all the while leading the conversation with “will u have sax with ure boyfrand’…

I thought it would be a great place to tap into online female communities… Woops.
So,… yeh.. Not as successful as it seems.
While you’re at it, Zapak girls doesn’t seem to full of girls either… Maybe it’s just going to take a lot more time for online all-female communities to come of age.