Managing Your Online Community [Marketing Update]

Marketers need to be constantly aware of their online community and manage it through good times and bad. On this weeks episode of the Marketing Update, Karen and co-host Kara Sasssone discussed two different examples of companies that need to focus more on their online communities. 

Netflix Raises Prices

On Tuesday, Netflix announced that they are cutting back on the number of subscription plans they offer and raising their prices. This sent the Twitterverse, and the commenters on their blog, into a tizzy as customers voiced their outrage and dissappointment. The announcement was made 4 days ago, and while the Netflix community has clearly voiced their opinion, the company has stayed quiet on the topic. Neither their blog, not their Twitter stream has been updated since Tuesday, although many of their customers are discussing canceling their plans. 

In a world where everyone can easily voice their displeasure, being open and transparent is important. Handeling upset customers can be scary and challenging, but ignoring the conversation is a sure way to damage you online community and brand. 

Marketing Takeway: When making big announcements, be prepared for negative feedback and plan to respond to your community. 

USA Women's Soccer Team Makes World Cup Finals

As Richard Deitsch explained in an article on Sports Illustrated online, 12 years ago millions of American's rallied around women's soccer as team USA made it to, and won, the World Cup finals. Then, as time passed, people forgot about women's soccer and turned back to their regularly scheduled sports programming. Until this week, when the women's team beat France 3-1 and made it into the World Cup finals.

American's, including the teams own goalie, celebrated the victory online, using Twitter to deliver information. However, although there was lots of chatter online about the game and victory, there was no consistent hashtag or community building. Women's Professional Soccer league should use this as an opportunity to nurture their fan base into an active online community, but they seem to be missing the boat. 

Marketing Takeaway: Don't miss your opportunity to build a strong community by ignoring the conversation. Communities need to be nurtured to thrive!