Facebook and Linkedin

Facebook and Linkedin are two social networks that are popular to use when advertising your company's products.

Facebook is popular for businesses because it is easy to use. Companies just have to set up a Facebook page and get people to like them and they in turn can give their customers things they want such as contests and discounts.

Linkedin is more targeted towards professionals. You can get answers to your questions quickly. You can get connections towards finding a new job or business opportunity.

Lego Community - Team Obey

After visiting the lugnet site it was not that easy to navigate but the overall purpose of this site is to help Lego fanatics build their masterpiece. This site has several functionalities and helps their members through forums, guides, and several links to websites that members could find useful when constructing a Lego piece.
People that may be attracted to this site take building with Lego pieces very seriously. They take pride in their work and want to share it with people that really appreciate the time they put into their creation. A site like this would make these people feel more comfortable as opposed to Facebook where they would receive more unwanted attention. Some people although they take pride in building Lego pieces may want to remain anonymous to the public and this web-site will allow that. Being on Facebook would expose them to more people and could cause anxiety for them.
Some of the topics discussed seem like advertisements, while others just discuss members’ passion. Seeing as how this site has not been updated since May I would assume that its community is not very strong and has lost its direction. In order for a community to succeed there must be constant engagement which this site has failed to do.
A key feature of this community is the lack of banner ads and advertisements of any kind on the edges of the screen or in pop-ups. Some of the conversation topics are basically advertisements, but they are announcements about new Lego products and things of that nature so community members likely find them unobtrusive.
Companies such as Hobby Town or Revell could benefit from advertising within this community because people that build with Legos as a hobby are likely to have other hobbies such as model car building. By limiting the advertisements to products or services likely to be relevant or of interest to existing community members, firms can capitalize on a centralized location for potential consumers to be reached as well as avoid being ignored or viewed as obtrusive because of the relevance of the product.

Online Community

openforum.com

Openforum.com is a community for small business owners to meet and share ideas. Under the title is states "Powering Small Business Success." It is clear that powering small businesses and providing information for the success and growth of small businesses is the purpose of this community. The site in not so different from many other small business sites. One thing that is unique to the site is it does not participate in advertisement as much as other sites that have similar characteristics.
The reason so many people engage in this site compared to facebook is rather simple. Small business owners want to know how to create and manage a successful business. This site allows them to gain the knowledge it takes to manage and grow a small business. It also allows them to connect with other business owners in the same category. The connections lead to secrets in the industry that have led to success.
The traffic to this site include business owners, future entrepreneurs, and business analysis experts. Inside the site, the discussion includes a variety of topics ranging from business information to success factors that lead to better business decisions. The sharing of information among the users links back to all of the factors briefly discussed above.
As stated above, openforum does not use advertising on the site. This shows just how powerful the site has become. The users of the site are visiting and actively participating because the information gained from the site is so useful, there is no room for advertising.
This site is aimed at small business owners. A business that could benefit from a similar community would be Academy Sports and Outdoors. Academy could use this site to learn about online selling. Academy competes with Wal-Mart, Cabellas, Bucks, and other sports and outdoor related organizations. They could learn how to compete online more efficiently and increase their presents in the mind of consumers using online sources.

LUGNET - LEGO Community

            “Welcome to LUGNET, International LEGO Users Group Network, global community of LEGO enthusiasts. LUGNET unites LEGO fans worldwide through forums, web pages, and services.” Is the opening line to the website, it is pretty evident that its main purpose is connect passionate LEGO users around the world to help each other in using their LEGOs. The LEGO site is actually a database of their products that allows them to have a more refined search of their products. The difference compared to Facebook would be the target information on it. The amount of information for a particular topic is also a lot more than what would be found on Facebook. The LEGO enthusiasts visit this site because they know what kind of information they are looking for such as for the Disney Lego Forum there is an article about the LEGO Group and Disney Consumer Products announcing a building set that is inspired by the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, they could post this to their website but think of the amount of room it would take on the site. It is in place that people can read it if they want to and if they don’t they are free to ignore it. People who visit a site like the LEGO site would be LEGO users of course, but not your average youngster kids. It would probably younger adults who have used LEGO products for a long period of time and are very creative. They may also have a particular interest in one of the specific products such as the LEGO sets for Star Wars. They may be a big Star Wars fan and have a connection to LEGOs by that. On the website there was no particular company advertising. If you looked at in a marketer or advertisers perspective the whole site is an advertisement for LEGOs though. They are encouraging you to become a member. Not only to become a member but to also build your own LUGNET website. Something that we found interesting is what LUGNET states when you are deciding whether to become a member or not. “If you get a vast amount of value from LUGNET, then you may feel most comfortable paying a large sum. If you don’t get much value from LUGNET or if you’re a starving artist or student, then you may feel most comfortable simply paying the minimum. It’s up to you.” Most forums are free but LUGNET actually allows you to pay for you becoming a member is you feel that you have received value from visiting the site. They are actually receiving payment for their information. So we think that they could really revenue if they got Disney, Star Wars, and Harry Potter companies to advertise on their website. A business that could use this website is an action movie like Transformers. They could launch LEGO products that are influenced by the show. LEGO users could build the robotic characters in the movie than many of the scenes in the movie. This would go along great with the movie and be a great target for the people who watch it. They could use this community to promote the product launch along with the release of the DVD or if they decide to have a Transformers 4. Whether or not they make another movie it would be a great venture for the Transformers product line because it would be extended and be making more money as well.  It is a win, win for all.

lugnet-Yuck Fu II

Lugnet.com

This site is dedicated to Lego enthusiasts around the world. Lugnet is not just a community of people that talk about how to build certain things or even show pictures on exactly how to complete any of the cool Lego builds that have been displayed in the past. Lugnet is a community that talks about anything and everything someone could think of that is Lego.

First, the site is un-exciting. It is very drab and there are no visual clues or ideas on where to go. One would hope to see lots of cool pictures or find cool ideas on how to build cool and amazing structures, but finding a photo on this page is doesn’t appear promising. The Page is broken down into sub-pages and/or topics. If someone wants to talk about the color of Lego’s then they go to the color page. If someone wants to talk about U.S. products, they would go to the U.S. page. Lugnet really seems more like a collection of links to discussion pages, and not much else.

The main difference between this site and face book is that this site is dedicated to Lego’s and mainly Lego’s. There were a few announcements for the avid fans to see events that are in the near future, but in general it was all a huge bore fest. The main reason fan’s gravitate to this site is because they are attempting to fill the void that face book leaves. Face book really is more the casual friend site, where people connect to others for general purposes. Mostly it’s people that someone knows or has met in their lifetime. Lugnet fills the void by allowing people to meet people they have never met that share a slight or more than likely a huge addiction to colored blocks that snap together.

This site has few ads, and those ads are for Lego’s. Actually they are not ads at all, but in fact they are more links to other websites that sell Lego’s. The ads are not appealing and in no way seem to be attempting to suggest new Lego products.

Loc-tite, is a glue company that could run ads in this web community. They have their version of superglue and the ads could be geared around helping users preserve all of their hard work. Most people, once they complete an awesome build, would want to preserve all that time and energy. Loc-tite could place an ad showing Lego builders how to keep it together. (pun intended)

Yuck Fu II

Sermo (team carlos )

The community we chose to write about is sermo.com. The mission is that, “Sermo offers a novel way to target and engage the physicians you care about on-demand using social media. On Sermo you will instantly capture real-world expert insights into treatments, medications and products in support of a broad range of objectives” (sermo.com). When you go to the site it states that this is the largest online network, exclusive to physicians. This site is primarily meant for physicians to share ideas, discuss drugs, medical products and procedures. If I were a physician I would probably find this community to be very helpful, but since I am not there is almost no interest to me. However, by this being a physician only based community; it works because only professionals are creating information for the site.

The main way this community differs from using something such as Facebook, is the simple fact that it is membership only. Not everyone can just go look at the site and decide they want to become a part of the community because they feel like it. When you are on Facebook, anyone can look at your page and it makes it less personal and most times less informative as opposed to using a community. When I tried to sign up for an account on sermo.com just to get a look at the community, it even asked me what my social security number was just as part of the sign up process. Facebook is meant for more of an advertising and reminder standpoint as opposed to an informative standpoint.

Obviously, as stated before, the people that are visiting sermo.com are specialized physicians. While trying to look around the site the only things I could really come across, without becoming a member, was what they offered if you were a part of the community. Some examples would be, discuss by posting comments to share insights and learn from colleagues. Another was to solicit input and help peers on challenging patient cases. They are also paying people to participate in surveys and focus groups.

While looking around the main part of the site that was allowed, the only advertisements I saw where ones promoting the app that the community came up with so you can use your smart phone to stay up to date with the latest on the site. Of course this advertisement is very relevant to the website because it gives another way for the member to stay in touch with what is going on in the community. Other than that, there were no outside advertisements that I could view from the main pages.

I would say that Barnhill Sports Medicine Clinic would be a good company that could use Sermo. They are the clinic that helps out with WTAMU athletes so I have seen a lot of them around. They primarily focus on sports related injuries and I believe have two main physicians that work in this office. One way they could benefit from using this site would be to contact other physicians in their field and learn new ways to diagnose patients and figure out quicker ways of recovery.

Ivillage (Canyon, America)

The purpose of ivillage is to have a place where women to talk and ask questions about a wide range of topics including pregnancy and parenting, home and garden, food, health, entertainment, beauty, and love and sex. The site is easy to navigate and has many pictures and videos. Ivillage has an app so users can connect to ivillage whenever they want. This site is different than other popular sites in that it is exclusive to women only and it touches on topics that are important to them. Ivillage is specialized to the interests of its users, women. All conversations are open and focused not on what users are doing but their ideas and feelings on particular topics. There are more than 30 million users for this site. This site caters to women who are looking for help, wanting to answer questions, or just looking for a friend to chat with about what’s going on in their lives. According to ivillage, their site is for “everyday women… to connect, share advice, find life tools and engage in conversations that matter most to them”. According to quancast.com, the usual users are white women between the age of 18 to 49 and the majority have no kids. The users talk about whatever affects their lives. While on the site, there was a conversation between a few women about whether they were going to cancel their subscription to Netflix or not since the recent commotion with their changed rates. Common advertisements on this site were for fabric softener, make-up, clothing stores and many other products that have women as their target market. The ads for women’s products were relevant because the site is made for women and the advertised products show up often in the conversations being had on the site. It would seem obvious that any product that is made for women would benefit from advertising on this site. Netflix could use the conversation on this site that pertains to them to learn what their customers think of their product, help to curve the conversation to be positive for their image, and for them to better understand their customers.