Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business

Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business

by Larry Weber
Released June 2007
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780470124178

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Book description

Praise for Marketing to the Social Web

"Weber understands that the world is going digital and that competitive advantage will accrue to those who understand the transformation. CEOs should heed this transformation and learn from Weber's insights how to navigate this new landscape to fully maximize their business opportunities."
-Mark Fuller, Chairman, Monitor Group

"Consumers are using technology to grab power from companies, the media, and the government. Marketing to the Social Web succinctly outlines how institutions can survive and win in this chaotic new world, and lays out the revised rules of engagement-ignore them at your peril."
-George F. Colony, CEO, Forrester Research, Inc.

"Larry has brought pragmatic and useful recommendations to help brand builders manage the complexity of social interaction in a digital age. I was pleased to read a book that actually suggests how to do something with social networks, instead of just ponder them."
-David Kenny, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Digitas Inc.

"Where's the allure of social 2.0? Brands can talk . . . customers talk louder! Digital influence has arrived."
-Jeff Taylor, CEO, Eons and Founder of Monster.com

"Larry Weber provides a simple and effective roadmap of the new customer information highway. Marketing to the Social Web is a valuable tool that will give everyone the confidence and know-how to compete in this fast-growing marketplace of ideas."
-Steve Harris, Vice President, Global Communications, General Motors Corporation

"As all lines and boundaries are washed away by the Web, Weber describes how to become part of the sea versus the sand."
-Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman, One Laptop per Child

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedication
  2. Preface
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. I. Pandemonium: The Landscape of the Social Web
    1. 1. The Web Is Not a Channel (And You’re an Aggregator, Not a Broadcaster)
      1. Pandemonium in Media and Markets
      2. From Broadcasters to Aggregators
      3. The Web Is Not a Channel
      4. Four Generations of the Web
    2. 2. Community and Content: The Marketer’s New Job (Or How to Cut Your Marketing Budget and Reach More People)
      1. Who’s Really in Control Here?
      2. Marketing’s Role Has Changed
      3. Opportunities to Achieve Community
      4. New Rules of Engagement
    3. 3. Making the Transition to the Social Web (First Change Your Marketing Mindset)
      1. The New Marketing Mindset
      2. Bring Your Brand Alive
      3. Segment by What People Do, Feel, Think
      4. Targeting by Behavior
      5. Communicate Interactively
      6. Content Created by Customers
      7. Viva Virality
      8. Five Stars for Reviews
      9. Advertiser and Publisher Roles: No Paper Needed
      10. Strategy from the Bottom Up
      11. Hierarchy: Let Users Decide
      12. Test Driving the Social Web
      13. Bold Moves for Ford?
    4. 4. How to Let Customers Say What They Really Think (And Keep Your Job)
      1. Learning to Let Go
      2. Comments as Early Warning Signs
      3. What about Legal Issues?
  5. II. Seven Steps to Build Your Own Customer Community
    1. 5. Step One: Observe and Create a Customer Map (Otherwise, You Can’t Get There from Here)
      1. Steps to Marketing on the Social Web
      2. Look Who’s Talking
      3. You Need a Business Goal
      4. Define the Target Audience and Speak Their Language
      5. Look for Best Practice Examples
      6. Select Key Words and Begin to Search
      7. Create a Customer Map
    2. 6. Step Two: Recruit Community Members (With a New Toolbox and Your Own Marketing Skills)
      1. Recruit as if Your Business Depends on It
      2. Bring a New Toolkit to the Job
      3. Send Out Your Invitations
      4. Create That Community Feeling
      5. Build on Existing Sites and Communities
      6. Feel the Momentum
    3. 7. Step Three: Evaluate Online Conduit Strategies (And Don’t Forget Search)
      1. This Way to the Conduit
      2. Searching, Searching
      3. More about Blogs
      4. Welcome to the E-Community
      5. Tap into Social Networks
    4. 8. Step Four: Engage Communities in Conversation (To Generate Word of Mouse)
      1. Bubbly Conversation
      2. A Brand Is a Dialogue
      3. Making Customers Part of the Brand
      4. Too Much of a Good Thing
      5. Ten Rules for Private Communities
      6. How Do You Pay for It All?
    5. 9. Step Five: Measure the Community’s Involvement (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How)
      1. On the Path to Payoff
      2. The One-Two Punch
      3. It’s All about the Data
        1. Evidence of and Quality of Community
      4. It’s Not All Milk and Cookies
      5. Catalytic Consumers
    6. 10. Step Six: Promote Your Community to the World (Get ’Em Talking and Clicking)
      1. Mind the Gap
      2. Now for a Real Example
      3. The Little Website and How It Grew
      4. One Size Doesn’t Fit All
      5. Outside Expertise
      6. Multimedia Outreach
    7. 11. Step Seven: Improve the Community’s Benefits (Don’t Just Set It and Forget It)
      1. What about Friendster?
      2. Job One: Quality
      3. A Case in Point
      4. Gather Ideas
      5. The Improvement Imperative
      6. Reality Check
  6. III. Making Use of the Four Online Conduit Strategies
    1. 12. The Reputation Aggregator Strategy (We’re Number One!)
      1. Everybody Loves Search
      2. What Am I Bid for “Laptop”?
      3. Lost in a Listing of Millions
      4. Don’t Ask Jeeves, Just Ask
      5. Beyond Plain Vanilla Search
      6. More Flavors of Search
    2. 13. The Blog Strategy (Everybody’s Talking at Me)
      1. So What Is This Thing Called “Blog”?
      2. Blogs Go Big-Time
      3. Get Your People Blogging
      4. You Do Want to Hear the Bad News
      5. Rules for Employees Who Blog
      6. Diving into the Blogosphere
      7. Now Listen Up! Podcasting Is Here
    3. 14. The E-Community Strategy (Go to Their Party or Throw Your Own)
      1. Babble for a New Generation
      2. Electrons Beat Paper and Ink
      3. What’s in It for You?
      4. Throw Your Own Party
      5. E-Communities Expand the World
      6. Add Your Voice
    4. 15. The Social Networks Strategy (Connecting with a Click)
      1. Everything Old Is New Again
      2. Click and Connect
      3. Focus on Focused Social Networks
        1. A Slow Build, Not a Quick Transaction
      4. Organizing for the Social Web
    5. 16. Living and Working in Web 4.0 (It’s Right Around the Corner)
      1. Welcome to the Emotive Web
      2. Where Is Television Going?
      3. In-Home Goes Out-of-Home
      4. Where Are Newspapers Going?
      5. This Is Only the Beginning
  7. Notes
    1. Chapter 1 The Web Is Not a Channel
    2. Chapter 2 Community and Content: The Marketer’s New Job
    3. Chapter 3 Making the Transition to the Social Web
    4. Chapter 4 How to Let Customers Say What They Really Think
    5. Chapter 6 Step Two: Recruit Community Members
    6. Chapter 7 Step Three: Evaluate Online Conduit Strategies
    7. Chapter 8 Step Four: Engage Communities in Conversation
    8. Chapter 9 Step Five: Measure the Community’s Involvement
    9. Chapter 10 Step Six: Promote Your Community to the World
    10. Chapter 11 Step Seven: Improve the Community’s Benefits
    11. Chapter 12 The Reputation Aggregator Strategy
    12. Chapter 13 The Blog Strategy
    13. Chapter 14 The E-Community Strategy
    14. Chapter 15 The Social Networks Strategy
    15. Chapter 16 Living and Working in Web 4.0

Product information

  • Title: Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business
  • Author(s): Larry Weber
  • Release date: June 2007
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470124178