Online Communities - A marketers wildest dream and worse nightmare!

Online Communities are all over Internet and attract lots of visitors which make them ideal for marketing. People participating in these communities share information about whatever they want under various topics. Some of these discussions get very heated while others go by nearly un-noticed. Spammers have made their mark in these communities by making many of these forums unbearable to legitimate marketers. Informational posts that are commercial in nature are often "Flamed" as being advertisements, solicitations, or even spam. This can easily discourage a new marketer, and possibly even destroy their career. The online community at www.eSpiritCommunications.Com is one acception. They have taken "Flame" away by creating a online community for marketers, business owners, and consumers. The environment is friendly, and everyone posts and reads what they want in forums. There are no "Bullies" running around because rules allow advertising in appropriate categories.

The nightmare for marketers in online communities are flamers. Flamers are people who regularly post complaints, and start arguments in community. Some of them are simply marketers with ads in electronic signatures on their messages who go around flaming every commercial message. These people do it to get more attention for themselves and their business. Most online communities seem to condone this flaming, and go as far as banning anyone who posts an article which gets significant flaming. Flamers often become top posters in communities and are given "authoritative privileges" to change messages, and sometimes even ban "offenders" from community. What makes situation worse for marketers is most of these events are made public. Many moderators brag of their actions as last post in a thread of messages and lock topic so no one else can post to it. These message threads can remain online for years and leave permanent damage. Some of these threads show up on search engines for obscure search terms which don't get much attention, but enough to cause alarm. Few marketers would want to see an article they posted get flamed and entire conversation in top listings on search engines. This is a marketing nightmare!

Marketing Your Shows the 4 C's Way

Traditional marketing is changing: Customers are more sophisticated and price sensitive. They expect products and services to be delivered faster and more conveniently. And they have no qualms about switching to competitors. At same time, traditional marketing tools are less effective than in past. Products are not much different from each other, pricing is quickly matched by competitors, advertising is expensive and less effective, and sales force costs are rising. Consumers are constantly being interrupted by thousands of marketing messages, making it easy for one message to get lost in overwhelming clutter of communications. Plus, consumers no longer have a well-defined set of products and vendors that they will consistently seek out to fulfill a need. So how do you create, win, and dominate markets today? According to marketing guru Dr. Philip Kotler, "marketing must help company deliver more value to customer." What does this mean in trade show terms? It means that you need to focus on services both exhibitors and attendees perceive as valuable ... and deliver them with perpetually fresh appeal. Customer Value Customers are getting more and more value conscious. You can fulfill their expectations by constantly "thinking exhibitor" and "thinking attendee." You need to live and breathe for your customers -- they make your job possible. Encourage your team to do whatever it takes to get projects accomplished and wow your customers. Follow examples set by Disney, Ritz-Carlton, and Southwest Airlines. If they can do it, why can't you? Brainstorm ways in which you can continually differentiate yourselves from competing shows. Don't be shy about inviting your exhibitor advisory members to be part of your team. Insist that they evaluate your employees on job. Training also needs to be a major consideration. If your employees need more skills, offer to pay for specific training courses in your area or push them to pursue continuing education opportunities online. Change Is your show successful way it is? Do you think you have perfect formula that works? If you say yes, you might be heading for decline. Your team needs to fall in love with change. If you don't grow and change, you'll become stale, your competition will outdo you, and then your show will be history. Change, however, has to be in line with essence of your show -- it needs to be relevant. Just as your attendees expect to see and experience something new and exciting from visiting your exhibitors' booths, that expectation should also define your overall show. The challenge is that results need to be visible to bottom line.