Idea of Sharing

Customers play an important role taking part in marketing. Usually, companies will link their customers to comment/review forum. Customers are able to give their feedback there. They will rate (from 1 to 5) and leave any comments about the product/service they are using. They may express their own compliment as well as complaint to the companies. According to that, companies will listen to consumers and create a new strategy for developing the product/service.

Let's take an example of Coca-Cola!

Coca-Cola is an enormous brand in the world which has millions of customers. Coca-Cola used customer participation in their marketing to engage their customers, build loyalty, and ultimately drive greater revenue. This means customers become part of their marketing.

Their “Share a Coke” campaign (replacing the logos on Coke cans with popular names among young people) encouraged customers to share a Coke with a friend. Essentially, Coke was inviting buyers to participate in a massive social/referral marketing experience.The campaign generated huge customer participation, particularly online – there are a whopping 341,000 posts on Instagram with the hashtag #shareacoke. Coca-Cola also reports that 96% of consumer sentiment toward the campaign is either positive or neutral.

And my own example, I did take part in marketing by rating and commenting about the product/service or entertainment industry. Particularly, I did rate and comment about a movie, which is called Coraline. I did this on IMDb website. Coraline is my favorite cartoon. It is mysterious, thrilling and funny. 

According to Twitter for Business guide in learning materials, companies/organizations use Twitter to build relationship with customers in 3 ways: 

• By listening to what is being said about the company
• By engaging with customers and the public
• By contributing and sharing their expertise and thought leadership

Companies can look for new customers by searching tweets or a few key words. Besides, companies usually engage with customers by viewing their tweets and replying their questions.

Bill Gates will be the successful Twitter user that I am going to talk about. I like reading his tweets. I can see that most of his tweets are not really personal about himself. Of course, he did mention about his wife and his family, but it did not matter. Things he usually talks about include charity, world economy situation, famous quotation and books. His style of writing is academic and smart. He discusses about business, what is happening with firms or products. In addition, sometimes he says encouraging words to make people feel confident. 

I am not currently playing Candy Crush Saga online and I extremely love this game. I am now at level 485. I play it everyday.  About virtual world, I used Facebook to communicate with otaku, which means people who are absorbed in manga and anime. I made a lot of friends who had the same hobby with me. Some of them imagined that they were manga characters, for example, Inuyasha or Shinichi Kudo. However, I was glad to talk with them and discussed about manga.

Second Life is an online virtual world, developed by Linden Lab, based in San Francisco, and launched on June 23, 2003. By 2013 Second Life had approximately 1 million regular users, according to Linden Lab, which owns Second Life.

To tell the truth, I have never heard of this website before, but I think it is a little bit similar to The Sims. I am not sure anymore. Using Second Life, people are able to communicate easily and they can create platforms for their own purposes. 

Personally, I find it interesting to attend meeting or to study in virtual world. However, I would like to do it in real life. It will be more realistic.