Topic 1: A firm's web communities (Any two of the four topics)
The rapid development of online communities and social networks has dramatically changed the way how marketers usually work. Consumers actively write reviews and share their experiences on social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, and on companies' own discussion forums.
Please select a company's web community (it could be this company's own discussion forum, or its Facebook page, or some fan-based brand community, etc), and answer the following questions.
- Describe some basic information of this web community: such as the web link, the history of this web community, number of visits, number of community members, etc.
- Study this web community's discussion threads, and describe the topics addressed by forum users.
- Does the company try to utilize this web community? What kind of marketing strategies have you observed?
- If you are the manager of the company, how to benefit from this web community? What kind of research could you conduct by using this web community?