Internet Marketing Project for MarketNet Facebook Group - Assignment Example

Running Head: INTERNET MARKETING Internet Marketing Project: MarketNet Facebook Group {name} {course} Introduction The purpose of this report is to suggest ideas in which the Facebook group MarketNet can be promoted to business and marketing students of CQU, and how the features of the site can be enhanced. This task presents a number of opportunities and challenges. Facebook is of course one of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet, and so much of the target audience are likely to already be Facebook members. By the same token, there is already plenty for the average user to do in Facebook. In order to be successful, the MarketNet group must ‘stand out’ for users, and feature engaging and useful content. The notion of spending free time interacting in a school-based group might not be appealing to some students, and so the site must not only be valuable for learning, but also entertaining. The report is organised in the following fashion: a brief target audience analysis is presented along with a discussion of the relationship of Facebook, and online social networks in general, to the CQU target audience. A web traffic plan follows with a detailed examination of the issues of branding the site, developing design and content, and promotion through word-of-mouth. Three websites of interest to marketing and business students are reviewed and suggested as links which can be added to the MarketNet group page. The final section of the paper discusses the types and uses of convenience surveys, and presents a detailed example of one which could be used for the MarketNet group as a means of assessing the effectiveness of the site. Target Audience Analysis There are three main student cohorts within the CQU community. Almost half of the student body are international students, who in general tend to be young (around age 23), male, Asian, and studying informatics, management, or commerce. About one-third of the domestic students are in the flexible-learning programs, with the remaining twenty percent or so enrolled in traditional on-campus programs. The Australian students, in comparison to their international schoolmates, are generally female, older – around age 30 – and studying education or society and culture. (CQU Fact Sheet – Organisational Positioning, v. 1.0, August 2005) These are generalised statistics, but are satisfactory for the purposes of estimating the size of the potential target audience for the MarketNet group. The university’s description of ‘typical’ CQU students suggests that perhaps as much as half of the student body study marketing-related courses at some point; the majority in relevant degree courses, others in courses that are incidental to other programs. Because of the significant representation of both sexes and a wide range of ages among the students, it would be appropriate to assume the market-related courses contain a broad cross-section of age and gender. Because MarketNet is a Facebook group, the core of the target audience will be those students who already use Facebook. Given the impressive demographic statistics of Facebook, it is likely that a significant majority of CQU students are already Facebook users: the site boasts over 200 million users worldwide, with about 20 million of those visiting Facebook at least once a day. (Facebook, 2009) It is estimated that between 18% and 19% of the total population of Australia have some kind of Facebook presence. (AllFacebook.com, 2009) An interesting aspect of Facebook’s demographic that is encouraging with respect to CQU’s broad student profile is that while the largest group of Facebook users is still those people under 30 years of age, the fastest-growing group is those 35 and older. (Facebook, 2009) Age is a significant factor in determining the importance of an online social network. Among younger users, the online social network is almost a form of “civil society”, in which everyone between the ages of 12 to 17 participates in some form, even if that means simply having a negative opinion about it. (Boyd, 2008) In other words, the online social network is at least indirectly part of an individual’s overall social network. This tends to diminish with age, however, with older people showing decreasing numbers of overlaps between their online and offline social networks. (Hogan, 2008) The reason for this is that online social networks are artefacts in a sense, being specified and actively built by the user, rather than forming as a result of incidental interactions, such as through work, school, or the neighbourhood in which one lives. (Boyd, 2008, and Hogan, 2008) This is almost certainly the case for CQU’s many distance-learning students, who spend most or all of their time away from the university setting and are likely to have much stronger home and work networks. Web Traffic Plan The essential objective of a Web traffic plan for the MarketNet group is to attract and add new members, as well as retain the members that have already joined. Although it is certainly the least-imaginative of all possible solutions, the simplest and most effective Web traffic plan would be to make group membership a requirement of all marketing students at CQU. Since that solution might not result in the quality of personal interactions the site is intended to encourage, the task is to develop ways to build enthusiasm and interest in participating in the group through the framework of Facebook and the other channels of communication connecting CQU marketing students. As suggested by the assignment brief, the only realistic options for generating Web traffic for the MarketNet group are branding, site design, and word-of-mouth publicity. An immediate obstacle is that the name “MarketNet” is not unique within Facebook, being shared with an interactive design and development company based in Dallas, Texas. While CQU marketing students are likely not to be confused by the two very different groups, the identical names may lead to an unnecessary identity crisis, particularly since the American MarketNet is a registered corporation founded in 1994, and might be expected to be a little selfish about the use of their legal trademark no matter how unintentional. Another serious obstacle is the closed nature of the group, which largely precludes the group page’s use in promotion. Since joining the group is by invitation or administrator approval only, the objective of the site design is primarily traffic retention rather than traffic generation; although it is a reasonable expectation that a good site design would encourage a small amount of word-of-mouth promotion on the part of users. Word-of-mouth publicity is a powerful tool. In a study comparing the effectiveness of user referrals – a form of word-of-mouth promotion – and other more conventional approaches in acquiring new users for a social networking site (in this case, MySpace), researchers from the University of Maryland found that word-of-mouth was about 20 times more effective than marketing events and about 30 times more effective than publicity in other forms of media. (Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels, 2008) The specific format of the word-of-mouth communication studied was the e-mail invitation, a function which Facebook also has. E-mail functionality can be employed both within the Facebook structure and through CQU’s network, and thus is naturally the best tool to use for spreading word-of-mouth publicity about the MarketNet group. Therefore, a web traffic plan for the MarketNet group requires three activities: establishing a memorable brand, developing as much interactivity and visual attractiveness on the group site as the Facebook structure will allow, and developing a strong word-of-mouth promotion program. The name of the group – MarketNet – serves as the brand. Two of the most basic requirements of any brand to be disseminated through the Internet are that it be easy to remember and easy to spell, since the Internet is more dependent on the general literacy of users more than other forms of media. (Van de Laar & Van den Berg-Weitzel, 2001) The visual design of the brand – for example, a unique, eye-catching graphic style or font use – has as much to do with user recall of the brand as does the brand name itself. (Ibid.) Unfortunately, this presents MarketNet with a bit of a handicap because of the standard Facebook format, which allows little graphic creativity. If, however, MarketNet were to be signed up as a ‘user’ with a profile (something the Texas-based MarketNet, Inc. has done), this would allow for the use of a distinctive logo or icon as a ‘profile picture’, and provide an effectively eye-catching and memorable brand. The public ‘user’ profile page would also serve as a good way to further publicise the group, although with less effect than directed word-of-mouth. An additional problem is the name itself, which as has been pointed out, is not unique. MarketNet, Inc. would be within their legal right to demand that MarketNet of CQU cease and desist from using their name; they may be unlikely to do so (legalistic nit-picking with a non-profit educational forum would probably amount to bad publicity for them as well), but it is their option. Apart from that, the name MarketNet is not hard to remember and is very professional-sounding, but must be entered exactly in Facebook’s internal search engine in order to generate a first-page search result. A possible solution to finding the most effective unique name with which to brand the group is to conduct a brief poll on the group site to allow users to choose a name. This would have the effect of developing an automatically strong brand, since the users would be choosing a name they find relevant and memorable, and would have the added benefit of providing an interactive function to help make the group site more interesting. In terms of site design, there are few options because of the restrictions of the Facebook format. This is also an unfortunate handicap, since studies have shown that site appearance and vividness is comparatively more effective in encouraging user recall than interactivity. (Coyle & Thorsen, 2001) Nonetheless, interactivity is still a more effective means of user attraction and retention than a static website. The discussion forum of the group is one interactive function; the site convenience survey discussed in the last section of this paper is another. Adding a third interactive function, such as a “question of the day” or quick poll on a popular topic (both available through Facebook applications which can be added to the page), would provide interesting, frequently updated content that would encourage users to return to the site regularly. The third task, word-of-mouth promotion, is the easiest, thanks to the invitation function used in Facebook. Using the unique e-mail addresses of CQU marketing students assigned by the university, invitations to join the group can quickly be forwarded to all of them. Facebook also provides a follow-up reminder function for those who do not respond, or this can be done through the university e-mail network separately. Because Facebook profiles use actual names rather than invented “user names”, tracking the effectiveness of the promotional effort is a relatively simple matter of connecting new group members to their CQU e-mail addresses. A potentially effective “selling point” for the MarketNet group that can be targeted to distance-learning students who are least likely to be connected to their peers through online social networks, as discussed in the previous section, is the learning and support value of the community formed through MarketNet. These students are more likely to have greater home and personal responsibilities and demands on their time than on-campus students, and so it is important to promote the utility and benefit of group participation to them. Useful Internet Resources for Marketing Students 1. BNET Australia (http://www.bnetau.com.au/): BNET actually presents itself as a management rather than a marketing site, but the vast array of information that can be accessed through BNET is of value to anyone in a business learning or work setting. The site is owned by CBS in the United States, and in addition to the Australian version, also has dedicated pages for the US, United Kingdom, and China. It is part of a network which includes the sister sites ZDNET Australia and Builder AU, which are dedicated to tech news, reviews, and information. BNET features business-related news, advice, commentary, tutorials, and interactive tools in a variety of formats including video and podcasts. One of the most useful features of the site is a search engine which allows one to research any business-related topic in BNET’s extensive online library; many of the articles are produced by BNET itself, while others are from academic and business journals. In order to access the best functions of the site, including downloading PDF copies of articles, user registration is required; this, however, is relatively quick and painless, and the basic free registration gives one access to most everything available. The registration is also good for ZDNET and Builder AU, not only in Australia but on the associated international sites as well. As a source of news, general knowledge, and academic research in business and marketing topics, BNET is one of the better sites available. 2. SmartCompany (http://www.smartcompany.com.au/): SmartCompany is a website similar to BNET in terms of variety of content, but is targeted to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Also in contrast to BNET, SmartCompany is exclusively Australian. The site is well-organised and updated with new content daily, some of which is ‘featured’ news and information for a general business audience, but a large amount of which is specifically organised by industry or area of interest, such as advertising & marketing, information technology, manufacturing, retail, and others. All of the site with the exception of the discussion forums can be accessed anonymously, and registration for site membership or e-mail, RSS, or Twitter updates is free. SmartCompany’s best feature is probably its news roundup, which is extensive. Most of the news articles are written by the SmartCompany staff, but the site is also a network partner of The Eureka Report, The Business Spectator and the irreverent but highly-informative Crikey Report, giving users access to a vast amount of additional business and investment news. 3. BRAND REPUBLIC (http://www.brandrepublic.asia/): Brand Republic touts itself as “First for advertising, marketing, media, and PR”, and while there are certainly competitors who might disagree, it is no idle boast. The narrower focus of Brand Republic allows the site to concentrate on gathering a huge volume of relevant current news each day. One enormously valuable feature of Brand Republic is its Jobs section, which allows registered users to search for jobs and post CV’s. The site also features a number of extensive directories for advertising, marketing, media, PR, and information technology companies across the Asia-Pacific region. Brand Republic is produced by Haymarket Media based in the UK, and is part of a larger network with coverage in the US, the Middle East, India, Germany, the UK, and the Asia-Pacific region. Site Convenience Survey In order to develop a useful site convenience survey, the proposed use of the information gathered from the survey must be defined. Once the objectives of the survey are understood, the best type of survey to produce useful data can be constructed. Convenience surveys are one of two sampling categories of Internet surveys – the other being probability surveys – and can be conducted using one or more of three different sampling methods: uncontrolled instrument distribution, systematic sampling, or a volunteer panel. (Schonlau, Fricker, & Elliot, 2002) An uncontrolled instrument distribution is a survey posted for anyone to voluntarily fill out. Systematic sampling is the selection of particular visitors to the website, usually by some arbitrary criterion, such as every twentieth visitor. Volunteer panels are groups of specific numbers of users whose agreement to take the survey is secured beforehand, and who are then administered the survey separately from the website. The benefits of an uncontrolled instrument distribution are that it is reasonably easy to construct and post to a web page, and it is likely to generate a large number of responses. The disadvantages are that the number of responses cannot be controlled, and without the use of cookie-tracking and filtering programs, it is difficult to prevent multiple responses from single users. Systematic sampling can reduce these problems, and is also a relatively easy type of survey to produce using commercially-available software such as Zoomerang. (Schonlau, Fricker, & Elliot, 2002) The disadvantage is that the number of respondents could be limited in a couple different ways. First, if the site does not have large numbers of visitors, asking every nth visitor to take a survey may not provide a useful number of responses if the value of n is set too high. Second, it is highly probable that not every nth visitor will be willing to take a survey, which would also reduce the number of responses. Certainly, this is a factor in uncontrolled instruments as well, but the difference is that those are offered to every visitor, not just a limited number. Volunteer panels offer the most controllable sample size of any of the convenience survey methods, and are likely to result in higher-value information, due to the willingness of the participants. The disadvantage is that volunteer panels require more work to organise and conduct, and usually involve either preparing a separate web page or using e-mail as a means of hosting the survey. Just as for systematic sampling, there are software solutions to ease the work; StatPac, for example, offers a program that streamlines survey-building and data-analysis, and the free version will analyse up to 35 data records. (StatPac, n.d.) The two main objectives of a convenience survey for MarketNet are to first assess user reactions to the site, which would suggest improvements and additions that could be made to it, and second to assess the effectiveness of the web traffic plan. The complexity of the convenience survey is limited by two factors: First, there is no budget available for the purchase of extra software or web hosting to conduct extensive surveys of the systematic sampling or volunteer panel methods; and second, any survey should be kept as short and simple as is practicable, to encourage more responses and not detract from the main focus of the website. Survey Analytics, another company that markets survey design tools, gives a number of worthwhile tips to remember when developing survey questions (Survey Analytics, 2007): Avoid leading questions. Avoid placing questions out-of-order. One question should lead logically to the next, from the general to the more specific. Multiple-choice answers should be mutually exclusive; make sure each suggested answer is clearly different from the others. Questions should have clear answers; instead of asking “Do you visit this site often?” a better question would be “How many times per (day/week/month) do you visit this site?” Keep language simple, and avoid jargon and technical terms. Avoid questions with two answers. An example would be, “Is this site interesting and easy to find?” Some people would say yes to both, some would say no to both, some would say yes to one but not the other. Instead, make two separate questions. Keep questions and the overall survey length as short as practicable. The longer the survey is, the greater the likelihood of receiving incomplete responses. Avoid questions about future intentions. Answers to these questions are rarely accurate, and virtually impossible to test. With these bits of advice in mind, an example convenience survey is given below: QUESTIONS ANSWER CHOICES RATIONALE 1. How did you join this group? A) Was invited by e-mail. B) Was invited by someone through Facebook. C) Was referred by friend/teacher, requested to join. This question tests which of the word-of-mouth promotion methods are the most effective. 2. How often do you visit this group? A) This is my first time. B) At least once a day. C) At least once a week. D) Less than once a week. This question gives an overall idea of how fast the membership is growing (based on answer A), and how “popular” it is among established users. 3. Which of the group’s features do you like best? (pick one) A) The discussion forum. B) News items, announcements, study tips. C) Polls and surveys. This question tests which part of the group page is the most popular among users. 4. Which of the group’s features do you like least? (pick one) Same choices as above. This question tests which part of the group page needs to be changed or improved. 5. Have you referred any friends or classmates to join the group? A) Yes B) No This question determines whether indirect word-of-mouth promotion is taking place, and can be considered a gauge of the site’s popularity. 6. Do you have any other comments about the website? (Short free-text answer, perhaps 200 characters long) Survey Analytics suggests that free-text answers are the easiest for respondents to answer. These comments can suggest new questions to ask. Conclusion This report has briefly assessed the target audience, a web traffic plan, complementary external links, and a site usefulness survey for the MarketNet Facebook group. Careful attention and effort to each of these aspects is vital for the long-term success of the group in meeting its goal of providing a network for social interaction, learning, and mentoring among CQU’s business and marketing students. The overall objective is not simply to acquire visitors to the MarketNet site, but to encourage those visitors to become regular users; their interactions will be what gives MarketNet its best value by building an online community. References AllFacebook.com. (2009) “Facebook Population Density.” [Web page] Retrieved 30 March 2009 from http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/01/facebook-demographics-country-saturation/. Boyd, Danah. (2008) “Why Youth  Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life." In: Buckingham, David. (Ed.) Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2008. 119-142. Coyle, James R., and Thorsen, Esther. (2001) The Effects of Progressive Levels of Interactivity and Vividness in Web Marketing Sites. Journal of Advertising, 30(3): 65-77. Facebook. 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Trusov, Michael, Bucklin, Randolph E., and Pauwels, Koen H. (2008) Effects of Word-of-Mouth Versus Traditional Marketing: Findings from an Internet Social Networking Site. University of Maryland R. H. Smith School of Business Working Paper RHS-06-060, 24 April 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2009 from the SSRN database at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1129351. Van de Laar, Gaston, and van den Berg-Weitzel, Lianne. (2001) Brand Perception on the Internet. Design Management Journal, Spring 2001. [Internet] Retrieved 16 March 2009 from the BNET database at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4001/is_200104/ai_n8940867/. Read More