User generated content platforms can be a very useful, and cheap, way to spread the word about your company. Because you a given company is using an already existing platform (Facebook, Twitter), the costs of creating and maintaining these pages are comparatively low to traditional add campaigns. Additionally these platforms can potentially reach many more people than other forms of advertisement. The drawback is that the same platform used to spread word about your company or product can be used to expose its problems or inadequacies. Unless your company acts on these criticisms quickly, these platforms can end up doing much more harm than good.
An example of a company effectively using user generated content is iTunes with its Facebook fan pages. With over 3 million fans in the US alone, iTunes has created a successful community around themselves, using the Facebook platform. The wall is used to give both positive and negative reviews and there are hundreds of discussions over various subjects relating to iTunes. Personally, I became a fan because they often have free song and video giveaways offered or announced through the page. This is effective way to get customers to use your service when they normally wouldn’t have. I know that once I’m actually on iTunes, whether its to redeem an free song offer or look up some other song I have been interested in, I end up listening to a couple other songs and will usually end up buying one or two. In fact, now that I have finished this blog post I might do just that.
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Good post. I think the iTunes fanpage is a perfect example of a successful community because it is mutually beneficial for all parties involved: iTunes can gain valuable feedback from its followers, bring its customers what they want, and place itself in the personal sphere of its customers (the Facebook domain). In return, these followers can obtain exclusive offerings and free material, and can feel closely connected to the company that they love. And for dear old Facebook, all of this equates to additional traffic as its users have one more reason to check their profiles more often. Win – Win – Win.