Communispace, a company that builds private communities for corporations, put out a press release for the 10 Best Practices for Online Customer Communities. Private label social networks and communities that are built around brands & products are starting to become more commonplace as companies begin to realize just how powerful they can be.
No, not really. But more than half of MySpacers are over 35 according to a study from comScore. That’s a wake up call. Although Pete Cashmore from Mashable thinks that statistic is irrelevant…
* [Google Buys Birthplace Garage](http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/061002-082355)
Google has purchased the garage where the company developed after its initial birth at Stanford University. Actually, they’ve purchased the home of Google vice president of product management Susan Wojcicki. Before she became a Google VP, Wojcicki rented the garage attached to her home to Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The [Word of Mouth Research Blog](http://www.womma.org/research/studies/buzz_drives_two.htm) from [WOMMA](http://www.womma.org/) points to [an interesting study](http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/1956.html) from A McKinsey & Co. strategy consultant named Renee Dye which shows that buzz drives two-thirds of the US economy. The study is from back in 2001 and was published by the Harvard Business Review. Here are the key findings…
Does your company have a MySpace page? If so, are you “friends” with your customers? Did they friend you or did you friend them? If you do not own a company are there any companies that you would want to be friends with?
[Steve Rubel](http://www.micropersuasion.com/) points us to this [Mediapost article](http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=48714) that reports Verizon is getting ready to launch an “all issues on the table” blog for consumers. First of all I think this is great because like [Steve says](http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/10/verizon_plans_2.html)…
Marketing is one of those things where it seems like everyone thinks they know how to do it. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people I talk to that are trying to become marketing consultants when they have no real experience. It doesn’t really matter who the person is, but everyone has an opinion when it comes to marketing, and it looks like VCs are no different.
* [Micorsoft Digital Advertising Solutions](http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3824)
Microsoft is announcing the launch of “Digital Advertising Solutions” and a media campaign to go with it. It’s an effort to bring together Microsoft’s various properties into a unified platform that gives advertisers ways to buy reach and audiences efficiently: Xbox, mobile, PCs and, maybe, TV.
Do you hear what your customers are telling you? Listening to the feedback from your users is important; the feedback that they can provide can prove invaluable to improving your business. It’s the real people that are actually using your products/services that are able to provide the best feedback. Your product, service or website directly benefits them, since they are the ones that are actually using it. This is especially important when you are launching something new and you do not really know exactly how things are going to go.
Lately, I have noticed that when it comes to tracking your buzz a lot of companies are only focused on tracking the so-called influencers. The problem that I have with this approach is that today, everyone is an influencer. You never know at any given time who can influence who and in what way. The barriers to publishing online are so low right now that anyone at anytime can damage your reputation, and they have a number of channels they can use to do so. That is why it is important to track everything and everyone, not just the influencers.
