Holla At Me …Online!!! – Utilizing Black Community Websites
If you build it, they will come! Great line for old movies, horrible advice for websites. In this day and age of multiple websites for any topic, product, service, issue and/or concern known to man, just creating a website will no longer get the job done. When you take it one step further and consider the numerous products and services fighting for the attention of the online African-American community, one cannot sit back and wait for people to happen upon your site.
One of the most powerful aspects of the Internet is its' ability to allow people of like-minded interests, backgrounds and/or goals to meet, gather and exchange. There are several websites that have popped up with this purpose in mind: BlackPlanet.com, BET.com, BlackVoices.com & BlackAmericaWeb.com to name a few. These 4 sites alone attract nearly half of the 12 million plus blacks that are currently online. As a marketer, the fact that such high numbers are concentrated and accessible in so few sources shows the value of utilizing these types of sites, commonly referred to as community websites, in marketing efforts.
Now that you know where to go, let's get into how to reach those populating these sites. Community websites offer a multitude of resources for their members to interact. These range from message boards, personal pages, internal email, guest books, chat rooms, etc. People will talk about a variety of subjects using the above various tools, some of which will directly or indirectly be related to the goods you offer. To take a very macro view of your approach, you need to join these communities via their short, free membership forms, engage the other members and actively participate in the ongoing conversations.
Due to the fact that these community websites are social and recreational in nature, one needs to be very careful in their usage of them. Your role in the conversations should be informative, insightful and never directly pushing your products or services. For example, if people are having a discussion about finding good deals on travel destinations and you represent a website that focuses on online travel, you can offer helpful tips such as consider departing on a Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday and returning on a Sunday, Tuesday or Wednesday to get lower-priced fares. As an added point, you can then offer your website as a resource but, again that should not be the focus of your comments. If you mistakenly come on too strong with sales messages, you and your products and services will be seen in a negative light.
All in all, black community websites are no-cost, highly concentrated sources to reach the online African-American community that, if used correctly, can prove fruitful.
One of the most powerful aspects of the Internet is its' ability to allow people of like-minded interests, backgrounds and/or goals to meet, gather and exchange. There are several websites that have popped up with this purpose in mind: BlackPlanet.com, BET.com, BlackVoices.com & BlackAmericaWeb.com to name a few. These 4 sites alone attract nearly half of the 12 million plus blacks that are currently online. As a marketer, the fact that such high numbers are concentrated and accessible in so few sources shows the value of utilizing these types of sites, commonly referred to as community websites, in marketing efforts.
Now that you know where to go, let's get into how to reach those populating these sites. Community websites offer a multitude of resources for their members to interact. These range from message boards, personal pages, internal email, guest books, chat rooms, etc. People will talk about a variety of subjects using the above various tools, some of which will directly or indirectly be related to the goods you offer. To take a very macro view of your approach, you need to join these communities via their short, free membership forms, engage the other members and actively participate in the ongoing conversations.
Due to the fact that these community websites are social and recreational in nature, one needs to be very careful in their usage of them. Your role in the conversations should be informative, insightful and never directly pushing your products or services. For example, if people are having a discussion about finding good deals on travel destinations and you represent a website that focuses on online travel, you can offer helpful tips such as consider departing on a Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday and returning on a Sunday, Tuesday or Wednesday to get lower-priced fares. As an added point, you can then offer your website as a resource but, again that should not be the focus of your comments. If you mistakenly come on too strong with sales messages, you and your products and services will be seen in a negative light.
All in all, black community websites are no-cost, highly concentrated sources to reach the online African-American community that, if used correctly, can prove fruitful.
posted by Daze at 11:11 AM
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