At their core, branded social networks are used by firms to keep you interested in their products. Some of them are doing as great job enabling people to join a community with similar interests.
Branded social networks
Disney Disney’s social-networking efforts provide a unique experience by appealing more to children than adults.
After you sign up for the social network, you’ll be given the opportunity to create your own “page.” There, you can add videos, audio, games, widgets, and a variety of other elements to make your page your own. Think of it as a custom home page. As you might expect, most of the elements you can add to your page are Disney-branded. So, you can have a “101 Dalmatians” background or play a “Pirates of the Caribbean” game. Once complete, you can check out other users’ pages, chat with friends, or join groups. It’s a powerful service and it’s well-designed.
eBay Neighborhoods eBay Neighborhoods is a collection of groups of eBay users who communicate, review products, upload content, or just discuss the topics of their choice.
After signing up for eBay, you can easily join one of the company’s neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods range in size from a few members to thousands of members that center on topics ranging from coffee to sports. The members in each group engage in discussions on those subjects. They can also review products and post blog entries. Some of the bigger neighborhoods have a lot of activity, while others have little activity. Either way, eBay Neighborhoods isn’t a bad place to communicate with people who share your interests.
My Starbucks Idea My Starbucks Idea is a community of coffee lovers who have the opportunity to share their ideas for improving Starbucks with the company.
After you sign up for My Starbucks Idea, you can view ideas or share your own idea. Once you decide to share your thoughts, you’ll only need to input a title and description. From there, it will be posted on the site’s home page. Ideas can be “favorited” by other users. They can also comment on the idea.
Once Starbucks’ employees pick some of the better ideas, they’ll present it to the company’s key decision makers. If it’s implemented, users won’t get compensation, but they will get credit on the site.
