When users decide
”Communities” is one of the hot words on the internet. With international Gigasites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube in the lead, user-generated content is a big driver of traffic. Hardcopy have asked some of Egmont’s digital experts about their experiences with
Espen Klem,Community Manager, Klikk.no:
A community must contain two ingredients: Activity and togetherness. Until now the forum at Klikk.no has been grappling with the ”chicken and egg” syndrome. Users don’t sign up because there is no activity, and we cannot create activity without users.
Togetherness is easy to achieve. As a facilitator or journalist you need to be polite and helpful. This is how we greet users who contribute quality content. It is the user who should be put on a pedestal, not our employees.
We concentrate our resources in two areas. Klikk employees get involved in new chats and answer any user queries. In addition developers work on new services and the adjustment of existing ones. Users help one another, give us hints about any problems and the atmosphere is really positive.
Most important is the creation of more traffic. Two areas differ widely. The content needs to contain a lot of detailed knowledge for search engine advertising. Then we also work at getting our advertisers to become experts in their own field. We wish to be paid for introducing them to users. Not for advertising our own products, but to offer assistance and in that way promote their own brands.
Tine Bjørneboe, Digital Product Manager, Serieforlaget A/S:
Youths and children want to have an input and contribute to the media they use. That is why Egmont Serieforlaget has created meeting places on online platforms. Online media are important tools for promoting internet behaviour. The older the target group, the more time they use to create content themselves.
They start with games and quickly progress to the social forums. For example, on Olivianet.dk, where the majority are between 10 and 14 years old, 79% of the traffic is in the community sector, while only a third of the users on Andeby.dk use communities. On the pages for 8- to 12-year-olds, like Andeby.dk for example, there is also a lot of interest in dialogue with the sender and characters from the internet universe. This dialogue is just as important for creating confidence and relevance in the brand.
Communities are also important commercial tools. It pays to be there when users are trying to separate themselves from the community. This is why Nike has chosen to cooperate with GOAL and use the relationships and dialogue that has already been established by users on Goal.dk. This is a long-term investment in loyalty and brand preference.
Erling Løken Andersen, CEO, Biip.no AS
The financial crisis has hit all the media operators hard. Social media are no exception. Our turnover and bottom line has been reduced in 2009, primarily due to reduced advertising revenue. However we see this as a passing phase, since no media is more orientated to the future than the media that adjusts to its users.
Together with Bo Myrås and Ozan Øzerk I started Biip.no at home living bachelor-style. When we started we had neither marketing- nor development budget, no employees, no canteen facilities and no market research to fall back on. All we had was a good idea, a bachelor life, three PC’s and get-up-and-go.
Only one month after launch we had 25,000 registered members. In 2008 we passed the 400,000 members mark, and at the same time the turnover of Biip.no reached US$ 3.17M (18 million Norwegian Kroner (NOK) – with pre-tax profits of $1.35M (7.7M NOK). In this relatively short space of time we had gone from being totally unknown to the 13th biggest internet page in Norway, measured in visits to our page.
Our vision was to make money from the page eventually, so we made information about cell phone numbers, age, gender, and place of domicile obligatory for registration. This made it possible to segment advertising based on biological and geographical data. We were the first community in Europe to launch “segmented advertising” in 2005. Facebook followed suit in 2007.
We have close contact with our members, are dedicated users of our own website, and we believe in our own product. If Facebook or another popular net community offers a new, popular service, within a few days we have developed an equivalent service. 2010 will be the age of interaction.
A community must contain two ingredients: Activity and togetherness. Until now the forum at Klikk.no has been grappling with the ”chicken and egg” syndrome. Users don’t sign up because there is no activity, and we cannot create activity without users.
Togetherness is easy to achieve. As a facilitator or journalist you need to be polite and helpful. This is how we greet users who contribute quality content. It is the user who should be put on a pedestal, not our employees.
We concentrate our resources in two areas. Klikk employees get involved in new chats and answer any user queries. In addition developers work on new services and the adjustment of existing ones. Users help one another, give us hints about any problems and the atmosphere is really positive.
Most important is the creation of more traffic. Two areas differ widely. The content needs to contain a lot of detailed knowledge for search engine advertising. Then we also work at getting our advertisers to become experts in their own field. We wish to be paid for introducing them to users. Not for advertising our own products, but to offer assistance and in that way promote their own brands.
Tine Bjørneboe, Digital Product Manager, Serieforlaget A/S:
Youths and children want to have an input and contribute to the media they use. That is why Egmont Serieforlaget has created meeting places on online platforms. Online media are important tools for promoting internet behaviour. The older the target group, the more time they use to create content themselves.
They start with games and quickly progress to the social forums. For example, on Olivianet.dk, where the majority are between 10 and 14 years old, 79% of the traffic is in the community sector, while only a third of the users on Andeby.dk use communities. On the pages for 8- to 12-year-olds, like Andeby.dk for example, there is also a lot of interest in dialogue with the sender and characters from the internet universe. This dialogue is just as important for creating confidence and relevance in the brand.
Communities are also important commercial tools. It pays to be there when users are trying to separate themselves from the community. This is why Nike has chosen to cooperate with GOAL and use the relationships and dialogue that has already been established by users on Goal.dk. This is a long-term investment in loyalty and brand preference.
Erling Løken Andersen, CEO, Biip.no AS
The financial crisis has hit all the media operators hard. Social media are no exception. Our turnover and bottom line has been reduced in 2009, primarily due to reduced advertising revenue. However we see this as a passing phase, since no media is more orientated to the future than the media that adjusts to its users.
Together with Bo Myrås and Ozan Øzerk I started Biip.no at home living bachelor-style. When we started we had neither marketing- nor development budget, no employees, no canteen facilities and no market research to fall back on. All we had was a good idea, a bachelor life, three PC’s and get-up-and-go.
Only one month after launch we had 25,000 registered members. In 2008 we passed the 400,000 members mark, and at the same time the turnover of Biip.no reached US$ 3.17M (18 million Norwegian Kroner (NOK) – with pre-tax profits of $1.35M (7.7M NOK). In this relatively short space of time we had gone from being totally unknown to the 13th biggest internet page in Norway, measured in visits to our page.
Our vision was to make money from the page eventually, so we made information about cell phone numbers, age, gender, and place of domicile obligatory for registration. This made it possible to segment advertising based on biological and geographical data. We were the first community in Europe to launch “segmented advertising” in 2005. Facebook followed suit in 2007.
We have close contact with our members, are dedicated users of our own website, and we believe in our own product. If Facebook or another popular net community offers a new, popular service, within a few days we have developed an equivalent service. 2010 will be the age of interaction.
January 2010
Gallery
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Espen Klem, community manager, klikk.no: "A community must contain two ingredients: Activity and togetherness."
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Tine Bjørneboe, Digital Product Manager, Serieforlaget A/S: "Youths and children want to have input and contribute to the media they use."
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Erling Løken Andersen, CEO, Biip.no: "We have close contact with our members, are dedicated users of our own website, and we believe in our own product."
