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to find the most influential people in the market and consumer research areas to follow. At FreshNetworks we make the most of strong research credentials, both in our specific online research communities , but also helping all of our clients make the most of the insight they can get from online communities . You can read more of our recent research posts from making online research better to one on simple, effective market research . Research Reinvented have polled the Twitterverse (I hate that word!) Rather ingratiatingly I’m one of them and now get

Yesterday we posted about statistics from MarketingSherpa showing that a lack of knowledge hampers social media marketing , with 46% of firms who had not adopted social media marketing citing a lack on internal understanding as their main hindrance. Another set of statistics from MarketingSherpa paints a more positive outlook for social media agencies. In September 2008, just as we were recognising the full potential of the economic downturn in which we now find ourselves, they surveyed almost 400 firms asking them about their marketing spend for 2009. Which lines would increase and which lines would decrease.

On Friday we posted about an experiment running on one of our online communities , comparing paid and organic search strategies . This is just one of the ways that our clients measure the ROI of their online community - by increased traffic from organic search or significant savings on their paid search bills. Measuring ROI is an important topic in social media, all the communities that we build at FreshNetworks have very clear ROI cases. Image via Wikipedia We spend time during the planning and strategy phases working on the objectives of the online community

We know the real benefit that a brand can experience from engaging with its customer directly through online communities . Customer service - listening to customers and having a direct dialogue with them - is a form of marketing. And an effective form of marketing at that. Image by LiminalMike via Flickr We wrote last month about the Zappos story , about how they have used customer service to extend and enhance the customer experience and how this has had a positive impact on sales, satisfaction and growth.

But data from TNS shows that use of social media and social networking in the country is widespread, making it the fourth largest market in Europe for social networking behind the UK, Germany and France. These statistics are impressive and firmly place Russia as the fourth biggest market in Europe for social networking. One that includes social networks, social media and We’ve posted in the past about the use of social media in Russia, when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev launched a video blog . The January Web Index for TNS shows that two leading social networks in

common debate among those working in marketing and social media is between engaging people on your own domain - in an online community that you build and manage yourself - and engaging people where they are - out in social networks like Facebook and MySpace or on YouTube, external blogs or forums. Your own online community, on the other hand, is better suited to real engagement - something that is long-term and sustainable rather than a one-off hit. Image by MattRhodes via Flickr A

The benefit of having a well established blog or online community is that you can then use it for this purpose. Work effectively with a the hub and the spokes of your social media presence : You can’t be expected to engage everybody in detail on Twitter, in Facebook or on blogs, forums and online communities. If you have a developed hub, and online community, for example, where you can send people to get up-to-date and real-time updates on what is happening then you Image by ajburgess via Flickr I

Executive Social Marketing Bootcamp Matt Rhodes Required reading Social Media Blog blogging Brand Business co-creation Conversation customer communities David Alston freshminds FreshNetworks innovation market research marketing Marketing and Advertising online communities online market research qualitative market research Radian6 Simplicity Social marketing social media Social network Twitter Virtual community web2. Image by FredArmitage via Flickr For any brand using social media , an important first

For the second in our series of Online Community Examples , we move on to look at online communities in the retail industry. Online communities in the retail industry This is where online communities can come in handy. One good In an economic downturn, we’re seeing a real shift in retail shopping  patterns. Here in the UK there are reports of people switching from their usual supermarket brand for what they believe to be a cheaper alternative (as shown by the current price war between competitors Tesco and Aldi ).