Monitoring the Blogosphere for a Foothold

By monitoring the blogosphere for a critical mass of market segment members, marketers can use weblogs and bloggers to aid them in understanding whether they're playing in a niche or have really gained a foothold in a burgeoning market segment.

It's no secret that your weblog marketing strategy should pass the test of marketing fundamentals like market segmentation, but current segmentation practices often blind companies to market disruption, which is the most valuable kind of innovation and precisely where marketers are finding bloggers and a preponderance of consumer generated media (CGM).

Authors Michael E. Raynor and Howard S. Weinberg explore those differences in an article entitled “Beyond Segmentation,” which provides examples from companies such as Southwest Airlines, Holiday Inn, and Nucor Corp.  During the AMA seminar on weblogs, the speakers explore how companies are also using weblogs to monitor the pulse of market segments to determine where they stand.

Adapted from an article in Marketing Management, November/December 2004.