Existing Market:
Next will be an ongoing service. This will allow the company to make more money because it would be subscription based rather than just a single payment. We would monitor a customer's online presence for them. Whenever something is posted of them by a friend that it inappropriate, offensive or controversial, we would run it by the client and then remove it for them. This way the client's pages would stay in tip-top shape at all times.
During my interviews, I received a lot of encouragement about my idea. Many said they would consider subscribing to the service as an ongoing service. That way, they would never have to worry about inappropriate things of themselves online. Something that stood out particularly (which I mentioned in my Venture Concept post) was an idea to pitch to Facebook and make my service an option upon making a Facebook profile.
I think that in the future of my company would involve more subscriptions rather than one time "clean-ups." This would be more profitable for the company. Also, I would love to get into the idea of potentially making it an option when signing up for different social media sites. (That is definitely a long shot but would be AWESOME.) I would eventually sell the company to help fund my next idea!
New Market:
This was really difficult for me to come up with. Because my service is pretty specific, I'm not sure who else I can really market my service to. Currently, I am selling to anyone who has a social media platform that needs to be cleaned up, anyone who wants their Google search to show important, positive things about them, or people who want their online presence to be monitored by me. I suppose the only radically different market than people who have social media are... people who don't have social media yet.
I can't exactly provide my service to this different market, but I can change up the service to fit them. I can make it a kind of "online presence education" thing. Teach about tips and tricks on keeping your online profiles and searches in shape. Also, I would then be able to sell the subscription to those who are just then making an online profile for the first time. Interviewees for this were my little brother and his 3 friends... they are all 10 years old and the ONLY people I could find within my circle that didn't already have some form of social media already. These interviews were kinda difficult considering they are children and don't really know how social media works. This enforced that my idea about an educational service would actually be a pretty good idea because the kids can learn about the importance of online presence from us.
After reviewing my findings, this market seems to be just as promising as my other market! Because of how prominent social media is in today's society, kids are creating profiles younger and younger. Teaching about the importance of your online image would be extremely beneficial for children. There are already countless programs that focus on cyberbullying and internet safety, but not really any regarding how important it is to keep your online presence in shape for your future.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI see a difficulty in your promise to clean up the comments posted by a third party, without access to that party account the best that can be done is filing a complaint with the hosting provider or the service provide, for example Facebook, for inappropriate comment. Perhaps this is something you should consider.
For your new market, I actually can see that some of the people not using social media can still benefit. This is a pool that is completely unaware of what's going on out there, and you can provide them with information that will be new to them. I would target the baby boomer generation rather than the next generation that gets exposed to social media at a very young age. The older generation is will give you a temporary market segment, but there is no reason not to utilize it anyway.
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of a subscription plan. This locks customers in and keeps them invested in your concept. I think its definitely important to tap into target markets that you believe would be beneficial to your concept. One way you can do this is by getting specific. Think college or high school seniors who really need to clean up their social media when applying to jobs/college/graduate programs. Tapping into these specific audiences and marketing specifically to small groups would be beneficial to your concept.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI definitely like your idea of an online clean up! I would market this product aggressively amongst recent college graduates and young professionals. When a graduate is job searching, a big concern is always what a potential employer might catch online so this is a great audience to get some business from. You could also do ads on facebook and Linkedin to have more people engage and possibly buy a one time usage before they apply to a new job while searching around. It is a big no no to have inappropriate content on the web, considering employers and universities are always watching in order to keep a pristine reputation.