Building on a solid social foundation
Nintendo Wii was released in North America on November 19, 2006, to lines of enthusiasts who had heard and read early reviews. Much of this early buzz had been carefully orchestrated online by Nintendo. Consumers purchased more than one million Wii consoles in the 44 days between the U.S. launch and year-end. It was the most successful, across-the-board holiday performance in U.S. video game history. And demand has continued strong in 2007.
Observations
Nintendo Wii's success has been bolstered by its sophisticated use of social media. Wii had its own MySpace page in mid-August 2006, allowing fans to post messages, read the Wii blog and network with other Wii enthusiasts. Videos posted on YouTube before Wii's debut showed product demonstrations and insider looks at available games for the new console. The Wii product page on wii.nintendo.com also included a Wii discussion forum, Wii newsletter registration, video gallery, product registration (allowing owners to receive exclusive member benefits) and social bookmarking for Wii news.
In BrandIntel's "Top Video Game Console Report," the Wii was the most talked about gaming console, with 37 percent of the discussion share. It also carried the highest intent to purchase and came highly recommended by consumers. The Wii is still going strong and makes most lists of this season's hot products.
Wii still maintains its MySpace page, and the official homepage contains new game profiles, promotions and many of the same elements of social media with one exception: the discussion forums. The forums had been a well-known and established online destination for Wii owners, non-owners and site visitors at-large to discuss the Wii, games, post questions and communicate. Will the absence of these forums continue through the holidays? How will it impact the Wii's holiday sales? Stay tuned.
Actionable ideas
Before you implement some of the social media elements being employed by Nintendo, it's important to evaluate your audience. Consider lifestyle, age, geography, profession and interests. If your consumers are professionals who commute, then a podcast that can be downloaded and listened to during travel could be the best fit for your customer base.
Posting video content on YouTube is a unique opportunity to improve your positions in Google's Universal Search results. Popular video content is now indexed by the search giant. YouTube can also reach a broader audience and generate buzz around new or unique products, especially if your product has uncommon visual appeal, as the Wii does.
When your organization adds social media content to its marketing mix with the interests and lifestyles of your customers in mind, they will likely blog about it, discussing, viewing and linking to your content. Therefore, when embarking on a social media plan, it's important that you think long term. When you provide good content your customers enjoy (such as the Wii forums) and then abandon that content, you run the risk of damaging your reputation and image. In social media, what you take away from users can be just as important as what you give them.