Comments on: Apple iPhones & MacBooks launched – An amazing marketing lesson

By: Gebadia Smith

Gebadia Smith — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:51:18 +0000

geeks know how to use the internet.. apple fans are fanatical though and the truth is Vista did so much for apple.. Once you used that god awful piece of software.. Apple looked a lot better. I mean who trusts anything microsoft does now.

By: Mark Harai

Mark Harai — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:56:41 +0000

Hey Keith – hope you are well bro – in response to your response above, I do agree that both Apple and AT&T could do a better job in social media communities. It could definitely help with customer relations. However, they have done an effective job of developing offline relationships with many creditable, influential bloggers and tech journalists as well as many customers and fans that do have tremendous reach; say millions of eye balls that are seeing “free” write ups. That is extremely valuable in comparison to advertising dollars to reach the same amount of eye balls.

To receive and attention and free press in the media for your product or service, it requires an investment of your time to develop good relationships with journalist and bloggers… spamming and press releases don’t accomplish that.

By: Marketing Specialist - Jim Connolly

Marketing Specialist - Jim Connolly — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:50:22 +0000

Keith,

I think you answered your question in the first paragraph, when you said of Apple products; “the geeks love them”.

I write a very successful tech news blog and get passionate Apple fans comment there every day.

Here’s what happened when I asked one of the best-known Apple fans (Cali Lewis) why she gave them so much free publicity.

http://www.thetechnewsblog.com/2008/09/26/the-new-macbook-pro/

Apple have carefully cultivated a massive geek community, through their marketing, design, PR and (of course) products.

They don’t need to pay people to spend hours Tweeting, blogging or plugging them on FaceBook / StumbleUpon – because their community do that for them.

By: Keith Burtis

Keith Burtis — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:17:52 +0000

I agree that Apple gets a ton of free press. However, i fail to see where they have cultivated community. Their products are the best, and the geeks love them. This has created value from the standpoint of amazing hardware that is worth writing about. However, Apple is no where to been seen in the social media space from a company perspective. In fact a friend of mine nearly lost his job at the Apple store for sending out a tweet saying that he was working his first day in retail.

Apple is an enabler or content, nt a producer of content. they have done an amazing job with their products. It’s too bad they picked AT&T for a partner though. they clearly don’t have a clue when it comes to embracing community. I wrote about it yesterday on my blog.

Good points.
Keith

http://keithburtis.com/2009/06/att-and-apple-fail-to-embrace-community/