How Nike's Social Network Sells to Runners

The Nike+ site is drawing hordes of runners, and its success may hold lessons for brand building on the Web

BusinessWeek, November 6, 2008 — Next Issue

After joining nikeplus.com, Seattle's Winters was inspired to run 50-mile races John Keatley

Nike's Olander at first didn't foresee the marketing power of Nike+ Lee Emmert

Story Tools

post a comment

e-mail this story

print this story

order a reprint

suggest a story

digg this

save to del.icio.us

linkedin connections

Nike (NKE) is winning a new game that other corporations, from Coca-Cola (KO) to Verizon (VZ) to General Motors (GM), have tried unsuccessfully to play: building brand loyalty via online social networking.

In the two years since it launched Nike+, a technology that tracks data of every run and connects runners around the world at a Web site, nikeplus.com, Nike has built a legion of fans. In August,... continue reading

Study: Blogs Influence Purchases More Than Social Sites

ClickZ, October 28, 2008 — Blogs can have more impact on purchase decisions than social networks, a new study finds. Blogs create a conversation and trusted resource that influences purchase decision.

The study, "Harnessing the Power of Blogs," sponsored research by BuzzLogic and conducted by JupiterResearch, a Forrester Research company, looks at the evolving influence from the reader's perspective. "What we wanted to do was look at the reader's side of the coin, look at reader patterns and how people are reading blogs...and drill down into the content impacting other media platforms," said Valerie Combs, VP of corporate communications at BuzzLogic.

Twitter for Enterprises

Springwise Newsletter, October 9, 2008 — Breaking down barriers and fostering cross-company communication has long been one of enterprises' most persistent challenges. A tool that was launched last month at TechCrunch50—and then went on to win the conference's Best in Show award—offers a new solution, however, in the form of a sort of Twitter for the enterprise.

Yammer aims to make organizations more productive through the exchange of short, frequent answers to the question, “What are you working on?” Employees' responses to that question get aggregated into a private, central feed, enabling coworkers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share information.

The Contribution Revolution: Letting Volunteers Build Your Business†

Intuit’s cofounder challenges traditional companies to follow the lead of internet superstars—and of innovative peers such as Honda, Procter & Gamble, and Hyatt—in tapping the contributions of countle

Harvard Business Review, October 1, 2008 — Earlier this year, I spent an intense half-day closeted in a room with the top 70 executives at Intuit. Our aim was to come up with ways that people outside the company could volunteer their time, energy, and expertise to make life better for our customers. Sound odd? Well, if you’re not conducting an exercise like that at your organization, you risk missing the boat on a sea change that’s transforming business.

Every day, millions of people make all kinds of voluntary contributions to companies—from informed opinions to computing resources—that create tremendous value for those firms’ customers and, consequently, for their shareholders. When I first encountered this idea, several years ago, it struck me as unfathomable: Volunteerism was for... continue reading