Driving traffic to the online photography website www vnphoto net

1 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ TP HCM HO CHI MINH OPEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITEÙ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL MBMM PHAM AN DUONG Community building for the online photography website www.vnphoto.net MASTER PROJECT MASTER IN BUSINESS & MARKETING MANAGEMENT Tutor’s Name: Dr Nguyen Duc Tri Ho Chi Minh City (2011) Attestation of Authorship “I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning.” Signed _ 1st March, 2011 Acknowledgememt I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to the following people Without their assistance the completion of this thesis would not have been possible To Dr Nguyen Duc Tri, whose guidance and support me from the initial to the final of this thesis To Mr Anh Tran for his assistance of the database retrieval of the website www.vnphoto.net To members of the website www.vnphoto.net who took part in several surveys to provide input for user insight information Tutor’s comments Contents Chapter - Introduction Chapter – Literature review Trends in online photography Photo user’s classification 10 Conclusion 13 Chapter – Analytics of VNPhoto.net website 14 Site statistics 14 Chapter – Community building of VNPhoto.net 18 VNPHOTO.net’s vision 18 Business strategies 18 I Social Network Builders 18 II Enhance collaboration among VNPhoto users for sharing and exchanging photography hobby 24 III Sustainable community development 32 Core Values 32 Community Attributes 33 Business Development Plan 33 I Project timeline 33 II Promoting VNPhoto 35 III Return of Investment 39 Chapter – Conclusion 41 References 41 Appendix 43 VNPhoto Sitemap 43 VNPhoto features 43 Abstract This project “Community building for the online photography website www.vnphoto.net” with ambitions to build and develop a social network for Vietnamese photographers through the website www.vnphoto.net by creating humanity attributes toward photography lovers from the core values of People, Knowledge and Sharing for photo community The website www.vnphoto.net herein after referred to as VNPhoto Chapter - Introduction Photography for everyone • VNPhoto is one of the most popular and most professionally developed and maintained digital photography and digital imaging web resources available in Vietnam It’s has been designed and maintained by professional web specialists and volunteer photographers Nowadays, VNPhoto has become synonymous with: • Established and highly respected photography community in Vietnam • The most active and informative discussion photography forums now in Vietnam with more than 62,000 members and over 1,350,000 articles are posted (See Appendix C-4) • Attractive image gallery with more than 150,000 photographs (See Appendix C-3) • Highest quality, most detailed camera reviews (See Appendix C-5) • Powerful searchable "knowledge base" of digital photography information • The most comprehensive, powerful and easy to use digital camera specifications database • Members come from 67 countries around the world • VNPhoto was established in April, 2005 Today, VNPhoto has really become a well-recognized and prestigious website for Vietnamese in sharing hobby, building community, and helping each others for better photography • VNPhoto is an independent website dedicated for Vietnamese by providing industry news, camera reviews, and image distribution platform for photographers (See Appendix C-1) • Starting from April 2010, VNPhoto has been upgraded to its latest version 3.0 by implementation of social networking functions to aim for the social destination for anyone who love photographs with the operational motto “Photography for everyone” Chapter – Literature review Trends in online photography Number of camera users in Vietnam is growing rapidly The major contribution for this growth is not only by regular film or digital cameras but also extend by new devices such as phone cameras, still camcorders Owned by mature people who are young, dynamic and wealthy are typical characteristics of this age groups in society This consumer tends to travel regularly, taking pictures on the go and sharing photos on the internet, they confidently establish new consumer trends for sharing and exchanging information through social network They are also able to influence others to join in their community, willing to express their preferences with regards to camera products and photograph experience to others Younger generation also favour high-tech products, with an increasing number using digital cameras As this group always want the latest models and gadgets, these items are changed regularly, which has resulted in Vietnam becoming a dynamic market for camera equipment in last years According to the Ministry of Information and Communication, there were 22.8 million internet users in Vietnam in 2009, accounting for 26.6% of the total population, and an increase of 112.7% on 2005 For number of internet users, Vietnam has been ranked seventh highest among the countries with high internet use in Asia, by Internet World Stats Therefore, younger generation go online and spend more time in the social networks compare to last few years 10 According to the IDC, there were 675,000 digital cameras sold in Vietnam in 2009, an increase of 250% from 2008 In addition, about 10 million mobile phones sold in Vietnam markets which partial has phone camera function, estimated to account for around 7% of the volume sales Overall it calculated for around over 1.3 million camera users per year Moreover, IDC expects that compact cameras will continue to commodify and further become fashionable technology accessories Digital camera will continue to grow and comprise a stronger share of the global product mix as consumers continue to embrace photography as a hobby, driven by lower-priced digital camera Photo user’s classification In last years, VNPhoto did several surveys by creating poll on forums, on its members to understand Vietnamese photography insight, user background and what their expectation for the products or service from clients Though it has done within VNPhoto community however it may reflect quite a large number of Vietnamese users who touch base with photography community because VNPhoto is largest photo website in Vietnam 10 36 report It’s complementary from news agency and in fact they also need those social activities like VNPhoto has done to give more local news update to people or society Many cases VNPhoto received a great support from local authorities like Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture & Information; Hanoi City Bureau of Art; Non-Government Organizations for our activities This also help to get more attraction from the media to the event Below are some example of hundreds of positive feedbacks on VNPhoto activities by highly photo community and its website for photo enthusiast meet each others Exhibit: Media clips on VNPhoto social activities Today, promoting is not just about engagement, it’s also interaction, and of course, create more traffic for the site - VNPhoto Engagement and interaction make lasting 36 37 impressions with target audiences Promoting the site through the social network is one example to interact with users all around the world Exhibit: Using Facebook to promote VNPhoto from January, 2011 Partnership with 3rd vendors to maintain and develop the site Regular events organized in cooperated with partners (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, etc…) in purpose of upgrading the knowledge of modern photography and improve photographic techniques for members Exchanging Web Link This is the easiest way to promote the site through banner exchanging program with partner’s websites However the easiest is not always the best way to create traffic from users, or the so call cost-per-click is not high at this time round in the context 37 38 of internet market We select this method is the last resort to increase the presence visibility of VNPhoto logo and banners on link sites Exhibit: Exchange link and web banner to other sites 38 39 III Return of Investment VNPhoto actually is non-profit organization and we don’t get money from our members to run the website In fact VNPhoto’s revenue comes from advertising We sells service to our customers such as Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Kodak who are the camera vendors or Epson, HP, LaCie, Transcend, etc… who are imaging vendors through web banner ad, event management fee, products review fee, etc… This is to enable us develop and maintain the site in last years Picture below shows VNPhoto banner ad organization for advertisement 39 40 Vị trí Vị trí 365px (rộng) x 90px (cao) 365px (rộng) x 90px (cao) Vị trí Nổi bật trang chủ Kích thước 646px (rộng) x 300px (cao) Vị trí 315px (rộng) x 127px (cao) Vị trí 315px (rộng) x 127px (cao) Vị trí 315px (rộng) x 279px (cao) Vị trí 320p x 60p Vị trí 320p x 60p 40 Vị trí 320p x 60p 41 Chapter – Conclusion Community building for the online photography website VNPhoto is all about sharing The primary purpose of this project was to implement the community builder for VNPhoto, make it become the first photography website has social network functions in the fast growing internet market context The project takes a position in which social network is advantageous: - Trend of people sharing moment, interest and hobby just started in Vietnam - VNPhoto website has run for last years and it now time to upgrade into its latest version with social network builder add-in - Implementation progress for VNPhoto community tool will be taken in 18 months, it will help to develop and maintain VNPhoto is the largest photography community in Vietnam - The more and the more enterprises are now focus on digital marketing, it is chance for VNPhoto to get support and sponsor funding from those companies to maintain and upgrade the website This project aim to keep sustainable development for VNPhoto, make it become the social destination for anyone who love photographs by providing platform for sharing hobby, building social network community, and helping each others for better photography 41 42 References Wellman, Barry and Berkowitz, Stephen D (2004) Social Structures: A Network Approach Brandes, Ulrik, and Thomas Erlebach (2005) Network Analysis: Methodological Foundations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Internet_marketing_by_method (2010) Internet marketing by method Rohit Bhargava, Senior VP, Ogilvy PR | 360 Digital Influence (April, 2008) Steps To Integrating Social Media 42 43 Appendix A VNPhoto Sitemap • News – Latest news, industry information, update on photo related topics • Reviews – Hands on, in depth technical review of cameras and its equipments • Articles – Sharing information • Galleries – Dedicated member image gallery and user criticism on their member’s images • Photo album – Dedicated area for photo essays, picture stories • Forums - Build community, constructive feedback and helpful assistance to other members • Photo Contest – Regularly activity to create photo demand • Community Manager – Member control panel with personal customization and social network features to stay connect with others • User authenticity – user log-in, registration and administration • About us – General introduction B VNPhoto features • Professional designed customer interface • Security of using a branded and supported product • Easy to register, easy to share • High speed • Last update photos • Big size of member • Website to upload and share photos for members • Website for beloved art people 43 44 • Official site, privacy security • Attractive interface • Registration: easy, quick and fun • Varied content & new update to stimulate new members • Upgrade the site capacity for picture upload • Holding national wise contest for professional and amateur photographers • Holding over country tour for members & album collection • Sponsoring to some national events • Web link to partner sites C VNPhoto latest version 3.0 screen shots Home Page, User Profiling, Gallery, Photo Album, Forums 44 45 C-1 HOME PAGE 45 46 C-2 USER PROFILING MODULE 46 47 C-3 GALLERY MODULE 47 48 C-4 FORUMS MODULE 48 49 C-5 PHOTO EQUIPMENT REVIEWS 49 50 C-6 PHOTO ALBUM MODULE 50 ... me from the initial to the final of this thesis To Mr Anh Tran for his assistance of the database retrieval of the website www.vnphoto.net To members of the website www.vnphoto.net who took part... “Community building for the online photography website www.vnphoto.net with ambitions to build and develop a social network for Vietnamese photographers through the website www.vnphoto.net by creating... toward photography lovers from the core values of People, Knowledge and Sharing for photo community The website www.vnphoto.net herein after referred to as VNPhoto Chapter - Introduction Photography