Linked In

          I have officially had my first REAL encounter with Linked In!! I have always had a somewhat negative outlook on this site, maybe because I could never figure out how to work it, or I just didn't care to figure it out because whenever i hear "Linked In", I'm reminded of growing up and moving into the big girl world of finding a career and paying bills. However, I was forced to give this website an actual try for my Research in PR and Advertising class.
          I was assigned a project that required me to create a survey and post it to Linked In groups so I could get answers from professionals already in the industry. The industry I chose was sports marketing. I honestly have nooo idea if that is even what I want to do with the rest of my life, so I had a negative outlook toward this project. I joined sports marketing specific groups and posted my survey as a discussion topic and included a short note about my project. I thought to myself, "This is dumb. No one is going to take time to fill out my survey, especially since most of the questions are open-ended."
          The very night I posted, I received an email saying that someone had responded and filled out my survey. There's something so rewarding about interacting with others, especially when you don't expect it! Ten other responses followed, and I quickly learned how Linked In can be helpful. The people there really want to help. They are obviously there to gain something, but I quickly realized that it's a two-way street. After my survey, they even posted comments asking me to share the results so they too could learn more about the industry.
          Even today, long after my project was due, I still receive emails all the time from these groups about different discussions about job openings or opportunities to go on talk shows. I now see why people are saying that written resumes will soon be a thing of the past!

Social Media in Campaigns

Everyone seems to be catching on to the social media phenomenon. I’ve already discussed how Hollywood and entrepreneurs utilize it, but politicians are in the mix now, too. An article I read from Toronto, Canada stated that they are just now breaking into it, but the benefits have not beat out the benefits from traditional methods, such as door-to-door. A major problem with their methods, though, is that many politicians are simply posting a Tweet or making an announcement, instead of actually engaging followers. Social media analysts of this campaign also said that the social media polls don’t translate over to the real polls because social media represents only a specific group of people, and they do not reach out to different groups.

I believe that in the near future, social media will definitely have a bigger impact on voters and elections. Even if an election candidate uses only the Facebook platform, it would be so easy to invite all kinds of people to events or post pictures of yourself helping out in the community. We’ve already learned that more and more people are getting their news from social media, so why not put yourself in the direct view of voters? This would be a great way to get younger people to be politically active.

Personally, I change the TV/radio channel anytime an election commercial comes on. It seems like all they do is bash the opposing candidate, which gives me no information about how they are actually going to help my community. With social media, I would have the opportunity to ask questions and get to know the candidate from the comfort of my own home, without having to go to a press conference or debate, which I would probably not do. I think social media can provide an outlet that will help take the “annoying” out of campaigning. Thoughts??

Social Media is Dead...?

          I recently read an article about James Franco in which he declared that social media is dead and he sees no future for the Twitters and Facebooks of the world. He said, "My thought was 'this is my Twitter. I can do whatever I want.' But certain companies I work with contacted me about what I was saying." He encouragegd everyone to make the time to actually write.
          I have to disagree with Mr. Franco. Social media is huge and it only keeps growing. More and more people are catching on, and companies are finding more ways to use social media to their advantage. I can see where Franco is coming from, because speaking our minds can sometimes be inappropriate or unneccessary for the internet. This kind of thing can get people in a ton of trouble, as I discussed in an earlier blog.
          I am concerned, however, that several celebrities may follow in his footsteps and realize that it's not worth it, just another way for them to get themselves in trouble and start rumors in the public eye. What's so great about it if you're so restricted? Another thought that's crossed my mind is whether celebrities do this kind of thing because they WANT to, or because their publicists told them to. What are your thoughts?
          Something else to realize is that celebrities are role models. If they start bashing social media, everyone else may follow suit. My question here is, do celebritites have the power to significantly downsize social media?

United Breaks Guitars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

          Social media has completely transformed how companies deal with customer service. This video was made by a band after they saw United Airlines baggage handlers throwing their guitars, only to find out that the guitars were broken in the process.
          They spoke to three employees after they saw their guitars being thrown, and were dismissed by all three. Over the next few weeks, United was extremely difficult to work with and Dave Carroll, lead singer of the band was directed to places all over the North America, including Halifax, Canada; Omaha; Chicago; and New York. United Airlines did virtually everything possible to not deal with Carroll. Even nine months later, they still refused to take any responsibility for the broken guitar.
          He posted a total of 3 music videos regarding his bad experience with United Airlines. After just one day, the first video had 150,000 views. Rob Bradford, United's managing director of customer solutions, apologized to Carroll and United mentioned it hoped to learn from the incident, and to change its customer service policy as a result of the incident. Bob Taylor, owner of Taylor Guitars offered Carroll two guitars and other props for his second video.

"United has demonstrated they know how to keep their airline in the forefront of their customer’s minds and I wanted this project to expand upon that satirically. I’ve been done being angry for quite some time and, if anything, I should thank United. They’ve given me a creative outlet that has brought people together from around the world. We had a pile of laughs making the recording and the video while the images are spinning on how to make “United: Song 2” even better than the first. So, thanks United!  If my guitar had to be smashed due to extreme negligence I’m glad it was you that did it.  Now sit back and enjoy the show." -Dave Carroll

          This story proves how big of an impact social media can make and how quickly things can spread on the Internet. This incident was a disaster for United Airlines, and they would have been better off responding to Carroll's complaint's right off the bat. The great part about social media is that when consumers post negative things about your business, you can quickly respond to complaints to soothe their negative feelings and ultimately transform their opinion of your company.

Fangager

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-engagement/brand-managers-rejoice-manage-engage-reward-with-fangager-010571.php

                I recently came across FanGager, a database that allows companies to see the activities of their fans on their social media accounts. Fans and followers can be sent emails from within the database, and the emails can be sorted according to certain demographics. This way, they can target different groups with information that would be more appealing to them. This will ultimately help them maintain strong customer relationship management.

                The article says, “Brand managers can assign values to the actions they consider to be top priority. Once assigned, you can begin to measure and identify the fans who are engaging the most. For instance, if you think it’s valuable when users comment on your Facebook page, then you can assign a high number or points to that activity.” With FanGager, you can direct fans toward different types of engagement, based on their activities, to get the feedback you want. Fans can then be rewarded for their actions.

                These types of technology are taking social media to the next level. For companies, this seems like an awesome venture and a great way to maximize the success of their social media. They can compare different timeframes of data and see how their different campaigns are working. However, I can see where some “fans” may see this as an invasion of their privacy – stalking, to some degree.

                I personally think that when you make yourself visible to the public through the Internet, you should expect for this sort of thing to happen. I do understand, however, that people hate being bothered with this kind of thing, especially on their personal email accounts and profiles. What do you guys think?

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/03/how-social-media-internet-changed-experience-of-japan-disaster-074.html

We are all familiar with the disaster that just happened in Japan. The article linked above comes from the perspective of a journalist who also covered the earthquake that occurred in 1995 in Kobe, Japan. At that time, he was living in Japan while he was reporting, but he says that he received more information today, thanks to social media, than he did when he actually lived where the disaster occurred.

There was access to information through TV, iPads, Twitter, and Facebook. He also notes that a photo slideshow on the front page of the New York Times a few hours after the earthquake provided interesting information.  

This phenomenon just goes to show how quickly social media has allowed information to spread. Not only is the rapidity a positive thing, but the author also notes that it has more impact on people than when there’s newspeople talking. He says, “The media and communication technology of course do not change the scope of the disaster but do change the way we are able to experience and share it.”

I believe that we can apply this to marketing for a company. When you have a product or promotion, get people talking about it through social media and it WILL spread...quickly. You can post information and send it to your followers and if it’s a good product or promotion, your followers are more than likely going to talk about it. We saw from the article that the information is like a virus.

Word-of-mouth marketing is arguably the most effective form of marketing, and social media is the best way to reach millions of people. GET PEOPLE TALKING!!

Getting People Involved with your Social Media Venture

At one of my recent sorority meetings, Dustin Lynch, an up and coming country musician, came to perform for us. He was a charming guy, and the fact that he played guitar and sang made all everyone at the meeting love him. One thing that him and his manager did was video his performance and he told us all that we were going to be featured on his website and facebook in that week's segment (they posted weekly videos about where his career was heading). The fact that we were going to be featured with DUSTIN LYNCH, someone who may be famous one day, made everyone that much more excited about it. Ten minutes after the meeting ended, I think it's safe to say that he had about 130 new friend requests on Facebook and 130 likes for his music page. He even went in and personally tagged everyone of us in the video after it was posted.


I think an important part of social media is actually going out and gaining a fan base, whether it be a service, product, or yourself. When you know you have something great and you believe in it, get people excited about what it is you're selling.


Dustin's proactive approach gained him huge support and started a word-of-mouth phenomenon about himself. We all wanted to see more about his music, and you better believe we went and told all of our friends and posted all of the pictures on Facebook! He also did a good job of targeting the right audience. So, moral of the story - there's more to social media than just having a blog or webpage; you have to be proactive about your approach and get people excited about your content.


http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=559541947769

Taking Advice from Celebrities

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/2011-02-22-wgc-accenture-match-play-championship_N.htm

I recently read this article in USA Today and I realized another way that social media can be used to enhance your marketing plan. We are no doubt familiar with the classic marketing technique of using a celebrity to sell your product, whether it be through television commercials or what not. However, what would happen if we combined this approach with social media?

In the article, Ian Poulter notes that he posted a photo of himself on Twitter and his Power Balance bracelet was accidentally exposed. This slight exposure led to skyrocketing sales of Power Bracelets.
         
Celebrities work exceptionally hard on their own personal brand, and it seems to pay off for them. People feel like they actually know the celebrities, so they trust them. The Ian Poulter example explains how quickly the Power Balance sold, so why not feed off these personal brands through a larger, more effective medium?

The benefits you can get from Twitter in regards to your own personal brand are outrageous. If gaining a celebrity to help sell your product is not within your reach, as marketers, we need to build sites with consistent and accurate posts so we can get our customers to trust us; become almost like a friend to them so we can get across what our brand’s “personality” is all about. We can really learn from what the celebrities are using social media for, so let’s take advantage of it.

Gaining the trust of our customers is one of the most important factors in selling a product or service, and that is easily achievable through social media outlets. Conversation is key. Once we let people see what we’re really all about, as a product or a company, we can thrive.

Successful Blog Story

            A social media campaign that was successful was Proctor and Gamble’s Beinggirl.com campaign. Through research, they found that “tween” girls were uncomfortable about their bodies changing and were embarrassed to talk about it, yet there is information they need to know about these changes.

            P & G created beinggirl.com for young adolescent women to talk about the common interest: How does it feel to go through adolescence and turn into a young woman?

            I checked out the website, and I have to admit, it’s a fun, bright website that would have been helpful for me if I were 13 years old. They offer information on how to talk to your mom about puberty, how to deal with the changes, tips, etc. There are also discussion boards where visitors can read and post embarrassing stories and expressions of themselves. The main focus of the website is not about selling their products, but rather, having them included in discussions.

            P & G said, “Being a girl is like being part of a club where everyone knows what you’re going through…at least on some level. Girls have fun. Girls have opinions. Girls have a lot of questions about stuff like PMS, dating, their bodies and even serious subjects like addiction and abuse – just about anything you can think of that has to do with being a girl.”

            This website receives over two million visitors per month, and P & G states that their community approach is four times more effective than traditional marketing efforts. By now, beinggirl.com has reached a global audience and is offered in 50 different languages.

            I believe this campaign was so successful because they do not focus on direct sales. Beinggirl.com is like a friend to these girls, a place where they can feel comfortable talking about their changing bodies. When they feel comfortable with a brand, they will want to use it because they trust it. P& G is not trying to force their product upon anyone, so the visitors don’t feel like they’re on a product’s website, but rather, and interactive, helpful website.

Sources:

http://www.slideshare.net/kholzapfel/social-media-success-stories 

http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2010/12/microsite-samples/

             We established in our last posts that social media is making extraordinary strides in the marketing world - that can't be denied - but, like all great things, there's a catch. Most people use their Facebook pages for social purposes instead of career enhancers. This is harmful to employees/potential employees because more and more employers loks at Facebooks to determine if the candidate will represent their company in a positive light and if their own personal branding will enhance the company's image. According to our notes, as of October 2010, 75 percent of managers use social media for background research on job applicants. With the rapid growth rate of social media, this number has likely increased since then.
              As young adults, we still place great value on our social lives. It's no secret that the social scene in college isn't going to see tea parties and wine mixers; it will most likely contain a bar, frat party, etc. Since social media is raging and interaction is valued, we get excited about sharing pictures and posting stories. What we often don't realize when we put ourselves out there like that, is that we are being watched. Your Facebook site could make or break a job for you. Employers have refused to hire people because of inappropriate pictures, alcohol use, profanity, and bad communication skills.
              I personally feel that social lives should be separate from your job life. We all need a special "me time" and we shouldn't be expected to have our workpants on 24/7, but that's how the world works today and it is imperative to embrace that fact if you want to be successful. Your job is a part of you, and all the parts mesh together at some point. That's why we need to use our social media sites to our advantage. So what if you don't post that trashy picture of you drunk with a lampshade on your head? Sure, it'd be funny, but it's not going to gain you respect from anyone. Most likely, your friends who want to see this can just come over and see the picture on your camera. Instead, use the site to express your creativity, display any volunteer work you've participated in, or take an educated stand on a popular topic. In his blog "HOW TO; Leverage Social Media for Career Success," Dan Schawbel says, "Think about monitoring your reputation as an opportunity to learn more about how you're projecting your brand to the world and take some of it as feedback to help you in your future career development."
              I have not had any experience with inappropriate social media content, but i hae read plenty of articles of people that have. I have recently discovered the importance of branding and marketing yourself through social media outlets, and I realize that it is almost impossible to get a job today by simply filling out an applicatin and looking good on paper (unless you already have some serious connections or plan on joining the family business). YOU have to be proactive and show employers that you look good in all areas and that you will be an all-around asset to their company.       

Is Social Media Marketing Just a Fad??

           In my opinion, social media is not just a fad. Although I believe marketing through social media will change and evolve, the perks of this method are too great to disappear any time soon. Current day social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, serve as the foundations for what awaits social media marketing in the future.

            When someone sets out to do something, they are there for that specific purpose. For example, when I go to watch TV, I’m there to see a show, not advertisements; when I read a newspaper, it’s for the stories, not the ads that are just randomly placed on a page. The great thing about social media is that you target and attract people who are specifically interested in your product or service.

            People in today’s world crave interaction. Social media allows customers to actually be a part of the advertising. By being able to offer suggestions and comment on what they like and don’t like, they can feel like they are actually being heard and working with a person rather than a company. It gives them something to get excited about.

            This benefits the customers and the company because people are more likely to blog or post information about a product when they are satisfied with it, and customers trust other customers more than they would trust a company trying to sell something, according to Paul Gillin in his book, “Secrets of Social Media Marketing”. Most people no longer trust traditional ads, especially younger generations.

            The companies are also given the opportunity to set up different sites to address the needs of different customers and build better relationships. They can do all this without going broke, too. Social media outlets are much cheaper than traditional advertising, according to David Meerman Scott in his book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”.

            The social media marketing efforts have so many benefits, it would be challenging for any company to go back to relying solely on traditional methods.