Homework 11

Kris Lioi

 

Case Study #2

 

   For my second case study I’ve chosen to review Ford Motor Company. Ford is well known in the social media world for creating a deeper connection with its owners and for  having a successful product launch using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Ford is an iconic worldwide brand that has is creating a more personalized connection with its owners.

 

Facebook:

 

   Ford’s Facebook page currently has 1.6 million followers and is growing daily. The Facebook page consists of product information as well as user posts. Ford encourages its followers to submit photo’s of their Ford vehicles and each week one user has their picture posted to the fan page for all to see. Ford has also used this tool to effectively market the all new 2013 Ford Fusion. Each Ford vehicle has been featured on the fan page and each one has a multitude of comments from excited Ford fans all over the world. I also found it interesting that Ford posts an “on this day in history” post to remember important days in Ford history. Overall Ford Motor Company uses this tool effectively to market its products and build a personal relationship with its customers and after viewing the fan page it makes me wish I still owned my Ford.

 

Twitter: 

   

   Ford Motor Company is also an avid user of Twitter and has posts almost daily. Ford’s twitter feed seems a bit more geared towards business than its Facebook page. Most of the posts are announcing changes to product lines and technology used in Ford vehicles. The twitter feed doesn’t have as much user interaction as the Facebook page does and many of the posts are from Microsoft promoting their SYNC and MyFordTouch systems in the newer vehicles. One thing I found interesting is that Ford is posting about their Instagram account on twitter. It seems to me that Ford doesn’t utilize its twitter feed as well as they do with their social media fan pages. 

 

Youtube:

 

   Ford Motor Company also makes use of Youtube for posting important information from the companies CEO and higher level management teams. Overall Ford’s use of Youtube is not as strong as its use for other social media. The majority of the content that is posted is comments from the CEO and the Chief of Marketing. There are some videos that relate to Ford technology such as a the “Lane Keeping System” and “SYNC”. Other content relates to the build materials in Ford’s vehicle lineup.

Starbucks Case Study

Kris Lioi

Week 10 Homework

 

 

   The company I chose to review for this assignment is Starbucks. I feel that their media presence is large and is going to become even larger with the implementation of technology to the coffee industry. Starbucks has revolutionized the coffee shop by making it easier for customers to order drinks and pay for them, all with a smartphone. The company’s twitter presence easily shows how many people are part of the Starbucks culture. The company has attracted over 3 million followers and is currently following about 80,000 other twitter users. Their twitter feed is comprised of fun facts about coffee, news and updates about Starbucks as well as promotional announcements. 

 

  Not only does twitter show the success of Starbucks but so does their Facebook fan page. The Starbucks fan page currently has over 32 million likes and is mentioned over 480,000 times! The content of the Facebook page is very similar to the twitter feed. The page contains lots of photos of Starbucks related content such as coffee, and even a picture of the original Starbucks located in Pike Place Market in Seattle Washington. Along with pictures Starbucks also posts information about current promotions and information about different community events and charity events from all over the world.

 

  Starbucks also has a youtube channel where they have a multitude of videos related to  many topics. The channel is split into several youtube categories that relate to different countries where starbucks is operated, as well as content about the company, the coffee and music and even jobs! The videos are short and informational with lots of content. In conclusion Starbucks has a wide social media presence that seems to be growing the culture of the company as well as the brand.

Week 11

twitter.com/hey_lioi

 

1.) Business2Community: I chose this as the most effective twitter account that I followed because they post helpful and relevant information on all things social media marketing.

2.) Guorilla Media: Guorilla Media is a company thats based around social media. I ranked them second due to the lack of posts that are available to followers on a daily basis. They do provide some excellent sources to forums and how to articles to help promote social media marketing to new users.

3.)HubSpot: HubSpot is a software that creates and helps to implement marketing material to social media users. They post relevant content to social media but don’t effectively explain what their software does and how it works. I had to do a bit of digging before I was able to find out what they were all about.

Twitter Guidelines:

1.) Post relevant content that markets to all followers

2.) Have a good information section that explains the who,what,where,why of the service/organization you are trying to market.

3.) Have frequent posts. There’s nothing more annoying then having a company post too much content, and the exact opposite for companies that don’t post enough content to keep users happy. Twitter accounts need to be updated enough to keep users interested without posting too much.

Facebook Page reviews

Facebook Fan Page: Ford Motor Company

 I feel that this is the most effective facebook fan page of the few that I chose. As I looked through this page I noticed that there were no negative comments from other users, and everything that was posted had relevance to Ford. I liked that this company actually encourages its followers to post pictures and content. I also noticed that its followers felt like they all had a personal connection to the company. Ford also commented on followers posts with responses that felt genuine and personalized without focus on selling anything. 

 

 

Facebook Fan Page: Mazda

After looking through the page for Mazda I feel that this is the second most effective. This page also encourages users to post pictures of their Mazda’s past and present and participate in conversations about the vehicles and technologies used in Mazda vehicles. Most of the followers have positive things to say, and generally support the company. One thing that I found annoying with this fan page was a repeated negative comment on every single post Mazda made. A disgruntled Mazda owner was complaining about a component failure on his vehicle and felt that spamming the facebook page was a good idea. As a Mazda owner, I feel that Mazda should at least address the issues of the customers posting on their page instead of ignoring the posts. 

 

Facebook Fan Page: Massive Attack

 This page is a bit different from the others. Massive Attack one of the many groups I listen to on a regular basis. Most artists use their fan pages to promote themselves and sell products like tshirts, and cd’s while Massive Attack has almost no content that relates to the group itself. This is the least effective of the three pages I’ve reviewed this far. The content of the group’s page is primarily concentrated on other artists and political news. 

 

Facebook vs. Google+

 After looking at both Facebook and Google+ I feel that for marketing purposes Facebook is a better choice. The user base for Facebook is much larger giving the brand or company a better base for clientele. Although the user base for Facebook is much larger than Google+, Google gives the user an option to join ‘circles’ or groups of friends. This allows the google+ page to be tailored much easier to specific audiences. This makes it easier for Google+ users to find things they might be interested in. Another feature of Google+ is the ability to have video chats, or ‘Hangouts’. This would allow for in depth product reviews or demos giving the end user a better idea of a brand or product. 

 

Week 6

   For this weeks assignment we were asked to do a review of our classmates blogs and find two that we really liked. I first read through a post by Nicole Markham entitled “Marshall Mcluhan”. My first impression of the blog posting is that its extremely well written. The overall layout of the blog post allows for an easy read about a topic that has a few topics that can be confusing if not explained properly. I also liked the use of analogies in the text. http://confusedkarma.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/crowd-sourcing/

   The second blog that I discovered was from LeShay Weaver, and was entitled “McLuhan Tetrads and Social Media/Social Media Marketing”. There were several things that I liked about this posting. I liked the example that was given that demonstrated each aspect of the Mcluhan Tetrad. I also liked that the blog was written in a way that everything made sense. McLuhan Tetrads and Social Media/Social Media Marketing

   The other portion of this assignment was to discover other blogs related to social media. I ran across one written by Scott Monty, the global head of social media for Ford. I find that his posts are enlightening and bring about knowledge on trends that he is noticing online. The first blog post I read, entitled “When Did We Get so Nasty” talks about the negativity that’s being used in online advertisements and social media. This blog not only discusses negativity found in corporate blogs, or posts, but also in personal social media. Scott shows a picture of a status update posted on his Facebook earlier this year. In his post he challenges his friends to post positive feedback on something related to the political party that they follow without posting negative things about opposing parties. He claims that at first it worked, but quickly faded and people again began to relate negative things on social media. Towards the end of his post he talks about how at Ford they focus on the positive aspects of business and do not interfere or post negative things related to their competitors. http://www.scottmonty.com/2012/08/when-did-we-get-so-nasty.html

 

  The second blog I read from Scott was entitled “5 Customer-Centric Tips for Small Businesses”. I really enjoyed this post because it shared good relevant information that was presented in a different way. This post utilized an info-graphic that broke down all five steps in a manner that was simple and easy to read. The content in this post talked about how to get feedback from customer for a business in five easy steps. Scott discusses that one needs to capture an email, and then provide customers with content through a marketing email. Scott also talks about how to receive free reviews by sending review requests to customers that use sites like Yelp!, a free online business review system. The last thing that is discussed in this post is the most essential piece to online marketing, feedback. Scott talks about listening to the feedback of your customers to help improve your business and attract more clientele. http://www.scottmonty.com/2012/07/5-customer-centric-tips-for-small.html

 

 

 

Week 4

http://www.slideshare.net/Griner/how-to-create-a-social-media-strategy

 

 

 

The presentation that I found relates to the presentation given in the week four materials. Both of the presentations discuss the importance of having the customer be the focus of the content posted online. They also both discussed the importance of using a multitude of strategies to provide an excellent experience for the end user. Each presentation discussed the importance of creating content that encourages interaction with the brand through social media. An example of this is the creation of the salt and pepper shakers characters from a tv commercial. The company encouraged its followers by asking them to upload videos and participate in contests. 

 

If given the option to change something with the Marketing Plan semester project I would remove the powerpoint presentation. I feel that this aspect of the project would result in wasted time on the students behalf. I also feel that the powerpoint presentation would not be completed with a normal amount of effort since it’s not going to be presented to an audience. I would also change the focus of the project to allow students to create a brand or service of their own. I feel that this would make it easier on the student to identify the target audience, and create relevant content. I do like the fact that  a professor is taking the time to ask the students how they feel about a particular assignment. Often times it feels that semester projects are drawn out and content is not always quite clear.

Blog #2

Themes of social media marketing:

Time and commitment: The links talk about how to be successful by managing the time and effort put into each of the posts on the social media site of choice. This time should be spent understanding the end user and what they like. Time should also be spent focusing only on the product/service the page is about.

Focus:Time should be spent focused only on the service/ product that the user is trying to publicize.

Planning: The user should take time to plan and set guidelines as to what will be posted and in what manner of time they will be presented. A good user will have an idea in mind and perfect it before it is presented to the end user. This ensures that the content will be relevant to the interests of the end user and or service/ product that is being displayed.

Engagement: The social media site that a user chooses should include some sort of engagement. For example a user can ask its followers to vote, comment, or choose allowing the end user to have a more personal connection with the company or brand. This will also help to spread the page to people with the same interests.

Platoform: A user should select a primary platform where most of the content will be posted. This content should be up to date and relative to other content posted.

http://www.copyblogger.com/social-media-marketing-steps/

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2173225/habits-highly-effective-social-media-marketers

http://www.1to1media.com/weblog/2011/12/10_steps_toward_effective_soci.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/russprince/2012/08/17/are-you-effectively-using-social-media-for-business-development/

http://www.bitrebels.com/social/5-effective-social-media-strategies-infographic/

http://www.dreamgrow.com/how-to-plan-an-effective-social-media-strategy-for-business/

Blog #1

  Through my research I learned that social media marketing is a very successful and new approach to advertising. I learned that social media has now integrated itself into all aspects of the web, allowing one to share, create, post, and comment on just about every aspect of life. Social media marketing has given companies ways to promote products and services through many outlets online. For instance companies will create twitter and facebook pages that provide more information about products and services, and users can ‘like’ pages which in return gain more and more traffic. This also allows companies to engage their customers more by allowing for feedback. This also allows individuals to gain publicity as well. For instance an artist may create a page on soundcloud, or last.fm to broadcast their music and allow for instantaneous purchases of music. The use of blogging has also become a popular way for individuals to share stories and gain inspiration. 

 

Links I used:

http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/what-is-social-media-marketing.htm

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/subject/code/000037/homepage/museum_of_social_media__home.htm

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1948-7169.2010.00050.x/asset/j.1948-7169.2010.00050.x.pdf?v=1&t=h6jg4hi4&s=d5d53e48b40f6de593476b47ea383cdcbad6cc37