Happy Foursquare Day!!

If you are in the New York City area on April 16th, it would only be polite of you to turn to your neighbor and wish him/her "Happy Foursquare Day". It true, Foursquare has created social media history and now has an established holiday in 14 cities, including New York City. New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, stated, "With Foursquare leading the way, we look forward to this generation's innovators and entrepreneurs making their mark on our city in the years to come."

With Foursquare being created in 2010, it has already connected with 8.5 million users. By utilizing the media attention generated by its "Foursquare Day", they hope to increase consumer and business awareness and participation. So far, there have been over 7,500 local businesses within New York City and a quarter million globally that have been able to find new customers everyday utilizing foursquare.

I personally am excited to see how this trend catches on throughout the United States. I love how this genius idea of creating a "holdiay" out of your brand can truly spread virally to other states,cities,businesses, and consumers.

Dell: Thank you for clicking us.

After having difficulties with my computer, I called the Dell helpdesk with my dying need for technological help. After answering a few questions, I was asked if I would be interested in utilizing their TechCenter feature. Not knowing what this was, of course I agreed. They asked me to not touch the mouse for a few minutes and that they will solve the problem for me. The next thing I knew, a technician from their location was moving the mouse on my computer and fixing the issue at hand. I was intrigued and asked what else they used this feature for. I was amazed when one of his answers was tracking social media.

A firm's main concern with the implementation of social media plan is the unclarity of the ROI. How do you define the process, or more importantly, how are you able to track your progress? For the past few years, Dell computers has become a leader in being able to provide their CEO's with results coming from their social media plans. Through TechCenter, the Dell staff is able to put together the positive correlation between people taking about Dell and then purchasing their product. Also, Dell utilizes various vendors and create a rating and review system at the presence of other consumers. They were able to determine that prospective customers that read reviews and ratings of other customers are 138% more likely to purchase.

The most useful social media plan that Dell has recently implemented is their Social Media Command Center. Within this center, they have people watching the 22,000 people that are discussing issue, experiences, and details about the brand. By having this, they can track the positioning of the consumer and also divide the conversation/issue that is being discussed to the right department, in order to become more efficient.  

Dell put the emphasis on the right platforms of social media, including the ability to track ROI, therefore have created a very successful campaign that covers both marketing and public relations for the firm. So Dell, this is to you, I am confident that you will be able to track this post.

1 Friend Request-- Barack Obama

WARNING: This blogger does not intend to voice any political view via her sarcasm.

Throughout this course, we have learned how vital social media is for the consumer, businesses, politicians----whoa! wait! Politicians?! Yes, it is true, even politicians. Better yet, even the United States President. It is official, President Barack Obama has entered the Facebook world.  

Although it is a possibility that Pres. Obama's sole purpose of a Facebook is to reach his family, all over the world, conveniently while sharing Christmas photos of the kids, we must be realistic. What is a politicians dream--to have the access to billions within one place. To be able to spread their message, beliefs, and background virally. Barack Obama has taken political campaigning to the next level by entering into social media!

As we are all aware of the different tools used via Facebook, Obama is able to reach out to his demographics, perform market research on his fans, and be able to provide a two line announcement including campaigning events and press releases.

Just browse around your "people you may know" link and see if you find your United States President, Barack Obama. Be careful, he might take it offensively if you "ignore" his fan page request.

Reputation Is Built Upon Character----Or Twitter

Since you were young, I am sure that you parents always told you to do the right things in life in order to form a good reputation. Constantly, thereafter, they reminded you of how sensitive your reputation may be and how to protect it with good honor. Is this all that it takes for a business to create a good reputation?

Unfortunately, it takes much more than ethics to create a good reputation in the consumer's mind. The majority of businesses today have formed a Web Reputation Systems team that focuses mainly on building a positive reputation via the web including social media platforms. A few years ago, employers would request that their employees signed onto the website and insert relatively accurate perceptions of the consumer, but leaving out the curse words and screaming attitudes. Being that this is completely unethical, the alternative has created a free field of play for the consumer and their opinion.

Along with innovations, companies have expanded their process of customer feedback. Some companies allow limited feedback, using a ranking system that includes a star ranking or a "like" button. Some companies included unlimited feedback, which includes blogs, discussion boards, video/picture uploads, and even audio voice recordings. Along with these options that are provided to you upon the employer, the consumer is also voicing their opinion of you/your product to their personal networking sites including Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Now that businesses have began to catch on, to what can be compared to a virus, this form of reputation being formed; they are creating disaster relief teams that research what is being said on the web and are trained to assist the problem immediately. The example that was given in my class was Delta Airlines, although usual forms of communication had been used, a few post on social media websites was quickly found and delt with immediately so the "virus" couldn't spread any further.

A businesses' reputation in general is a necessary tool, a reputation shared in general can become a deciding factor for their success. Although you cannot predict how a consumer may react to your product, accurate training, implementation, and execution is key to creating a great reputation on the web.

Charlie Sheen- Yeah, I said it!

                                                        
I have always heard, "sometimes bad publicity spreads faster than good publicity"; If this is the case, then Charlie Sheen has perfected it. Mostly everyone is familiar with Charlie's lifelong array of bad decisions that has now led him into more of a spotlight than the Pope. Through out the past few months, Charlie's personal social network sites have hit the jackpot, breaking world records.

Charlie's personal Twitter broke a record of 900,000 followers within 24 hours of his first tweet. Sheen contacted Ad.ly, a small Beverly Hills startup that focuses on celebrity endorsements via Facebook and Twitter, to help launch his account. His first "tweet" was a picture of him and one of his many girlfriends, with a caption that stated: "Winning..! Choose your Vice..." The phrase "#winning" has become a very popular tweet on Twitter.

By creating this account, Charlie is able to provide his audience with insight of what all is going on, but from a more personal perspective than, say, the news reports. One of the publishers that work for Ad.ly stated, "It is inevitable that brands will be lining up to work with him. That time will come sooner rather than later."

From a marketing standpoint, Charlie should take this opportunity to not only reach out to his audience, but also change the image that they have formed of him and his character on television. Although bad publicity is what brought him the majority of his recent fame, good publicity could help the fame stay around in the long run.

Trent Bedding Campaign

In the Bowling Green area, social marketing is becoming a new trend among local businesses. They have found the importance of social marketing and are learning the techniques needed to implement a successfully campaign. One specific business that has been the first to create a highly successful campaign in this area is Trent Bedding.

When discussing advertisements that are viewed on televisions, most local residents are aware of Trent Bedding's. Trent, himself, is known for creating and being involved in his business' advertisements while bringing a fun atmosphere to the viewer. In the past, he has created his own jingle (which would be stuck in your head for days), come up which store slogans which created a good positioning in the consumer mind, and provide promotions that were hard to compare with the competitor.

Trent's new form of advertising was using social media via Facebook and television. Through his television commercials he promoted a contest available to his Facebook friends(Trent Bedding Contest). The contest included creating a 30 second commercial for Trent Bedding and uploading it to the official Facebook page. Once the video was uploaded, the person who received the largest amount of "likes" on their video had the opportunity to receive up to $2000 dollars worth of prizes provided by other local businesses. The commercial would then take the place of Trent's usual commercials on T.V. By promoting the contest via television, he was able to reach out to local residents, including WKU students, and bring them to the store's Facebook page.

The contest was a huge success, having over 20 people take the time to put together a commercial along with a combination of 1,200 "likes" among all videos. I can personally say that I had never been to Trent Bedding's Facebook page until I was asked by one of my Facebook friends to "like" her video. This amount of publicity is amazing for a local business and will hopefully encourage people to revisit the site often to check out other opportunities and promotions. Be sure to keep your eyes out for the winner's commercial! It could be your next door neighbor!

Keep It Coolatta

Whenever you think of Dunkin' Donuts, your first instinct is usually a given, donuts. Two summers ago, Dunkin' Donuts came up with a very successful campaign that helped create an image of incentives instead of donuts. By racking their brains, the marketing team came up with a campaign that involved offline brand experience with online social media promotions.

In June of 2009, Dunkin' Donuts introduced their newest addition to their line, the Coolatta. Dunkin' Donuts used a Facebook Fan Page strategy combined with some Twitter help, @dunkindonuts to promote the idea of the campaign and attract more traffic to the fan page. Their main idea was to gain access to friends of friends while helping brand advocates to feel equally rewarded and recognized. They came up with a campaign called "Keep It Coolatta". They utilized their Facebook Fan Page (which includes over 800,000 fans) and asked the consumer to post a photo of themselves with any Coolatta beverage to the fan page wall along with a caption that states #CoolattaGiveaway, and updated their profile with the picture. The prizes that were offered were iPhones, JetBlue vouchers, a flat screen TV and more.

While learning more about this campaign and the success that it brought, I believe that this proves that by using unique and fun ideas within your campaign, you potentially will attract a larger number of your target audience. Also, by combining on-line and offline experiences, you are bringing loyalty and opportunity to your customer instead of waiting on them to choose you.

Dunkin' Donuts is hoping that the campaign will inspire the masses on Facebook to participate in other upcoming campaigns, allowing them to stay in-touch with the consumer. 



 

YouTube: Expand Your Business Today!

Whenever you are asked what is your favorite commercial, you are probably quick reply. As times are changing constantly, the new common question asked is to name your favorite YouTube Video. YouTube, as most of you know, is a world-wide video-sharing community. Someone, some where is creating a marketing video go viral as we speak. This newly innovated form of social media could help promote your brand with the consumer in numerous ways.

Because of our media-driven society, we as the consumer absorb more information from watching a television advertisement or a video. While researching the benefits of YouTube for a business, I came across a website that provides 10 tips that all marketing executives should keep in mind while utilizing YouTube.

1. Find the right content for you brand. What will your audience find beneficial? Hospitality and consumer packaged goods companies are probably going to have vast differences in what audiences need or want to hear.
2. Use real people. Brangelina and Bennifer sell movie tickets, but YouTube videos surge with real people doing real things.  It never ceases to amaze how an unknown person can help drive awareness or interest talking about personal experiences.
3. Give people something to do. Don’t just focus on the video view number – quantify what action you are driving. And how do you do that? Tell people in the video what they should do!
4. Use Humor (or other type of emotion). Video is more powerful than other mediums because it brings audio, visuals and movement together in one package.  That in itself creates a feeling in viewers. Embrace this opportunity and incorporate funny discussion, serious points of view or other aspects that make your content tap into emotions and thus more impactful (and memorable).
5. Add an element of surprise. Product tours and client interview rock. But sometimes, when the topic warrants it, a surprise element, comment or visual can grab attention and bring your corporate video from underwhelming to unforgettable.
6. Tag. And tag. And tag some more. How do people find content on the web? Search. And how do they find content on the web? Tags. Enough said.
7.  Include your logo or contact info. We’ve all seen some of the most unforgettable videos on YouTube and thought – I wonder who made that? Don’t let your video become a hit without providing branding on who you are and how people can get in touch.
8. Annotate. The next generation of video gives viewers the opportunity to actually interact with the content. And on YouTube, that’s exactly what annotations offer – the ability to click on a live link or read a back-story while they watch.
9. Embed across your channels. Tagging will help organic video search greatly, But embedding videos on your own owned media channels ensures that you reach the people in your community.
10. Reach out and share. Don’t limit your sharing to embeds on your channels. Reach to reporters, bloggers or brand advocates to share on your behalf. Get creative in who you can share with to make a bigger splash. (10 tips while using YouTube)

These tips could really boost a business' positioning in the consumer mind as well at the ability to become aware of the products benefits. A marketer has the potential to reach their target market by also uploading this video to other social media outlets including the business' facebook page, twitter, website, etc.

By having the potential of turning a boring demostrational video into a blockbuster production is just another way that social media is taking over, reaching out, and influencing the consumer on a day-to-day basis.

Office Max: Elf Yourself

WARNING: Although we are all trying to escape from the Christmas season and only look into the future filled with buttercups and butterflies, I am going to ask that you find that little bit of "Ho Ho" that you have left while reading this blog.  

"Go Elf Yourself". No, this is not me being rude and showing the Scrooge side of Christmas. This is Office Max's way of providing social media in a convenient way  to the consumer. In 2006, Office Max teamed up with the ecard provider, JibJab, and created a new exciting way to send an ecard for the holiday season.

Elf Yourself, allows the consumer to upload pictures from their own computer while personalizing an electronic holiday card. You begin by choosing the amount of people (or pets) that you would like to include in the card. You then upload your personal pictures and begin cropping them to fit the Elf's face. After completion, you just sit back and watch the entertainment of the elf's dancing to a holiday tune. 

"The campaign, created by New York-based independent agency Toy and San Francisco-based EVB, led to the creation of more than 122 million elves during that holiday season. It increased site traffic and generated a number of wannabes and spin offs, driving sales and brand awareness, according to the judges." (Elf Yourself) Office Max utilized various social media outlets and made this feature available on Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.

Office Max used this exposure to their benefit. After you created your ecard, they offered the service of emailing the ecard to friends and family, creating a different ecard that you could get printed off and mailed to your residence. They also listed the many other services that Office Max offers as far as holiday cards, merchandise specials, and their newly added postal service. By promoting these, they were able to accumulate a word of mouth advertisement and free publicity. Before they knew, the term "Go Elf Yourself" was an expression of every one's holiday spirit.

Deciding factor: Social Media

Whenever you first hear of someones name being told in a story, that sounds familiar to you, what is your first instinct? Take the time to ask the person telling the story to give you a brief description of the person? Generally not; we sign onto Facebook and look them up. By doing so, we not only see what the person looks like, but we can also see which friends we have in common, which usually leads to how we might know the person. Employers do this same type of research while determining future employees.

It is vital that we would use the old saying ,"Don't do anything that you wouldn't mind if your grandmother found out", while promoting our name on social media outlets including facebook and twitter. Being that both of these are both used for more personal use than for business purposes, it is very easy to slack on keeping them "clean". On other social media outlets including LinkedIn and WorldPress, which are highly looked at from a professional standpoint from employers, it is important that you 100% completed with your page, and also 100% confident in the material that is posted. The majority of employers will not take the time to look at the page unless it is completely finished.

Because of day-to-day new innovations, the competition level is increasing at a high rate. In Dan Schawbel  article, 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media, prospects are using these social media outlets in order to create a better brand image for themselves in comparison to the competition. By uploading an online resume onto YouTube, you are showing the employer that you are technology friendly and willing to try new options in order to set yourself apart from the rest. Employers are also catching onto this trend by having online job interviews via Skype. Your lack of interest or knowledge in this field could honestly become a huge disadvantage to you in this day and time!

Social Media: Hop on the train or get left in the dust

As young adults, social media has become prevalent within our society. Our generation has not only become familiar with social media sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube), but we have developed a passion for them. In Paul Gillin's book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, he states that the average young adult checks their Facebook 18 times within their day-to-day activity. This allows us to become an asset to marketing teams’ nationwide because of our common knowledge with this new trend of marketing. On that note, by the time we are reaching our mid-thirties, what will college graduates at the time have an expertise in that makes our knowledge of social media look like a type writer in an un-air-conditioned press shop.

For most businesses, they reference to social media as a way to supercharge their marketing efforts. Not only are these techniques cost efficient, but they also allow the business to increase their ability to relate to the consumer on a more personal basis. While watching the movie, Social Media, I was amazed at the rapid growth that was formed within communities on the websites.

As far as the debate weather social media is permanent-vs.- a fad, it is hard to determine because of the increase of innovation throughout the past 20 years. I by no means believe that social media will ever become non-existent, rather than the strength of technology and new innovations will allow for new outlets and application within social media.

As a child growing up, the newest trend of communication was MSN instant messenger and AOL instant messenger. Less than 10 years later, Facebook has formed including an instant messenger application allowing users to instantly chat with other users. Businesses have also including this feature within their company websites allowing customers to have an instant chat with a customer service representative instead of the hassle of an hour and a half wait on the phone just to explain your confusion with a hard to comprehend and insensitive representative. This hassle and frustration could instantly change the consumers’ mind of purchasing your product then or in the future. By providing this convenience, you can improve your brand image by perfecting the answer before actually submitting it to the customer, allowing for less harsh

I am intrigued to see the continuance of social media along with the new innovations that will come along. In this techno-focused world, it is our responsibility to stay on board with the consumer by becoming a relatable source allowing them the ease of shopping, researching, and communicating with your business. We should focus on staying turbo-charged in order to reach buyers directly.