Week 7 Response

Hi everyone! Hard to believe we're rounding the home stretch for the semester!

This week Erica Jordan posted a blog on measuring the success of a social media campaign and evaluating ROI (check Erica's blog out here). First, Erica asked us to determine the "best practices" of high social media performance, followed by the most effective ways to track that performance.

For starters, I honestly believe you could ask five different people what the best practices of high social media performance are, and get five different, but right answers. In Return on Influence by Mark Schaefer, he discussed some things to keep in mind for powering high social media performance, a few of them being having a controversial brand, having a strategy, relevance, keeping it real, and making it shareable (Schaefer, 2012).

In order to have high social media performance, a brand (whether it's a person or company) must actually be something that is sought out on the web, because in order to engage there must actually be an audience to engage with. Having a strategy is probably one of my personal key points on this topic. High social media performance is a goal-if there is no strategy to reach that goal how will you ever expect to succeed? Relevance can be comparable to the first point I mentioned- having a controversial brand. As Schaefer stated "you have to ensure that the product is pertinent to each individual and her audience" (Schaefer, pg. 150). Keeping it real is important ethically-if you don't you can't expect to have a positive reputation or feedback. And finally, making it shareable. High social media performance can be acquired rather quickly these days, if the content is shareable. You never know how many followers or likes can pop up over night just from a few shares.

As far as tracking high social media performance, I believe the most effective ways are through analytics and feedback. How many followers, likes, @tweets, retweets, shares, and analysis of feedback are all indicators on where social media performance stands. As mentioned in Return on Influence, many brands use Klout scores to gauge their social media performance across several social media platforms all at once. Klout scores are much more advanced than basic analytics. They not only include what I mentioned above, but also the probability that the content will be acted on in the future as well as the overall influence you have on the network. Needless to say, they are a great, effective way to track social media performance.

-SB

Reference:

Schaefer, Mark W. (2012) Return on Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing. San Francisco, CA. McGraw Hill.

Week 6 Digital Leadership Questions

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great week so far!

This week we've read up on social media policies, security, and privacy. Our assigned readings spanned from setting guidelines for employees in the workplace, to Facebook privacy settings, and a step-by-step social media handbook. 

For this weeks blog post, let's focus on the article posted on the National Law Review about the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) nine most important principles and how they can impact your business. 

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chairs_of_the_National_Labor_Relations_Board

The article points out very contrasting points between what employers can legally prohibit employees from posting: company logos in labor related discussions, company trade secrets, and sexual harassment/work place violence (Halpern, 2012). Employers have every right to try and protect their businesses from garnering a negative reputation and maintaing a positive work environment. Especially in this day in age, where one comment can ricochet into a national headline in the blink of an eye.

But even with all these legal prohibitions, employees still have legal freedoms. Employees can openly discuss workplace conditions, wages, and company performance. They are also legally protected if if they post personal opinions that are not factually correct (Halpern, 2012). It seems that with every legal restriction employers can place in the workplace, employees are also protected to seemingly say what they want, too.


With that being said, here are my questions for you (please provide specific examples and citations to support your points):

Discuss why (or why not) you believe it is important for employers to have social media policies.

Out of the nine principles discussed by the NLRB, chose two that you either agree or disagree with implementing in the workplace, and provide specific examples on why.


Reference:

Halpern, S. (2012, Dec 3). When is Your Company's Social Media Policy an Unfair Labor Practice" Recent NLRB Decisions offer Long-Awaited Guidance for Employers. Retrieved from http://www.natlawreview.com/article/when-your-company-s-social-media-policy-unfair-labor-practice-recent-nlrb-decisions-

Week 4 Blog Response

Hey guys! 

Everett just posted a blog about a new company he works for called Munchery. Munchery is a company where chef’s cook top notch cuisine with fresh ingredients that can be delivered at your doorstep. Probably the coolest thing about the company is that for every meal ordered, they donate a meal for those in need.

image source: www.munchery.com

Everett asked the following questions that have to do with Munchery and buyer personas. 1) What do you think are the buyer persona profiles that munchery.com should be targeting when creating their marketing plan? Please explain how you came to these conclusions.
2.) What outlets do you think are the best means to reach these buyers?  And why?

For starters, there are many details that can be packed into developing buyer persona profiles. As David Meerman Scott mentions in The New Rules of Marketing & PR, these details include goals and aspirations, what their problems are, and how they can be reached (Scott,2013). Scott also mentions that the best way to actually develop buyer personas is through interviewing people. I mean, the best way to get to know the details about people would be by asking them questions about the details, right? I don’t work for Munchery, nor have I every used the company (it’s on the west coast and I’m back east), but I think I know that if the option was available it my city, I would totally order from there all the time. So, I think I have a pretty good shot at a type of buyer persona they should be targeting when creating their marketing plan. I would start with young urban professionals. Why? Because they are still getting used to their workdays and possibly balancing work with grad school, and don’t have the time to cook every night and go shopping regularly. They also value healthy options, as opposed to the greasy burgers and pizza from their undergrad years. They are also socially conscious, and the fact that Munchery donates a meal for every meal ordered is a huge plus and justification for ordering out on any given day at any given time. Convienent, guilt free, and helping those in need. Does it get more awesome than that?

To reach these buyers, I would suggest connecting with online marketplace companies such as LivingSocial and Groupon. It would provide incentive to try Munchery, and it would be advertised on websites that many young and busy professionals check on a daily basis. I would also suggest traditional media channels as well, such as billboards and bus wraps. There is a lot of foot traffic in cities, and people are always looking for convenient, healthy options. That way, there is great opportunity to reach tons and tons of potential buyers.

-SB

Scott, David. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

Week 3 Response- Everett Gifford

Hey guys!

I just finished catching up on Everett Gifford's blog post about the 5 gum marketing campaign...check it out here. He really brought up some interesting points about the "truth or dare" marketing campaign...especially how it's a great way to get people interested in the product, but by no means "unique". Everett compared it to Coca-Cola's current "share a coke" campaign, and how that is also simple, but seemingly a far more successful campaign. It really makes me ponder as to why more effort has not been involved in the 5 gum truth or dare marketing campaign. Sure, it's a catchy incentive by the company..but that doesn't mean hardly any effort in to the actual marketing and advertising will make the product a sensation. Like Everett said, Coke didn't have to do much but pay for some ad space with the tagline "#shareacoke". While it can be considered a small effort on Coca-Cola's part, it sets the overall tone for people to get involved with the product. Maybe that's why I've seen several dozen social media postings of #shareacoke on my personal accounts, and none of 5 gum truth or dares. Needless to say, I agree with Everett when he mentioned that 5 gum should really use some social media incentive to attract attention to their campaign. In order for consumers to be aware of your product, you have to actually raise that awareness. Great post, Everett.

-SB

Week 3 Discussion Post

Reading Dana’s blog about 5 gum’s “truth or dare” was actually the first time I’ve ever heard of the campaign! After researching more, I discovered a few commercials on YouTube that end with the line “play the 5 gum truth or dare challenge and you could win a sensory adventure”. That alone is an incentive right there to buy 5 gum. I would suggest that 5 gum “blows” the campaign up on Twitter. First, they can do that by placing a promoted trending hashtag or ad that will show up on trends and feeds, even if they aren’t following the company. That would at least garner some attention on the campaign in the social media world.

But mostly what I discovered about 5 gum is that the lack overall engagement with consumers on social medial. Their official Twitter account has less than 600 tweets (as of 9/19/14), and there seems to be minimal interaction between the company and people who are hashtagging #5truthordare. The more engagement with consumers, the more likely those consumers are to retweet and hashtag about the campaign, reaching hundreds or thousands of people with every tweet. “Companies that can foster communication, not only between organization and consumer, but also between consumer and consumer, will reap the greatest benefits of the most connected world we’ve ever had” (Kerpen, 2011). So in my opinion, 5 gum’s first step to gain more attention towards their “truth or dare” campaign would be to engage and interact (a lot!) with people who are tweeting about it.

Researching 5 gum’s marketing campaign reminded me of a new brewery that was opening this summer in my neighborhood and attempted a great marketing campaign on social media. It was a similar contest to the Frito Lay chip flavor contest, but this was referring to the brewery naming their “house brew”.  I’m always intrigued with local companies making a name for themselves, so I frequently searched twitter for the companies specific hash tag request that people would post their brew names with. There was a surprising number of people who contributed awesome, creative names to this new craft beer. But, I was very disappointed to see hardly any interaction between the brewery and their contestants. It was somewhat frustrating to see this company build up excitement and encourage everyone to participate, but didn’t contribute much more to the actual process. Had they interacted more, even just by simply retweeting, the company could have garnered so much more attention in so many ways.

Kerren, Dave. (2011).  Likeable Social Media. San Francisco, CA: McGraw Hill 

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi All!!

Welcome to my Com610 Blog! My name is Shana Barnes and I am an Integrated Marketing Communication graduate student at Marist College. I will be regularly posting on this blog for the duration of the course "Social Media Strategies and Tactics". Stay tuned for posts about everything and anything social media. Comments, thoughts, and feedback is welcomed and encouraged so please don't hesitate!

-SB