Alexander Pick
Wendy's Facebook Page
I did my third assignment on the Wendy's Facebook page. I did my assignment on this page because I have never been a huge Wendy's fan and wanted to see if their use of social media could sway my opinion. I concluded that Wendy's was effectively able to use their social media page as a marketing asset. Their page was very involved yet easy to navigate for the everyday user.
The Wendy's page did very well in updating their flow of content regularly and providing portals for user/company dialogue and user interaction. As I scrolled down the page, I could see pictures of new deals, comedic videos promoting new menu items, and videos/pictures of celebrities and ordinary people interacting with the product. Below these videos and pictures was space for users to comment on the products mostly with positive things to say. Wendy's would then encourage a dialogue by responding with encouraging and appreciative statements. There was no restriction on comments and even the most negative of such were taken into consideration in the company's response. These three things created a positive, attractive atmosphere that made me want to keep scrolling down, the very point of social media marketing.
The page also utilized premiums and participatory events, although in a far less ostensible manner. They had a small window titled "events" where individuals could click on different offers going around the country. One such offer was to attend the Wendy's America Tour where all individuals in attendance would receive a free cheeseburger. They also were hosting a t-shirt design contest and were encouraging individuals to participate by giving out free t-shirts and gift cards. The only reason why this was not as effective as the three aforementioned topics was because the event icon was fairly small and not totally conspicuous.
Despite that, however, I'd sat the Wendy's Facebook page is a very effective social media site. It did very well in getting users involved by showing countless examples of their products/deals and promoting them in very creative ways. They also attracted even the cheapest potential consumer by giving opportunities to get free merchandise and products with very simple participation. Also shown on the page is the amount of Facebook users who have liked the page, 4.4 million, which clearly indicates the popularity of the company.
Brielle Villablanca
Vince Camuto on Campus Facebook Page
Vince Camuto is a clothing brand known for being on top of trends and touting fashionable and fun merchandise. Interestingly enough, I never knew about or followed them until last year, when I discovered their “Vince Camuto on Campus” Facebook page. The first thing to note is the fact that this “On Campus” page is not their main Facebook page, but is dedicated to all things college. I first discovered them when a friend of mine became their campus representative and invited me to like the campus page. While I usually get annoyed with brand’s Facebook pages and unlike them, this was different. Obviously, the content was something I was interested in; however, the content was presented in different and engaging ways that prompted me to both visit their Facebook page as well as their online store, and shop.
The Vince Camuto On Campus Facebook page made great use of premiums to engage their audience. They would send their campus representatives boxes full of Vince Camuto branded items, and the reps would go to sorority houses and campus events to give them away and raise brand awareness. They also had highly engaged participation; for example, they created “Campus Hunts” during which their campus representatives would put on scavenger hunts on their respective campuses. The first person to reach the end of the scavenger hunt would receive a box full of fun Vince Camuto freebies. They also had ways of displaying user-generated content, in which they would ask people to submit photos of their favorite outfits, or create a collage of their ideal Vince Camuto wardrobe – the person who got the most likes on their submission would win exclusive Vince Camuto items.
In terms of a customer service portal, they only really have their Facebook page, on which about half of the user’s questions seem to get answered – they could use this more to their advantage. Finally, their content flow is effective, as they post different and engaging materials regularly (I click on their links at least once a week), but they don’t post too often to where I feel overwhelmed and compelled to dislike the page. Overall, Vince Camuto on campus does a great job of creating content and keeping their users and followers engaged.
Patagonia Facebook Page
Patagonia, a sustainable outdoor clothing company, manages a social media presence that is effective at not only building awareness of its business practices, but also centralizing a virtual community that promotes the lifestyles of its products. To be a Patagonia consumer is to be a healthy active individual with concerns for the environment. So how does this message get conveyed? Within Patagonia’s social media management on Facebook, content created provides updates about the latest products, promotional material about “ambassador” athletes wearing Patagonia gear, thematic outdoor photo displays, environmental advocacy posts with events to attend, and finally, requests for consumers to submit their own content using Patagonia products. All of these elements contribute to powerful marketing campaigns with ‘likes’ numbers growing daily.
In addressing specific features that regularly contribute to successful online social media pages, Patagonia doesn’t possess all of the qualities, but most of them. As many businesses provide incentives known as premiums (free product giveaways) for joining their page, Patagonia doesn’t, but instead provides the most recent information about sales that will be occurring on their website. Sales for Patagonia are typically time sensitive to the consumer, with products oftentimes selling out very quickly online. Followers want to be on the cusp of sales announcements.
Patagonia’s strongest component of their Facebook page is the level of participation consumers are allowed. Examples of this are environmental campaign events that encourage attendance and activism in promoting environmentalism for specific issues like removal of ecologically damaging hydroelectric projects. Frequently, petitions to take political action or protest various issues are posted in the hopes of spurring action. Indirectly, this proves to consumers of Patagonia products that they do not only “talk the talk” but also “walk the walk”.
Patagonia’s page also includes inlets for user generated content exhibiting Patagonia gear in the daily lives of their consumers. One post includes a request for parents to send in photos of their “adorable” kids wearing Patagonia to a “photo community” with the hopes that their photos would be posted on their main Facebook page. To promote this participation, a very young child in a bright green colored fluffy jacket sits in the snow. Even parents feel comfortable putting their kids in Patagonia and as a result the consumers will promote this to other parents.
Patagonia, in addition to providing an environment for consumers to interact, also opens forums for discussion about new products with a customer service “portal”. This often leads to discussions from frequent consumers where people voice their concerns or positive feedback. An example seen on the Facebook page is a discussion about a re-issued Patagonia backpack from the 1980’s where a user made a testament to how she had the same original backpack from then and would therefore encourage anyone to buy it. She found the 1980’s backpack at a thrift store, still intact, and “scored”. This comment generated thirteen likes from other users. One user responded that he was disappointed they were out of a color he liked. Within two hours, a Patagonia representative responded with a phone number he could call to locate his desired color.
The final assessment of Patagonia’s page is the content flow. Patagonia provides new outdoorsy and intriguing content on a near-daily basis. It is no wonder why their page has almost three hundred thousand ‘likes’. Overall Patagonia’s page is a complete and growing success.
Flytoget is the express train between Gardemoen airport in Norway, and the capital city, Oslo.Flytoget is known for its customer orientation and have for this won several awards. Flytoget have previously claimed that they do not want to have Twitter-account, because, according to them self, do this requires a kind of all day and night availability. However, they have decided to create a Facebook page, although this ideally also requires availability outside working hours.
In the way I see it, is this commercial page an effective contributions for social media marketing. The first thing I noticed at the page is that Flytoget really communicate with its customers; every question asked is answered seriously and fast. In other words do their page absolute providing a dialogue environment to communicate with their customers.
Flytoget does not directly gives away premiums to its users on the web page. Still, they post different “ special offers” so users get information about how to travel for free for special occasions, and so on. One example of this was to inform the users that every person with Santa’s hat during December will board for free. The flow is content, they have updates almost once a week, as well as answering question the same day they are asked.
Flytoget offer participation for its users. They have special sections for reviews (where most of their customers are satisfied), they posts special offers, news updates and as mentioned do they opens for questions. They have also sometimes competitions for the users, but these are often in partnership with other organizations, such as the Red Cross.
On the other hand does Flytoget not use Facebook as a way to collect information, like for example through survives given to the users. They have also, as far as I have seen, no daily updates for potential delays, which I think should be a necessary on a page like this. They have no either galleries or showcase-user-submitted materials; however, the relevance of this might be small for an express train to an international airport.
In the way I see it Flytoget uses their page good. I think they have achieved what they want with the page; communication with costumers. Users can easily find information, ask questions and keep them self up to date on offers and price changes. Still, they miss essential information about daily updates and timetables.
Macy’s don’t have much premiums, like giving away free things, but they do have some competitions were you can get some percent of an item. They have also newly closed a Little Stars Photo Contest, where the price was a $12,500 scholarship for a lucky baby.
When it comes to their user-generated content, I will say it is OK. Their galleries are mostly filled up with their own products or pictures that encourage their costumers to give money to charity, which also will get them 15 % off an item. This put Macy’s in a good light, and gives something back to the costumers as well. Some of the pictures also encourage interactions with the costumers, like “Our gorge new Macy’s dress doubles as a Halloween costume! Can you guess who?” This is one of the ways they provide a customer service “portal”. Another way is that they are good at answering users when they leave a message, either under a photo or on the wall. On the “About Macy’s” page, it says that they “welcome your feedback, including your comments, questions, and conversation”, and they also provide a link to their customer service site.
Macy’s have a good content flow because they are good at updating their site on a daily basis. There is mostly advertising for them selves, but once in a while, they have some competitions, which I have already mentioned. To let the users participate, Macy’s create offline events like Fourth of July Fireworks and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The latter has now gotten Macy’s some extra attention. The users have written angry comments about the SeaWorld’s float on the Facebook page that Macy’s will have as a part of the parade. People are furious about Macy’s support of animal suffering. This is not a good attention, and the fact that Macy’s have not responded to those angry comments, doesn’t make it any better. If this case get worse, and Macy’s don’t cancel SeaWorld’s Float, it might affect the sale for a period. Other than that, the users mostly write positive comments about how much they love Macy’s.
I think Macy’s is doing a good job in the way that they update their page on a daily basis, but even dough they provide some events and competitions, the site is quite boring. I think that giving away more free stuff and have more competitions can make the page more visited and maybe the sales better. The fact that they now get so many destructive comments, might make more people visit the page, but it will not make Macy’s Facebook page better after this storm is over. But, they do have a lot of “likes”, and if you want some outfit inspirations, Macy’s can be your page.
Daniel Davis
Gatorade
Gatorade’s facebook page has over 6.5 million likes. It routinely has 100,000 people “talking” about it at a given time. Despite the impressive number of likes and views, I am unimpressed by Gatorade’s page. Based on the content displayed on their page, I feel they do a poor job of using one of their main social media marketing outlets. The Gatorade page lacks premiums, participation, and user-generated content, all of which are key ingredients of successful social media marketing. The Gatorade page does include customer service portals and frequent content flow, however, in my opinion these two aspects of social media marketing are less effective than the previous three aspects that the Gatorade page lacks.
The Gatorade page consists of series of pictures posted by the Gatorade page, not by users, that highlight either the product, or the athletic vision that Gatorade works to promote. Users actively participate via a customer service portal by sharing and commenting on the pictures. The users additionally take advantage of the frequently updated content on the page as they actively engage in discussion of the products and athletic events depicted. What the Gatorade page fails to accomplish is provide users with premiums, participatory outlets, and user generated content opportunities. The page is limited to Gatorade posts, and it lacks premium for Gatorade products or sponsored events. This limits the amount of user involvement on the page due to consumers lacking a motivating reward. Also, there is no option for users to post on the page with their own created content, which hurts participation as well. Gatorade could easily increase their traffic, and user media marketing by increasing the amount of participatory and user-generated they allow, while also incorporating premiums into their page.
Kitsch Couture Instagram
One of my favorite clothing stores downtown Los Gatos has an Instagram page for customers to use. Personally I do believe that this page is doing an effective job of social media marketing because I have first hand experienced its influence. I have gone in to shop in the store because of what I saw on the Instagram account. According to the types of media marketing we learned in class it does an effective job also. In terms of participation they do a great job. They have events like a customer will get up to 20% off their purchase if they participate in their canned food drive for Second Harvest Food Drive. They advertise this on almost every photo that they post. In terms of premiums the Instagram page doesn’t hand out or advertise free merchandise of any sort but they do off discounts on certain days or for events.
The account only has areas for a user or customers to comment on photos of outfits posted but they don’t have User-Generated content necessarily that allows other users to see pictures of customers in the merchandise. Also the Instagram account will follow users back and like their photos as a way to advertise themselves. The commentary section allows user interaction/dialogue via comments about the merchandise posted or even to discuss promotion. Kitsch Couture does to a fantastic job of content flow because they post multiple pictures a day to show new shipments of clothing, accessories and shoes that they have available or suggested looks for seasonal changes.
Dolph Rehbein
FleshLight
FleshLight is a brand of sex toys designed for penetration and marketed primarily towards heterosexual men. Due to the adult nature of their product, the creators and curators of the FleshLight Facebook page have a large amount of creative freedom. This gives them the potential to post comedic content on par with a Louis CK bit as opposed to working with a Jerry Seinfeld airline joke like most other brands. The FleshLight Facebook page effectively uses humor and other pathos to counter the stigma of surrounding male sex toys albeit lacking the support needed for proper participation.
The First thing you see when loading up any Facebook page is the cover photo and profile picture. On this particularly spooky evening the FleshLight Facebook page is sporting a sex toy that is molded into the shape of a vampire’s mouth for its profile picture and a cover photo that states “A Blow Job is Better than no Job”. While these ‘hardy-harr-harr’ jokes clearly check off the Content Flow requirement for any good social media web presence, it also conveys an important message: masturbation using a fake plastic female parts is silly. This alleviates the paramount reason for not owning one of their products, embarrassment. These corny attempts at humor also promote user participation because users are more likely to comment on a funny picture than an image promoting a new type of lube that just hit the market. They also create a space for users to post their own jokes in competition with what is released by the Facebook page.
FleshLight encourages user participation by releasing promotional codes for liking and commenting on their statuses but these only yields about ten to twenty comments per status. This could be a result of lack of support by the chief FleshLight web master or simply because most people would rather not let all of their Facebook friends know (including their 11th grade AP U.S History teacher) that they are a proud owner of a rubber butt hole modeled after a porn star specializing in bukkake. A solution to this problem could be to promote giveaways using more sheltered social media services such as Instagram, Reddit, or Tumblr. There is little communication or dialogue between the company and it’s users so I’d give them a check minus for the customer service portion of their Facebook page.
All in all the FleshLight Facebook page creates a decent environment for users to participate and promote their product. Especially considering the front stage nature of Facebook and the traditionally embarrassing act of using a sex toy. They could improve by promoting user-generated content and updating the page more frequently.
Gina Giarmo
Buffer
The company, "Buffer," functions as a social networking consolidation site, allowing users to use one website to navigate their multiple social media accounts. Geared more toward companies, Buffer provides users with the ability to schedule postings, comments, links, pictures and other information in advance using twitter, Facebook, and linked in. If a company is planning on coming out with a new product, for instance, they may schedule postings and information about the product to appear on different networking accounts at a specified date and time. It is often difficult to stay connected on all fronts professionally online, so it provides an easy alternative to help companies maintain a constant and scheduled connection.
On Saturday, Buffer was hacked. Spam was distributed throughout users' accounts, and posted on their various social media pages. Instead of covering up the attack for as long as possible, and fixing the problem under the radar, Buffer used its own social media pages on Twitter and Facebook to communicate with its users. Employees posted pictures of themselves hard at work trying to fix the hack, and a steady stream of posts continued to explain their progress, as well as apologizing for any inconvenience. Buffer's decision to be open and honest with its users created an extremely receptive dialogue between the company and its users. A start up's security breach that could have been highly detrimental to the future success of the company, actually brought positive attention due to their prompt communication with users via social media. While most companies try to sweep crises under the radar of the consumer, Buffer used their Facebook and Twitter pages to effectively communicate and interact with users in a way that they greatly appreciated.
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