Week 4 - Planning

When a business is new to the world of social media it is important that a plan is put in place first; a social media strategy plan.

This plan will differ for every business, however, an analysis of competitors and what they are doing should always be included along with distinct goals and objectives as well as implementation steps to achieve these.

This is extremely significant in the potential success of the business as social media is one of the biggest ways that businesses now market products/services, due to benefits including low cost and ability to reach a large audience.

Week 3 - Technographics

Groundswell:

“Groundswell” is a social trend where people use social technologies to get what they need.
People use these technologies by:
* Generating blogs, web content and podcasts.
* Connecting in social networks and virtual worlds.
* Collaborating in wikis and open source.
* Reacting in forums, ratings and reviews.
* Organizing content with tags.
* Accelerating consumption with RSS and widgets.

There are five main objectives (aligned with business functions) for participating in social technology such as Twitter:
* Listening (Research) – mentions of our company
* Talking (Marketing) – useful, helpful tweets
* Energizing (Sales) – finding people who write about you and re-tweeting
* Supporting (Support) – customer support
* Embracing (Development) – get ideas on how to improve products
“Don’t bother setting up a Twitter account and tweeting links to your press releases–you won’t get a whole lot of followers. Instead think about what you can offer that might get picked up and repeated by others.” (Groundswell, page 203)

The greatest contribution of groundswell is possibly the classification of different types of users of social media as =
* Creators – may create blogs, websites, etc.
* Critics – participate in communities, blogs, commenting, etc.
* Collectors – bookmark websites
* Joiners – join communities e.g. Facebook
* Spectators – just read
* Inactive – don’t use social media at all

Week 2 - Digital Identity

When addressing my own personal social media and digital footprint it is now apparent through these readings I am not very cautious. Although I have privacy settings set which allow only my friends to view my content and I also only accept friend requests from people I know (being tagged as shoes by girls isn't a good look) I have never worried too much as to what others post on my wall or what they may tag me in - this may need to be addressed before potential future employers Facebook stalk me.

Week 1 - Social What?

If social media is a continuum what are its characteristics? What is and what is not social media, and how does it relate to other terms like web 2.0, eMarketing, or word of mouth marketing?   What are some of the examples of social media used for marketing and how does their use differ?

When referring to social media as a continuum; it has been suggested that ‘social’ would be on one side of the continuum and ‘media’ on the other. Characteristics of social media include conversation, information, sharing of knowledge, opinions, friendships and relationships, along with social and professional network connections. Some popular forms of social media are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Wikis. Emails and Word Of Mouth are not classified as social media.

Web 2.0 and eMarketing relate to social media as this involves a product, person, service or idea being marketed and placed online and having the ability or potential to reach a large audience. Word of mouth can be both positive and negative and requires an individual to express their opinion or views on a product/service to another individual, which may or may not encourage them to become a consumer.

Read Chialdini (Chapter 7 Scarcity) and share your opinion on parental control for Social Media. Is it a good idea? Will it work?

Parental control for young children and potentially even teenagers is a good idea. The internet as a whole can be dangerous especially when it comes to social media as children may become a victim of cyber-bullying, give out too much information, not fully understand privacy settings,  or not even be aware of who they are speaking to with the continual rise of fake accounts. However I believe it would only work if there is trust between parent and children and also ongoing open communication.

How can reactance theory be used to advantage by marketers? Can you think of a few real life examples?

The Reactance theory refers to when an individual feels forced towards one option, this will usually influence them to go the other way and perhaps through a direct competitor. This can be used as an advantage by marketers; as a competitor may be extensively over-marketing their product to the given market so much that the consumer feels influenced or compelled to go to through a different option.