Monday, October 13, 2014
Digital Leadership Blog Post - Week 7
Hi classmates,
Here we are at our LAST blog week of the entire semester! Crazy how fast these weeks flew by. Let's try to make this week the most engaging yet! I think it is a perfect topic for the end of the semester, as well as in line with our Storify final papers right around the corner.... yikes!
This week we are looking at how to measure the success of a social media campaign and evaluate return on investment, or ROI.
This is such a highly debated topic in the industry because there isn't really a "right" way to measure ROI (although, there are some ways that are more effective than others!)
For our readings this week, we are examining two different topics: how to improve your social media performance, and then, how to track that performance and express it's success.
For your blog posts this week - use the reading provided by our professor, and your own experiences, to determine the "best practices" of high social media performance, and then, the most effective ways to track that performance. Feel free to use outside sources and think about how this will relate to your Storify papers.
Happy blogging!
x
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Week 6 Response - Shana Barnes
Wow! Week 6 already! This semester is flying by.
Our group leader, Shana, choose to discuss the topic of employee rights and guidelines when it comes to discussing the workplace on social media. I know for many companies, employees are prohibited from making statements about their company online, and sign social media policy agreements prior to being hired. However, as Shana pointed out in her blog post, employees may be legally protected more than they think when it comes to what they can and cannot say online. However, I personally do not think it smart to post anything negative about your employer online anyway - what are your thoughts on this? When is it appropriate to use social media to talk about your work, and when is it not?
Shana posed these questions for this week:
1. Discuss why (or why not) you believe it is important for employers to have social media policies.
To protect the company, and the employee, I do agree that it is important to have social media policies. Although I think it should be self explanatory, employees should have restrictions on what they can and can't post online. Especially with big corporations. For example, I work for a large pharmaceutical company. A lot of the information that employees are privy to is confidential, and should only be communicated to the public through the appropriate approved channels. If not, the reputation of the company could be jeopardized and wrong information could be distributed. This would put the company in jeopardy, but also the employee. Which is why to protect everyone, guidelines should be in place.
2. 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.
#2. AGREE: Employers may restrict employees’ commercial use of company marks.
I agree with this statement because the use of a company logo on a personal account could confuse the public and to who has ownership and responsibility of what is being said. For example, if an angry McDonalds employee posts on their blog about about McDonalds employee are underpaid and over worked, and they attached the logo with the blog post, consumer may think that someone within McDonalds corporate is stating this, and the identity of the opinion could become confused. Logos for companies should only be used on approved materials put forth by the company as to know confused messages online.
7. DISAGREE: Opinions are largely protected.
I disagree with this policy because I think it is hypocritical to the rest of the NLRB policies. I also do not like it because I think the word "opinion" is too vague and leaves open too many opportunities for misuse. I do not think that the workplace should be discussed on public social media forums in any capacity, and I think any employee, or at least one who wants to keep their job, should refrain. For example, who is to say what is an opinion versus what is fact when discussing work place environments, etc. What may be acceptable to one employee, may not to another, and then this leaves for discrepancies. Also, depending on who the manager is, one employee could have a very different experience with the company than someone else. If an employee has an issue with their work place, they should address it appropriately with Human Resources.
Our group leader, Shana, choose to discuss the topic of employee rights and guidelines when it comes to discussing the workplace on social media. I know for many companies, employees are prohibited from making statements about their company online, and sign social media policy agreements prior to being hired. However, as Shana pointed out in her blog post, employees may be legally protected more than they think when it comes to what they can and cannot say online. However, I personally do not think it smart to post anything negative about your employer online anyway - what are your thoughts on this? When is it appropriate to use social media to talk about your work, and when is it not?
Shana posed these questions for this week:
1. Discuss why (or why not) you believe it is important for employers to have social media policies.
To protect the company, and the employee, I do agree that it is important to have social media policies. Although I think it should be self explanatory, employees should have restrictions on what they can and can't post online. Especially with big corporations. For example, I work for a large pharmaceutical company. A lot of the information that employees are privy to is confidential, and should only be communicated to the public through the appropriate approved channels. If not, the reputation of the company could be jeopardized and wrong information could be distributed. This would put the company in jeopardy, but also the employee. Which is why to protect everyone, guidelines should be in place.
2. 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.
#2. AGREE: Employers may restrict employees’ commercial use of company marks.
I agree with this statement because the use of a company logo on a personal account could confuse the public and to who has ownership and responsibility of what is being said. For example, if an angry McDonalds employee posts on their blog about about McDonalds employee are underpaid and over worked, and they attached the logo with the blog post, consumer may think that someone within McDonalds corporate is stating this, and the identity of the opinion could become confused. Logos for companies should only be used on approved materials put forth by the company as to know confused messages online.
7. DISAGREE: Opinions are largely protected.
I disagree with this policy because I think it is hypocritical to the rest of the NLRB policies. I also do not like it because I think the word "opinion" is too vague and leaves open too many opportunities for misuse. I do not think that the workplace should be discussed on public social media forums in any capacity, and I think any employee, or at least one who wants to keep their job, should refrain. For example, who is to say what is an opinion versus what is fact when discussing work place environments, etc. What may be acceptable to one employee, may not to another, and then this leaves for discrepancies. Also, depending on who the manager is, one employee could have a very different experience with the company than someone else. If an employee has an issue with their work place, they should address it appropriately with Human Resources.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Week 4 Response - Everett Gifford
This week, we are examining a brand known as Munchery. The website can be found here: www.munchery.com. It is actually an awesome company! They are focused on delivering quality and healthy food on weeknights to busy families. Heck, they even pride themselves on having the friendliest delivery drivers around! However, they are just starting out and want to increase business by increasing awareness of their brand.
My classmate Everett poses the following questions for this week:
Questions;
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.
In our text, chapter 3 focuses on how to reach your buyers directly and how different buyers have different personas. Smart marketing consists of creating these personas for a company's brand, almost like a pseudo person, to help the company understand the type of person who would benefit from their product (Scott, 2013).
For example, let's say that the typical consumer for Munchery is a middle aged mother with 1-3 children who works full time. She wants to provide healthy meals to her family, but she is so wrapped up in her work that cooking is the last thing on her mind. She ends up making frozen dinners many nights for her family, and this makes her feel very guilty. Let's call this woman Sally. So now, how should Munchery market their product to Sally? This is an example of creating a persona to help better understand a group of consumers.
Another example of a person for Munchery could be an over worked and under-rested college student, who's interest in cooking is about as much as their interest in writing a term paper. They are trying to stay fit and in shape to look good amongst their peers on campus, but they hardly have time to work out or cook healthy meals. They are also on a tight budget, which tends to lead to frozen dinners and ramen noodles. They do not have a car on campus, so delivery is a must. Let's call this student Greg. How would you market Munchery to Greg?
Do you see how creating these "people" help us to better understand our customers on a more personal level? This is a tactic that most marketing companies use to better evaluate how to position their product or brand.
2.) What outlets do you think are the best means to reach these buyers? And why?
For Sally, I would suggest flyers/coupons in grocery stores, local newspapers, and television advertisements. For Greg, I would suggest using social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to reach him. Greg inevitably spends more time on his laptop than Sally does because he is a student. Sally works all day long and doesn't have easy access to social media at her job - but she does read the paper every morning, watch the morning news, and go grocery shopping on Sundays.
Scott, David. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
My classmate Everett poses the following questions for this week:
Questions;
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.
In our text, chapter 3 focuses on how to reach your buyers directly and how different buyers have different personas. Smart marketing consists of creating these personas for a company's brand, almost like a pseudo person, to help the company understand the type of person who would benefit from their product (Scott, 2013).
For example, let's say that the typical consumer for Munchery is a middle aged mother with 1-3 children who works full time. She wants to provide healthy meals to her family, but she is so wrapped up in her work that cooking is the last thing on her mind. She ends up making frozen dinners many nights for her family, and this makes her feel very guilty. Let's call this woman Sally. So now, how should Munchery market their product to Sally? This is an example of creating a persona to help better understand a group of consumers.
Another example of a person for Munchery could be an over worked and under-rested college student, who's interest in cooking is about as much as their interest in writing a term paper. They are trying to stay fit and in shape to look good amongst their peers on campus, but they hardly have time to work out or cook healthy meals. They are also on a tight budget, which tends to lead to frozen dinners and ramen noodles. They do not have a car on campus, so delivery is a must. Let's call this student Greg. How would you market Munchery to Greg?
Do you see how creating these "people" help us to better understand our customers on a more personal level? This is a tactic that most marketing companies use to better evaluate how to position their product or brand.
2.) What outlets do you think are the best means to reach these buyers? And why?
For Sally, I would suggest flyers/coupons in grocery stores, local newspapers, and television advertisements. For Greg, I would suggest using social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to reach him. Greg inevitably spends more time on his laptop than Sally does because he is a student. Sally works all day long and doesn't have easy access to social media at her job - but she does read the paper every morning, watch the morning news, and go grocery shopping on Sundays.
Scott, David. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Week 2 Response - Dana Jackson
This week, our class leader choose the brand 5 Gum to discuss on our blogs.
She poses the following questions below in regards to the brand's un-spoken "truth or dare" challenge that has not attracted much media attention or had any real advertising done around it.
Q. What strategies could 5 gum use to help get their campaign gain more attention? ( i.e., more brand recognition and awareness) What social media platforms would work best to promote this campaign? Use information gained through this week's readings, or personal knowledge that you may have used on the job in regards to social media strategy.
A. From what I have been able to learn about the campaign, I believe that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram would be the most appropriate platforms to engage users with this campaign. The campaign focuses around the wrapping on an individual piece of gum offering a truth or dare to consumers. I can totally imagine a campaign where users are challenged to take pictures of themselves carrying out the dares: Instagram. Or tweeting about their truths: Twitter. Facebook would be used to just promote the challenge in general and highlight the best truths/tweets and dares/Instagram posts to garner more attention for the overall campaign.
To gain more attention to the brand, the company needs to generate more buzz around this campaign. They can do this by utilizing these three social platforms together to reach consumers were they are already active. According to our text, "the best way to think about social media is not in terms of the different technologies and tools but, rather, how those technologies and tools allow you to communicate directly with your buyers in places they are congregated in right now" (Scott, 2013). Using all three platforms will reach users of different types and interests but ultimately makes sense for the kind of campaign that this is. Instagram utilizes pictures, where Twitter is verbal. Dares = action. Truths = verbal. It makes sense to break it down this way and use a hashtag like #5GumDare or #5GumTruth for each platform. But then, use a fan Facebook page to highlight some of the dares and truths that get the most attention and do daily shout outs to consumers who are participating.
Q.Name an example of another brand that you are familiar with that has had a great marketing idea, but failed to fully implement it successfully. Or, what you think could have been done better in a campaign to make it even more successful.
A: I did some research on marketing campaigns that flopped, and I actually came across this article by CNBC that list the top 10 advertisement fails of the decade. Feel free to check out their top picks, and comment below to let me know if you agree! http://www.cnbc.com/id/41624240/page/1
I want to focus on #2 - LifeLock, a identity theft protection company that had so much belief behind their product, they decided to advertise using the CEO's real security number on all major billboards and TV commercials - basically asking for criminals to attempt identity fraud on the CEO. A number of thieves not only took the dare, but were actually successful at their attempt! Two reported cases spoke of a man who took out a $500 loan in the CEO's name, and another man who used the CEO's information to open up an AT&T account. The CEO had no idea anything was going on until collection agencies started calling him - talk about a little too much steam in one company's engine!
The first mistake here was advertising the CEO's personal social security number on national television - no matter how confident you are in your brand, you should never be cocky to the point that you dig yourself in a ditch, the way LifeLock did. The second mistake, is not knowing your product well enough and accidentally make false guarantees. Perhaps the brand really did believe that they had the most fool-proof security program; but they obviously didn't spend enough time understanding all of the risks associated with making these guarantees and they just looked silly and un-credible for this huge slip up.
References:
Scott, D. M. (2013). The new rules of marketing & PR: how to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, & viral marketing to reach buyers directly (4th ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Com 610 Blog
Hello! This is a test post - I am new to blogger, but will be actively using the site over the next six weeks for my graduate class through Marist College. Please check back soon for updates on my first official blog post.
Erica
Erica
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