Thursday 7 January 2016

Social media

About 8 years ago, If I was to ask if you saw that tweet or liked that post I’m 99% sure you would think I’ve lost my mind. Today, however, social media has become such a huge part of our lives that we don’t even recognise it anymore. We don’t realise that we are being subjected to countless images and news stories through social media that is helping us to form and shape opinions. It wasn’t until I lost my phone about a month ago that I realised just how much I would check Twitter or Google+. In her book ‘Social Media: How to engage, share and connect’, Regina Luttrell defines social media as “Media designed to be disseminated through social interaction”. Something that spreads through the internet.

Social Media is bigger now than ever. For example, a huge section of the industry revolves around Youtube and ‘YouTubers’. While the name ‘Zoella’ or ‘Tyler Oakley’ may mean absolutely nothing to you, a whole combined generation of nearly 18 million people watch their every moves on Youtube. Organisations have realised the power that some of this people have has opinion leaders and use them as a door into the young adult market.

Social Media has allowed organisations to adopt two way communication easier than ever. It has revolutionised how organisations connect with their audiences and create new and creative marketing campaigns.
bananabunker(1)
At the beginning of the year, Groupon posted a new product to their Facebook page called a ‘Banana Bunker’. People. Went. Mad. The unique shape of the product prompted thousands of comments on the seemingly harmless item. This led to some amazing and invented comments back from the Groupon Facebook page. According to Bill Roberts (in this adweek post), the head of Global communications at Groupon, they knew there was going to be a storm coming. The ‘Banana Bunker’ sold out even before the post went viral and it became one of their most interacted with posts on the site. Groupon knew and estimated the response this product would receive from Social Media so they decided to make the best out of a bad situation.

Social Media allowed Groupon to advertise and market a product of theirs in a unique way. If they posted it in a Newspaper or other print based media then the response and desired outcome of the communication wouldn’t have been as desirable.

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