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Social Media

e-Marketing, facebook, instagram, measurable data, social media, twitter, youtube Leave a comment


The above video has astounding figures, but what is amazing about the numbers presented is they’re 2 years out of date. As the semester draws to an end I’d like to make one last attempt at converting those companies out there who don’t have a functioning online presence to pull it together and make one!

One. Without a relevant Facebook page you are passing up the opportunity to connect with 1 billion Facebook users worldwide. Specifically, there are 18.6 million users right here in Canada. Can your company really afford to pass up the opportunity to reach 18.6 million people with a single status update?

Two. 600 million people access Facebook via smart phones – that’s an increase of 535 million people since this video was created in 2010! If your company website isn’t mobile friendly, that’s a whole lot of customers you’re missing out on. Not only that, when customers visit your store or restaurant, the content they create and post online is invaluable and more influential over consumer opinions than company generated content.

Three. However.. without an active Twitter account, how will they tag you in their content? How will you listen to their needs and join the conversation? Twitter hosts over 500 million users and sees over 400 million Tweets per day. Twitter is by far the easiest social media account to create and set up and its real time capabilities keep companies in the know all day every day.

Four. A restaurant without Instagram is a recipe for disaster. How are customers supposed to share your delicious food offerings if you don’t provide them a platform to do so? Instagram boasts over 80 million registered users who share over 5 million photos per day!

Five. YouTube has over 800 million new visitors each month and users watch over 4 billion hours of videos. Video is a perfect way to increase customer brand awareness while keeping viewers engaged and interacting with the brand. Is it really too hard for your company to create a video and upload it to YouTube? 

Below is an up to date social media video. The change in numbers since the 2010 video posted above is incredible. Companies avoiding the social media ‘craze’ are missing out on countless opportunities to listen and talk to their customers, to conduct priceless market research, to promote and generate buzz surrounding new product launches, to network with local companies and the list goes on. The opportunities are endless and it’s not too late to start now! Pick a single platform, monitor, listen and join the conversation. Master one platform and the transition into multiple platforms will get easier and easier. Good luck!

Viral Videos

content, e-Marketing, social media, twitter, youtube Leave a comment

Last lecture we spoke about viral videos and the use of social media. Since then, a celebrity sensation has created the latest viral video.

Of all celebrities, Justin Bieber easily takes the title of Twitter king. With 29 million follows/fans/”Beliebers” there doesn’t seem to be anything they can’t achieve together. Most recently, Justin leveraged his influential status to promote his new music video “Beauty and a Beat” featuring Nicki Minaj. With such a large number of followers, Justin could simply have tweeted the link to his new video and it would have achieved millions of hits within the day. However, he decided to take a different approach..

On October 10th, Justin Bieber sent these tweets:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the day, someone using the name “gexwy” tweeted Justin the following messages:

And so the speculation began.. countless media articles were posted speculating everything from sex tapes and naked photographs to drug use and violence. Little did they know that Justin was in the middle of a prank..

After days of speculation and publicity, at noon on October 12th, Justin Bieber released his new music video “Beauty and a Beat.” The music video received the most hits in 24 hours of any Vevo music videos on YouTube – 10.6 million and growing.

So what made the launch of this video so successful?

  1. Justin Bieber’s influential celebrity status
  2. The online community of “Beliebers” he has established and nurtured on his rise to fame
  3. The “buzz” he created over 2 days with a fake Twitter account
  4. The video serves as an outlet for Justin to share his story with fans
  5. Production of the video is original, relateable and funny

This story is a prime example of the power of social media and its impact on the world when used to its full potential.

Sites with a cause

e-Marketing, keywords, measurable data, social media, twitter Leave a comment

www.NoHomophobes.com

On July 5th 2012, a website was launched by the University of Alberta titled: No Homophobes. As the site states:

“It is designed as a social mirror to show the prevalence of casual homophobia in our society. Words and phrases like “faggot,” “dyke,” “no homo,” and “so gay” are used casually in everyday language, despite promoting the continued alienation, isolation and — in some tragic cases — suicide of sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ) youth.”

The website searches Twitter for 4 words: Faggot, No Homo, So Gay and Dyke. With these Tweets, the site simply compiles a count of the number of times each word is used that day. Below, it posts every single Tweet from people around the world that contains one or more of these 4 words.

What interests me about this site is its ability to show these Tweets in real time. When individuals see the amount of Tweets using homophobic language the instant they happen, the impact is far greater than a simple number that happened yesterday. This impact is heightened when the Tweets are occurring so frequently that they are unable to be read before they have left the screen. In addition to daily statistics, a count is kept of how many Tweets containing each of these 4 words have been posted in the last week and since the site began 3 months ago.

Also of interest is the simplicity of the site. The design and interface is easy to read and understand within seconds of clicking the link. The clever use of colour and the lack of words allows the user to observe the facts and interpret them as they please. Searching Twitter for 4 words and plotting their use over time is such a simple concept yet so powerful. Like most people, I was absolutely shocked at the volume of homophobic remarks on such a global social platform. A site like this compiles all of these Tweets and displays them in a meaningful way that sparks a multitude of emotion. I think the success of this site lies in the volume of Tweets. When individuals see a single homophobic remark on their Twitter feed, it is unlikely to spark much emotion. However, when placed side by side and tallied throughout a day reaching numbers of over 60,000, the affect of these Tweets multiplies and demands action. This site provokes thought and demands change.