Week Four - Politicians and Celebrities on Twitter

For this week’s blog post, I chose to follow politician Al Gore and celebrity Jonah Hill on Twitter. To give some background, Gore was our country’s vice president from 1993 to 2001 and famously lost the 2000 presidential election due to a Supreme Court ruling. As of this post, he has 2,507,401 followers. Conversely, Hill is a movie actor that appears primarily in comedic films. He has 2,371,109 followers.

Gore spends most of his time tweeting about issues with the world’s climate. A big champion of our environment, he posted a pair of links to his personal blog discussing clean coal and the climate crisis. He also directed his followers to a book on Amazon concerning environmental changes occurring in the South Pole.

Gore tweeted eight times throughout the week, and one of those tweets was repeated verbatim two days after it was originally posted. His account has the feel of one that is run by HootSuite or something similar; it feels preprogrammed and not very engaging.

Hill’s Twitter account, on the other hand, sounds genuine and like he is actually doing the tweeting. The number of weekly tweets was not much different (just 12), but the content was very contrasting. He tweeted about last weekend’s Emmy Awards twice, wishing two of his friends luck and commenting on a particular speech. He also gave a couple of music recommendations to his followers and tweeted a photo from his press tour for his film “21 Jump Street.”

Hill was not very engaging with his followers, similar to Gore. There were no “at’s” on his feed, leading me to believe he is not using Twitter to engage with his fans but rather simply share what is on his mind.

I would encourage both Gore and Hill to become more engaging on Twitter. Gore is tweeting about a subject a lot of people care about and holding viable discussions with experts on the issue would add a lot to his feed. Hill should also spend time responding to his fans. I think people expect this kind of access now with their favorite entertainers, and they aren’t getting it from him.

Week Four - Listening and Monitoring

The case study on Mini’s efforts to understand its consumer’s social media profiles was of interest to me, specifically the result of their study.  To briefly summarize, Mini found that it was more advantageous to use social media to connect with their current consumers than to try and generate new consumers.

Competing in an increasingly crowded industry, Mini and its executive Trudy Hardy needed to find out the technographic profiles of its consumers. The company hired a brand monitoring company named MotiveQuest to research how its brand was being discussed on the various social media platforms.  I had actually never thought about companies like MotiveQuest even existing, but they clearly are important for companies aspiring to understand their technographic profiles.

 It was found that Mini’s consumers are above average when it comes to the Creator and Critic segments of the population, meaning that finding out what these people are saying is of key importance to the company.  It was also found that Mini consumers like to see themselves as members of an exclusive club.  In essence, part of their self-identification was as a Mini owner.

Understanding this was crucial for Hardy and the company, as it led them to realize the concept that they needed to boost their standing among current owners, not use social media to attract new ones.  The company held rallies nationwide, using Flickr to post photos and YouTube to upload videos.  This interaction with owners did not result in a drop off in sales for the year, proving that social media can be used to reconnect with people as opposed to bring new ones in.

I thought the conclusions reached by the company in the case study were very interesting.  Most companies think that being on social media will bring them new consumers because they can join Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to reach out to this untapped market.  In reality, social media is just as important to connect with one’s current consumers.  Understanding what these people are saying about your company, and on what platforms, is very important.

Week Three - Strategy & Campaign Planning

The thing I found most interesting about this week’s readings was the discussion in Chapter Three of “Groundswell” that addresses why people partake in social media.  The reasons behind participating in social media vary from person to person, and I think it is crucial for companies to understand the various motivations behind people signing up for social media sites.

As someone who participates in social media on a daily basis, my reasons for taking part in sites like Facebook and Twitter are to maintain relationships with friends and satisfy my prurient impulse to a certain extent. I use Facebook to keep up with my friends and see how things are going in their respective lives. Checking out pictures of people I haven’t seen in years is something I enjoy, as is reading status updates.

Twitter is my favorite social media site because I can follow sports personalities and sports writers whose comments I find funny and insightful. I get the occasional pop culture reference on my timeline, and I do find that Twitter satisfies my prurient interest in that regard.

When it comes to implementing social media into an organization’s public relations plan, it is important to recognize that these different reasons exist. I think the most important thing a company can do when creating a presence on social media is to understand that users are not necessarily expecting to see messages from your company cropping up on their newsfeeds and timelines. People like me are on social media to stay connected to our worlds, not get PR messages from companies (although some do tend to pop up!).

A second factor about using social media as a PR tool is the chance that users will pay it forward to their friends, and that could be in the form of negative comments or reviews. As a company, it is important to engage in a discussion as opposed to simply offering a place to comment. Engagement is key when it comes to social media; it is called “social” media for a reason.

Week One - Introduction

I am fascinated by social media. It has become such an integral part of our lives over the past few years and permeates in everything we do. Of course, technology is largely responsible for the growth of social media due to the accessibility of smart phones and computers to a large number of the population. I think social media has stayed relevant because people enjoy having a voice and sharing their opinions on any number of topics, be it sports, restaurants, movies or news.

The way companies use social media is also of interest to me. These businesses are now having to monitor sites like Facebook and Twitter because their customers are sharing their opinions, good or bad, and companies need to take part in these discussions.

I am constantly on Twitter. On my computer. On my phone. At work. At home. Twitter has become such a part of my daily routine that I am not sure what I would do without it. I use it to learn about breaking news, catch up on sporting events and chat with a few of my friends that use it. I typically tweet about my day or whatever sporting event is on my TV at the time.

I use Twitter frequently as part of my job, also. Social media has become such a crucial part of any athletic department’s marketing efforts that my job includes updating the Twitter account for Pacific Swimming and Pacific Water Polo. I use that account to send out information on game times as well as provide in-game updates during home matches and meets.

I also check Facebook on a daily basis, but my interest in the site has waned significantly over the past few months. I cut my number of “Friends” down a significant amount with the goal of making it more private. I’ll post photos occasionally and read up on what my friends are up to, but I have not updated my status in months. I also have a Google+ but never check it.