The biggest influencer that I follow on Facebook is “Juggling The Jenkins.” She shares funny videos about motherhood, addiction, marriage, and adulting. The videos are mostly targeted at married women with children. Currently she has 3.4 million followers on Facebook and over 3 million likes. Recently she partnered with Grove Collaborative, a cleaning product company.
“Influencer. A word that is key in anything social media. Where PR has traditionally been reliant on building a rapport and nurturing relationships, social media is a gateway to instant communication to the people who matter.” (Ryan, 2015 p.177) The power of the hashtag first started on Instagram but now is blowing up on Facebook and Twitter. When someone creates a hashtag, this is an outlet for companies to view any mentions of their product and answer questions, provide feedback, or troubleshooting issues that the social media user may have. This type of marketing is extremely effective because social media allows you to position your brand exactly where you want it to be. What I notice about this type of marketing is a random person starts a social media webpage to get followers and then once they get a certain amount, of followers that’s when companies want to partner with them to market their brand. This style of marketing works because they know exactly who their target is based on the followers.
The strategies that these companies are employing are the influencer promoting products to their online followers. For example, in the 60-minute, article Logan Paul mentions “The biggest companies in the world have come to me to help sell their product to the younger generation. And I speak the language of millennials, and they respond to my content.” (Whitaker, B., 2016) The strategies that companies use are quality content and measuring the accountability of social PR.
The role that the influencers play in marketing is simple, they partner with large companies to promote that brands product. The company pays them for how many views their video has as well as a percentage of the product that is sold. The more followers an influencer has the more money they will make. This use of marketing perspective could impact the relationship between the company and consumer negatively or positively. For example, the negatives are Facebook or YouTube channels have numerous failed attempts to encourage people with ‘uploading this’ and get a free product or ‘share this’ and get 20% off. These failed attempts led to not just disinterest of a product but also angry consumers. If the company chooses the right partner and follows the right steps, they will be successful with marketing their product.
References
Ryan, D. (2015). Understanding Social Media: How to Create a Plan for Your Business That Works (1st ed.). Kogan Page Limited.
Whitaker, B. (2016, October 23). The Influencers. Retrieved April 13, 2019, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-kim-kardashian-logan-paul-social-media-influencers/
4-2 Blog: Effectively Impacting the Consumer Through Digital Media
The example of digital media that I chose to analyze is “Tale of the Tiger: Customer Service.” At Tampa International Airport they used social media to make the point of them always being personal. An airport operations manager went above and beyond for a little boy who left his toy tiger in an airport play area. The operations manager took the tiger around taking photos of it with air traffic control, on a luggage cart, hanging out with airport firefighters, and at other places in the airport. He created a storyline to go with the photos and left them for the family when they came back to pickup the tiger. The story went viral reinforcing the airport’s commitment to customer service.
What was done successfully to meet the wants and needs of the target audience was the manager going out of their way to make sure this child got his tiger back. The manager went out of his way and made it personal. They mentioned that he took time out of his lunch break to take these photos and then went to Walgreens to make a photo album. This story connected with families not only local but worldwide. The story also provided an opportunity to highlight other customer service achievements.
The airport posted the story on Facebook and Twitter with photos linking back to the story on their website. “When a staff members mother posted on Facebook: “What a great story. What a great airport.” The airport answered: “Thanks mom” that prompted this reply “I love that TPA has a mom …. Whose also on Facebook.” (Tale, n.d.) The airport used social media to get their story to reach other consumers and possible future consumers of the airport. I think the social and consumer experience was successful because of the extensive interest on social media led to widespread media coverage locally, nationally, and internationally.
The story set social media records for the airport, with thousands gushing support for the feel good story and the Airport. “The reach surpassed 3,000,000. Followers commended airport staff for the exceptional customer service. Nearly 115,000 people liked, commented, and shared the story on Facebook. Our Twitter post had 78,000 impressions, and millions more through shares by airport partners.” (Tale, n.d.) Thousands of people were moved by this positive gesture by one employee. Something that could have been done differently would be posting on other social media platforms other than Facebook and Twitter. They could have also used YouTube and Instagram to their advantage.
Tampa International Airport uses several digital media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and their own website. When browsing their Facebook page, I noticed they had several useful links such as accommodation for handicap and events taking place at the airport. You can also view the rating on Facebook, they have a 4.4 out of 5. The Airport’s website isn’t as informative as it could be. Of course, the first pop up is booking a flight but I found nothing on the Airport’s customer service or their mission statement. The Airport does have a mobile app where you can check in and track flight status but like any other app there are ads. If you don’t want ads you have to purchase a separate app. I think that the app meets the consumers needs if they aren’t in a hurry.
References
Tale of tiger’s big adventure highlight’s airport’s commitment to customer service. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2019, from https://shortyawards.com/8th/boy-leaves-stuffed-tiger-at-tpa-returns-to-a-tale-of-tigers-big-adventure-see-more-at-httpww
Branding: A Day in the Life
I use social media daily, just like the other 90% of people in the world. The social media sites that I use the most often are Facebook, Snapchat, and then Twitter is last. I use Facebook daily to scroll through my news feed and see how my friends and family are doing. I also post photos of my son, and update family members on my life. I’ve encountered more positive’s than negatives with Facebook mostly because I don’t use it to create a false misrepresentation of myself. Because I use Facebook mainly to communicate with family I have Snapchat which is more of a funny social media app. There are a numerous amount of filters, and it just makes for fun between my friends and I. My son also loves using the Snapchat filters, he gets a kick out of them. Lastly, I use twitter when I want to vent via social media. Unlike Facebook, I will definitely post what’s on my mind. Although, I only use Twitter once or twice per week. I think that everyone experiences both positive and negatives when using social media. There have been studies done that social media creates mental illnesses, there is even a term called Facebook Depression. I personally have had more positive reactions when using social media. There have been a few negatives such as people commenting rude remarks, as well as the annoying ads. I find that my needs are satisfied using one type of social media over the other. I use Facebook the most because this social media platform allows me to connect with family and friends, can locate local businesses, scroll through the marketplace, and share my registry. I can share videos from YouTube and even links to websites that I find interesting. I receive several emails per day from companies, I cannot even count how many emails I get per day with discount codes and new products. I currently have 53,096 emails in my yahoo account. I have created a gmail account because of the overload of company and junk emails. The only emails that catch my eye are the confirmation product shipping. I order a lot online and can’t wait for my products to ship and then I can track them from my phone.
The use of digital media in marketing is the basic marketing strategy that many people and companies use. I’ve noticed that many people that have small businesses are using digital media, creating a page on Facebook. There are also ads on all social media sites as well as web pages that market products and other companies. The biggest thing I notice about digital media in marketing is the numerous amount of ads.
The Journey Begins
Thanks for joining me!
My name is Patricia Drewry, I’ve created this blog for my MKT 265 class but intend to write about my life as well. I’m 26 years-old, married, with an almost six-year-old son, and another boy on the way. My husband is in the Army and we are currently stationed at Fort Campbell, KY. I’m looking forward to sharing my stories about my life as well as being a boy mom 🙂
Boy Mama 