Social Media Innovation- David Fink

Posts Tagged ‘social media’

With social media being the new marketing tool, does every company utilize them? Are large company/corporations still relying on old advertising/marketing tools such TV and Physical locations? I chose two companies, that are important to me and that are large in comparison to brand awareness, and will research their social media involvement.

Volkswagen (no surprise I chose them) is the third largest automotive manufacturing company in the world. They are also the 53^rd most recognizable brand in the world. When you visit Volkswagens American site (www.VW.com) you are brought to a flash coded site with no initial icon or affiliation with any social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter, but they do have a drop down menu labeled ‘Blogs’. Under the blogs menu Volkswagen has created specific blogs for the Jetta, Passat, Touareg, Beetle, Upcoming and Concept cars, TDI Truth & Dare, and VW events. Once you have accessed the blogs on the right side they have a menu that says, ‘Follow VW’, which has icons/links for Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Underneath that menu there’s another labeled ‘VW Fans’ which has a like button and a visual of people that have already liked VW USA on Facebook as well as a like count (which is currently 715,775). I already liked the page so I was able to access it right away and in my personal opinion they are excelling on the home front of utilizing Facebook. I despise Twitter and I do not have an account so I cannot comment on their involvement in that source of social media. I do enjoy Youtube and will give my $0.02 on their involvement there. Volkswagen has 1.9 million channel views, with 14,000 subscribers, and 48 million total upload views. I would say those numbers are significant enough to call their use of Youtube a success. Volkswagen is able to upload all of their ad’s, including The Force commercial which currently has 35 million views alone, as well as all of their debut and event videos. Overall, I would say Volkswagen has adapted to social media and is properly marketing their company with these new social media innovations.

*Note: This is all based on Volkswagen of America.

For my second company I chose, Fabspeed, which is a smaller company. Fabspeed is a smaller local company (Ambler, Pa). The reason I chose them is because I will hopefully (crossing my fingers) be working for them this summer. Fabspeed is one of the biggest performance exhaust and intake manufacturers for exotic cars. They specialize in Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW’s. When you go to their website they have logo’s on the right menu for Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Vimeo. Compared to Volkswagen, a large company, their social media pages are a lot easier to access. They have 490 friends on Facebook and on Youtube they have 369 followers of their channel, 15,770 channel views, and 1.6 million total views. The amount of total views in comparison to Volkswagen 48 million is great. I would say that Fabspeed is utilizing several social media applications very well.

It is bad enough when everyday people create fake online identities but when a corporation or the government does it is that considered okay? Personally I think that anyone no matter what affiliation you have should not be able to make a fake identity. Creating any fake identity is deceiving and should not be taken lightly. I recently came across an article about a man who was using fake identities online to convince people to commit suicide.

“Prosecutors say Melchert-Dinkel acknowledged participating in online chats about suicide with up to 20 people and entering into fake suicide pacts with about 10 people, five of whom he believed killed themselves.”

Despite creating a fake identity is deceiving I would also consider it identity theft. You are representing yourself as someone you are not. Now with such events happening through fake identities online I feel very uneasy about anyone participating in this kind of activity. You are supposed to be able to trust your government as well as corporations. How can you trust any person or organization not represented by their true identity?

(Business, 2009)

Works Cited

Business, B. (2009, January 2). Identity theft . Retrieved February 24, 2011, from A.B.B.L.: http://www.americanbadbusinesslist.com/identity-theft/

Forliti, A. (2011, February 24). Defense: Suicides planned before ex-nurse involved. Retrieved February 24, 2011, from Comcast.net: http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20110224/US.Encouraging.Suicide/

In the past couple years I have been asking myself what’s next with social media. I remember when the social media consisted of a few sites that failed and myspace as well as phones making phone calls and texts (with some internet capabilities). In the present day if you can get a twitter update on your phone or if you can’t read someone’s wall post the whole world comes crashing down.

‘Emergency’s’ are the topic of this post and how social media has innovated instant information delivery. Safety has always been important and we have always been trying to find new ways to increase instant awareness of arising problems. Social media and the constant connection to one-another has been getting under my skin lately but this post has a different twist. I think that when it comes to safety instant access to the information should be available to everyone. I do appreciate Temple e-mailing and texting alerts when something happens on or around campus. Shooting’s are more prevalent now at schools, at least more than in the past, and now with access to technology allowing schools to get the word out to every student instantly can decrease the injury rate during these incidents. God forbid anything like a shooting would happen again but if something does happen I am happy to say I go to a school that has multiple ways of contacting us students and the faculty.

Craig Donato’s post is very prominent in the digital time we are in. With the internet creating a global market companies are pressed for new ways to get to their consumers. As stated in the post consumer’s do not get their information from local business’s and personal professional help they are getting the information on the internet. Competition has taken a whole new meaning recently.

“If you’re looking for a new house cleaner, which would matter most to you:
a) A half-dozen reviews from people you don’t know.
b) A coupon for 10% off the cleaner’s first visit.
c) Two friends that use the same cleaner—and are fans?” (Craig Donato)

Personally I would have to choose A) or C) to find a new house cleaner.

A) I would choose to take a half-dozen reviews from people I don’t know if none of my friends have experience with what I am trying to find. Also getting a larger number of opinions can tell you more about a product or service. Also,  I always hear about people being skeptical about online reviews because they feel that the company puts positive reviews about their own products and services. For this when I read reviews I read from the worst to the best this helps to give an all-around view of what the product or service is all about.

C) If your friends give you their opinions about a product or service you are (should be) willing to hear them out. You know your friends better than the random people on-line therefore I would trust their opinions first. Your friends may not always have had experience with what you are looking for and that is what A) is for.

Overall, I definitely go for a friends opinion and if all else fails, go to the internet and do some research.

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