SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Week 3: Sept 20-22 Question

This week's blog post question follows-up on the discussion we had in class regarding consumers' decision journey and how the new media plays an important role in influencing that journey. As future managers and business owners, ya'll should truly understand the implications of the new media for consumers' decision making process, and also how these ideas fit into the concept of the social feedback cycle that we discussed in class. Do the following for your blog post this week:

1. Download the McKinsey report on consumer decision journey and read it.

My message from last week regarding the report: In addition, below is a report from McKinsey consulting on the typical paths and information sources that consumers follow to purchase various products and services. We have had extensive discussions about this model in our principles class. However, this report comes with interesting data and additional insights. Please read this thoroughly because the model in the report forms the basis for the entire discussion next week. Download the report by clicking on the link here:

Click here for the McKinsey Report

2. Answer the following questions:
a) What is the main message of the report?
b) what are the key differences between the traditional understanding of consumers decision journey and the one proposed by McKinsey? Compare and contrast 3-4 major features.
c) The report details two types of loyalty: what are they? and what does it mean for social media marketing?
d) In your own words, explain the key suggestions of the report for marketing in the new reality.

Week 3: Sept 20-22 Lecture Slides

This week, we will discuss an important concept: the social feedback cycle. In order to truly appreciate the role played by social media in a firm's marketing efforts, managers must truly understand the nature of a feedback cycle in the social web. Please download the slides and read them at least once before coming to the class.

Click here to download the file

Home Depot and Social Media

We always wonder how large companies use social media and whether it has any impact on their bottom lines. Also, another interesting question is: does social media marketing apply to all categories of products or is it more applicable to certain products than the others? How about a company like Home Depot? Could they use social media to engage consumers? It appears that the answer is a resounding YES! We will discuss many aspects of Home Depot's social media campaign, and how it helped them recover from a devastating negative feedback loop and refresh their brand image. Follow these links and discover for yourselves how this massive organization managed to become coalesce around an awesome social media campaign.

http://adage.com/article/special-report-social-media-guide/home-depot-s-social-media-strategy-pays/229865/

http://adage.com/article/news/home-depot-puts-a-spin-idea-sales-rep/227701/

In addition, they have now moved a step further by entering the world of mobile marketing. All of us know that mobile marketing is the future. Smart phones and tablets will platforms that support the next wave of innovation in marketing. Watch this video to see how Home Depot plans to engage consumers with their latest app: the smart phone contractor.

The Smart Phone Contractor - Home Depot from Chris Brinlee Jr on Vimeo.

Some takeaway lessons from this social media campaign:

Link your marketing with your operations.
Allow your employees to engage with customers directly.
Enable direct connections between your employees and outside world without the filter of corporate communications.
Use social media to generate +ve material about yourself that stays out there on the social web forever.

Week 2 Sept 13-15 Question

The main purpose of this week's blog post is to follow-up on our class discussion regarding networks and online word of mouth. As I had mentioned during the discussion, one of the main disruptive effects of social media is that it enabled or added a whole new layers of influencers who now have the right tools/platforms to voice their opinions to the general public, and the tools have also enabled the general public to access the opinions of diverse group of influencers who opinions weren't previously easily accessible. One of the preliminary steps marketers need to take is to identify these influencers, identify their demographic and psychographic characteristics and engage with them. If done in the right manner, these influencers could become powerful purveyors of positive influence. So here is what you need to do:

Follow either or both of the following links:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/frances-san-francisco
http://www.yelp.com/biz/hollywood-nails-and-spa-dallas

1) The links will take you the Yelp website pages of various businesses and consumer reviews. The reason I picked Yelp is because most businesses listed on this site are local small businesses. So good way to comprehend the strategies.
2) Pick the top 4-5 reviews, read them. Also, if you click on the reviewers' names, you will be led to their personal profile pages.
3) Now, read the reviews, take note of the profile pages, and reflect on the following questions:

a) who are these people? Where do they belong (go beyond their city of residence; we know that already)?
b) what is their main complaint(s)?
c) What do you think motivated them write such an extensive review? (especially considering the fact that you and me typically don't do the same even when we are thoroughly satisfied or dissatisfied with the products that we consume.
d) What are the most apparent and some hidden motivations?

4) If you are a smart marketer (which you are!) (lets say the owners of the businesses listed on the respective pages), how do you deal with this information? What are your courses of action? More importantly, how do you engage with these potential 'influencers' so that you develop a steady stream of a positive feedback/WOM loop that will stay online and attract other consumers.

There is no mystery in social media marketing. This is what most companies ought to be doing. As Brian Solis summarized in Chapter 2: The five Ws+H+E (Please read the chapter)

Sept 13 Discussion on WOM and Networks

We had a very interesting discussion about the reasons for the propogation of online (and offline) WOM including why consumers seek WOM. As we had discussed in class, there are several key differences between offline and online WOM, and many times they both drive each other and are complementary. Put together, they both have a tremendous power in determining the success or failure of most products and services.

Below is a report on a large scale research study conducted by the Keller-Fay group. KF group is a well known market research agency dedicated to WOM. You will see that many of their conclusions mirror our key discussion points. It is an easy read, so please try and find time to go over it.

Click here to download the report

Also, an interesting summary of a word-of-mouth study by Keller-Fay group and Google

Week 2: Sept 13-15 powerpoint presentations

This week, we will discuss two important factors that drive the explosion of social media and consequently, social media marketing- the power of networks and online word-of-mouth. Subsequently, we will appreciate the basic reasons why social media becomes one of the important tool kits for marketers. Download our lecture presentations here.

Click here to download the pdf file