Twitter Compared to Facebook

I have recently joined the trend of twitter and slowly becoming addicted. I have the app downloaded on my phone so that I can "Tweet" anywhere. "Tweeting" is a form of posting status like you see on facebook. I feel that this trend of social media is becoming bigger every day. I am constantly finding more and more friends joining the site. It allows comments to other twitter users, restricted profile info, username and profile picture. The difference between Twitter and Facebook is that you don't get dragged down with friends posting pictures or comments on other peoples pages. It’s a great tool for marketing because a lot of users post what they are doing, where they are, and what’s going on their life.

I think this is great for companies to target their market of users. For example, at my sorority meeting last week we had an up and coming country artist come and sing. He was trying to promote his self so he asked us all to follow him on twitter. He also tapped the performance and posted it on the internet for all of us to see. He is using the resources of twitter to find more fans and get his name out there. Another example is a local Bruster’s ice cream spot, post their flavor of the day thought-out the day and it makes me want to go by their every time I see the tweet. They also remind you of specials and deals they are having for that day.

Successful or Not Successful social media Campaign

Dockers launched a 2010 Super Bowl commercial known as "Men Wear no Pants" stating that they would give a free pair of pants to people who logged on to their website. If you listen carefully to the commercial you will hear Dockers say that you can try for a pair, not guaranteeing a free pair of pants. The next day Dockers were getting responses that the site given was overloaded and hundreds of people were unable to access. Either way it allowed so many individuals to log on to their website that it crashed for a little while. Even though individuals watching the super bowl assumed that they were getting a coupon for a free pair of pants, they were mistaken. You had to enter in an e-mail address in order to be in the chances of winning a pair of the 2,010 pants offered. Everyone who entered an e-mail address received a 15% off your purchase coupon.

Even though many people were upset to find you had to enter a drawing in order to win the pants, it allowed a lot of people to see their website and become familiar with what the brand Dockers offers. I've learned that when free items are advertised in an ad or online it becomes a popular very popular subject or people.

Dockers Commercial- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOfFeXRSYFI

Discuss how social media can help/hurt your professional life and reflections of the readings you've done this week

I believe you must always be aware of what you post on Facebook/twitter or any other self express websites. Social media has made it easier to express your feelings and thoughts for the world or your peers to see. These social media sites have also made it easier for people you don't know to get a glimpse of who you are. With this being said employers and recruiters are keeping an eye out on those who display great values on these sites, such as twitter/facebook.

I am a recruiter for Northwestern Mutual's internship program and anytime I get referred to someone who is interested I automatically look to see if they have facebook. Facebook has become a first impression guide for those who want to see what you’re like before face to face contact. When I first started my job at Northwestern Mutual we were in the process of interviewing a guy who was interested in the internship and an hour before the interview we decided to take a look at his Facebook profile. The guy had made rude comments about our company and taking the internship as a joke. We knew then and there that is guy was not taking the opportunity serious and acted totally different then in the interviews, we had with him. Needless to say we didn't ask him back for a third interview.

I think we all need to be aware that when we post things on facebook/twitter and other sites we are not only promoting ourselves but the things we are involved in as well. For example if I posted pictures of my co-workers and I having drinks at a party, I would not only be representing myself but the company I work for. Others would associate my actions with the company.

Is social media marketing a fab or here to stay?

Social media marketing is here to stay. I believe that social media has given businesses a whole new outlook on how to advertise and reach their specific market. It is also making is easier to reach a large amount of people in a short amount of time. Let’s take Facebook as an example, there are 500 million users, 50% of them check Facebook on a daily basis and each user on average has 130 friends.

 Social media is also making it cheaper for marketers to connect with customers. Twitter is free to use, all you need to do is make a name and start adding other users, and this is the same with Facebook. These are just some popular free easy ways that social media has changed marketing forever. Search engine marketing is a very large part of social media in the last 6 years. Every company or businesses wants to be the first to pop-up when Googling about their industry, this has become a competitive in the social media world. Although not everyone is buying into the social media seen, there are gradually growing each day and with new technology, such as the ipad making it easier to be involved we will see greater strides.


References
February 1, 2010. http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics.