Marketing Yourself

Hi everyone!

This blog post takes a look at social media marketing from the opposite end of the spectrum, and rather than focusing on companies marketing to consumers it will talk about possible employees marketing themselves to their potential employers through social media.

I found a very interesting infographic from Entrepreneur that goes into detail about the importance and impact that a simple profile picture on social media can have on employers looking to recruit new employees.  The profile picture on your social media page is the first thing that your employer sees and it is the first thing that causes them to create their first impression and initial judgement of you.

This infographic had some extremely interesting facts.  It tells us that potential employers will spend an average of 6 seconds on each profile of possible new hires, and 19% of that very small window of time is spent on the profile picture.  Also, it only takes them 1/10 of a second for them to make their initial judgement of you based on that picture.

Also, this shares how important it is to look a certain way and wear certain things in your profile picture.  For example, here are some statistics shared in the infographic:

• Wearing sunglasses makes you 10% less likable
• Obstructing view of your eyes by hair, glare, or other ways brings down your perceived competence by 15% and influence by 8%
• Smiling with teeth has twice the impact than smiling without showing teeth
• Dressing professionally makes you appear to be 43% more competent and 58% more influential in your industry

These numbers are huge!  It's unbelievable how just one picture that is looked at for less than 6 seconds can have such a big impact on your possible employer's perception of you as a worker and employee.  It is important that people take extra care when they are selecting which photo best portrays them for their profile picture.  If you need any help or more guidance, this infographic has information for that as well.

Here's the link to the complete infographic: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245024

-Kathleen

Hillary Clinton and Social Media

Hello all!

Just over a week ago, Hillary Clinton announced that she will officially be running for the Democratic nomination for the 2016 Presidential election in several nontraditional ways. She decided to utilize different social media platforms to get her message across.  These included YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Her announcement drew quite a lot of attention from social media users!  There were over 10 million different Facebook interactions by 4.7 million users discussing her announcement, which was significantly larger than her Republican counterparts, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.  Her announcement on Twitter also generated a lot of talk.  It was seen more than 12 million times in the first 9 hours since it was posted, she gained 160,000 new Twitter followers, and #Hillary2016 trended globally.

I thought this was very interesting to read about because it shows just how versatile social media marketing really is.  It's not used for just marketing products, but now also people, even very important people like our nation's politicians!  I also believe social media is going to have a huge impact on the 2016 election and play a big part into the campaign strategies.

Lastly, one thing I really like about this article was the map it had at the end that geotagged tweets all over the world that were talking about Hillary Clinton's announcement and showed who was really talking about it.  It also showed how much it changed both before and after she made her announcement.

Here's the link to the full article:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/04/13/hillary-clinton-launch-lights-up-facebook-surpassing-gop-candidates/?KEYWORDS=social+media

-Kathleen

Social Media Infographic

Hello everyone!

For this post, I found a really interesting infographic to share with you all.  It lays out the importance for companies to get on social media.  It is filled with many interesting statistics that shows in black and white just how necessary it is for social media marketing.

The infographic breaks up the importance of going social into the following categories: New Customers, Customer Engagement, Reach, A Lot of Options, and Social Habits of Facebook Brand Fans.

First of all, I found the two statistics in the New Customers section to be very interesting.  They state that 78% of small business get 1/4 of their new customers from social media and 61% of young people use social media to decide where to go when going out.  These are huge numbers!  I knew that these statistics existed but when thought about I never thought that they were quite this high.  This also shows that the more companies continue using social media for their marketing techniques, the more successful their business will be and the more these statistics will continue to grow!

Also, another stat on this infographic that I found to be really interesting is that Facebook fans tend to be super consumers.  And, what this means is that they spend 43% more on average than non-fans. This shows amazing marketing potential for companies using Facebook! With 1 billion active users, Facebook is by far the most used and most popular social media site.. and getting a substantial fan base on this platform will only further your company into the future!  By knowing and utilizing this statistic, companies can learn to thrive even more!

To see the full infographic and all of its statistics, follow this link:
http://www.radiatecontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Why-Go-Social.png

Enjoy!

-Kathleen

The Top Companies

Hello everyone!

I recently found this really interesting article put out by Forbes about 20 companies with the best social media presence.  The great thing about this article is that it divides the companies in to categories based on what they are good at on social media.  These categories are:

• Intriguing
• Entertaining
• Good Conversationalist
• Rewarding
• Quirky
• Good Customer Service
• Innovative 

The companies in this list range all the way from Newcastle Brown Ale and T-Mobile to Pizza Hut and Jet Blue.  This is great because it shows that you can be any type of company, large or small, who offers products and/or services of all kinds and still excel at social media marketing.

All you need is a strong marketing team who is aware and knowledgeable of their platforms and what other companies are doing.  This way any company can achieve a great social media presence and really get their name out there.  And, in this day and age, social media is the fastest and most effective way to reach your target market.

To read the full article, which includes links to the companies social media pages, follow this link:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ilyapozin/2014/03/06/20-companies-you-should-be-following-on-social-media/

Enjoy!

-Kathleen

American Express

Hello!

Today, I'm going to talk about the compnay I conducted a social media critique and analysis on: American Express.  As part of their social media strategy, their marketing team utilizes the following three platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and actually utilize them very effectively.

First, their Facebook page is uesd to present members and potential new customers with insight into different event, news, and experiences.  They share creative pictures, videos, and stories to help to get thier message across without coming off as trying to push their product or service onto you. Click here to check out their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/americanexpress.

Next, they actually have three separate Twitter accounts, all with very different purposes and functions.  The first account is @AmericanExpress which is their main, official account.  This account is very similar to their Facebook page, but focuses more on their different offers and promotions.  www.twitter.com/americanexpress
The second account is @AskAmex which is their Customer Care account. This account is designed to respond directly to customers in real time and answer any questions or concerns they may  have.
www.twitter.com/askamex
Lastly, they have an account called @OpenForum.  This account is designed to help business owners learn and interact with each other in an open discussion.
www.twitter.com/openforum

The final social media platform they use is YouTube.  American Express uses their YouTube channel to share inspring stories of people on their own journeys and how they got there.  Their goal is for their videos to go viral, but also to inspire young visionaries to follow their dreams and their goals.
www.youtube.com/americanexpress

American Express is definitley a great example of how to effectively use social media!  However, it is also extremely important that they don't get comfortable with where they stand in the social media world because of all the tough competition they face from their competitors like Visa and MasterCard.

-Kathleen

Social Media Crisis!

Hi Everyone!

This week I would like to talk about just how easy it is for a company to hurt its brand and reputation based off of just one post on social media.  From my last post, it was easy to see just how fast anything can spread on social media, so now let's take a look at a company that didn't think of this and made a huge mistake...

Tesco is a supermarket in the United Kingdom, and they faced a huge problem. The company was under scrutiny when it was found out that the beef burgers they were selling actually were found to have horse meat in them.  If this wasn't bad enough, just shortly after the incident, Tesco's very own customer care team sent out a tweet saying "It's sleepy time so we're off to hit the hay! See you at 8am for more #TescoTweets".

This immediately caused a lot of controversy.  People who follow Tesco's Twitter saw this as the company making fun of the serious horse mean situation they were going through and making a joke out of it.  There were all sorts of replies from their followers who were all appalled by Tesco's insensitivity.  This is something that is on the internet, and therefore can never be erased.  To some of the shoppers at Tesco, this is a taint to their image that can never be erased and will always be in the back of their mind when they think of this company.

This is a perfect example of how important it is to have a social media team working on your company's posts at all times.  There should be people constantly checking, cross-checking, and double-checking their social media posts with current events and current trends to make sure that these posts are always appropriate and won't be taken the wrong way.

Remember, social media can be even more hurtful than helpful if used improperly or not carefully!

To read an article about Tesco's social media crisis, follow this link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264394/Horse-meat-scandal-hit-Tesco-centre-Twitter-backlash-customer-care-message-told-followers-staff-hit-hay.html

-Kathleen

The Social Media Revolution

Hello everyone!

For this week's post, I decided to find something other than an article to share with you.  I found this really great YouTube video called "The Social Media Revolution 2015".  This video shows you just how popular and constantly growing social media is all over the world, and how it's changing the way we live our lives.

This video not only answers their own question that social media is not a fad, but rather one of the most dramatic shifts since the Industrial Revolution.  It also asks the new and more important question: "We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it."

This is something that is important for everyone when using social media, whether for personal reasons, business reasons, or any other reasons they may have.  Social media and the internet are here to stay, as well as everything you post on social media.  Once you send something there's no getting it back, because who knows where it could have gotten out to and who has already seen/saved it by the time you want to delete it.

Companies who rely heavily on social media for marketing purposes and have a lot of followers need to be especially aware of this. Just one wrong word, sentence, or even interpretation of what you say on social media can spread rapidly and have a very negative effect on your brand and your image.  Once the wrong idea is put out there and spreads to millions of people in seconds.  Then, building your image back up to where it was takes a lot more than it did to shoot it down so quickly.  Social Media marketers need to always keep this in mind, no matter what company they are working for!

Here's the link to the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs

-Kathleen