Social Media has been a juggernaut in global culture. Even though Asia is the real social media mecca, the United States does what it can to catch up in usage. While social media relatively new, it has become a part of our everyday life. It has changed the way we...well..socialize and communicate, sometimes for the better sometimes for the worst. But anyway, social media has also changed the way that companies communicate with the consumer. What was once "the audience" is now "participators". We can talk back, and social media is the microphone that gives our voice power. Consumers have changed entire media strategies and brand images. It is a powerful tool indeed, but sometimes I wonder is it needed for every company.
No, I mean really. It seems like a waste of cyberspace for some companies. I think that a website is almost always needed for a company, brand our product but social media? Does anyone REALLY go to the Twitter account for Papermate? (Papermate makes Bic pens and Pink Pearl erasers). Is anyone going to use that hashtag? The answer is no, not really. In case your wondering, Papermate doesn't have a social media account, but they offer the website visitor to place a Papermate link on their own account. But who is going to do that? Low involvement purchases does not always warrant a social media anything. Its like, a waste of coding and web development.
This thought occurred while I was doing research (ahem..watching TV) and seen an Airheads commerical. Perhaps you have seen it: A guy offers an older gentleman a few pieces of his new Airhead bitesized candies, in which the alderman throws them on the ground for pigeons to snack on.
Around the 10 second mark, you see the hashtag #AirheadMoment.
I think this is dumb. Airheads only has about 2k followers. People are not using the hashtag, and if they are it is for a concert promotion. I don't even like the line "We all have our moments". I think companies are wasting money. They are not utilizing it right.
An example of someone doing it right would be Nascar. They have actually seen an increase in Nascar fans from effective social media usage. They have the actual drivers communicate with the fan. That's enough to make your Grand Pa get a Twitter account. Nascar even has a state of the art center dedicated to communicating withs its fans via social media totally outfitted with plenty of screens to keep their eyes on current trending topics and interactions. These guys are seeing a serious return on their ROI. In addition to recruiting and maintaining current fans, the Nascar also created a relationship with Hp who developed the technology to do this campaign. This not only boosts the brand identity of one company but it seriously helps bring that "cool" factor that HP is sometimes seen as lacking. This is how one runs a campaign and integrates social media.
I'm no social media expert by far, just a few observations.
This was launched by Engine Shop sports and marketing agency
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