#NECSOCIALFINAL @necsocialmedia

[wilfordwiggins]

Marketing Blog Tumblr Post-Final Assignment.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation grant life changing wishes for children with life threatening illness. The foundation grant wishes for children with life threatening  illnesses to to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy to children that are battling for their lives. Social media “Facebook” connects the world to Make-A-Wish Foundation to share personal stories, video content and audiences can make contributions to the foundation via social media. Audiences can engage with like minded families who have children with life threatening illnesses. http://wish.org/about-us/social#sm.0000xvbtnu9wgevuy8v1u8s2ccko

https://www.facebook.com/makeawish/videos/10156554402392556/

Social media connects the world with foundations like Make-A-Wish Foundation. With social media the audiences can connect with other families with stories of their own and audiences can enteract with Make-A-Wish through donations on the social media sites and volunteer their time with organization promotions.

Make-A-Wish Foundation social media platform followers Facebook 876K per day, YouTube 81,385 per day, Pinterest 5,643 followers. Social media teams can put out  information on a daily basis; jobs, weekly stories. Facebook has the most engagement. Videos and stories they can produce are engaged over 100K on average and re-share two times that. Social media help increase donations by 10%. Donation links in posts. Using real-time photos and strategies for Make-A-Wish  using national and locialized branding with other companies. You can make donations through Go-Fund Me, Apple Pay, and aggressively marketing their wish through SnapChat.

https://www.slideshare.net/KylieBowers/social-media-strategy-makeawish-foundation

 This report of Make-A-Wish Foundadtion gives specific report findings  of Make-A-Wish contributions and how the foundation uses it fundings:

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4038

https://twitter.com/search?f=news&vertical=default&q=make-a-wish%20donation&src=typd

https://twitter.com/8NEWS/status/842331981841027072

https://www.charitynavigator.org/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2MTbBRASEiwAdYIpsXyMH9Zl8d1lApTmKh6JQPGxtue419yTT7JT9okGj7KC6yPB5ZZVaxoCJ40QAvD_BwE

    I would asses the overall marketing strategy for Make-A-Wish Foundation is to increase their presense at major events such as NFL, and NBA games that have huge crowd presense where people are in a hype mood and are more in a giving nature. connect with major brands like Mastercard and American Express for every one hundred dollars is spend 5% goes to Make-A-Wish Foundation. Use social media to influence teens by advertising on music apps like Spotify and Pandora. Mail soliciting during tax season charitable donations are tax deductable. Reach out to the people of the world not only do they give a donation to a worthy cause but they can benefit from there charity.

    When organization have a strong presense in public it becomes familiar to the audience and what there platform does to help and let the donors see how their donations are actually going to good use and how it can also help the donor as well. 

http://wish.org/#sm.0000xvbtnu9wgevuy8v1u8s2cckon

https://youtu.be/rAC_4BvX9Eo

https://youtu.be/g7-F_pz_vYY

[bogleua-blog]

The organization I chose was Comcast Corporation. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts.

Social media is critical in this industry because there is more than one communications provider out there for most areas of the country. Comcast is in the communications industry which provides customers with cable television, high speed internet access, digital voice, home security, and in the coming months, cellular service. The norms/standards for social media use is mostly customers who have an unresolved issue with Comcast or is upset with their services. It is rare that you will see a customer accommodation for outstanding customer service or customers who are satisfied with their service on social media outlets.

Taking care of customers over social media started out as a small favor to answer questions or concerns, but as time progressed customers have turned to social media instead of traditional modes of communication that included talking to a live representative on the phone or in person at a Comcast service center. Customers felt like questions and concerns were not being addressed by customer service representatives on the phone and in person and felt more confident in coming to a resolution knowing that someone higher up in the organization is hearing their frustrations.

The social media platforms that are mostly used to communicate with its customers are Facebook and Twitter. People are mostly active on these platforms when addressing their issues with Comcast about their service. As this has become a more popular method of communicating with Comcast, Comcast has created a social media team of representatives that answers questions and helps customers resolve their issues. The goal is to have as many social media representatives to answer customers questions and concerns as there is live agents answering phone calls. This is part of a new initiative to improve the customer experience at Comcast.

The social commerce strategies that Comcast is focused on is improving the customer experience. Comcast has been consistently rated as having the worst customer service in the industry, as well as having the worst customer service overall across all sectors. Comcast has taken the initiative to promise their customers with a better experience when you call Comcast with a question or concern and has also committed to making a better experience when a technician comes to your home. The social commerce marketing campaign is that Comcast "should fit into your life, not the other way around." They also have developed an app that you can download on your smartphone, the MyAccount app, that makes it easy to pay your bill, schedule appointments and troubleshoot your issue without having to call Comcast making it a more convenient option that offers a hassle free experience when dealing with Comcast.

There are critical relationships to making this happen. The communication must be fluid across all departments for this to happen. The MyAccount app must be functional and easy to use for the customer, there must be constant communication from service technicians to other departments that will allow them to "fit into the customers life, not the other way around," live agents must talk about the MyAccount app and assist the customer in downloading and using it, and Comcast must change the way they do business to do things right for the customer. This could include removing sales metrics for agents that are not in direct sales positions or hiring more service technicians in the field, for instance.

Comcast has a very strict policy how its employees communicates with its customers. The social media team is only allowed to communicate with customers through social media sites that is approved by the company. The approved sites for social media agents to communicate with customers is through a direct landing page to Comcast's Twitter or Facebook page or through the Comcast Cares page that was established only for the purposes of answering customer questions or concerns. The Twitter handle for Comcast Cares is https://twitter.com/comcastcares. On Facebook, Comcast communicates directly with customers on its Comcast Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/comcast/. This page is mainly for information purposes only, but social media representatives actively scan the page for customer complaints and questions. Comcast also uses LinkedIn as a way to communicate with its business customers at https://www.linkedin.com/company/comcast. Here, business customers can join in on discussions and Comcast social media agents can promptly answer questions or concerns that business customers may be experiencing. These are the most widely used platforms to resolve customer issues. There are platforms that are not approved by the company to answer questions. This would be social media landings such as https://www.reddit.com/r/Comcast/ or https://www.facebook.com/ComcastComplaints/ that are not approved sites for social media agents to interact in. These are monitored by the public relations and legal teams who are authorized on behalf of the company to respond to these less traditional methods of communication that are designed to damage the credibility of the company.

Overall, the social media marketing strategy is pretty solid. The company is actively engaged with the social media community and is listening and responding to its customers through multiple social media outlets. This is resulting in a better customer experience. The efforts put forth to improve the customer experience on the front line with call center agents, technicians and service center employees has resulted in less angry tweets and posts on social media outlets.

There is still a lot of work to be done to improve the customer experience. Comcast wants to be a better company and they want to provide a better customer experience but will not take the steps to fully improve the customer experience on the frontline. Comcast pressures their non direct sales departments to push sales onto the customer, when customers are trying to resolve an issue with their services, to the point of being terminated for not getting the customer to buy additional products and services. The agents have to focus on selling products and services to the customer instead of helping them with their problem. If Comcast wants to see less angry tweets and posts on social media, they need to change the way they operate as a company. If they could change as a company and truly offer the customer a great experience, Comcast could shift their social media efforts to other things besides responding to angry tweets and posts.

https://www.facebook.com/ComcastComplaints/ http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/company-overview http://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/episodes/how-comcast-built-a-winning-social-media-customer-service-team/

[mom23sc84amart-blog]

[fulltiltworld]

Bombas Socks

In 2013, entrepreneurs Randy Goldberg and David Heath stumbled across a Facebook post that mentioned a serious need for socks at homeless shelters around the country. Sock are the #1 requested clothing item at homeless shelters. They decided to launch a sock company called Bombas. Bombas promoted for every pair of socks sold they would donate a pair to the homeless. Bombas has worked hard to develop a line of premium, high-tech, fashionable socks, between $12 and $18, that customers would want to buy.To date, more than ten million pairs have been donated. (Bombas About Us, n.d.)

Bombas is primarily involved in the clothing industry. Goldberg and Heath were made aware of the need for socks through a Facebook posting and continue to reach out via digital social media as well as radio and TV commercials. (Elizabeth Segran, 2017)

Randy Goldberg and David Heath used a mission-based model to stand out., pitched their one-for-one charitable business model on Shark Tank in 2014. (CNBC Make It, 2017) They went into the Tank seeking $200,000 in exchange for 5 percent equity. They ultimately accepted a $200k investment from FUBU founder Daymond John for 17.5 percent. Sales from the beginning were primarily online sales, Google, Amazon Prime, eBay, Bing (Bombas Socks, n.d.). The mission-based marketing is dependent on a cause that helps customers feel like they’re making a real impact. The mission based strategy was for every pair of socks sold, one pair will be donated to a person in need, and to bring awareness to homeless crisis that effects every community especially lager cities. /BOM-BAS/ derived from the Latin word for bumblebee. Bees live in a hive and work together to make their world a better place. They're small, but their combined actions have a big impact on the world.  That's why their mantra is bee better, and slogan “ Better socks, Better world, Bee better, hence the Bee symbol on all their socks.

Employees from the Bombas headquarters in New York had come to donate socks. While the brand sends thousands of socks to 750 organizations around the country, they occasionally drop them off in person. It’s a great way to bond as a team, Bombas also believes it’s really important to connect with the people we are serving as a company, because it reminds us about our mission. These interactions have helped Bombas better serve the homeless. It was through the feedback they received from the community that they decided to reengineer the socks they would donate to the homeless. While regular Bombas socks have a special seam that eliminates the bump at the toe, for added comfort, the donation socks have a reinforced seam to make them more durable. The socks are treated with anti-microbial technology, so they don’t need to be washed as frequently and deter fungus. Also, these donation socks only come in black, which is more stain resistant. (Elizabeth Segran, 2017)

Bombas is trying to pave the way for other companies to have in-person giving experiences. Bombas is uniquely equipped to do this, since it has built relationships with homeless shelters and the nonprofit sector. Many companies have time and funds set aside for employees to contribute to charitable causes. Bombas has been creating ways for other brands to dip their toe into the world of social good. Bombas created an event called “60K day,” which was based on the concept than on any given night, 60,000 people in New York end up at a homeless shelter. The plan was to bring individuals from 60 of New York’s hottest companies to visit a shelter and hand out 60,000 socks. The companies included were, Birchbox, Thinx, Kind, Casper, Classpass, Harry’s, Maple, and Spring, among more established brands like Gap, LinkedIn, Shake Shack, and Kenneth Cole.

Bombas launched another program called “Skip Day,” where it invites New York-based companies to take advantage of Summer Fridays and flexible summer hours to volunteer to serve the homeless community. Bombas makes it easy for individuals at companies to jump right into the work. Employees from different companies can gather and assemble bags of products that the homeless need to get through the hot summer months, such as cold bottles of water, ice pops, and wipes. They then go out into the streets to hand these out. These visits are also reinvigorating to employees, since it puts a face to the people they are trying to help with their business. It also gives meaning to their everyday tasks–like making spreadsheets and calling suppliers–when they return to the office.

Online ratings and reviews are as follows, Bombas Socks   with a 4.8 star rating. Google Express - Need Shoe Accessories. eBay (Bombas Socks, n.d.). Amazon Prime with an average star rating of 4.8, (Amazon Prime, n.d.).  Clothing at JCPenney , 4.6-star rating. (JC Penny, n.d.). rockemsocks.com, Shark Week Socks - Rock 'Em Socks (Sharks, n.d.). lululemon.com, lululemon Official Site . (Women's Socks, n.d.) hollisterco.com

Hollister Co.  (Shoes & Accessories, n.d.). findsimilar.com The Sock Accessories Outlet  (sock accessories, n.d.)

Facebook 317 K followers, reviews are 5 star ratings on glassdoor (Glassdoor, 1028) Twitter has 12.9 K followers, joined 2011, (Bombas Socks, n.d.), Instagram shows 64.9 K (Bombas Socks, n.d.), Pinterest has only 3,092.

I believe the overall social media marketing strategy of Bombas, a buy-one, give-one brand is brilliant. Offering a high quality product with a 100 percent guarantee, and knowing your expense contributed to a worthy cause, but it was also about starting a broader involvement about homelessness, and providing a model for other companies to replicate about how to get involved with their communities. Other companies can use their own particular areas of strength to contribute in their own unique ways. Birchbox, for instance, has been donating boxes of beauty products–from shampoo to nail polish–to homeless women. Harry’s has been donating razors to people in need and funding charities that serve veterans. Shake Shack has been enlisting its staff to donate food to the hungry after work. These social media posts and activities spurred other less socially involved brands to consider how they can help.

Randy Goldberg and David Heath stumbling across a Facebook posting, passionate about working towards a great cause providing a top of the line quality product, and using one-for-one model pioneered by the shoe brand Toms, and using the power and full resources of social media. At this time, the only recommendation that I would recommend for more recognition towards their cause would be to advertise more on TV. But this type of advertising is a lot costlier than the power of the internet.

References  

(n.d.). Retrieved from Amazon Prime:  https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_6?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bombas+socks&sprefix=bombas%2Caps%2C148&crid=17YMN

Bombas About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved from Bombas: https://bombas.com/pages/about-us

Bombas Socks. (n.d.). Retrieved from Bing:  https://www.bing.com/search?q=bombas+socks&qs=FT&pq=bombas&sc=8-6&cvid=A281E9CF60814D43AD63994E91F77A22&FORM=QBLH&sp=1

Bombas Socks. (n.d.). Retrieved from Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bombas/

Bombas socks. (n.d.). Retrieved from YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNr5Uh1qIeU

Bombas socks. (n.d.). Retrieved from YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG2MDlfz1yU&t=9s

Bombas socks. (n.d.). Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRHMYB4f2iI

Bombas Socks. (n.d.). Retrieved from Twitter: https://twitter.com/bombas

Bombas Socks. (n.d.). Retrieved from eBay:  https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311.R1.TR10.TRC0.A0.H0.Xbombas+.TRS0&_nkw=bombas+socks&_sacat=11

Bombas Socks. (n.d.). Retrieved from Amazon Prime:  https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_6?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bombas+socks&sprefix=bombas%2Caps%2C148&crid=17YMN

CNBC Make It. (2017, June 7). Retrieved from ENTREPRENUERS:  https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/21/shark-tank-investor-daymond-john-won-big-with-bombas.html

Elizabeth Segran, P. (2017, July 27). Moving the  Needle. Retrieved from Fast Company:  https://www.fastcompany.com/40445016/how-one-sock-brand-is-helping-startups-step-up-their-social-good-game

Glassdoor.  (1028, October 30). Retrieved from Compant Ratings:  https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Bombas-Reviews-E1605933.htm

JC Penny.  (n.d.). Retrieved from Shop Departments:  https://www.jcpenney.com/g/women/N-bwo3x?pageType=X2H2&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=paid%20search&cid=paid%20

Leighton, M. (2018, September 19). Retrieved from  Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/bombas-socks-review

Sharks.  (n.d.). Retrieved from Rock'em: https://rockemsocks.com/collections/sharks?gclid=Cj0KCQiArenfBRCoARIsAFc1FqeikZpZSurmyDJFVpZV29-6JLjeGuz4EjOdCdAYSsDjnK2zzU5-UX8aAjUhEA

Shoes & Accessories. (n.d.). Retrieved from hollister.com:  hollisterco.com  Visit Website Hollister Co.® - Cyber Monday Starts  Now_BMM_C&gclid=Cj0KCQiArenfBRCoARIsAFc1FqfC0_gFi2onusCvV2XAb7ednLpG8493

sock accessories. (n.d.). Retrieved from findsimilar.com: https://www.findsimilar.com/search?q=sock+accessories&cid=4146&campaignid=954831731&adgroup_id=44215909901&keyword=kwd-296541545240

[megaradbouquetcycle]

Final Assignment: Marketing Blog Tumblr Post

Dollar Shave Club is a company founded by Michael Dubin and Mark Levine in 2011. According to all of their social media profiles Dollar Shave Club is about, “Dollar Shave Club makes and delivers everything you need to look, feel, and shave like a million bucks--without paying it” (Dollar Shave Club Twitter). The products that they sell are broken into several categories oral care, shave, shower, hair style, skin care, butt wipes, and traveler (Dollar Shave Club Products). The products are delivered to customers’ doors and are available in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. “Quality blades sent to your door for a few bucks a month. Built by a guy tired of forgetting/refusing/needing to buy overpriced blades each month” (Dollar Shave Club AU Twitter). The products are part of a membership, by signing up customers can choose which razor and other products that they want to receive monthly from the company. “Deliveries arrive on your schedule. Pause, skip, or cancel any time with just a few clicks. That’s level 9 yogi flexibility” (Dollar Shave Club Home Page). This flexible monthly schedule is listed as one of the three reasons that people should join Dollar Shave Club on their website.

Social media is critical to what Dollar Shave Club does, since they have no store and revenue strictly comes from sales through their website. Dollar Shave Club is part of the consumer packaged goods industry, specifically the razor and toiletry industry. As an online company advertisement through social media is the norm for the industry. As part of the razor industry and grooming or toiletry industry there is also frequent social media advertisement.

           Dollar Shave Club holds accounts on all the top social media platforms including Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, and Facebook. As well as holding three separate accounts on twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. The three separate Twitter accounts are for the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. They have separate Instagram accounts for the U.S., the U.K. and a behind the scenes look at Dollar Shave Club. With the U.S. twitter account seeming to be used the most out of all of their social media accounts. Their top three accounts with the most followers are their Google+ with 564,626, their U.S. Instagram account with 109,000 and their U.S. twitter with 83,000 (Dollar Shave Club Google+, Dollar Shave Club Instagram, Dollar Shave Club Twitter). The three Tumblr accounts seem to feature be pretty much the same content. Though two of them have not been used in three years and the third account has not been used in four years. All of their social media accounts besides the YouTube and Tumblr accounts have been last posted on this month within the last week. The YouTube account was last posted on, on March twelfth of this year.

           Their overall strategy seems to be seen as relatable and humorous by their target customers, men. Though they also have a smaller percentage of female customers. They also give helpful grooming tips, like how to deal with ear hair, with infographics. Their latest strategy of posts seems to be humorous web comics. These posts are shareable and those shares could result in sales for the company. Dollar Shave Club has experienced going viral in the past with their first ad on YouTube “Our Blades are F***ing Great” going viral back in 2012. This gained them twelve thousand orders within the first forty-eight hours. The company also received two awards for this video one from Adage for “Best Out-of-Nowhere Video Campaign” and a Webby Award for best Fashion and Beauty website (Crunchbase). They also sponsor a wide range of popular, and a few up and coming Youtubers’ videos. Their objective in all of this is to sell their products.

As far as social commerce strategies Dollar Shave Club implements social share tools, recommendation indicators, testimonials, and user forums. They encourage and facilitate influence and impressions through widespread social media use. Altogether I was able to find thirteen social media accounts on seven different social media platforms. Spread across these accounts they feature ads, articles, infographics, reviews and testimonials, web comics, and links to their website where customers can purchase their products. There are also sponsorships from YouTubers that bring in more views than the company’s own YouTube channel, which has no subscribers. Social Blade has rated them with a C+ with a subscriber rank of 22,984,057 and video view rank of 56,167as well as a Social Blade rank of 723,249 (Social Blade).

The relationship that Dollar Shave Club has formed through their sponsorship with YouTubers has been critical. As I have mentioned they sponsor a variety of YouTubers from those that are very popular and thus have a larger audience like Philip Defranco and H3H3 Productions. As well as YouTubers who are just starting out or are up and coming such as Eddy Burback. Another critical relationship is the one that they have with their Instagram followers, specifically to the U.S. Instagram account. This is because they have a large following on this social media platform. They are also very active on their U.S. twitter account that also has a large following. As well as their relationship with their Facebook followers, who account for their biggest following across all of their social media platforms with 3.5 million followers (Dollar Shave Club Facebook).

           A majority of the ratings that are found online are positive. But a recurring complaint is that the razors seem to dull faster than other brands, such as Gillette. According to Consumer Reports, the Humble Twin, which is the cheapest razor offered by Dollar Shave Club, rated the poorest when compared to Harry’s Truman, Dollar Shave Club’s The Executive and Gillette Shave Fusion ProShield. With The Executive landing in the middle with Harry’s Truman and Gillette coming in first (Consumer Report). Their Facebook pages hold a lot of reviews including one from a user named Allyson Furst, “How has no one mentioned your adorable packaging?! I joined last month and am never going back, the quality is amazing!” (Dollar Shave Club Facebook). The company’s Pinterest account features a board that is dedicated to customer reviews and unboxings. Among them is Tiana C.’s review, “My husband and I are members! Have saved so much money and love the Bathroom Minutes that come with! Highly recommend the Dollar Shave Club!” (Dollar Shave Club Pinterest).

Like I mentioned before humor is a common thread in Dollar Shave Club’s content as can be seen in their posts and comments on their various social media accounts. This includes the fourth example, which is of their content, a sentiment analysis based on their social media platforms shows that Dollar Shave Club wants to be seen as humorous, entertaining, and amusing. As can be seen in their latest web comic depicting where their shave butter comes from. This web comic can be seen posted on several of their accounts, the one I included is from their twitter account. The last example comes from their website where reviews from customers are featured. As is typical reviews ranging from one star to five stars are listed. Overall the company averages at a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars (Dollar Shave Club Reviews).

My overall assessment is that the social media marketing strategy for Dollar Shave Club is very effective. This can be seen from when the company first started out and their first ad went viral. It can also be seen in the large number of followers that they have across the various social media accounts that they hold. So, the strategies that they are using to engage customers are working at the moment.

As far as recommendations for Dollar Shave Club’s social media usage goes I would recommend that they promote more of their U.K. accounts. In my research on their website all of the links for their social media accounts go to their U.S. accounts. So, if they want to increase traffic to their U.K. accounts or their Australian twitter account they should include links to them on their website. The same goes for their Facebook account since it also only links to their U.S. social media accounts. I would also look into the subscriber situation on YouTube. I subscribed to them and when looking at their profile it did not display a number showing their subscribers. I am not sure if in reality they have zero subscribers, if they are choosing to not display their number of subscribers, or if there is an error in the YouTube system. Though I doubt the first one since it should at least display my subscription.

Reference List

Byrne, S. (2016, April 25). Which Shave Club Has the Best Razor? Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://www.consumerreports.org/razors/which-shave-club-has-the-best-razor/

Crunchbase. (n.d.). Dollar Shave Club. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dollar-shave-club

Dollar Shave Club. (n.d.). Home Page. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/

Dollar Shave Club. (n.d.). Our Products. Retrieved 5, 2018, from https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/our-products

Dollar Shave Club. (n.d.). Reviews, Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/reviews

Dollar Shave Club AU Twitter. (n.d.). Dollar Shave Club AU. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://twitter.com/DSCAustralia?lang=en

Dollar Shave Club Facebook. (n.d.) Dollar Shave Club Community. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://www.facebook.com/pg/DollarShaveClub/community/?ref=page_internal

Dollar Shave Club Google+. (n.d.). Dollar Shave Club. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://plus.google.com/+DollarShaveClub

Dollar Shave Club Instagram. (n.d.). Dollar Shave Club. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://www.instagram.com/dollarshaveclub/?hl=en

Dollar Shave Club Pinterest. (n.d.). Tiana C.'s Review. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/143411569360028573/  

Dollar Shave Club Twitter. (n.d.). Dollar Shave Cub. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://twitter.com/DollarShaveClub?lang=en&lang=en

Social Blade. (n.d.). Dollar Shave Club. Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/dollarshaveclub

[oilyfunbags-blog]

Young Living Essential Oils  @necsocialmedia

Young Living Essential Oils are 100% therapeutic grade oils.  Young Living sells many other products as well, but started with essential oils.  Most of their other products do contain essential oils in them.  Everything Young Living sells is clean and safe!  Meaning it is clean and safe for the environment, your body, your animals.  Being therapeutic grade means it is 100% blood from the plant.  It is distilled and has no fillers to make it cheaper.   Essential oils can help heal your body in a natural way, or keep you family healthy while germs are flying around during school time.  They can help clean your house in a natural way with out using a bunch of nasty chemicals.  

Young Living is in a MLM company.  Meaning it is a multilevel marketing company.  The impact of social media is huge for Young Living.  Every person that buys a kit and decides to sell Young Living heads straight towards social media.  It is the quickest way to let your friends and family know you started your own small business. 

Young Living has been an organization for over 20 years.  Gary and Mary Young Established Young Living in 1994.  They started with a small organic farm with the distillation process. Their first herbs grown were lavender, peppermint, Melissa and clary sage, in Utah and Idaho. Their vision was and still is “To bring Young Living Essential Oils to every home in the world.” (as cited in, Young Livings about, not dated) Young Livings Mission statement is “We honor our stewardship to champion nature's living energy, essential oils, by fostering a community of healing and discovery while inspiring individuals to wellness, purpose, and abundance.” (as cited in, Young Livings Mission Statement, not dated)

Young Living’s is a people-orientated culture.  A people orientated culture is value fairness, supportiveness, and respect for individual rights. These organizations truly live the mantra that “people are their greatest asset.” (as cited by; Tayla Bauers, Berrin Erdogan, not dated).  With People being their greatest asset, social media is peoples easiest way to communicate.  The employee is celebrated with ranks and rewards. When the employee is celebrated, they are respect and appreciate the business, and in turn they work harder.  The employee usually advances more rapidly because they feel appreciated.  A people orientated culture is a less stressful organization. With Young Living as you advance ranks you earn more money, and more prizes.  The Young Living team that supports you gives you even more encouragement.  If you are on the monthly oil plan you receive tons of free oils as well.  It allows you to try their products that you would never have thought about buying.  

As a Young Living distributor you get a “virtual office” account on www.youngliving.com.  As you use your virtual office it is a great way to keep in contact with your down line and know who has ordered and who needs to order.  From there you usually use Facebook messenger to keep in contact, due to the fact they can check it whenever it convenient them.   You can run your whole business online.  

On the Young Living twitter they have many different recipes,  one I am posting has many different reviews on it.  Everyone seems to love it.  (https://www.youngliving.com/blog/holy-guacamole/?utm_source=oso&utm_medium=tw&utm_campaign=guacamoleblogtwitter&utm_content=092917)   This is a beginners guide to meditating, not one person on their comments has one bad thing to say. (https://www.youngliving.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-meditation/?utm_source=oso&utm_medium=tw&utm_campaign=meditationblogtw&utm_content=092517)    Young living has posted about their seed to seal promise on YouTube.  Here is the link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLQuvo1hxpo).  There are many reviews on the bottom of that YouTube video!  

Needless to say if one goes on Young Livings Twitter account or Facebook account you will find nothing but positive feedback from Young Living. Young Living sends out a a foundation team to help with hurricane victims.  #younglivingfoundation .  On Facebook sometimes you can write reviews, Young Livings does not have a review section.   I found a nice review online through google. (http://guessingalltheway.com/2009/09/young-living-essential-oils-review/)  Here is a nice 3rd party unbias opinion of Young Living. (https://hotmlmcompanies.com/young-living-essential-oil-reviews/).  Not one product out there is going to have perfect reviews.  There are bad reviews for Young Living.   This YouTuber believes Young Living is a scam.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CYDon4jhic)

Does a MLM business work?  Honestly it depends on how motivated the individual is that buys into it.  If one is neglectful of the business and expects it to grow, it will not grow on its own. You must be passionate about your business, and excited to share what you are selling. Social Media plays a huge part in how you share your Young Living business.  All it takes is a few pictures of diffusing, or a testimony on how the oil is helping you and you have people interested via social media.   Young Living thrive on their people to share about oils and other products to their friends and family.  People are their largest asset.  Gary Young started Young Living as a multi-level marketing business.  As Gary started small, he would travel to a different state each week and share the oils.(Young, 2015)  As the word got out, sales went up.  Gary has created an empire.  In 23 years, Young Livings has built headquarters in Australia, Europe, Canada, Japan, and Singapore.  The word has spread across the world without the use of commercials or advertisements!  Social Media has became a huge part of Young Living.  It has made it easier for people to join and spread the good word.  As the internet grew larger and larger so did Young Living.  

Multilevel marketing is a 16 billion dollar a year market.  People are realizing you can stay at home, and manage your own time.  There is no business drama that you get at the work place. If you fail, you failed because of your own faults. If your business isn’t not growing, it isn’t growing because you are not out there planting the seeds, and watering it.  You have a mentor, that you can listen to if you want. If you don’t listen to them you will probably fail.  Your mentor is in that position for a reason.  The only reason you fail is because of you, not anybody else.  The best part about a Young Living is that you can run the whole business off of social media.  Young Living is probably based 80% off of social media.  Many people like to go out and do classes.  I personally hate doing classes.  I have actually done a live class over Facebook, rather than sitting in front of a group of people you sit in front of your camera and teach oils!   

Young Living just started to created starter kits to accommodate every person.  You can buy a man kit or a baby kit, not just oils.  A few months ago that was my only complaint about Young Living.  Other wise I feel Young Living is doing an amazing job at what they do.  They wouldn’t have been in business for over 20 years if they hadn’t.  They keep us informed via social media the moment anything happens.  I know I can look on any source and find out what the promos are going to be for the month. They share recipes for food or hair mask ect to use oils in.  They do a great job via social media.  Going through Young Living I have learned so much about how important it is to use chemical free products.  I feel fortunate that it was brought into my life.  

Jessica N Abraham-Hogan (October 13,2015) People-Oriented Management: How it Can Help Your Organization http://www.talentzoo.com/news/People-Oriented-Management-How-It-Can-Help-Your-Organization/21657.html

Online CompanyWebsite (www.youngliving.com/en_US/company/about)

Online Company Website (www.youngliving.com/en_US/company/about/mission-statement)

Online Company Website (www.youngliving.com/en_US/company/about)

Online Journal (https://www.thebalance.com/multilevel-marketing-mlm-2947187)

Mary Young (2015) D. Gary Young the World Leader in Essential Oils

Connie and Alan Higley (2016) Reference Guide for Essential Oils

[rainycollectionrebelunivers-blog]

Shipt: Mom A/B Tested, Mom Approved.

Shipt is a an online grocery delivery service that opened its virtual doors in 2014. Put simply the company uses an Uber-like business model to streamline the process of local grocery delivery. Customers pay a monthly subscription fee to access the Shipt app or website to select grocery items from a local participating chain grocery store (Publix stores in their Southern markets and Meijer stores in the midwest are the two biggest players so far) and schedule delivery of the items to their home anywhere from two hours to twenty-four hours later. Each order is fulfilled or "Shopped" by a local contractor that can take or decline orders in their area at will – similar to an Uber driver taking a fair. Their Social Media presence isn’t all that different from similar services like Postmates, Amazon Prime or Grubhub. All convenience companies that rely on positive customer feedback to survive. 

Shipt's business model calls for heavy use of  Social Media in their Marketing Mix. First and most importantly, they use it to build brand awareness and educate potential customers on what the service is and how it works. While grocery delivery has existed for awhile -- delivery companies like Peapod and Schwans have existed in major metropolitan areas since the early 1990s – most people outside of "first tier" cities haven't had much exposure to the idea. Shipt relies on Social Media and shareable content (especially video) to educate consumers. Since the company also relies on membership to generate revenue much of their created Social Media content seems to channel users to the companies website, which is also acts of the point of sale. The company has been an aggressive user of Social Media throughout its history. It uses Twitter and Facebook to engage customers, often letting them know about an added delivery zip code, or sharing a happy customer review. Their Social team is active and seems to promptly answer customer questions, address concerns and thank customers for using the service as well as look for opportunities to promote the brand, like the tweet below. 

The company also keeps an Instagram and Pinterest account that are updated frequently. Shipt seems highly invested in creating their own original content including recipes, and cooking tips as well as extensive original video content – with videos ranging from short "Cooking Shows" featuring Shipt delivered grocery items, to micro travel vlogs about cities where they've recently started service. All of which lead you back to their site, which conveniently asks you to sign up! 

While Shipt is focused on engaging and conversing with customers and potential customers on Social Media, their created content is focused around cooking and their Social feeds on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest almost read like a foodie blog. Through this brand consistency they seems to be trying to cultivate loyal returning customers and hopefully turn them into brand ambassadors.  

While the company creates quite a bit of original content, they certainly rely on social sharing to spread the word about their service. The company has seemed to shy away from sponsored posts from celebrities and entertainers. They have, however, been great social listeners and capitalized on positive customer reviews, especially when they come from an important demographic – the Mommy blogger/vlogger.  

Shipt seems to understand who's usually in charge of grocery decisions in most households and has really targeted Moms with their created content. It looks like it’s working as bloggers and vloggers have posted many videos like this one, and articles like this one. Shipt smartly gives current customers their own promotional URL to give out $10 in free groceries to new members while earning them $10 in return. Many of the Mommy bloggers have these URLs attached at the end of their positive reviews.

Outside of these Mommy blogs there's quite a lot of customer feedback about Shipt on Social Media. Much of it seems positive. Below are some examples.  

First, Facebook is certainly not completely positive for Shipt, but seems there are more reviews like this one then not.  

Twitter is similar, mostly folks sharing picture of their delivered groceries and chiming in like the below. 

While not the best platform for finding voice of customer, Shipt is pretty active in Instagram and get's some return on that investment with occasional content like below.  

Many many lifestyle/homemaking blogs have reviews of Shipt, here’s a pretty common example with a pretty even, but not glowing review of Shipt here.  

Here's another video review from a vblogger. This one is mostly positive, but also a good rundown of the service itself.  

In the service industry, word of mouth is so important and Shipt seems to understand that. While encouraging brand ambassadorship through some incentives (like there referral bonus) is a great start, I think it might make sense for the company to double down on this concept. Creating opportunities to have Shipt customers participate more in the brand would be great.  I think encouraging some sort of online cooking competition, or creating a user recipe book could be a great promotion and would fit in the brand image quite well!  

Overall Shipt is an innovative company that seems to understand their audience – who that audience is and how they use Social Media. It seems most customers are happy with the service and many are willing to share their stories. As Shipt tries to scale and open new markets there created content will be an important first step to educating potential new customers and developing more participation from their current ones to leverage what seems to be mostly goodwill towards the brand wouldn’t hurt either. 

[dariennezielinski]

Final Assignment by Darienne Zielinski

Sephora is a prestige beauty ambassador who champions unique artistry and the endless possibility that the world of beauty provides to people across the globe. Sephora represents all that is fun, fashionable, and fearless, empowering men and women by unlocking everyone’s “beauty potential” through knowledgeable and professional staff. 

Social Media is one of the main reasons beauty, as an industry, has grown so large. Everyone is looking to be their best at all times of the day, because there may always be an opportunity for a picture, and on social media, that picture lives on forever. Because of this, beauty is more important than ever. Looking good has never been so relevant. 

I would dare say everyone has stumbled upon a beauty vlogger’s video or some sort of makeup tutorial at some point in their lives. Social media has provided such an easy, targeted way to reach the masses, and quick. A thorough understanding of various social media platforms is a must if anyone in the beauty industry is to succeed, and Sephora exhibits how to do it well consistently. 

Sephora utilizes most social media channels. they use Instagram....

Facebook...

Twitter....

Pinterest, LinkedIn, youTube and Google+ to name a few of the Platforms they are present on. They do a wonderful job at keeping consistent branding and imagery between every platform, but have a sense of individuality and uniqueness between them that make them all interesting in their own way. Sephora uses these various channels to empower and inspire their customers with knowledge and innovation that keeps them coming back for more. The more you educate the masses, the more they continue to purchase your products as you have created a bridge of trust that is strong in it’s foundation.

With all of the social media interaction and open sharing of knowledge, this sets Sephora up for success in it’s commerce section. It is selling without feeling like you are being sold to, because it is so lighthearted and easy.  A consumer is looking to solve an issue that they are having, and Sephora has such an incredible collection of goods, that a customer is destined to find something that works for them. That combined with supplying plenty of resources in help facilitate those purchases, such as having beauty advisers all over any Sephora that you walk in to, or beauty advisers accessible by phone every day of the week, and a generous sampling policy (to hook them and keep them coming back for more), Sephora guarantees a customer will leave happy with their purchase and slowly getting addicted to beauty products.  Sephora also has a 100% guarantee on all of the products that they carry in their store. No receipt required, no questions asked. This makes purchasing feel low pressure and as easy as it could possibly be. 

Sephora also has a Newsletter and in depth emailing system. If a customer adds an item to their cart, and does not purchase it, they receive this email....

Tempting and clever isn’t it? This keeps a constant flow of customers staying focused on finishing a purchase that they may have forgotten about. 

Sephora also has an app that they constantly keep updated with new beauty tutorials, tips and tricks, reviews, up and coming product releases, and a virtual makeup application and color test. This again, is building customer loyalty and keeping customer coming back to and remaining loyal to the Sephora Brand.

With a combined  following of 29.2 MILLION followers and 177.3 thousand posts between their top three social media platforms, Sephora is well versed in the social media game. They keep the content between the three varied, so customers are’t looking at the same thing if they follow them on multiple channels, but also similar enough where they can quickly identify the brand.

Sephora has embraced another digital platform (an app) that has allowed them to gain a unique perspective of their client base.  It has also allowed shopping online with Sephora a personalized and social shopping experience. They even use the app in store so that customers can save their preferences or even post an online review of a product while in store testing it out. This app has helped bridge the gap between brick and mortar stores and online shopping in a very unique way.

Sephora remains a key player in the digital marketing world with a fun and innovative take that keeps reeling customers in. They are consistent and interactive, exciting yet professional, and  somehow they have perfectly balanced what it means to be powerful in such a volatile online atmosphere. 

Well played Sephora!

[stellak8-blog]

The Branding of Pier One Import

The Branding of Pier One Imports Introduction: Pier One Imports gives their customers the ultimate experience in uniquely imported handmade home furnishings. This company started in 1962 and is relevant to the home fashion trends of today and to those who use the social media platform to become informed consumers about their products. The first store opened in 1962 was established in San Mateo, Ca. as a single store location. Our merchandise assortment ranges from home accessories such as candles, vases and picture frames to full-sized, upholstered furniture, hand-carved armoires, large-scale vases and eclectic wall decor. From initial product development to store display, our Pier 1 Imports merchandise makes a long and interesting journey. The process begins with our buyers, who import goods from many countries around the world. All merchandise is carefully selected in order to offer our customers exclusive, one-of-a-kind products that reflect excellent quality at a great value. Our buyers also work with designers abroad and with Pier 1 Imports’ Trend and Product Development team to create the proprietary designs found in our stores. (PierOneImports.com/2000-2017). What is Pier One Imports? Pier One Imports is a global importer of imported decorative home furnishings and gifts. Pier 1 Imports is dedicated to offering customers distinct home furnishings and décor at a good value. Our merchandise is a constantly evolving assortment based on customers’ lifestyles and relevant home trends. We are a socially conscious company that conducts business with personal and professional integrity (PierOneimports.com/, 2000- 2017). In 2002 Pier One Imports celebrated 40 years of their brand as a global company. Fifteen years later Pier One Imports is still a visible brand amongst home furnishings, and very competitive as brick and mortar stores. Pier One has a forward thinking business style and they know that e-commerce is something they have to market more of in order to tap into the new customer base that only shops online. As stated in this article in the USA Today, It's "always better" for a marketer when a celebrity spokesperson is a customer, not just a hired mouthpiece, says Phil Schneider, senior vice president of marketing for Pier 1 in Fort Worth. "They can be more sincere in their approach. Because they mean it (McCarthy, 2002).” Data and Reviews: Pier One Imports received 4.5 stars out of 50 online reviews of their products by the average consumer. This information shows the increase in the e-commerce of Pier One Imports from only a year ago, Pier Onr Imports Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2017 Highlights • Net sales decreased 2.6% as the average number of stores declined approximately 3%; • Company comparable sales increased 0.2%; • E-Commerce sales increased 28% as compared to the same period a year ago; https://seekingalpha.com/news/3256909-pier-1-imports-beats-0_01-misses-revenue Social Media: Sweet IQ is one of the tools that Pier One Imports is using as a social media influencer to get their brand recognized so consumers will use more e-commerce as they close more of their Brick and Mortar Stores. https://sweetiq.com/blog/how-does-pier-1-imports-use-social-coupons-to-expand-its-reach/ • Pier 1 Imports and Twitter First up, let’s take a look at Pier 1 Imports’ Twitter strategy for advertising its coupons. With 77.4k followers, a quick scroll through the company’s Twitter feed immediately flags up the image-heavy nature of their offer-promotion tweets. • Pier One Imports is also visible on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pier1/ Both of these targets I have copied and pasted are to show the visibility that Pier One Imports has on Facebook. Neustar Market Share Optimization Pier 1 Imports, the original global importer of home décor and furniture, has chosen Neustar MarketShare to evaluate its marketing efforts across channels. Through this partnership, Pier 1 Imports hopes to more accurately measure the impact of its marketing expenditures on consumer actions by using the award-winning MarketShare DecisionCloud solution to optimize its various marketing investments. https://www.neustar.biz/about-us/news-room/press-releases/2016/pieroneimports REFERENCES Facebook, (2017) https://www.facebook.com/pier1/ Influenster, (2017 https://www.influenster.com/reviews/pier-1-imports McCarthy, Michael, 2002, USA Today Advertising and Marketing Pier One Imports, Website: https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2002-04-08-pier1.htm Pier One Imports, 2002-2017, Website: https://www.pier1.com/pr_about-us.html My Total Retail.com (2017). Pier One to close 25 stores over the next year. http://www.mytotalretail.com/article/pier-1-close-25-stores-next-year/ Youtube.com sources all video links ,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkizgtwKwNs https://www.youtube.com/user/MyPier1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guNlGZwCZSk Pier One behhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y4Vdj9-cC8ind the Scenes with Our Director- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBb7rANRwWI Pier 1 Imports: Behind the Scenes with our Set Designer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgehEqDX_Gw Pier 1 bright and bold summer entertaining

[roberterosejr1-blog]

Under Armour | #WEWILL

Under Armour Social Media Assessment

Introduction:

Under Armour is a performance apparel company founded in 1996 by Kevin Plank, a former University of Maryland football player. He had a plan to design and produce a t-shirt than could provide compression while wicking the perspiration off the body instead of absorbing it. He was tired of always having to change his cotton t-shirts during practices. He set out to find a solution to this problem of the shirt absorbing the moisture making the shirt uncomfortable. After extensive research, he designed a shirt with synthetic fabrics that kept the athlete cool, dry, and light in hot conditions.

All the players in the sports apparel industry attempt to saturate social media platforms with their products using famous personalities in their marketing. All major sports apparel companies have Twitter accounts, YouTube channels, Facebook pages, and Instagram accounts. They use these accounts to introduce new items, share fitness ideas, and promote their brand with their followers.

Overall social media use:

Being in the highly competitive sports performance apparel industry, Under Armour utilizes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr as well as RSS feeds in its social media marketing strategy. Social media is important to their marketing strategy to get their product out to the consumers using the spokespeople who promote their brand. Under Armour is also building a fitness community with the acquisition of MapMyFitness and MyFitnessPal and the development of Connected Fitness and fitness devices like Healthbox.

Under Armour has loaded up its website with different Instagram account links to different product lines. This platform looks to be the primary social media platform used to reach the public. Instagram allows them to post photographs and videos that motivate people and promote the specific product line. They do utilize Twitter as a way to promote product launches to their large following. Under Armour promotes the use of mobile devices to compare prices, reaching out to users with promotions, and YouTube for research.  

Social commerce strategy:

Under Armour utilizes a social commerce strategy that targets 13 to 24 year –olds that encourages this base as well as other companies to provide feedback about the brand on social media. Using social media they introduced the “Ultimate Intern Program” that generated over 10,000 inquires and over 5,000 applicants on Facebook and Twitter. Two finalists were chosen to join their marketing team to share the companies brand messages and values using social media. This campaign alone helped to add over 120,000 new Facebook fans and over 4,000 Twitter followers increasing the total number of followers to over one million. Under Armour also utilizes Instagram to generate brand awareness of their different lines of apparel that encourages customers to share about the product in posts. The website and all social media platforms allow for the user to contribute their opinions about a product.

  Under Armour also utilizes business relationships within communities, college sports teams, professional sports teams, and individual athletes. They spread the message that if you want to achieve something big, you have to work for it and it will require hard work. By selecting athletes that are young and emerging in their prospective sports, Under Armour can reach their target demographics. Keeping with this target audience, they flood social media with their brand utilizing videos, tweeting about new merchandise, and sharing photographs of sports stars in their brand.

Data:

The Instagram post promoting the “Inspired By Misty Copeland Collection” targets women and generated a positive response from the comments and elicited over 18,000 likes. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BZRvnI7htvG/?taken-by=underarmour) The Under Armour Jordan Spieth President’s Cup golf shoe twitter photograph post generated buzz on whether the golf shoe will be made available to the public. There were a few responses of a political nature relating to the recent NFL protests.(https://twitter.com/UAGolf/status/913453535483875328) The Lindsey Vonn #UnlikeAny Twitter post video had 72 retweets and 234 likes after five days with a positive encouraging response from those who posted comments after viewing the video. (https://twitter.com/UnderArmour/status/913437655609700352) The Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, Instagram post received over 37,000 likes and all the comments were positive including people who were asking for this product line to be available in Canada and Abu Dhabi. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BVDdGyMBVyU/?taken-by=underarmour) The Tom Brady Facebook post on September 27th elicited a negative response from those who posted comments. The responses struck a political tone concerning the NFL protests and Under Armour’s support of the NFL. Most, if not all, of those that made comments were talking of boycotting Under Armour.

Assessment and recommendation:

Under Armour has worked to maximize their social media footprint targeting their chosen audience to promote their brand. They have utilized a plethora of social media platforms to extend their reach to their targeted customers including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube along with numerous fitness apps and RSS feeds. This approach adds to the cool factor to the brand.

I would recommend that Under Armour target the working class to increase their market share in the work clothing market category. This category has a huge untapped upside that could be dominated by the Under Armour product line. Blue collar workers (trades workers) including law enforcement officers and firemen will benefit from the performance line of apparel in their workplace. This is an area that Under Armour can extend the reach of their brand increasing sales and participation in research and reviews through social media. Under Armour needs to do some damage control over the recent political firestorm involving NFL protests and company political leanings. These can generate negative publicity that can hurt the company’s bottom line.

References:

https://www.underarmour.com/en-us https://brandongaille.com/20-sports-apparel-industry-sales-statistics-and-trends/                       https://www.inc.com/aj-agrawal/3-ways-technology-has-changed-the-sports-industry.html                                                  https://www.statista.com/topics/961/sporting-goods/          http://www.prweb.com/releases/sports_clothing_apparel/fitness_clothing/prweb8117767.htm                                                              https://www.scribd.com/doc/214502735/Under-Armour-Case-Study-analysis https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/05/04/how-under-armour-plans-to-become-the-worlds-biggest-sports-brand/ http://www.business2community.com/consumer-marketing/can-sporting-goods-retailers-athletic-apparel-marketers-engage-millennial-audience-01263049#ZO9pJjxz1qbJ0CAF.97                                        https://twitter.com/Nike                                                 https://twitter.com/UnderArmour                                 https://twitter.com/adidasUS                                                      https://twitter.com/PUMA                                                                    https://nrf.com/news/how-under-armour-and-warby-parker-win-social-media

#NECSOCIALFINAL

@necsocialmedia

[citycidykitty-blog]

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood:

To introduce Planned Parenthood I would have to be introducing millions of women. Planned Parenthood or PPFA is a non-profit organization that attempts to provide care for people including, but not limited to, birth control, STD and STI testing, testing for Cancer, Abortion services and pregnancy services. Since its conception in 1916 by Margaret Singer it has been widely protest and controversial. There has been different versions of legal and social actions against them, mainly because of their abortion and birth control services.

They are the largest single provider of reproductive serves in the United States and operate in hundreds of facilities and clinics across the US. They operate on donations, non-profit funds and a small amount of government dollars that come from things like Medicaid. While Planned Parenthood does receive millions of dollars in donations, they also receive federal funding and has received federal funding since President Nixon it remains controversial and they continue to fight for the little bit of federal funding that they do have.

Planned Parenthood’s social media activity is off the charts. They are active on basically every social media platform, including platforms like dating apps. Which makes sense considering they provide things such as birth control, pregnancy services and STD testing. I will admit that I have been swiping on a dating App and seen a ad for PP (which is Planned Parenthood’s public acronym.) the app they use the most is probably Twitter, they have many accounts aside from their main account.

On their main twitter account, (@PPFA) is mainly used to give out facts about things like reproductive health, cancer screening and stories of success that come from Planned Parenthood from one of its patients. There are articles such as (11 things you need to know about your vulva) and “What’s a Pap Test.” They have a few secondary twitter accounts as well such as @PPact (Planned Parenthood Action) a twitter group that keeps up to date and keeps up the debate on federal funding, federal action and laws to make sure that services that Planned Parenthood provides are still active and legal.

Planned Parenthood has a, despite efforts, positive social commerce. They are supported by many mainstream celebrities, who share there stories about Planned Parenthood – Like the Kardashians, Bernie Sanders, Adam Scott, and many, many more. Their influence is able to remain positive despite efforts from other organizations due to the overwhelming positive impact that they seem to have, and the use of celebrities and well liked politicians to keep them well backed.

They have a critical relationship with celebrities and people who are willing to share their stories about Planned Parenthood online. There are fractions of the Internet and within social media that seek to discredit and defund Planned Parenthood, they rely on a bastion of positivity, celebrity endorsement and keeping their image as a healthcare provider and NOT a political system intact.

 Data finding on planned parenthood can be hard if one is not strictly looking for dollars spent or donated, or given by the government. Just because a group has “likes” on facebook doesn’t mean that everyone likes them. Think about a Buzzfeed video. People with like the page, and complain on every post. On Facebook they have around 939,069 followers (and counting) their official twitter has over 250k followers, on Youtube they have 39k subscribers. So all of this is technically data.

So to find some more “human” data I decided to look up my closest Planned Parenthood. It’s only 35 miles away and is a Comprehensive Health Center – I clicked into the google and scrolled through some of Google’s collected Data from patients. Out of 5 stars they received a 3.5, though this is only out of 31 reviews. There were comments of people who comment their positive and negative experiences.

The overall social media marketing strategy is relatively brilliant. Despite all of the public negativity that Planned Parenthood gets from people who have a hard swing on society like other politicians. They have made a good nest for themselves that relies on positivity, facts and information. They also have made a good nest for themselves on the donation front. With every social media account that they have there is the ability to both donate and share personal stories, both of which are super important for the survival of Planned Parenthood.

As far as ways of improvement, in my opinion, there is very little to be done. They have a very good, clean image that is well respected and informative. They could add more ads of themselves onto apps that younger people use, getting a younger audience to pay attention and keep on the spread of information. I think they could also use with addressing more of the negativity against them. They tend to stay silent in the face of adversity, but I think directly fighting the negativity with the facts and positivity that they are known for.

 #necsocialmedia

       References:

 https://www.facebook.com/PlannedParenthood/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=TvJEXOXbM9G0tQXoh5mYBQ&q=Planned%20Parenthood&btnK=Google+Search&oq=Planned+Parenthood&gs_l=psy-ab.3..35i39j0l5j0i20i263j0l3.7507.10148..10299...0.0..0.431.2515.0j17j4-1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131.t5yIZUggvCU&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=39067210,-94590931,15643&tbm=lcl&rldimm=1902791525335713010&lqi=ChJQbGFubmVkIFBhcmVudGhvb2QiA4gBAVoUChJwbGFubmVkIHBhcmVudGhvb2Q&ved=2ahUKEwiA947YsP3fAhUKPa0KHZwrCPYQvS4wB3oECAEQHQ&rldoc=1&tbs=lrf:!2m1!1e3!2m1!1e16!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:4#btnK=Google%20Search&rlfi=hd:;si:1902791525335713010,l,ChJQbGFubmVkIFBhcmVudGhvb2QiA4gBAVoUChJwbGFubmVkIHBhcmVudGhvb2Q;mv:!1m2!1d39.2197618!2d-94.3599752!2m2!1d38.9146589!2d-95.3405774;tbs:lrf:!2m1!1e3!2m1!1e16!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:4

 Twitter:

@PPact

@PPFA

#necsocialfinal

[kayrivy]

Final Project Week 7

Think of this as a professional report prepared by a social media consultant (you) for a professional client. The goal is to assess where the client is regarding their social media use and what they could be improving on or changing in their marketing focus.

(1.) I am introducing a company called DIFF Eyewear. DIFF Eyewear is a charitable eyewear company that prides themselves on the promise that for every pair of eyewear bought they will donate a pair of glasses to people in need. The norms for an eyewear or sunglasses company is usually pretty quiet and is not in your face about advertisement by any means. The standards for the eyewear industry usually reside in the contracts with sunglasses stores or with retail stores with a sunglass area. As far as advertisements go most people can find advertisements in the mall, in magazines, maybe on a billboard, or around the store they are in. Advertising for sunglasses isn’t usually seen on television or on the Internet for a specific brand. There are plenty of celebrities or higher-class citizens with expensive sunglasses that aren’t seen advertised, except for in magazines, and they rely on word of mouth or their product being seen on the people wearing them.  Those same high-end eyewear and sunglass companies are usually not just eyewear; they are a part of a clothing company or a company that offers other products.  The advertisements the high-end eyewear does use, in magazines or with their clothing lines, are paid advertisements. DIFF is an organization that is trying to be completely different than their competition. While there are new companies that are paying for advertising on social media sites, DIFF is trying to create their advertising through people. DIFF is probably paying some of their celebrity advertisers and social media influencers based on views and attention but they are hoping that with online reviews and tags and posts on social media that they will attract more attention because people are recording videos of them using the sunglasses and showing all the options they have. One thing that DIFF does that is already different from other eyewear companies is their charity influence, participation in the charity they are giving to, and the price for the quality of product. The major problem of sunglasses today is that they are expensive. Not only are the high-end sunglasses so expensive ($200-$600) that the average citizen would never pay for them but even the middle ground ($90-$200) sunglasses are still pricey. Companies like Dior, Prada, Gucci, Versace, Tiffany, etc., are the high-end sunglass that can run you over $600.00 for a pair of sunglasses. Ray-ban, Maui Jim, Costa Del Mar, and Oakley are popular, more reasonable, sunglasses that can still run up to $350.00. Online eyewear companies like DIFF try to appeal to the everyday customer that wants practical and durable, but still good quality, eyewear. (2.) DIFF’s social media history is through the roof. DIFF is a company that prides itself on the social media posts of celebrities and social influencers. There are a lot of posts on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter of DIFF’s sunglasses and eyewear. DIFF themselves use YouTube to post new product clips and advertisement videos. Instagram is the most used and most popular form of social media that DIFF uses with over 500,000 followers. Facebook is their next most popular and used social media platform with over 171,000 followers.  Their strategy to create more sales and awareness is using the power of social media with celebrities and social media influencers. Social media influencers are people with a lot of followers; they are the celebrities of social media. By using celebrities and influencers they are able to reach a ton of people just by posting one video and if they can post many pictures or do a collaboration with celebrities then they can get even more attention. The videos that are being posted are review videos; so not only do they show the product being used by famous people that they recognize, but they are also being told how amazing the product is and how great the cause is that they are contributing to. (3.) The social commerce strategy that DIFF (charitable eyewear) uses is the strategy of using celebrities to support social media interaction. They also get their consumers to tag them in pictures and post review videos to assist as well. DIFF uses their social media accounts to post sales and new products but they mostly let their influencers to do the outreach work. They encourage and facilitate influence and impressions by using celebrities that are well known and are aesthetically pleasing. Using celebrities who are already being noticed for the products they use are posting videos of the good things they think about DIFF eyewear that generates views and generates social commerce. Not only are they using celebrities to tell consumers what they think about DIFF’s products but they are also collaborating with DIFF to create their own “lines” of sunglasses. Khloe Kardashian, Jessie James Decker, Demi Lovato, and Becca Tilley have all collaborated to make their own version of DIFF sunglasses and beyond them they have the support of other celebrities like Kendall and Kylie Kardashian, Mario Lopez, Audriana Patridge, Joelle Fletcher, Scott Disik, and many other reality TV stars and social media influencers. All of these relationships are helpful for their brand but I think the critical relationships are with the collaborators and then second to that are all the celebrities that support and suggest DIFF eyewear. 

(4.) 

https://youtu.be/pX1_hUDPOWMhttps://youtu.be/6Ei2uMR-XO0

https://www.facebook.com/AkinsLaur/videos/vb.1181035255272783/1588341007875537/?type=2&theater

https://www.facebook.com/themeaganrigney/videos/vb.292281914158198/466923920455351/?type=2&theater

https://www.amazon.com/Diff-Eyewear-Designer-Square-Sunglasses/dp/B075VD2MWK/ref=pd_cp_309_3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=ef4dc990-a9ca-4945-ae0b-f8d549198ed6&pf_rd_r=EE455JKTT9A7BFDZKC45&pd_rd_wg=Chhdy&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&pd_rd_w=OTrf3&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pd_rd_r=966514c7-f129-11e8-bd66-f7675945ae46&pd_rd_i=B075VD2MWK&psc=1&refRID=EE455JKTT9A7BFDZKC45

The reviews I am seeing all over the internet is the positives of DIFF charitable eyewear. Consumers are loving the price point and loving the quality of sunglasses they are getting. They are comparing DIFF to companies like Ray-Ban. (5.) I think DIFF charitable eyewear has got social media marketing down. I think the way they are using social media influencers, reality TV stars, and celebrities to advertise their products and facilitate e-commerce is above any other eyewear brand. The thing that DIFF is constantly winning over other companies is the quality for the price. Most of the reviews I am seeing online are people comparing them to their Ray-bans and other expensive sunglasses that are over two times more expensive. People seem to love their glasses but some people are also frustrated with some of the designs because they are two big or not able to be adjusted enough. Those bad reviews are very few among the good reviews. DIFF has done a great job of getting the right people involved to get their company the right attention and I think they need to move into the stores that the rest of the sunglasses are in like sunglass hut and other popular sunglass stores. I did research that DIFF eyewear is being sold at boutiques and department stores like Dillards which I think it is another great move on their part because once again they are advertising their product in the places that their normal consumers would shop. 

References:

http://www.greenecoservices.com/100-eyewear-companies-that-give-back/

https://www.sunglasshut.com/us/womens-sunglasses/4/68/18?pageType=women

https://www.instagram.com/diffeyewear/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/diffeyewear/

https://twitter.com/diffeyewear

https://youtu.be/SydHRNSzwVM

https://youtu.be/vCfKiG95gK4

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5EZQf4L1JHm9k5sNBetRjw

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqc2sHznNtV/

@necsocialmedia