4
Brand pages I have liked
On Facebook, I have liked the pages for Coca cola and Zara Fashion.On Twitter, I am a religious follower of British Airways. I like thepages of these companies to get updates and news from their posts. Iinteract with my favorite brands by sharing their posts on mytimeline, commenting on their funny memes, and contributing to theirdiscussions. Sometimes I take part in promotions that require one’scomment to have the highest number of ‘likes’ in order to winsomething. During such competitions, I invite my friends who are onFacebook to like the page so that they can like my comment in return.
Through my interactions with these brands, I get to know newinformation about them. For instance, when the British Airways has anoffer on all flights to Europe, I am among the first people to know.Whenever Zara fashions launches a new shoe design, I will be able tosee it on their Facebook page. Since I like looking fashionable, Iusually order whenever the page posts something I love. The Coca Colapage is an interactive platform between fans. I especially love thebranding of names on soda cans.
These brands could increase their interaction with the users byreplying to their comments and tweets. Quite often, I come across acomment regarding an important aspect of the brand, such as price andavailability, which goes unanswered by the group administrators. Thepractice not only makes the customers feel unappreciated, but it alsodenies the company the opportunity to give out important informationto other people who might read the comment. The administrators alsoneed to regulate the frequency with which they post the same things.Nobody wants a timeline full of the same ad by Coca Cola.
The Reflection
Social media advertising has taken the advertising industry by storm.Gone are the days when businesses had to rely on the mainstream mediafor publicizing their brand. As it stands, social media may overtakeother forms of media as the most favorite advertising site. Throughmy interaction with the various brands that have a compellingpresence on social media, I have realized that they apply some of thebasic concepts of social media advertising.
According to Precourt (2015), for a social media advertising strategyto work, the content must be shareable. In other words, advertisersshould not take advantage of the wide audience that social mediaaccords them to produce mediocre content. On the Coca Cola Facebook,I noticed that the administrators try their best to create contentthat is worthy sharing. The administrators create funny memes oftrending topics. They have also capitalized on the quotes and anticsof Donald Trump to market their products. The strategy seems to workthus far because I see many people on Facebook sharing the funnymemes by Coca Cola on their timelines. I also liked the strategy ofcreating profile pictures of cans bearing the names the fans of thepage. The app allowed fans to create such pictures and put them astheir profile picture. The app also allowed fans to tag their friendsunder the banner ‘Share a Coke with….’
According to Barallobre (2015), social media advertising shouldconcentrate more on knowing what the target audience likes ratherthan just collecting personal information en masse. The contentdevelopers of social media ads should look at what the targetaudience likes and how to create likeable content. Through myinteraction with the Zara Fashions Facebook Page, I could see thatthe content developers were targeting a certain section of themarket- those who love unique fashion. As opposed to what I see whenI visit a regular Zara store, the products therein are not common. Ifigured that the social media advertisers came to the realizationZara followers on Facebook like unique products. Using thisknowledge, they launched a marketing campaign that focuses on truelovers of fashion. The company is also doing similar things to whatcompetitors such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton are doing in their socialmedia advertising. I noticed that the three competitors use models tomarket their products as opposed to some manufacturers who displaythe sole product without the model.
Insight on the use of social media in order to determine a brand’saudience is a key area in social media marketing (Owens, 2016).Numerous social media analytic companies have come up in the lastdecade. The companies specialize in analyzing the personalinformation of users of social media in order to determine theappropriate audience for a particular advert. It therefore does notcome a surprise that whenever I look at the British airways twitterhandle, I always get ad pop ups regarding the same. Some people mayargue that it is an invasion of privacy, but I think it is a good wayof marketing the brand to the right audience.
Social Media Campaign
In my role as the social media manager of Heineken beer, I willcreate a promotion event to sell my brand on social media. Thepromotion will take the form of a competition in which I will ask thefans to describe their experience using the Heineken mobile app. Thefan with the highest number of likes on their comment will receive agift hamper. The most likely scenario is that the fans will writecomments and then invite their close friends and relative to liketheir comment on our fan page. The fans will invite some of theirfriends who did not know about the brand Heineken or the activitiesit engages in. Upon the realization of the marvelous products offeredby Heineken, the invited friends and family will like our fan page aswell. By the time the promotion ends, the number of fans on our fanpage would have increased considerably. Most importantly, the fanswill feel appreciated and love our brand more.
The gift hamper for the winners of this competition will be a crateof Heineken. I chose it to be a crate of beer because the majority offans on our fan page are beer lovers. In addition, the thought of awhole create of beer for free would make the competition moreinteresting and attract more participants. I will also make sure thatthe competition is as fair as possible. Within a specific amount oftime, which I shall communicate to the participants, I will choosethe comment with the highest number of likes. Any other likes thatwill come after the specified duration of the competition will not betaken into consideration. After I declare the winner, I shall askthem to use the Heineken mobile app to locate the bars that areparticipating in the promotion. The winner will then visit the barand receive his or her free crate of beer.
The Week Long Calendar
Day
Activity
Day 1
Posting on Facebook, the link to the Heineken mobile app for iPhone and Android
Day 2
Posting on Facebook, the link to the Heineken mobile app for iPhone and Android
Day 3
Asking the fans to express their feelings towards the mobile app
Day 4
Asking the fans to express their feelings towards the mobile app
Day 5
Seeking to get the opinion of the users of the app. I will post a question that goes, “What can we do to make our mobile app better?”
Day 6
Seeking to get the opinion of the users of the app.
Day 7
Seeking to get the opinion of the users of the app.
On the first and second day of the weeklong campaign, I will post thelink to the Heineken mobile app for iPhone and Android. I will askthe fans to download and name at least three bars that are found onthe mobile app. The rationale behind this post will be to notify theFacebook fans of the mobile app that can help them find bars andtaxis. The requirement that the fans should name at least three barsthey can locate using the app, is to ensure that no unworthycontestant will win the prize.
Since I already have a database bearing the names of all the barsthat are registered with the app, I will be able to separate thosewho have used the app from the liars. On the first day of the post, Iwill not require the fans to invite their friends to like theircomments I will just pick any random correct answer and award thewinner a crate of Heineken.
On the third and fourth day, the Facebook post will ask the fans toexpress their feelings towards the mobile app. This competition willallow the fans to invite their friends and relatives to like theircomments. After duration of 12 hours, I will select the fan with thehighest number of likes and award him a crate of beer available atthe nearest bar he can locate using the mobile app. The rationalebehind this post is to highlight the advantages of the app to otherFacebook fans that are yet to download it. Through the testimonies offellow fans, those who are yet to download the app will be motivatedto follow suit. The competition also allows the competitive fans ofthe page to invite non- members to like their comments. The non-members will witness the benefits of liking our page and downloadingthe app as well.
The last three days of the social media campaign will seek to get theopinion of the users of the app. I will post a question that goes,“What can we do to make our mobile app better?” This interactivesegment with the fans aims at identifying the weak areas of the app.The good thing about social media is that people can be very brutalin their honest opinion. I will take the comments to drawrecommendations on the ways that Heineken can possibly improve themobile app. To void cases of false praise, I will not attach a prizeto this section of the campaign. Making the critique exercise acompetition will influence the fans to say that the app is justperfect the way it is. I will allow the fans to express their brutalopinion as they deem fit by letting them know that there is no prizefor the comment with the most likes.
The project made realize that social media is an in important tool inadvertising. However, in order to make social media a valuable toolfor advertising, the content should be worth sharing. I am glad theproject gave me the opportunity to exercise my creativity as a socialmedia manager.
References
Barallobre, F., 2015. Building digital brand engagement a journeyfrom social media insights to leverage brand engagement. ESOMAR
Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D.J., 2009. Social media: The new hybridelement of the promotion mix. Business horizons, 52(4),pp.357-365.
Owens, J., 2009. Social insight who is the audience in social media?Admap.
Precourt, G., 2015. What makes content shareable on social media.Event reports.
URL of social media page:https://web.facebook.com/heinekenunofficial/?skip_nax_wizard=true>