Question 1

 

1. Assess the people, organization and technology issues for using social media to engage with customers.

People:

Nowadays, most people will use the social media to keep in touch with friend and let them know what they recently doing.

On the other side, it need to spend time to monitor each network, respond to comment, answer the question and post product information. Sometime the workers might not be able to think rationally to respond on the comment of the customers.

For example, Facebook ads feature the ability to ‘Like’ a brand, send a virtual gift, answer a poll question, or instantly stream information to your news feed. Facebook also allow you to following the fan page of the brand and can get the new feed about the brand or the updates news, promotion, and competition.

Organization:

Companies are rolling out ads that capitalize on the social media features of Facebook to achieve greater visibility. Many companies are running online ads that focus less on pitching their product than on promoting their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. In addition, location based businesses like gourmet food trucks can tweet their current location to loyal followers and fans. Appointment-based businesses can easily tweet or post cancellations and unexpected openings. Larger companies run sweepstakes and promotions and can have an opportunity to shape the perception of their brands and to solidify relationships with their customers.

On the other hand, the organization need to choose the suitable channel to engage with customers. The social media that using by the company must well suit with the company products and service. The security problem by using the social networking. The company confidential information might expose to competitors.

For example, Best Buy uses a dedicated team of Twitter responders to answer user questions and respond to complaints. The company then mines the data through text mining and converts the data to useful information about the company’s products. The company uses the information to gauge the success of promotions, which products are hot and which are duds and the impact of advertising campaigns.

Technology:

Facebook, Twitter, and Line can become powerful tools for engaging customers in business for all companies of all shapes and sizes. Half of all Twitter users recommend product in their tweets. Tweets are the world’s largest focus group. The ads feature menu  tabs and allow users to click within the ad to see a brand’s Twitter messages or Facebook wall posts in real time, or to watch a brand’s video content from YouTube-all within the Web page where the ad appears. Even if the Facebook or Twitter postings in ads show brands apologizing about missteps or customer complaints, advertisers may still benefit. Twitter has developed many new offerings to interested advertisers, like Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends. Facebook targeting capabilities to determine which type of people respond to the various ads it has created.

On the other side, the technology does not always work. When the company cannot connect to the social networking, it will affect the operation efficiency. The company might face problem to integrate new technologies into the enterprise environment.

For example, the online advertisement for the Mrs. Meyers cleaning brand used a different kind of technology in which viewers placed their cursor over the advertisement, exposing an area that display being visited. Consumers were also more likely to click on a “learn more” button to go to Mrs. Meyers’ own Website with 35 of every 1,000 users clicking through compared with an average of just one in 1,000 for traditional online advertisements. Those kinds of technical tricks differentiate a company from its competitors.

Question 2

 

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising, brand building, market research and customer service?

Advantages:

•    Advertising: Twitter has developed new offerings for advertisers like Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends. These features give advertisers the ability to have their tweets displayed more prominently when Twitter users search for certain keywords.

•    Brand building: The Levi’s Facebook page has 500,000 “Like” message posted by friends sharing their favorite jeans.

•    Market research: Wrigleyville Sports has been building a Facebook following for over three years. It also uses email campaigns and Twitter postings to announce promotions. It tracks purchases related to its promotions and is able to tell which promotions yield the most profitable new customers.

•    Customer service: Traditional marketing is all about creating and delivering a message using communication that is primarily one-way. But social media marketing is all about two-way communication and interaction. It enables businesses to receive an immediate response to a message and to react and change the message if necessary. For example, Best Buy’s Twitter responders, called the “Twelp Force”, answer user questions and respond to complaints. That keeps customers satisfied and away from posting negative tweets on their own.

Disadvantages:

•    Negative feedback: Consumers can create positive or negative feedback or comments depends on how the company present online and the quality of products or services. Even though you can decrease the impact of negative comments through quick response, you cannot nullify it. Negative feedback may damage company’s reputation and exposing business to the possibility of negative publicity. For example, Starbuck’s social media contest backfired on the company when people posted negative pictures of protesters holding signs criticizing its labor practices.

•    Privacy and security issues: Burger King’s Twitter account was hacked in early 2013, its logo was replaced by a McDonald’s logo and rogue announcements appeared including one that Burger King had been sold to a competitor. Other posts were unprintable. Jeep was hacked a day later. Hackers replaced the company’s thumbnail image with a one for Cadillac. (Cadillac is a division of General Motors while Jeep is a division of Chrysler.)

•    Unpredictable: The results of a social presence can be unpredictable and not always beneficial as a number of companies have learned. Business do not have much control in the placement of their Facebook advertisement which are largely based on computer algorithms. For example, in late May of 2013, after failing to get Facebook to remove pages glorifying violence against women, feminist activists waged a digital media campaign highlighting companies whose advertisements appeared alongside the offensive pages, Nissan and a number of small companies temporarily removed their advertisements from the sites and Facebook removed the oages in question.

Question 3

 

3. Give some example of management decisions that were facilitated by using social media to interact with customers.

•    Wrigleyville knows which customers respond to its promotions, how much they spent and what they purchased. It can measure conversion rates, the value of keyword buys and the ultimate return on advertising campaigns. It knows exactly where and how to spend its advertising dollars most effectively.

•    Best Buy uses its central analytical platform to analyze unstructured data and make decisions about which products to promote, which are duds and how effective its advertising campaigns are.

•    JCD Repair, a six-year-old iPhone, iPad and Android repair business based in Chicago encourages customer to post reviews of its service on Facebook, Yelp and Google Plus Local to help to generate more business. That helps the small company know what it is doing right and when it makes a mistake that it can quickly rectify.

Question 4

4. Should all companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising? Why or why not? What kinds of companies are best suited to use these platform?

No, it is not necessary all companies need to use Facebook and Twitter for customer services and advertising. The reason is the small businesses are not really need to involve in social media. When the company cannot effectively using the social media and giving response to the customers, it will bring negative impact on the company at the same time it will damage the brand of the company. Social media can help some companies interact with their customers but not all the companies. Some customers just want the company be accessible and it does not mean want to follow or like the company. For the small company, business owner might not have enough time to manage the social network and give respond to customer questions. Moreover, some of the company especially small company is lack of experience or technical skills to carry out the social media.

Before a company jumps into using Facebook and Twitter it needs to make sure the “back room” mechanics are in place to process customer service requests. Best Buy did it right by using a dedicated tame of Twitter responders. If the company’s employees are not available for the unanticipated response volume, the plan could backfire.

The same goes for advertising volume. Wrigleyville effectively uses Facebook and Twitter for product promotions and contests that draw customers in and makes the company’s offerings more interactive with customers.

Companies who interface directly with consumers are probably more suited to use Facebook and Twitter promotions. But as Starbucks discovered, the promotions must be well-thought out.