Digging Into Your Online Brand

"Sometimes the answer is not so obvious" resonated strongly with me this week as I explored my brand, The Royal Bank of Canada. Though the questions I had did not arise where I thought that they would. Frankly when I think of a bank, I think of old white men in suits talking about stock prices and bond rates. Perhaps wrongly, I pretty much expected the marketing from that kind of institution to follow suit. However, I was pleasantly surprised.  As I audited RBC's digital footprint I didn't find any boring interest rate posts, or confusing jargon on facebook and twitter. In fact, they have a great personal voice going for them on the social media side of things. The confusing part of their online presence for me came when I visited their website. The web page that hosts their main site looks very "industrial". It has big white borders on the sides, a very plain "Microsoft Word" kind of font, and very limited pictures and color. It also took me a few minutes poking around to realize that they had completely different sites for personal banking and business banking. I guess my question I wish I could ask is why would such a big brand, who has such personality on other social media, have such a bland 'home site'? 

American expressed recently revamped all of their social media, so I thought they would be a really interesting company to follow. This company really did a great job across the board. They have a unique selling point of "taking a journey," which is consistent through all of their sites. Any young social media enthusiast would be really interested in this company. My question is, why is it so hard to get on their email list if you are not already an American Express member? In my opinion, signing up for a company's email list is a great way to learn more information, but this company won't let you log onto their site unless you already have a card, which is counterintuitive. Why isn't there an easier way to learn more about this company before buying into it? 

I decided to study Google's online presence. They are the most prominent example of a startup that exploded and took over the world and is dominating the online world. Google keeps an incredible image, assisting in helping the world gain access to the internet and other philanthropic ventures, as well as posting funny videos to millions of videos on their own YouTube account. They hold a clean and simple aesthetic throughout all of their websites, and keep a finely tuned key message underpinning all of their social media, that the world's information should be universally accessible and useful. 

I chose Auto Zone as my brand for the course, and so far I am very impressed with their online presence. I didn't expect them to be so active on social media (including a very well put together instagram page) but considering that they're targeting pretty much anyone who might require knowledge or products and services related to owning a car, their efforts to this point make a lot of sense from a marketing standpoint. My question relates to their mobile app, specifically how I can gauge the success that they've had with it so far. I downloaded it and reviewed it and it seems like a very stable and beneficial platform, however they only have 8 posted reviews and no available number of user downloads. This surprised me because all of their social accounts have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, but I'm having difficulty finding any real metric information relating to the success of their existing mobile app. If you could shed some light on this issue I would really appreciate it! 

I've chosen to go with HP as the company I want to audit. They're a tech company so I hope that their digital footprint is awesome and they get all bases covered. But everyone has their mistakes. They have a really simple and clean website that's easy to use and read. They have separate twitter accounts for countries, which I find a little weird, but convenient. They also have a "home" HP twitter and then other accounts for things like support and printing, which kind of makes sense, but everything could be handled from one account. I was just wondering if it's really that beneficial to have separate accounts for every sector a company has?

The brand I've chosen is Xbox. Xbox has a strong presence on the bigger platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Their medias are attractive looking, with modern, bold, simple fonts and lime green coloration. Most of their posts are game teasers, upcoming games, and deals. They also do a large amount of replying to fans, from a friendly, humanistic voice. As discussed in class, this is an effective strategy. One thing I was wondering is why none of their social medias show any actual gameplay? It seems that actual game footage and a preview of the graphics of their games would be great advertising. Why don't they do this? 

The brand that I have choosen to audit is Wrigley. 

The tricky thing about Wrigley is that they aren't located on any social media platforms as just Wrigley. They use some of the individual products to create social media accounts. For exmple Extra Gum and Juicy Fruit are on multiple platforms but I couldn't find anything about Altoids. It is very hit and muss. I like the idea that the Wrigley brand doesn't advertise themselves as a whole, but instead they push the individual products under the Wrigely umbrella. 

I am confused on why the website for Wrigley isn't the same as the Extra Gum website or Skittles, the Wrigley website is very corporate and profesional but you go to Skittle and it is the complete opposite. They need to be cohesive. 

The brand i have chosen is Suzuki. I like the brand Suzuki so much that my motorcycle is a suzuki. The brand strength of this company is very strong. Being a multinational cooporation, their brand presence is incredible. Suzuki can be found on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Google+, and Instagram. Specializing in manufacturing from 4-Wheeled motorized vehicles and motorcycles, to ATV's and even wheelchairs. Being the 9th greatest selling automaker in the world, how does foreign brand like suzuki expand in the prideful land of america? In 2012 suzuki ended their sales and production of cars in America due to a huge decrease in sales. What could suzuki do to stand a chance against american made cars?

The company I chose for this semester is Starbucks. Starbucks is all over the world so they make sure to reach out to all their customers. They have different twitter accounts for the different countries which helps the customers when trying to contact Starbucks. Some Starbucks lovers come back all the time for their amazing customer service and for their awesome coffee, because that's what Starbucks is - a coffee shop. When you visit their home website, they also have this amazing blog for people to get into. The blog focuses on mostly Q&A and How To type of posts. How does having this sort of involvement on their website help brand their name?

The company I chose was CarMax. I chose CarMax because a close family member of mine used it to get their new car. I noticed with CarMax that they do not use their Facebook and twitter accounts often. But they advertise more on television and radio to get their name out there. My question is if there is any benefit for CarMax not using their social media accounts often?

The company I chose was CarMax. I chose CarMax because a close family member of mine used it to get their new car. I noticed with CarMax that they do not use their Facebook and twitter accounts often. But they advertise more on television and radio to get their name out there. My question is if there is any benefit for CarMax not using their social media accounts often?

The company that I chose for this first assignment was Axa Advisors. While researching their social media and company website, I was impressed with their website but not their social media. Their website was well put together and very informative. It was easy to navigate around their website and simple to find any question you might have had about their company. However, their social media was not very personal or intriguing. Their twitter was their best form of social media, but I still thought it could have conversed with customers more often. Is it as important for a company like Axa (sells life insurance) to be spending their time on social media, than a company like GameStop who has a younger audience? Is social media worth Axa's time?

The brand that I chose was Coca-Cola. I chose Coke because I believe that they do a fantastic job with their advertisements and I wanted to take a deeper look at what goes into one of their ads. Coca-Cola is on all major social media platforms. They post at least once a week on their social media sites. The content ranges from discussions with consumers about products to promotional videos and pictures depending on the site being used. It is clear that the brand puts a lot of thought and effort into maintaining a positive brand image. When I went on their website it seemed very simple to me. The layout was relatively plain and the homepage wasn't very engaging. It seemed like the website was promoting the social media pages. My question is are there benefits to having a website that seems plain and links directly to social media accounts rather than a more complex page?

I chose to audit Emirates Airlines. From their website, you can see that they can be found on top social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Google+. I also found them on platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest, but they don't make an effort to advertise that on their front page. The content they post on their social media platforms is essentially identical. Most likely automated posts are sent out to all their social media accounts at the same time. They usually post a picture along with a caption such as announcing the features and perks of flying on Emirates, but sometimes they have deals and offers that they'll advertise. As for their website, it is built very well and is easy to navigate. They try to make it is as easy as possible to book flights or hotels straight from their website which is great, and their mobile website and app works very well. Also, they have a support page on twitter for people to directly speak with the company regarding flight issues. I think that for a large airline, that type of customer support is very important. 

The company I chose was Fujifilm. I chose them because I own a Fujifilm Instax camera and thought they could be a fun brand to dig into, marketing wise. I came accross that they have several different Twitter and Instagram accounts for their different products. I was wondering why a company would choose to do this as opposed to coming across as a unified front on social media? The tone of each of these accounts is not much different either. 

The company I chose was Nordstrom. I chose this company because I have worked for them in the past and was impressed by their loyal customer base. Their main focus as a company is customer service, which results in satisfied customers who will continue to shop there, as well as spread the word about the store. They do not use traditional advertising like TV or radio, instead they advertise online and on social media sites. They have a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. All of these platforms have a large following, as well as high engagement. I would like to know why they choose not to utlize TV advertising when it reaches such a large audience. 

The brand I chose was Zappos. Since Zappos is an online store it is only fitting that they have a heavy social media presence. There Facebook page raves of high reviews, and has over 2 million likes and it grows everyday. Something unique that I noticed about Zappos was that on Facebook they have high ratings for there "hour to respond." In today's fast paced enviroment that isn't usually heard of. Zappos twitter account reaches over 2.8 million On their twitter page, Zappos makes it easy to find links to their "delivering happiness" campaign and also their retail website. Along with being present on Facebook and Twitter, I also found them on instagram and pinterest, which I feel are fitting platforms for a retail website. On these social media platforms, Zappos has made it easy for their consumers to shop right from the apps. With people today always being on instagram and pinterest, this makes shopping with them convienent, fast, and easy. The last big media platform that I dug up was Zappos own app. The layout is so simple that a baby could use it. They even make it easy to call them with just the tap of a button. As one of the most sucessful online retail businesses I would like to learn more about how they use internet marketing to their advantage.

The brand I chose to follow throughout the semester is American Airlines. I thought this would be interesting because airlines are something that many people have to use on a regular basis, and also a service industry that receives a lot of negative press and reviews. I found that American Airlines were present on almost every social media outlet I looked at, and were very active on all of them with the exception of Pinterest. I think that they utilized each type of social media well, however one thing I noticed was that on FaceBook, they have 1.4/5.0 stars based on almost 90,000 reviews. Although it's true that the majority of cutomers will usually only comment or review a brand if they've had a bad experience, this result reflects poorly on the brand. I noticed that the majority of reviews had to do with customer service issues, and employees being rude. One positive of social media is the fact that you can get customer feedback so easily, and use this to make improvements. I would like to know how seriously reviews like this are taken, and what steps American Airlines is taking to improve an obviously less than satisfactory experience for a majority of their customers. Also, what kind of things are offered to customers that have a bad experience, and do these actually make up for the mishaps that occur? 

The brand I chose was Intel. Intel's website is very easy to use and inriguing. The layout creates curiosity and makes you want to explore. Intel has a twitter page that they use very frequently, it features posts about events they sponsor and other items about their brand and products. They also use Instagram to the same effect as Twitter, with nearly 370,000 followers. They have a youtube page which mostly features their ads and sponsoring events. My question is, why not use youtube to provide value for their customers in forms of how-to videos or computer help videos? Instead of featuring mostly ads and things that benefit them. And can they benefit from more non-conventional forms of social media?

The brand I chose was Geico. They have a strong media presence with their Twitter page that reaches 48,500 people, and their YouTube account that has 361,617 suscribers. The twitter account provides a tip of the week that applies to auto, property, or business tips instead of promoting insurance. Geico uses their brand to provide a heavy presence and show that they are looking out for your best interest, but they use humor to make it seem more appealing that they are constantly reaching out. Geico is a very present brand in todays market because they use witty humor to create strands of ads that relate to one another, or a story to follow. With their YouTube account they took a popular commercial about a spy and a mother with bad timing, and created a mini series from it. I thought this was a very funny attempt that allows you to follow the brand without feeling like you are being pressured to buy a product. They are just trying to relate to the customer and just put their name out there.

The Website was very clean, simple, and colorful. It was attractive in the way that it guides you through its options. Its first page offers you a claim, which is exactly what they do, so you don't have to search for it. You just enter the kind of insurance you want and your zipcode and they get you started on a quote. This is important becasue you don't want to get frustrated with an insurance company and take your business else where. The website also has two tabs that breaks up into subcategories but guides your search and narrows it, helping you find what you need easily. There was little to no information about the personal side of the company, its employees, or a mission statement. However, they had a long list of ways to contact with the company in case you needed someone to talk to. This provides security if you can easily contact someone with any problems that may come up.

I thought overall that Geico knew how to reach their customers and created a way to be looked for and to pop up just to get their brand out there. 

I chose Sony for this assignment. They have accounts on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, LinkedIn and probably more. They have all of their bases covered. And when you have millions of followers, you darn well should be. Overall, the design of each site is clear, simple and very visually appealing. I have noticed that they do not use a lot of type, but focus mainly on images to convey messages. Their content focuses mainly on products and entertainment.

Something interesting I discovered is that mainly twitter, but other sites as well, promote SIA and One Direction a lot. That was honestly the only pop culture/entertainment related posts I saw. They must have some sort of contract, but I would much rather see variation with the artists that they support. I think they are too focused in this area. I am interested to know how they chose the artists they do promote. And if Sony will focus on more important entertainment moguls in the future. I really feel that they are lacking in this area for being so highly recognized as an entertainment affiliated company.  

My brand for this semester is Lowe's. This is a warehouse type store that offers a place for people interested in do it yourself projects. The company's webpage offers links to tumbler, facebook, twitter, youtube, and pinterest. I think that all of the websites are effective if someone is looking for organizational ideas, however I do not see the platforms catering to unconvetional ideas. The site if stripped of the Lowe's logo would remind of a brand like IKEA, who also offers home improvment and space saving. This however is not what Lowe's is. 

Lowes website is very informative and easy to navigate. Weather a person is a buyer, investor, or inquirer. Their company mission is focused on DIY, building your own home, and your own space.

The brand I choose is Walgreens. They are a health and welness store that also has a photo center and some food options. When looking into their social media, I found that they use many different platforms such as Facebook (with over a millions followers), Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and they have their own app that provided coupons, ads, photos, and pharmacy features. Their use on Twitter is very personal. They respond to most posts that they are tagged in even if it is just a "hey, how are you". People will actually just tweet @walgreens to say hello. This seems to be a very good way to get consumers involved. Also, most their social media platforms are very fun loving and happy, using bright colors, fun captions and always having people smiling. The one thing that I did not completely understand is that on their Instagram they will have some really fun and colorful posts, even using a dog to wish people happy new year, but when it comes to the ads they post on their instagram, they just look dull and boring. I do not know why they make everything look fun and happy except for the actual products they are selling, especially on a photo application.

The brand that I chose is Proctor and Gamble.  Proctor and Gamble are on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Vine.  P&G are very connected with their audiences and post very personable things. They don’t only post things that try to sell their products.  Their social media posts are a mix of promotion of their products and other posts, for example recognition to Martin Luther King, Jr. on MLK day.  This is the most effective use of social media in my opinion, because it is a habit of people to just scroll, or skip through ads.

The brand that I chose is Toshiba. Their brand is represented on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+. On their social platforms, they have a lot of posts that serve as an organic way to advertise their products. The also promote their brand by sharing links to articles about themselves as well as posts meant for their customers to engage with their page, such as 'Throwback Thursday' posts. On their website, it's broken down into different sections based on the products within that section. The sections include computers and tablets, digital displays, hard drives, business and industrial, support, and news. My question for them is why don't they have an Instagram channel? So many people use Instagram as a main platform for their social media that it seems like it would make sense for them to have an Instagram presence.

The Brand that I decided to research was UPS. I found UPS on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Google+. UPS mainly focuses on building solutions for a business and everyday people. On twitter, they warn customers in regards to the weather as they proactively inform customers when there might be package delays before they even happen. I also see many posts about UPS helping with world-wide issues. My biggest question pertains to UPS's use of social media. I found that twitter was UPS's strongest and most effective way to communicate to customers online. Facebook seem to bring negativity to UPS's brand. Would it be beneficial for companies like UPS to focus on only one or two social media websites? (Rather than mediocre content on all platforms)

The brand that I have chosen is Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes is my favorite brand of cars and my dream car happens to be the G-Wagon. Mercedes is on all of the same social media sites that I am and then some, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook just to name a few. I actually enjoyed their website because it wasnt like most automobile sites where they have prices flashing at you as soon as you click on the link. Their website is more information based with articles about the cars and the events that Mercedes attends and throws to promoe their vehicles as well as having a few how-to-videos. My question is what makes automobile manufacturers believe that throwing prices in a customers face right away would be the best way to sell to them?

The brand that I chose is CVS, which is currently undergoing a transformation and focusing more on health as well as healthy living. From what I’ve been able to analyze thus far, CVS has done a good job with the social media that they do use, which is primarily Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as having a mobile app. The platforms that they use promote their products; provide tips for healthy living, as well as showcasing the company’s commitment to customers.  I cannot figure out, however, why they would not choose to utilize Pinterest as one of their social media platforms. For a company that sells thousands of goods and brands and offers numerous tips on how to use their products it seems to me like using Pinterest would be a no brainer, but for some reason they have chosen not to. What would make a company choose not to use a social media channel that could help boost their brand especially if hey have already established a general social media presence? 

The brand of Lancome have many platforms as their social media, such as face book, instagram, twitter, and wechat. They usually publish as image or tag someone. Their website are attractive and interesting. After I follow almost all the social media which lancome use to advertise, I find out they use different tactic when they use multiple media platforms. For example, when they use instagram, they use attractive image. When they use Twitter and facebook, they enjoy to #tag many account and feature to attractive audience who are interested to their product.I think this product is for woman around 30 years old and want keep their skin younth and moisture. At first the price is a little bit high, as for a student, I don’t think I will pay a lot for that product. And it says as “Our 1st Gel-in-Oil Beauty Sleep Perfector that works throughout the night and helps transform skin’s look and feel night-after-night. Its innovative texture with micro droplets of oil, suspended in a fresh hydrating gel, melts effortlessly on skin for a lightweight yet nourishing sensation. ” Since they are for dry skin and lots of nutritions inside of the cream, I think the younger women do not need that product. And I also notice the most of Lancome product is for repair skin or avoid wrinkle, which is for the women around 30 to 40 years old. 

For the question, i think why they did not have some  3D vedio or use some new media to post their advertising? 

The brand I chose is Sprint. Overall Sprint seems to have a solid basis of what it's trying to do; compete with the giants of AT&T and Verizon. They present a lot of stats about the "truth" about coverage, signal, data etc... Which is an interesting strategy because everyone claims to know exactly what they're talking about and to offer the best service, but Sprint is obviously losing to the other big phone services quite badly. Let's take a look at things a little more closely:

Twitter: A very well organized account with a good amount of fun articles that don't try to sell you anything. There is a good ratio of ads to fun posts. There is also a good amount of posts comparing themselves to other companies, which is really popular for phone services to do.

Website: The website is pretty tough to navigate. It tries to go for a simple format but looks like it's a mobile site on a laptop. There is overlapping text which makes it look really unorganized even if it's not really a big deal. Also, there needs to be more pictures of what they have to offer instead of just text. I'm no website expert but they really could use some more creativity.

Instagram: I really like their instagram, it's creative and simple, not too wordy. They aren't posting a lot of ads or trying to get you to buy anything for the most part. They use some good humor as well and keep up with the times with their posts. 

Facebook: Their facebook isn't very entertaining. They seem to use facebook as a channel to present a bunch of deals. There are also a lot of people complaining in their comments sections and Sprint is responding so it looks like they use facebook to mostly market their deals.

My brand is Best Buy. I thought it was interesting the way Best Buy promoted their products on different social media platforms. On Instagram, they created several short videos and posts about different products that they sell. For example a festive tree shaped by TVs. Facebook was their main social media platfom that they advertised on. I am wondering why this is the case. Why would they choose Facebook over Twitter or Instagram as their main source of advertisement? I think that they should incorporate more ads through their other social media platforms. I am curious to find out their main audience and demographics of their consumers. Maybe this will help clarify their reasoning.

I chose 21st Century Fox for my brand, and focused on their film arm for this week's web presence overview. One thing that really stood out was that 21st Century Fox as a parent company is so big that it has dozens of subsidiaries, all with their own brands ands and identities. Even within the 20th Century Fox film division there are dozens of accounts for their various upcoming films in addition to their main branding. 

I'm hoping to learn more about how to manage various "identities" on social media and the value of segmenting this way. 

My question is: how detailed do we need to get for each brand when there are dozens of “sub-brands” owned by the parent? 

The brand I chose was Honda. After some research of the company I definitely like Honda a lot more. The brand does a great job with philantrophy and is highly involved in the community. 

Honda is on the "Big 3" social media platforms : Facebook, twitter and instagram. They post regularly and do a great job of engaging and getting consumers to "like" their posts. 

One thing I don't like is the way their homepage of their website is set up. It has too much going on. So many pictures, videos, and external links makes it hard for me to navigate what is going on. Perhaps they were trying to go with a look similar to Pintrest.

The brand that I chose is Palace Skateboards, a clothing/skate company out of London, UK. They are on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook with 31,000 Twitter followers and over 250,000 Instagram followers, making Instagram their primary tool for reaching their audience. The majority of their posts are photos of their clothing products, skate videos, and photos of people who work for the brand. Palace posts to Instagram about once every week or two weeks, and more frequently when they are promoting a new product or collection. They post even less frequently to Twitter and Facebook, giving them an almost nonexistent presence on the timeline. They also have a website with a webshop, photos and directions to their store in London, their lookbook, and a featured product section. The website is very simple and easy to navigate and uses very informal language that, while aimed at a certain demographic, may make customers feel more comfortable and friendly towards the brand. Palace has also done multiple collaborations with Adidas Originals and received coverage by multiple magazines. As I previously mentioned, they use Instagram as their main platform and use freelance brand promoters and celebrities such as ASAP Rocky to promote their company via social media. I'd like clarity on are whether they could be purposefully not posting much on social media or self-promoting in order to make their brand seem more "rare" and hip. I also am curious as to how they've been so successful using freelance promoters to tap international markets.

When researching Garnier (a company that promotes hair and cometic products), I found that most of their products are focused around women and most of their adveritsing too. Thus, I know sometime it is cheeper and easier to target one particular group of individuals but why wouldn't a company like this want to target children of these women. Not all the women that use these products have children but one can probably predict that 1/2 or less do. Therefore, why wouldn't a company spend a little more money to target the children of these women if they women are already buying the products? 

My brand is Philips, it's a famous international brand, so it's on so many social media platforms like twitter, facebook an instagram. However, I found that Philips publish totally different contents on different platforms. On twitter, most of the tweets are showing people that technology can make the life better and healthier, it posts lots of links to prove that Philips devotes continuously to medical treatment and high technology to make the life better. On facebook, it posts many cooking recipes links to its website to tell the audience how to make dishes by it's products. And on instagram, I feel really strange because it doesn't post the products neither it's concepts, the pictures on instagram are all about the life, environment and nature. Why Philips put these pictures on instagram without it's products' ads? Why Philips would not showing audiences how it's products like and how useful the products are?

The brand I chose to explore is Lay's Potato Chips. Lay's has used its social media presence to host it's "Do Us a Flavor" and "Flavor Swap" challenges. The "Do Us a Flavor" challenge encourages customers to create, submit, share and vote for new potato chip flavors. Similar to the "Do Us a Flavor" challenge, the "Flavor Swap" challenge puts 4 classic potato chip layers against 4 new flavors and customers vote to keep the winning flavors.

While these campaign challenges have been a huge success for Lay's in generating customer engagement and influence online, it is really the only content that Lay's posts on social media. For example on their Twitter page, all of Lay's tweets are solely about the flavor challenges. The tweets are extremely similar and repetitive. The tweets only address Lay's upcoming challenges or remind customers to make sure to submit their votes using the hash tag that relates to their current challenge. I understand that Lay's needs to be consistent when promoting these challenges but after a while I found myself very bored of reading the same content over and over. I am wondering if Lay's has crossed the line from having consistent content that is too similar and repetitive. 

My brand is Chase. Chase has several different social media platforms to convey its brand message. Their twitter account is ran by three different people offering customer support. Not only are they promoting Chase on their Twitter page, they're also giving regular updates on news going around the country, both good and bad.

Their Chase business account gives advice to valuable products and solutiuons as well as offering informative business news for entrepreuneurs in the business world. Chase.com's website is primarily geared toward assisting customers in the banking world with access to their finances. They provide an option to explore their availalbe products as well as a News & Stories sections of what's going around the globe. Chase is also on instagram, supporting small businesses such as the Skimm. Posting testimonials from current employees that talk about how important it is to give back, as well as information regarding events that Chase sponsors, etc.

I have a few questions in regards to their customer service line and how they operate via social media. I was also curious as to who runs their social media accounts and their main objective they are trying to convey via their brand image.

The company I chose is Nescafe. They make specialty coffees. Nescafe is a company under the Nestle name. They have many flavored coffees and products that can cater to many people. Nescafe dates back to the 1930’s. They wanted to make a cup of coffee that was delicious by just adding hot water. They have been known to be somewhat of a cheaper form of coffee. With the Nescafe brand they are trying to cater to people who want to feel sophisticated but also save time and money. My question is what new media platform would be best for this goal? and if there is a platform how would one decide?  

The brand I chose was NBC Universal. The NBC Universal company is an entertainment powerhouse known for its production of television networks, television shows, movies, news, and even theme parks. NBC Universal is also prevalent on all forms of social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. While researching the various social media platforms of NBC Universal, I discovered that most of the content they share is about the television shows they produce. Most tweets and posts are about times that different episdodes of various shows are airing, this includes news segments as well. When it came to company websites, I visited both NBC TV and NBC Universal's websites. NBC TV was the website that seemed to promote the television shows that the network is broadcasting. On the other hand, NBC Univeral's website seemed to consist mainly of the goals, values, and beliefs of the company. This lead me to wonder, why not consolidate both websites into one so that visitors of the site could see all that the company has to offer at once place, at one time. 

My brand is Mountain Dew. They use twitter, instagram, facebook and youtube. They post almost identical things on their twitter and facebook. I have noticed from looking at their social media/ website, it is clear that they do not use very well known celebrities to endorse their product. They use professional skateboarders, surfers or other professionals whose names are not known Why would they do this as oppossed to using a celebrity like Ryan Sheckler or Shaun White? Also their website focuses more on what the company is doing and what campaigns they have isntead of their products, why would they create a website that does not focus on their products?

The brand I chose is L'Oreal. Upon looking at their social media pages there were two things that confused me. The first is that they seem to tap into celebrity partnerships and endorsements quite a bit across their social media channels. Celebrity endoresements are known to be quite costly. There are so many non-celebrity status social influencers in the beauty industry such as bloggers and YouTubers who create make-up tutorials. I wonder why L'Oreal has not yet tapped into these influencers as much as it has with high-status celebrities. The only explanation I can think of is that celebrities reach an older, more high profile audience whereas beauty bloggers and YouTubers reach a younger audience. The second thing I found puzzling when auditing L'Oreal's digital footprint was the lack of diversity shown. In today's culture of heightened sensitivity toward this topic, I would expect a global brand such as L'Oreal to include more diversity throughout images used on its social platforms. The YouTube videos and photos on its Instagram account are primarily white women. The lack of diversity is especially evident on L'Oreal's Pinterest account, for example there are entire boards dedicated to redheads, blondes and brunettes but no boards dedicated to women with ethnic hair types such as Asian or African American. I am wondering how much longer L'Oreal will be able to continue this level of solidification before beginning to receive backlash on the lack of diversity.

I chose BMW as my brand for this class. They are a very well known company and have a strong social media presence but I saw that they literally copy paste their facebook posts into twitter. The images, words, links, eveything is the exact same on both social media platforms and also published on the same date. There are a wide range of users who use multiple platforms so it is possible that people who follow BMW on facebook also follow them on Twitter. Does this not affect the company and does it not lose credibility? What are the primary uses or characteristics of Facebook vs Twitter? The audience would also be different. A comapny that makes so much money cannot hire different people for each platform so the content stays seperate? If a student like me can spot this, are there not bigger executives in the company who can? It was just interesting that such a big company could fall prey to such a lousy mistake. 

BP is the brand I chose to research for this course. BP is on a variety of platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, and Instagram. They publish a lot of different content on each of their social media platforms. For example, on Instagram they post pictures of the company's various operations, including employees at a refinery and offshore oil platforms. There are other off topic photos relating to nature and products made from oil. BP has several websites for multiple countries, but I chose to work with the United States version. It is fairly interactive with a slideshow displaying content ranging from their Energy Outlook Webcast to a Military Placement Program. The lower end of the site includes multiple pictures with descriptions of what BP is committed to, such as safety, energy security, and the U.S. economy. Overall, the site is well designed and easy to navigate, but I have a hard time understanding why they have a large selection of somewhat off topic and distracting content on their website. In a way, it seems as if they're trying to distract you from the fact that they are an oil company, or pump up their image in hopes that public relations will follow suit. Nonetheless, this is something I wish to explore throughout the class.

The brand I chose is Ford Motor Company. I chose this brand because my Dad worked for Ford for 30 years. I had previously followed them on Twitter before taking this class and I noticed that their Twitter was incredibly impersonal and boring. When I found out we could give recommendations I was really excited beacuase I think their Twitter could use some revamping. Ford is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Youtube, and LinkedIn. For such a global company I was not suprised that they have such a large social media presence. Ford's website was a little confusing to navigate in my opinion. I wanted to try and customize a car and I couldn't really figure out how to do it. I think they should try to make their website a little more simpler. Ford Motor Company has a humble begninning, admirable goals and a good reputation. I think that getting more personal with consumers and posting content people actually find interesting would help Ford grow so much. 

My brand is Marks & Spencer, a UK department store, they're on pretty much every social media website and they are all pretty cohesive. Although I wonder if it's effective to be so uniform when each social media website has it's own unique platform. I noticed that with Twitter they often post an image and then a quick simple message with a link, which would seem effective, but to me it reads as an annoying advertisement. I feel like a lot of people would just scroll past the post. I think Marks & Spencer should re-evaluate their approach, but I also don't know how they would because Twitter is so limited. I'm curious if Twitter's layout is compatible with brand advertisement or if brands are better off putting their energy into a different social media.

MasterCard is a company that has to reach a huge audience range.  From the young to the old to the poor to the rich, MasterCard has to reach new customers who don’t have a card yet, convince card members of other companies to switch to their company and retain card members for life.  These are not easy things to do but through the use of MasterCard's different social media platforms they have been getting better at communicating with their audience.  

MasterCard is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube and they are all linked on the company website.  The problem that I am having a hard time figuring out so far is why these different platforms are so different.  They seem to be independent of each other and that the person or persons working on MasterCard's twitter feed is helping, communicating, or working with the Facebook team or LinkedIn team.  These platforms have different things that they are all saying and presenting the company differently.  If Facebook is posting articles on XYZ why is twitter not posting about the same event or story?  Why is instagram not using the same hash tags as twitter?  Why does a big sweepstake posted on Facebook not get mentioned anywhere else MasterCard has a voice?

These are things I am planning of finding out but for now I find frustrating and inefficient. 

The brand I chose is Bed Bath and Beyond. I chose this brand because throughout college I have shopped here to furnish my dorm room/house on a college budget and thought it would be a fun brand to focus on. I noticed that my brands website, Twitter, and Facebook all coincide with one another. They post about products they have, deals, stories about customers using their products, and events they are having. Their Instagram however is just professional photographs taken of fully decorated rooms. What I would like more clarity on is why my brand chose to have different styled posts on their Instagram than they do on other social media platforms? Do you think this helps or hurts the brand?

My brand is Christian Dior. They have a very strong social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube. On their Instagram they post pictures of their goods. Their Instagram posts are fragrances, make up, cosmetics and skin care of different style photoes or short videos. It's look like colorful and amazing. Their Youtube often uploading new arrival trailer. Their website look like a big fashion show time.