More on Social and How to Get All Your Participation Points
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Hello students,
I'm up to bat on answering your questions!
First and most important, some of you have misunderstood the purpose of these Q&A's. For these blog posts you are supposed to ask questions regarding the subject matter of this weeks lesson. This is not an area for questions about your grade, your specific homework assignment the midterm or the final. You need to ask those questions on the assignment comment area itself.
Make sure you ask a question this week about building a following on social media, creating an effective social media account and other things related to your Facebook Fan Page midterm.
Q: I noticed that my brand, Heineken, is very internationally focused. Because of this, I noticed they use more than one brand homepage. Is that a smart thing to do, as an international brand? Also, will this give Heineken a boost with their SEO statistics?
This is a very smart thing to do for international brands. When you have an international brand your end up with many very different target markets. Different cultures have different values, meaning that a message that is effective in the United States could be totally ineffective in other countries.
Having multiple homepages not only allows you to communicate in the cultures native language (another huge benefit) you can also tailer the message as needed.
You are right that there is also a SEO benefit to having location specific landing pages. If you're searching using Google.ru (Russia) Russian sites are prioritized over other languages or .coms.
Q: My brand is Heinz, it is a food company, and it is a low involvement product. i don't think customer would go the website and search for information. i just wonder, how to attract people to go to the website at the very first time? since if customers don't even try to visit the website, no matter how prefect the website is, no body knows.
This day in age people will assume a company the size of Heinz has a website and people do actually visit the site. The question really is "Why do people visit Heinz.com?"
While you'd have to do some fairly in depth research to find out for sure, just looking at what information Heinz chooses to put on their site you can get a fairly good idea.
They talk about their health, wellness and sustainability. So Heinz.com isn't a site that a college student would likely visit in their spare time in between homework assignments, nor is it something that you'd e-mail all your friends. It's more likely targeted towards older folks with families who want to know if Heinz are safe and wholesome products for their children.
Heinz is also a publicly traded company so there is a good portion of the website with information for investors. This section of the site is geared towards keeping and attracting investors, communicating why purchasing Heinz stock is a good investment.
Q: I was very interested to see in this weeks blog post that there can be legal ramifications to a website if it is not accesible enough? What exactly does that entail? Meaning the colors have to be able to work for color blind and not color blind? What if a website is not updated, I know that is bad strategy all together, but an older design might make it unaccessible?
Eight years ago or so there was a lawsuit against target.com by the National Federal of the Blind which set some of the first legal precedent in this space. The argument was that because Target.com was built in such a way that screen readers (software that actually reads off what's on a page) could interact with it Target.com was violating national accessibility laws.
Despite the ruling in favor of the National Federation of the Blind this is really only a concern for large brands like target and government agencies. There is an accessibility law called Section 501 that requires any website that receives government funding to be accessible.
Big brands that would be targets for accessibility lawsuits should have the funding necessary to make their websites conform to accessibility guidelines. Smaller brands and companies are unlikely to be a target but should still realize that by not being accessible they are turning away customers (1 in 10 people in the US have some accessibility issue.)
In terms of what one should consider when making their site accessible there is a whole host of considerations, such as:
- Making the site usable for blind or low vision users who need a screen reader
- Making the site usable for those with motor impairments and can't use a mouse or keyboard
- Making the site usable for color blind users
- Making the site usable for those with cognitive impairments
- Making the site usable for those who are deaf (closed captions, translations, etc...)
- Making the site usable for those with old technology (text based browsers, etc...)
Q: In completing the audit of my company's website I found that their search tool is not functioning. How big of an impact do you think this can have on the popularity of a site? Do you think it would be significant enough to lose consumers? Would my brand's IT department be to blame?
This could have a huge impact on website success. A large portion of users will use the search function rather than try and find content using a menu system. This could be the IT department's fault or the agency that built their website if they hired an outside firm.
Q: I have fedex for my company. It is hard to communicate with its costumers becuase shipping isnt a everyday activity for majorty people. How can I make it revelavt and start converstaion with them?
Shipping is an everyday activity for most people! Consumers are having items shipped to them more than ever before. Recievers of packages are just as important to Fedex as those who are shipping items.
Thus starting a conversation is easy. All FedEx needs to do is first listen to what people have to say about their shipments. What excites them, what frustrates them. Once they understand how people feel they can respond, learning how to improve or what they can do to make their service even better.
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Now it's time to ask more questions related to this weeks subject matter, building a following on a social media platform. I'll answer questions next week.
Comments & Feedback
What would be a good approach to addressing specific questions posted to our facebook fan pages that are not necessarily things we have the authority or knowledge to answer. For instance, I recieved a question on my page asking about the benefits given to the employees of my company and if those benefits are recieved by every employee or just those of a certain position. Not knowing the answer and having little luck finding one, I responded with a very generic response and reffered this person to my company website. Should I have done anything differently?
Regarding fan pages on social media platforms such as Facebook and Google +, what is the proper way of finding and using digital content? For example, if an image from a brand or company's blog is used on the fan page, is it appropriate to use the image as long as the original location of the content is posted as well? Or, should the fan page admit only use Creative Commons images?
As I was looking at my mobile-friendly website, I noticed that their is a setting for "readspeaker" and the ability to choose the type of font size you want. With the portion of this lesson about Legal rammification, my question is, what are the major modifications a website has to do in order to meet the requirements for accessibility needs so that they don't lose their consumers? More specifically, My brand Johnson and Johnson is partnered with many companies, how does a brand company like Johnson and Johnson make sure that the companies they're partnered with are also abiding by the modification rules so that they keep their fan base through their partnerships?
This week's assignment asks us to answer, "What could they do to improve their optimization? What metrics would you recommend they monitor in addition to their KPIs?" regarding the company we chopse. My company is Amazon.com and I am having trouble answering these questions. I feel that Amazon.com is doing a great job in both aspects. How do I make recommendations to a company that is doing so well?
My brand, Victoria's Secret, targets mostly women and the majority of people liking my facebook fan page are females. Will this matter?
Im having a hard time finding research information on my brand, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Their website is not geared to be informative, rather to sign in to an account. What are some more ways to research about brands without using their home pages?
Are there any ways ways we can look at some website metrics or KPIs without using Google Analytics?
Also, would you recommend posting more than once a week on our fan pages?
I recently noticed that my brand Time Warner Inc. doesn't necessarily have a large social media following. Some of its subsidiaries however have a very large following on their social media. How much freedom does a subsidiary of a large corporation have in posting updates to social media? To what extent do they usually have to answer to their corporate chain?
I noticed that my brand (3M) doesn't focus on their products on social media often. They focus more on big concepts that can be associated with their company such as science and innovation. Although they are large and cover a lot of different areas do you think they should focus more on their products? Or does talking about big ideas help their public relations.
Are there any specific methods and marketing tools that will influence my Facebook page audience to interact more with the page?
After I read the article "How to Get the M.O.S.T from your social media marketing, I want to focus more on market intelligence for my brand. it very important for a company to know market intelligence. But I' more curious about what kind of question should I more focus on and that question will bring me a good feedback. So I can understand and can more easy to target our audience.
Fashion industry is always an interesting market because it targets towards to many different kinds of people. I just wonder that in marketing strategy side, how modern fashion industries create the hype to the public? Always, do celebrities really play a huge role in fashion industry or some designers really still dominating the fashion world?
I was wondering about how to create more organic likes in such a short amount of time. Sure it's easy to ask your friends and family to like the page, but after that how can I just reach people that are actually interested im my brand for a project we spend about a month on? And then for long periods of time if I'm doing this in the real world?
My brand is Starbucks. Their official homepage frames their messages all on ethical standards and their work in their community. Do you think this type of content is more successful then just straight promotions?
I added few stuffs on my Facebook fan page, but I am not sure if I am posting a right thing on my page. Is there any specific sources that I could post on my page? Or is that just posting a information, news, and brand stuffs on the fan page?
I am also struggling with some interesting things I could add to my facebook fan page for my company. Do we focus more on how many likes we get or just base it off of all the information we have on it.
I am having a hard time coming up with what kind of content to post on my Facebook page. I want to know what would intrique people to check it out and be interested in what my fan page has to offer, versus the "official" fan page of the company I selected. What do you think are some interesting things to post about when marketing large companies using social media?
How often should we be posting to our Facebook fan page and does the amount of followers we have effect our midterm grade?
How should posts on a fan page differ from posts on the brand's official page?
I have Hermès for my company. Recently, there are many negative comments on this company, becuase their luxury bags use crocodiles's skin to make bags. No matter what they post on Facebook, there will be plenty of negative comments. Do you think that Hermès should avoid this topic, or do you think they should make some kind of apologies online toward this issue?
My company is ESPN. I have been posting on my Pinterest page by creating boards and pinning topics in them. Since I have ESPN, is there anything besides sports and ESPN television program related posts I should be pinning? My page is slowly coming together, but I don't know exactly how to expand on my posts outisde of using the search engine on Pinterst.
I have been studying a bit on experiencial marketing and I am trying to figure out how experiential marketing can be tied into social media. I thought maybe videos would be a good step in the right direction. However, I'm curious how effective this method really is considering experiential marketing is more about relating the brand to a fun experience and not promoting the brand. Do you have any suggestions on how to incorporate such a marketing technique to social media?
For the fan page, how often should we post? and we need post more things we write, or post more things we pick from the website.
What is the most valuable content to post on facebook fan pages? Since it is just a fan page does it make more sense to post content that highlights the prand itself or content that focuses more on the brands product or services?
In order to gain a following on social media the content has to be relevant to the audience. If the company has a main audience and then sub audiences, how do you go about making sure your audience keeps following you even if the content isn't relevant to them specifically?
I am new to Pinterest, so I am very confused about how to make a Pinterest. Could you please show us a short video abou how to creat a Pinterest?
Is that important the brand has customizsed and connecting the websited to their brand on social media? What makes people more likely to follow their social media brand in official website?
What's a good way to tell if a website has good search engine optimization? Is there any way other than combing through content for keywords?
When trying to post relevant and interesting things on our fan pages, do you think it is appropriate that we "share" posts from the actual company page? Also, when we use pictures from other websites how should we tag those websites to give them credit?
How often do you suggest posting on social media platforms? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. What proves to be most effective? No brand wants to come off as annoying. Is there a different system for each platform: Tweeting everyday on Twitter, but only posting once a week on Instagram?
I was thinking that my brand's target audience is young adult female depending on its contents on social media and the website, however I found out that it also has so many customers aged 40 and above. Although it could increase contents for those middle-aged audiences, those contents might not be interesting to the young adult customers. Do you think it is efficient to target two different age range audiences at the same time, or it is more effective to target a narrow age range?
I was a little curious about how professional blogs work, since I've never actually used a blog for personal use. Do you find it beneficial to start a blog and what certain things do people look for in a blog?
I understand that building a following on our Facebook page is important for our midterm, yet I've been having trouble. What is a good way to build a following WITHOUT sharing the fan page to my personal Facebook? I have invited friends to the page, but none of my friends are that active on Facebook... I put out fun/interesting travel related content on the page, but if my network isn't interested in traveling overseas, they're not going to like the page or share anything I put out. Is there a good way to build a following outside of my personal network?
I want to build a following on my page because I know I am putting out great travel information that I myself am passionate about, and I know many interesting travel bloggers I could reach out to, maybe to promote my page. However, I'm not sure what the best way to reach out to a bigger account (to act as a brand influencer) would be, especially since I can't compensate. Any suggestions?
My brand's website (Prada) is designed in a minimalism style, the only things you could see on the homepage are pictures of new collections, and link to online store. Unlike other brand's official website that usually have a tab talk about their brand story on the homepage ("about our brand"), Prada have all these information that seem to be 'unnecessary' in a hiden menu, which caused a lot trouble for me when I was trying to learn more about the brand. However, I know may be some of the customers come to the website just to make purchases and the simplification of the homepage could save their time.
I want to know is it a smart for Prada to do so？
My brand is Baidu. It is a Chinese web search engine just like Google. So how can I define the SEO of my brand? And this brand is limited by the geography. It is almost only focus on people in China so that it is difficult to reach the US audiences. How can I communicate with them and build a great facebook fan page?
What would you consider the best time to be to post on social media pages. Many people have said mornings and evenings are the best but does it rely on the type of audience you are trying to reach? Is it okay to post multiple posts a day on your social media platforms?
How often would you suggest posting to a company to blog? Do you think habing a blog would in addition to a website would attract a greater social media following or distance people, since some see blogs as an "unprofessional opinion"?
First I want to ask something about the naming of my fan page. The brand I chose is China Mobile. But the name "China Mobile fan page" is not valid. Even its abbreviation "CMCC" is not available either. So at last I have to name it after"中国移动 fan page". (“中国移动” is the Chinese of "China Mobile"). I think this name is not very good. I just want to know how should I change it into a better one? Also, what kind of content could make this page more engaging?
My brand is CVS pharmacy and even though it is the second largest pharmacy chain through the nation, the store also offers basic daily groceries. So how can I tell my audience my company offer more than just medicine supplies and why they should choose to shop at CVS for food or drinks over 7-eleven, etc?
Once you gain a little bit of a following how do you suggest we get people to engage more? I've posted relevant articles and videos for my brand and I can see that people are seeing it but they arent really engaging. Do you think we should post questions on our page?
In your experience, how often should brands be posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.? I know the answer if different based upon which social media platform we are looking at, however, the answers I have recieved have varied greatly. Additionally, it's hard to get a good guage based upon what brands are doing. For example, my brand didn't post on Facebook for over two weeks, but continued posting on Twitter daily. I am curious to know which strategy is most effective.
When trying to build a brand's social media audience, what type of content proves most effective? Pictures/videos/quotes/text? Also, which tends to have the highest rates of engagement?
i know for a brand, communicating with audience or creating a dialoge is super important. but as my brand BBC is a broadcasting company, it reports news and other important information. everything it says would be considered the company is taking a side. in the news world, however, report should stay neutral. so for me, i thought it's hard to develop a dialoge with the audience. is there any other way that encourage audience to participant, besides share and comments?
I'm from China and as you might know, Facebook is banned and I dont have much friends on facebook. It is hard for me to get more followers for my fan page since not many people use facebook within my social connections. Obviously no one wants to regirester a facebook account just for a class project page. Will it affect the grade for my fan page because of the number of followers is so few?
Sometimes the hardest part about KPIs is actually putting them into motion. Without real technical background and understanding, I believe it is difficult to be able to track this especially if it is analytically driven. What is the best way to simplify KPIs for us students until we can gain greater knowledge/analytic skills on this topic?
Most people on social media tend to follow the official page of a brand rather then a random fanpage. What are some ways/examples a fanpage on a social media platform can build a small following without stealing ideas from the official page/ stand uniquely on its own?
I had this problem as well for my page. I try to get more people to interact on my fan page and I also respond to them as well which hopefully makes a little bit of a difference between the actual facebook page and my fan page.
I know that building a following on social media is all about engaging content, but how can you be creative with your content if your brand is a multi-billion dollar corporation that only posts positive and "safe" things that aren't all that creative (i.e., posting something that is just good PR for the company rather than posting creative content?)
I want to know how to manage our facebook unofficial page in different way compare to official fan page. What kinds of content we should post in the page? The information that both relate to our brand and class lesson?
MSU New Media Drivers License Copyright 2017
is is approriate that a brand's webstie and social media ( e.g. twitter, facebook, instagram) employ diffeerent type of contents. for example, the brand website broadcast more information about the brand, the company (something more formal). but the content of its social media be more entertaimenting? becasue i think social media is something people want to spare their time on, it is more suitable to post soemting fun to delight the followers' life. and if they want to know more about the brand, maybe they could resort to the website???