Social Media Fails

To conclude this blog, it seems only appropriate to discuss how it is important to understand the power social media has over a company or organization. During the last week of class, we saw how several social media scandals resulted in social media “fails.” From the HMV employee strike take over to the #McDHorrorStories, social media has become a powerful tool which can cause harm to company if they are not careful.

For example, in HMV’s case, an employee who had formally worked on the company’s social media account (Twitter) showed how, when companies are not aware of their own social media impact, it can lead to their downfall by live tweeting the mass firing HMV was conducting at that time.

Similarly, McDonalds released the hastag #mcdstories where customers were able to tweet their McDonalds stories. The goal was to encourage people to share child hood memories or emotional stories with the rest of the community. Unfortunately, the hashtag stopped being used by McDonalds two hours after they began circulation because customers were sharing their McDonald’s horror stories rather than positive stories.

Both these examples go to show how social media is important in the overall image of the company. In both HMV and McDonalds, social media scandals were produced because of negative employee and customer feedback due to lack of attention to social media outlets.

Gamification

As previously discussed, virtual worlds are now becoming more popular and businesses are beginning to use virtual worlds to their advantage. However, another technique which has been taking place is that of Gamification. Gamification is the process whereby a game is used for a non-game context. This concept is becoming increasingly popular in terms of organizations and their promotional techniques.

 One of the most common Gamification techniques seen by a business is Tim Horton’s annual “Roll Up the Rim” contest whereby customers have the chance to roll up their coffee rim and win prizes. This game has become one of the most anticipated annual promotions around Canada.

I think that Gamification works, in this case, because consumers are given an opportunity to win something with a greater value than what they purchased. This is a smart strategy for Tim Hortons because they are further engaging their consumers from being coffee drinkers to invested players. 

Gamification can also be seen in a number of different situations such as through apps (Foursquare) and video games (Guitar Hero). Overall, it is a tool for customer engagement and what I believe to be one of the most effective engagement techniques. 

Media Policy

In my opinion, media policy is a very relevant issue especially in the corporate world. I understand where some of these policies are coming from however I think that others are borderline impeding on freedom of speech. I understand that some companies or organizations want to keep the integrity of the company and regulate how they are seen to the public. This includes how they are perceived through their employees. In my opinion, the company through your employees is probably one of the most of the important portrayals and depictions.  No one would want any of their employees to talk bad about their company while they were currently employed.

However, despite this, there is a newer policy which I have heard of which I don’t agree on. During interviews, before someone is employed with the company, hiring managers are requesting to see candidates Facebook profiles on the spot to judge character, personality, and habits. Here is one example of this happening during an interview. In my opinion, I think this is one step to far in media policy. What someone does on their own time, especially in their personal life,  should not affect their job competency. 

Virtual Worlds

When reading up on virtual worlds, I was shocked to find out that I had participated in virtual worlds when I was younger without even realizing it. One of the most popular virtual worlds I took part in was Neopets; a virtual world where you raised your own pets, and played games in order to support these pets. Though Neopets was directed to a younger age, I remember when Tyra Banks (yes while the Tyra show was still around) released her own virtual world. You were able to create an avatar of yourself and mingle throughout a virtual version of Tyra’s studio. Here you could meet new people, hang out with friends, and get insider scoop on Tyra Show news. This was probably one of the first instances I saw of a “brand” using virtual worlds to attract more audiences.

Today, when virtual worlds are so popular, it is easier for organizations to set a presence and reach target audiences in a new way. For example, in Second Life several brands and organizations including IBM, Tim Hortons, Reebok, and American Apparel have a presence in the virtual world. Here is a brand map of Second Life. I think that having brands within a virtual world allows the gamer/audience to view the organization/brand in a new way. They are now separating themselves from a strictly consumer world and entering a world of play, where to my understanding, people do not associate brands as strongly. I have mixed opinions on this. I understand where organizations, companies and brands are coming from by putting themselves in this world however, since I am not a player, I do not know if it would have an effect on the experience of the world. I would find it interesting to ask Second Life players to see their opinions on whether it effects the experience or enhances its realness. 

Mobile Web ...sorta

So since the challenge this week was to create a blogpost through our mobile I decided to accept! Kinda. Since I just got the new Blackberry or the Z10 there are not many functional apps out yet and Blogger is one of them. So the closest I could give you guys was using the Blogger app on my IPad. I've tried this before and I get frustrated every time! Partially because I hate touch screens band partly because autocorrect gets me every time. I suck.

Since the challenge was to write a post from a mobile device I thought it would be fitting to do a post on mobile web. I come from two sides: Blackberry vs iPad. No I don't have an iPhone nor do I see myself getting one (ever). Having had a Blackberry for the past 6 or 7 years (a total of 6 Blackberry devices...now that i think of it I may have a problem), I have never been an app person mostly because the Blackberry was never an app phone and that was fine with me. So in class, when we were discussing web apps it was like a foreign language for a mobile device but not for my iPad.

Since I have the iPad 2 I can access online apps only when I'm on WiFi so basically at home or at Starbucks. This doesn't give me many options using mobile web.

So when I got this Z10 I was exposed to the world of apps. I have gone in so far to start converting Android apps to .bar files to put them on my phone( Instagram people, Insatgram). This made me reflect upon the dependence of the mobile device especially with people my/our age and younger. What would we do without our smartphones ? Seriously. There are no words.

With the mobile web we are constantly connected. It has become such an expected thing to being able to access everything, always. This in so far that on my Crackberry app (yes laugh if you must) people are complaining about the lack of native apps available for the z10. Now all I can thing is, does it really matter? At least you have a phone.

Ps before someone asks I keep my Blackberry because 1) I love it. 2) I believe in supporting the Canadian economy :).

Okay now my fingers and hands are hurting from this touch screen keyboard and never again will, I do a post from the IPad this long ever again.

World Partnership Walk and Analytics

Hi gang!

I have decided to do a short post on how analytics can help an organization. I am currently acting as the Social Media Coordinator for the World Partnership Walk London and am currently trying to see how new ways of online activity can help raise awareness, bring back past ambassadors and teams as well as new members.

I thought this would be a good way to discover the possibilities of analytics.

The World Partnership Walk is a yearly event put on by the Aga Khan Foundation Canada to raise awareness and funds to support several developmental projects in developing countries in Asia and Africa. This year the theme at our conference was "Teams" - we are striving to spread awareness so that individuals will think about starting their own teams whether it be with family and friends or at the workplace.

1. With analytics we can monitor the conversations about the Walk not only locally but nationally as well.

• who in what country is talking about the Walk. 
• How many people are interacting with our messages? 
• How are people responding? Positive or Negative? 

2. We can reach out to those who have formally participated and who have fundraised for the walk

• Are they engaged with the current promotions? 
• Are they telling their friends? 
• If not, why? Do we need to reach out to them? 

3. Is our hashtag useful? 

• Are people using it? 
• Is it linking them to our other platforms - Instagram, Youtube, National Facebook Page

4. We can see if the other 9 walk cities have similar promotions or do they have different ideas

• can we ask them to help promote? 
• Can we use their ideas and apply it locally?

5. We can see if the National handle/ page/accounts are promoting our event as much as the others 

• If yes how? 
• If not, why? Do we need to execute better? Do we have a smaller audience? 

That'a all I have right now but if anyone else has suggestions I would greatly appreciate it! I'm learning as I go through the process :) 

The Twiittersphere (and everything Tweetable)

After this week's Twitter low down I decided to embark on a new mission -start from scratch. Brace your selves people, this could get out of control. I have decided to start a new Twitter handle for my personal blog. Right now, I integrate blog + personal into my personal account. However, after re-designing my blog and committing to publishing more constant content. Ergo the birth of @thesimplebyte.

I'm going to take this on as a personal project and implement some of the new social media tricks I have learnt. Though I haven't done much yet, Twitter did take me through a bit of a set up: I had to go and find around 15 users to follow before I could proceed. I had to think on my feet and decide who I wanted my new blog to be associated with -fashion magazines, icons, entertainment columns, fellow bloggers etc. Not sure I like this because now I am a profile with 0 followers but 14 following... awkward. Hoping to expand quickly!

Personal account update:

I took some time to try out the list function on my personal twitter account. Where has it been the last few years? It is so much easier to find what I'm looking for. Here are some of my categories: Friends/Family, Education, Fashion/Beauty, Healthy Lifestyles.

I can see how an organization would use this function - organizing other users in terms of how they relate to the company would be extremely handy. Sponsored events, competition, potential partners, other company brands etc.

This also just goes to show how Twitter can be used by anyone with the means of technology. Both organizations and their consumers can be on the same platform for different reasons.