Buzz has traditionally spread through word of mouth. With the advent of social media, the challenge is now to use these developments in generating online buzz for a brand. According to Emanuel Rosen, brands should utilize new social media in order to talk to their audience, to stimulate people to talk about them and to share their content online.
How could brands elicit the right kind of ”talk” from their audince? Brands first need to understand who and where their market is. Next, they should know what their market wants. Then, they should open channels through which interaction between brand and market can flow. By knowing their market’s language, brands could to listen to them and acknowledge what they say.
Possible avenues of interaction are social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. In order for customers to be engaged to spread the word about a brand, brands must first do something special, something interesting, something unique–something that could really get their audience talking.
I first started using Facebook when I ran for a position in the Junior Marketing Association - UP Manila. I used it to campaign for my candidacy. Had I chosen not to run, I would probably be dumb at using the social networking site at present.
I’ve always had with issues with regard to using social networking sites. Back when I was in high school, almost every classmate of mine was into Friendster. I admit that registered in Friendster too but I wasn’t really fond of it. By the time that I closed my account in 2007, I only had about 120 friends. In Facebook, I currently have only 220 friends, which is a big increase from only 160 friends before I became part of the college student council.
I admit that I find Facebook more and more indispensable nowadays. But it’s not like I’d froth at my mouth if I don’t get to go online for a couple of days. It’s just that updates about school stuff happen over Facebook and that we students have already figured out a way to cram class requirements over social media platforms such as Facebook and Yahoo! Messenger. Though very useful, why am I not still a big fan of Facebook?
Communication is about relations and for me, Facebook still doesn’t come close to the satisfaction I get from personal interactions. Facebook ”friendship” still isn’t true friendship for me. I yearn for a more personal (or intimate?) relationship with people I communicate with. And until Facebook gives us, users, a richer and more genuine human interaction, it is as good as it gets.
In this age of technnological advancement, businesses can either keep up or get lost in developments that happen. To keep their competitive advantage, businesses must strategize on how to use technology to stay different. A very good example of a company that used technological advancements to improve its business is St. Peter Chapels.
St. Peter Chapels offers various services, including e-burol and e-libing. These services make it possible for the memorial services for the deceased to be viewed by his family and friends who are out of the country at the moment of the services. Through cameras and a website, the memorial services may be accessed almost anywhere in the world as long as the person who wants to view them has the correct username and password.
The idea of offering e-libing and e-burol as part of their services shows how adequately St. Peter has understood Filipino culture and experience. They knew that a lot of Filipinos go abroad and that though we Filipinos have close family ties, those who are abroad do not always have the opportunity to go home in the event that a person close to them dies. Through their understanding of Filipino life, they have been able to create their competitive advantage and convert this advantage into revenue.
St. Peter Chapels’ example shows us that being innovative is a much needed characteristic in the world of business. We, as communicators involved in business, can use their example in coming up with our own idea to stand out in a sea of similar ideas.
During my internship, my boss asked me to try using twitter. Since the company that I interned in was a digital media agency, my boss wanted me to experience using different social media platforms. I followed what my boss told me to do and immediately signed up for a twitter account.
I didn’t expect that I would like twitter, but I did. As a person, I always want to be updated about what is going on around me. I followed twitter accounts of news institutions such as GMA and ABS-CBN. I really found the experience interesting. Tweets can offer quick news reports and offer a sort of blow-by-blow account of a story. For these reasons, I enjoyed using the platform.
People say that they use online social media to express themselves, to share what they have in mind. However, a tweet is only composed of 140 characters. If we truly want to express ourselves, wouldn’t we want to use more characters? Isn’t it ironic that while we want to share how we feel, we limit our self-expression?
I believe that twitter has its advantages–its brevity and how it makes us feel when we use it. It makes us feel special, it makes us feel like some celebrity who deserves to be followed. However, it comes with these advantages that we use the platform responsibly.
A lot of interactions happens between and among people in Facebook. Depending on account settings, Facebook gives us the opportunity to read posts and comments of people whom we are not “friends” with.
Sometimes, even when you are friends with a person in real life, there will come a time that you will want to end a conversation in a comments thread with him or her. You will surely feel awkward during that time and will try to think of the best ways to break up a conversation. To help you decide on the best strategy to use, here are four common ways of how people end an interaction in Facebook:
4. Just stop replying (and make the other person think about the reason where you went or why you never replied). This is the type of break up that can lower a person’s self-esteem.
3. Reply with a laugh. This is may be one of the most awkward replies one could get. I mean, how do you respond to an awkward “hehe” or “haha”?
2. Reply with a smiley.
1. Like the other person’s last post. This is the most subtle way to end a conversation. It’s like telling the other person that they are special but you leave them anyway.
These are just some examples that I’ve noticed in my frequent use of Facebook. And as in any communication situation, the receivers’ response may also vary, so you always have to remember to use the most appropriate way to end an FB conversation. If you can think of other ways, just leave me a comment. :)
Social networking sites have been used in various ways. For some people, these are ways to reconnect with long lost friends and relatives. For students like me, these may either be distractions or new platforms to do academic stuff. Yes, we can do group papers and other requirements online.
If you want to do acads while distracting yourself online, just follow these easy steps and you’re good to go.
1. Log in to your favorite social networking site
2. Add your groupmates as friends
3. Pull up a chat window
4. Start a group conference session
5. Start throwing in your ideas
6. Take a break every now and then without telling your groupmates. haha
7. Grab a snack from the fridge
8. Keep typing your ideas on screen
9. Snooze for 15 minutes or more
10. Argue amongst each other off the group chat session with private messages
11. Ask a group mate to compile the whole conversation to have an outline
12. Assign parts to your group mates
13. Do your part
14. Submit your part to the final editor
15. Sleep and pray that the final editor and printer will not be late in class.
It is said that recently, there has been a trend of breaking down jobs into smaller pieces. This concept is known as hyperspecialization. Hyperspecialization is a further development of Adam Smith’s concept of division of labor, which was first presented in his book, Wealth of Nations. In essence, hyperspecialzation is further dividing divisions of labor into even smaller divisions. Read the rest of this entry »
This post is almost completely unrelated to social media but I’ll post it anyway. Sharing thoughts online helps a person, you know. And this is that moment for me.
This semester has passed so quickly.Before I could even forget all the trouble I experienced during enrollment last June, here I am again, pre-enlisting subjects for next sem. One realization lingers in my mind—Iam only nine units away from acquiring a degree.
Yesterday, I also had this interesting conversation with a classmate. We discussed how we could be able to give back to the country aside from working in NGOs. The discussion made me want to confront this question: What will I become?
I have had several ambitions in life—to be a doctor, an educator, a journalist, and a corporate person. I admit that salary is an important factor in choosing a career. However, I believe that as an Iskolar ng Bayan, being able to help and give back to the nation should also be taken into consideration. And I don’t mean this by just being able to the contribute to the country’s GNP, by simply working in here. I believe that Orcommunicologists should find a larger purpose in society, much like how my professors chose to bring back to the people by teaching in the university.
I believe that all Filipinos should serve not a profit-oriented multinational organization but those organizations that truly give value to their people. As a speaker in one of the seminars that I attended before said, as OrCom practitioners, we will someday be placed in positions wherein we could influence or change the way things work. And that although life is unfair, when we are placed in such a position of authority, we have to make it fair. Much like how we try to understand our audience as communicators, we should also try to understand the real public whom we should serve. Much like how co-create online content, we should also participate in co-creating our history, in co-creating a better nation.
I need some career ideas. Can you give me some?
Some weeks ago, the education sector protested against budget cuts on education. UP Manila took part in the nationwide strike against budget cuts on education and other basic social services on September 22 and 23.
Prior to the strike, my batch (4th Year OrCom students), released a viral video to express opposition to the lack of government funding in education. Here is the video:
With 566 views at present, the video was successful in increasing awareness about the issue. While I hoped that my batchmates would take it to the streets to demand higher state subsidy to education, I am still proud that they released a video to protest about budget cuts the OrCom way.
To communicate effectively, speakers must always take into account the background of the person(s) they are talking to. This uderstanding helps the message sender to construct the message properly and to choose the appropriate medium to use in sending the message.
In Japan, a country known for having a conservative culture, brands are cautious in advertising products that may offend the sensibilities of the people. Sagami Original, a brand of condom, faced the same dilemma but found a creative way to advertise their product.
Sagami’s goals in launching a communication campaign were to increase brand awareness, to establish their brand as the world’s thinnest condom (it’s just 0.02 millimeters thin!), and to acquire a positve brand image. They knew that it would be hard to broadcast such ‘sensitive’ product in traditional media such as tv, so they explored using the online media in order to send their message across to their target audience.
Sagami decided to do a blind branded campaign entitled, Love Distance and launched a month-long ‘tv ad’ for the internet.
First, they published job advertisements in newspapers, looking for a real couple involved in a long distance relationship. When Sagami found the perfect couple, they launched the campaign. On November 11, 2008 at 11pm, the lovers dashed out of their houses to start a billion-millimeter (1,000km.) marathon to reunite themselves. The marathon was accessible by the public through live streaming. Cheering, blogs, sms, and video chats of the couple were also made open to the public. The website where the streaming was available separated male and female viewers, which simulated the experience of long distance love. Soon, the websites were each filled with opinions and emotions from each of the sexes.
On December 24, 2008 at 6:28pm, the lovers finished the marathon to embrace each other. At the same time, the separated websites for men and women viewers were made into one. The brand and the product were then revealed. Two days after, the tv ad was completed.
To view the ad, check this out:
The results? Aside from the fact that the couple became “heroes”, the campaign generated an overwhelming amount of online buzz. It stimulated controversial surveys about who the brand was, and received thousands of text messages per day. Sagami Original, indeed, achieved their objectives.
I think that the ad campaign is a very good example of how to use the internet in attaining a brand’s goals. I also think that Sagami Original succeeded because it was able to use the online medium creatively and understood their target audience very well. By separating the websites for male and female viewers, the brand was able facilitate the creation of separate communities of men and women and simulated in each of them how it feels to be separated from the people they love. Due to the simulated experience, the audiences were engaged to share their emotions and opinions and to participate in the co-creation of content online.
