Did social media influence the 2008 election?

                       Did social media influence the 2008 election?

Has the thought crossed your mind on the role social media played in the 2008 election? Not only did the Obama presidential campaign make history; he was able to accomplish this in a new way. Obama was the first African-American to be elected president. He was also the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy. (Rutledge) This makes the most sense.  Why not launch a campaign to reach all the places that voters check the most? The Obama campaign spent $47M on a digital campaign where $4.7M was only spent on the Romney campaign. 

                                          

Currently 69% of American adults use social networks. Of this 69%, 39% of all users are estimated to engage in political activism online. (Rutledge)  Social media is shown to be the center point of any presidential campaign. Just like when JFK was the first president who appeared on TV for his campaign, and most believed this is was the main reason he was elected to his presidency. Most say that social media was Obama’s TV for his campaign. However, we all know how annoying those TV ads are during the presidential election year. 

 

Do you think it should be allowed for candidates to base their campaigns on social media? Do you enjoy the influence that so many politicians have on the political activism online?

Works Cited:

Rutledge, Pamela. "How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign."  Pamela Rutledge Media Psychology Blog. The Media Psychology Bar, 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. <http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/25/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/>. 

Social Media ± E-commerce

 

Social Media ± E-commerce  

According to our text, “E-commerce refers to the use of the internet and the web to transact business”. But how beneficial (+) or detrimental (-) is social media to e-commerce? Is social media the internet/web that e-commerce uses to transact business? The book goes on further to say how the ‘new Internet’ has opened the market place where business transactions provide a unique many-to-many model for mass communication. Technology and the internet have far evolved from the brick and mortar business place to a digital business model. A positive and negative impact of social media on e-commerce is advertising and marketing. 

Benefits would include: cost of digital marketing as opposed to physical marketing (billboards, TV, newspaper inserts, etc.), larger worldwide community (Charlotte vs. the USA), and broadcasting (many-to-many vs. one-to-many) just to name a few. E-commerce isn't confined to large corporations or the government, its available for small businesses as well as non-profit organizations. On mediabistro.com, Rich Gorman has a list of 10 social media must haves for e-commerce sites. In the article he gives what he believes are key attributes in maximizing the benefits of using social media to  be profitable in e-commerce. He mentions enabling social sharing from the company’s website, hitting the thumbs up as a consumer would post the company’s info directly onto a newsfeed on Facebook. Newsfeed on Facebook has become the new ‘refer a friend’ for services or local business places, which puts the company out there as a recommendation from the user.

A significant detriment would be the the larger worldwide community and how negativity would be publicized. Not only dissatisfaction from a customer, but any potential scandal that might arise from a key member at the organization. According to ecommercetimes.com, “Angry post spread faster on social networks than those indicative of any other emotion”. The conclusion was reached after a recent study was conducted at the Beihang University in an attempt to test whether homophily, the tendency of individuals to associate or bond with similar others, occurs in social media interactions. The results were that anger spreads the quickest. Dissatisfaction sometimes conceives anger, which conceives slander or negativity to a product, service, or the company as a whole.

Info.syncshow.com recommends multiple best practices for dealing with negativity. Spot-check is one of the best practices that acts as an early detection. Identifying and repairing the negativity can reduce the damage. The site also mentions respect; it works well in person as well as online.

Bibliography

Laudon, K. C. & Laudon, J. P. (2012). Management Information Systems- Mangaing the digital firm. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc. (Chapter 10 pg.378)

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/rich-gorman-lists-10-social-media-musts-for-e-commerce-sites_b114234

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/79009.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophily

http://info.syncshow.com/bid/293466/Checklist-Best-Practices-for-Handling-Negativity-in-Social-Media

Social Gaming Phenomena

Social gaming is becoming increasingly popular. There are currently 7.49 billion social gamers, up from 6.2 billion in 2012. By 2014, social gaming is estimated to reach 50 percent of social network users and 34 percent of the total Internet population. But, what exactly is social gaming? By definition, social gaming is the activity or practice of playing an online game on a social media platform. So, if you’re one of the 132.9 million people that play Candy Crush Saga through Facebook, you’re a social gamer.

Social gaming is a big business. It is estimated that by 2015 the U.S. social gaming market will reach $5 billion. This money comes from combined sales of virtual goods, advertising and lead generations or offers. Candy Crush alone makes more than $230 million per year.

Currently the top three social games are Candy Crush Saga, FarmVille 2 and Texas Hold’em. These games all have more than 34 million monthly active users. Since Candy Crush is currently number one, let’s talk about it a bit.

King

 

I have to admit, I am counted amount these statistics. I wouldn’t say that I am addicted, but I am definitely a regular player. I like to start my day by playing a couple of games while eating breakfast and most nights I play a few games to unwind before I go to bed. I feel like everywhere I go people are either talking about or playing Candy Crush. Just the other day I walked into the break room at work and a coworker was intensely looking at his phone. I caught a glimpse of the screen and said, “I see you play Candy Crush too.” His response, “YEAH, THIS GAME IS SO ADDICTIVE!”

I think addicting is a mild way to describe it. Cult-like is better. A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook, “Going to give Candy Crush a try. Need to see what the hype is about.” I couldn’t help but respond, “One of us. One of us.” It’s easy to understand my respond when Instagram has more than 436,000 photos tagged #candycrush and Etsy has an entire page dedicated to Candy Crush inspired products.  Some people even move the date on phone forward by one day to trick the game to receive more lives.

Candy Crush earns so much money through the sale of boosts and extra moves that its creator, King, has decided not to advertise. It has been reported that a 14-year-old boy spent $4,300 alone on the game.

Candy Crush is so popular it has had a cameo in a Psy music video. The U.K. even offers a residential rehabilitation program for self-proclaimed Candy Crush addicts. 

 

Westword.com

Personally, I think this is a little over-the-top, but if you can find a way to capitalize off Candy Crush you have to work it, right? In their defense, Candy Crush does have 26 billion game plays each month.

Like many, Candy Crush is one of my guilty pleasures. I hope to never need rehab, but if you ever see me on the street with a glazed looked in my eyes and I’m mumbling words like, “striped candy, jellies, chocolate or licorice” I’m not longing for something sweet to eat. Get a smartphone in my hand quick and load Candy Crush. I’m going through withdrawals.

Do you play Candy Crush Saga or any other social games? What appeals to you about them? Please share. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Sources:

Calderon, Arielle. “13 Disappointing Facts About Candy Crush.” BuzzFeed.com. BuzzFeed Inc., 3 Sep. 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. <http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/disappointing-facts-about-candy-crush>

Culter, Kim-Mai. “King Quits Advertising Since It Earns So Much on Candy Crush Purchases.” Techcrunch.com. AOL Inc., 12 June 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. <http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/12/king-quits-advertising-since-it-earns-so-much-on-candy-crush-purchases/>

“Social Gaming Industry – Statistics & Trends.” Go-Gulf.com. Go-Golf.com, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013 <http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/social-gaming-industry/>

        

The Power in Using Consumer-Generated Marketing from Social Networks

               

“The Power in Using Consumer-Generated Marketing from Social Networks”

The use of consumer-generated marketing from social networks has become a significant marketing force; a strong relationship built on communication between companies, brands, and consumers. It has become a potent influencer in consumer decision making. Consumers now have a bigger role and an increasing say in shaping their own brand experiences by using different types of social networks.

The emergence of social networking has changed the way many companies reach out their consumers. Nowadays these companies are inviting their consumers to play an active role in shaping ads by participating in conversations, brand messages, and expressing their own opinions about what brand they like the most, and what it means to them; based on the experiences they have had with their brand.

The main objective of using consumer-generated marketing from social media, is the “consumer’s collaboration with word-of-mouth advertising”  by  sharing weblogs, online message boards, Facebook apps to obtain customer suggestions,  online conversations, YouTube videos made by fans, interactive broadband TV, and many other different kinds of social networks  that exist nowadays. For example, The Coca Cola Company created a Facebook app to invite customers to participate in a marketing campaign called “Flavor Creator Lab” for their VitaminWater brand. Its goal was to get more fans involved in the social media environment, by getting customers’ suggestions for a new flavor. Consumers will choose the flavor idea they like best, then Coca Cola will manufacture it, give a $5,000 cash prize to the winner and finally sell it to the public. Coca Cola’s goal was to get more fans involved to create a new flavor and that way they could increase its sales as well.  Thanks to this Facebook app, they are getting more consumers involved with and talking about this brand.  It is interesting how "Coca Cola’s VitaminWater" has been successful using social networks and social media, to create strong “consumer-generated marketing”, in order to be successful in the market and create customer loyalty.

Another example  I think   is interesting  is the  “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, an innovative marketing campaign created by PepsiCo’s Doritos brand, in which  fans were invited to create their own Doritos commercials and the best one was aired during the game. We all know there are millions of football fans. Some of these fans also love to make videos. There are so many mobile apps today that allow their users to easily post video clips. These users love to share crazy videos on social networks and make people laugh and get comments back.  PepsiCo’s Doritos brand takes advantage of these kinds of users because they know that by creating this video content for social media, fans will be more likely to participate in these types of campaigns, especially when they offer money for the best video clip.  Thanks to social media, this campaign has been a huge success.  PepsiCo now has more followers on Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks and, as a result, they have increased their sales.

 

http://www.postano.com/blog/using-consumer-generated-content-to-fuel-marketing-campaigns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer-generated_advertising

            http://mashable.com/2009/09/08/vitamin-water-flavor-creator/

http://socialsteve.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/the-power-of-ugc-user-generate-content-for-social-marketing/

           

Would you make a donation via social media?

Would you make a donation via social media?

Recently a friend of mine shared a link on Facebook via news feed; the link was to make a donation to help a little girl and her family with some medical bills for her rare and severe illness. I followed the link and there it was, the opportunity to make a monetary donation via Facebook. So I typed donations via social media into Google and my eyes became opened to a whole new world.

Social media has become more of a necessity than a luxury; the free or sometime low cost marketing social media provides has become a part of many organizations business models. From creating blogs, to advertising, to entertaining, to donating; social media has become a vital operational key in businesses. Visual.ly compiled four categories by which donations are made via social media: individual donations, event fundraising, causes, and peer-to-peer fundraising. Nonprofit organizations have moved from the ‘donation can in a grocery store’ or ‘selling baked goods’ to having a strong presence on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.). According to Visual.ly, in 2012, 98% of nonprofits were on Facebook.

-The Good- 

Giveforward.com was the company my friend shared; it starts by creating a profile including the reason for the fundraiser and the beneficiary’s story. You can add photos as well as give updates, in my case, it kept us informed on hospital or specialist visits and test dates and results. Once the link is shared then monetary donations can be made as well as hugs can be given. This website gave friends and families the opportunity to make a contribution without sharing financial information with the beneficiary, without being physically present to help, as well as encouragement.  Because giving is as easy as clicking a link, the opportunity to give isn’t confined to sending a check in the mail or attending an event. Visual.ly states that, “Friendly persuasion also comes into play, with a friend’s mention of their donation leading 68 % of their contacts to learn more about the foundation and 39 % to give to that charity”.

-The Bad-

From the donations collected on Giveforward.com, a ‘small’ processing fee of 7% is charged to the beneficiary to receive the collected funds. Justgive.org charges a 4.5% processing fee of the donations made as well as a $10 check reissue fee if the check is stale dated and needs to be reissued. According to marketwatch.com, a significant drawback is the low maximums the sites may set for receiving donations. Even though Facebook doesn’t charge a processing fee, the maximum donation feature is set at $25. Security and privacy is a big issue that tags along with convenience when making donations via social media; giveforward.com uses 128-bit SSL encryption, which is bragged to be the highest level of security on the internet.

I am still struggling with giving Facebook access to my financial information. How do you feel about making donations via social media?

http://visual.ly/2012-it-was-very-good-year-social-giving

http://www.giveforward.com/s/why/

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-drawbacks-of-social-media-donations-2012-11-13

https://www.justgive.org/nonprofit-resources/faq/index.jsp