Social Media


Lecture VIII                     -                              Discussing Ford Fiesta Case                          17.11.11

Why do people talk about a particular brand?
  • A question that is asked by marketers
  • change of perception from consumer as a receiver of messages, towards consumer as a source for messages

Word of mouth (WOM) strategies
  • how do you make people talk about brands?
  • Incentives led (stealth marketing)
  • influencer-led (seed marketing)
  • genuine love for the brand, intrinsic led (advocacy)

Word of Mouse
  • interaction/ information led (Blog marketing)
  • information-led (viral marketing)

Faux blogs (fake) → buy consumers who pretend to be true
Two step flow theory vs. magic bullet theory

“sneezers” = opinion leaders, who propagate a message (viral)

“Trend setters are not the trend spreaders” charmers
(develop) talk about persuade people to buy

As a marketer need to identify them to adjust strategy 



Lecture VII                       -                                  Using Social Media for Research              04.11.11

Case based examen! Read all cases

Report max 10 pages with choice
  1. qualitative marketing strategy about viral marketing, understand characteristics of viral marketing, elaborate 6 discussions/ reasons for spread based on in-depth interviews
  2. study business model of social media site. How do they create value? Where do they get money from? → in form of a case study
Academic Research Methods
Destination Image in the Social Media: A content analysis towards emergent imagery of Kerala from Blogs
Kerala attracts different market than Goa, not mass tourism but class tourism
more to be spent on destination
search on online reviews, i.e. destinations, hotels, restaurants, airlines, costs of living..
Dellarocas (2003) and Cayser (2004)

Do people trust social media? In tourism the credibility is high

Destination Image
Travel blog act as a word of mouth contributing to perceptions and identity → what do people talk about?

  1. Content analysis – the content represents the perception and opinion

Method
→ 100 blogs each randomly selected from travelblog.org (used to be not moderated, not it imitating publicity industry)

How to analyse? Read through and what is the impression? What is the subjective experience
→ Yoshikoder.org Weftqda www.pressure.to

Qualitative Coding
  • Independent sample
  • iterative emergent codes
  • consensus between codes
  • no prior conceptual structure
  • code categories
→ MIND MAP (structure)
Integrated to have them into labels, then combine frequent labels into themes!

E.g. Kerala Themes
  • natural beauty and greenery
  • water ways and houseboat cruises
  • sea and beaches
  • wildlife and sanctuaries
  • arts
  • non-permissave society
  • crowds and dangerous traffic
  • yoga and meditation Ayurveda
  • swaying palms
  • places of worship, religion and spirituality
  • affluent tourism
  • problem faced by women
  • exploitative services
  • friendly inquisitive people
Goa themes examples
  • permissive society
  • backpacker friendly
  • relaxation
  • diversity in foreign tourists
  • low cost of living
Text analysis
How many unique words?
Frequency distribution of words
eliminate stop words
with less than four occurrences

perception after consuming medium – what is already know?
perception after consuming product – by visiting destination

Kazakhstan..
do both, qualitative and quantitative study to have a comparison of both perceptions before and after visit! Can compare and draw results!





Lecture VI           -                         Discussion of cases Reebok and Cyworld                         22.10.11

Reebok campaign as an example of product placement (but not enough emphasize of the brand)
Marketers did not think of a tool to manage the outcome of the Buzz
Terry Tate became famous as people could identify with him, especially Generation X
one option might be to exploit the popularity of Terry Tate and let him work as endorser or brand ambassador (launch of a follow up campaign)

“Out of sight is out of mind” in a modern fast moving lifestyle

How to create a bond with a brand/ a stranger?
  • accidental exposure to people
  • same interest
  • from a marketing perspective: Create situations/ opportunities to meet people/ engage with brand
  • social media: become pro active with brand

“harness/ harvest the outcome of the marketing campaign”

2nd case: Cyworld

.com bubble – Social Media is facing now a similar situation, because a huge user base/ a great amount of members does not automatically produce profit!

dilution – diluting – dilute – abschwächen – verdünnen




Lecture V           -                   Case discussion                                                                 17.10.11

Zwinky.com
Second Life
consumer can play multiple roles in online world, new way to live freedom
brands and companies use product placement in these virtual worlds (exposure). ROI?
  1. Target market
  2. what is the goal? Objective? What is the message? Positioning and strategy.
    Working plan, particular brand personality
    in this example “Self-expression”
  3. what is the best channel to use?

How do we evaluate the impact of social media? Is pure exposure enough?
“majority watch youtube like a tv channel”

How to motivate people to upload? Contest and price... other ways?

Challenges for social media marketers is to justify a social media campaign (how can the spent money be converted into sales)
  • clarity of thought how to use and be converted into sales
2nd case: Terry Tate and Reebok 


Lecture IV - Anthropology and Youtube 10.10.11

How to spread user generated messages? How do ideas propagate in network? (Idea of propaganda)
Describe the nature – try to understand what kind of upload brings more recall?
  • update experience
  • Social Networks


Notes of video:
  • user-generated creation/ distribution
  • what is the use of media? → Mediating human relationships (media scape)
  • Blog sphere different to posting youtube videos
  • talking to youtube community = as if everybody is watching although one speaks to oneself.
  • → freedom to experience human beings/ humanity without fear...without disturbing them by staring at them
  • successful e.g. writing a simple message on your palm (spread emotional contagion); free Hugs … individuals starting it and global imitation
  • community development engagement
Second movie about social networks – TED

Nicholas Christakis: How social networks predict epidemics




culture – sum of individual behaviour → one individual might day but the network lives on
Opinion Leadership theory (theory collective intelligence)
  • mass communication always reaches only an interin layer. Hence, there is no point in targeting end users, but opinion leaders
  • How to identify opinion leader characteristics?

Assignment:
What type of nature might the update/ Message/ Video have? → be able to present analysis to state the characteristics 



Lecture III             -                    New challenges for the business: Losing control                 1.10.11

Repetition – What is social media?
  • classical media, new media, social media
  • from one way communication to people interactive, two ways communication
  • classification of social media: 1. user creation media, 2. user connecting media, user collaboration media, user reaction media
  • “less credibility for sponsored message” → empowerment of consumers
“ok, so we really have lost control” → “yes, but remember you are still 100% accountable”

Is social media sustainable?
→ human tendency of interdependence

How to harness social media?
  • be like consumers, use them to co-create with them, let the actively involve
  • consumers see companies as just another tool for them to get value
  • not control but engage consumers
How to plan?
  • technographic is a tool for market segmentation
  • “perform sales function through consumers”
  • segmentation scheme, creators, critics, collectors, joiners, inactive, spectators
  • e.g. Chinese/ south Korean internet users blog more, while Indians are joiners/ spectators
Marketing communication over social media
  • evolution of mass communication from reading, listen, watching, conversation
  • word of mouth/ word of mouse (internet)
  • Let users ring the bell for you (if they liked the pizza they ring the bell) metaphor
Why do people listen?
  • extend info source
  • perceived risk in the category
  • type of relationship with source
What happens to receivers after WoM event? → communication affects (awareness)
Why do people talk? → opinion leaders, satisfaction, temporary emotional impulse, incentive
What happens to communicators after WoM event? → ego enhancement, cognitive dissonance (a theory that people have a tendency to reduce cognitive dissonance,

“A classical example of this idea (and the origin of the expression "sour grapes") is expressed in the fable. The Fox and the Grapes by Aesop (ca. 620–564 BCE). In the story, a fox sees some high-hanging grapes and wishes to eat them. When the fox is unable to think of a way to reach them, he surmises that the grapes are probably not worth eating, as they must not be ripe or that they are sour. This example follows a pattern: one desires something, finds it unattainable, and reduces one's dissonance by criticizing it. Jon Elster calls this pattern "adaptive preference formation.” --wiki--

How to create a Buzz?
  • Indian example is to set stuntman on fire, this creates a lot of attention of surrounding people. Then people come and douse the fire, while giving away free samples of chips with the notion “so spicy that it sets you on fire”
  • possibility to reach target market that would not have been addressed with conventional media
Forms of marketing
  • stealth marketing - Personen empfehlen Produkte und werden dafür bezahlt, through unconventional means
  • Evangelism marketing - is an advanced form of word of mouth marketing (WOMM) in which companies develop customers who believe so strongly in a particular product or service that they freely try to convince others to buy and use it. The customers become voluntary advocates, actively spreading the word on behalf of the company. (e.g. creating individual branded business cards for free)
The fact of observation - when being observed one receives energy
“create a joke around your brand without destroying core company's values”




Lecture II           -                 The power of Social Media                                                   24.09.11

New Paradigm – engage and collaborate
democratization in every aspect of life (back to the roots as we used to live in small communities)

How to create a Buzz?

“Mass media never reaches the mass” Peers inform most people, i.e. spread of word of mouth

creation of values by opinion leaders, i.e. setting trends and fashion
  1. Informational influence – learn about new movies from others
  2. utilitarian influence – listen to someone and act upon this (useful for me to evaluate)
  3. value expressive influence – shaping the environment's perception of myself, e.g. through imitation → strong preferences influenced by others
Sales Energizing: Identifying enthusiastic customers and using them to influence others by providing them free tickets and information in advance. The result is that they spread the word in advance → incentives for reference scheme (propaganda done by loyal consumers, who influence other consumers) indirect propaganda. Making use of consumers affinity.

Customer support
  • enabling customers to support each other creating loyal and strong communities around brands

What are social media? (1. media 2. new media 3. social media see article)
  • it is the people who are in control of social media
  • it is not about technology, but impacting fundamental human behaviour
  • Knots, Micro-blogging, Twitter, Virtual Gifting
  • Business/ government is loosing control (consumercomplaints.in)

Book and Theory called Groundswell –> Social Media Driven Revolution, e.g. organization and mobilization of a crowd in Egypt

Drivers of Social Media
  • human tendency of interdependence
  • theory of 6 degrees of separation → we are more stronger connected than we think

Dave's example = Sniper attack on American United causing significant damage

pass along appeal → something innovative/ new (viral, network)
cycle time – speed of a viral needs to circulate

Be aware of the crucial hubs that link the networks together. By controlling them it is possible to condemn and contain the spreading (collection of subnets)





Lecture I               - Introduction Session                                                             14.September.11
Introductory Session – experiential course/ no framework by Prof. Keyoor Purani

WEB 2.0 – a set of principles and practices
  • platform
  • harnessing collective intelligence
  • end of software release cycle
  • lightweight programming models
  • software above the level of single device
  • rich user experience

Wikinomics by Anthony Williams & Don Tapscot
  • customers are able to participate in business, they are part of the business
  • use the “wisdom of crowd perspective”
  • “fluid way of producing value”

1800                           1930                               1985                                           2005
make & trade               plan & push                     sense & response                       engage & collaborate
                                                                                                                          digital market economy
                                                                                                                          loose coupling
Social Media Types
User Creation Media - youtube
User connection media - Facebook
user collaboration media - wiki, open source software
user reaction media - mouthshut.com “break a brand”, “consumer terrorism”

Social Media and Marketing – How to? Will be discussed throughout course
  • research & product development
    • listening: gaining insights from customer
  • marketing communication
    • telling: using conversation to promote product
  • sales
    • energizing: Identifying enthusiastic customers and using them to influence others
  • customer support: enabling customers to support each other
    • creating communities around brands
  • containing damage?
    • Managing the hate viral

How to create a buzz? Buss virus... Viral Buzz

Democratization of Media
. Traditional media getting democratized
→ technology beyond TV

Assignments per class: do exercise and case study preparation 5 – 10 minutes/ 5 slides





After the ‘traditional media’, and the ‘new media’ the next buzz among the marketing professionals is ‘social  media’, From Facebook and You Tube to blog, social media on the internet is the most promising new ways to reach customers. With web 2.0, virtual customer environments and fast emerging personal communication technology defining their rules of the game, marketing professionals now have the most powerful media which are word‐of‐mouth connections joining everybody to everybody in any target market by no more than six links.

However, the challenge lies in managing efforts in this technology driven, dynamic, modern social environment especially because brand do not have much control. In social media, the consumers are no longer passive ‘audience’ but are allowed to express themselves freely, and can help shape and share the media they decide to consume. Consequently, marketers must communicate with customers and consumers, rather than at them. This demand key shift in the mindset – from ‘control’ to ‘engagement’ apart from the new tools and techniques. This course is designed to share perspectives on social media, marketing approaches which are consumer‐ driven or community –driven and to discuss what could be more organized and effective ways to optimize brand marketing efforts on social media.

Course Objectives
• To help develop perspectives on social media and consumer participation in marketing
• To illustrate application of social technologies in marketing research, product development, communication, sales and costomer service
• To share planning and decision making frames that exists in these areas.
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