(image courtesy of intersectionconsulting.com)
In response to week’s 7/8 blog I have looked at three of my favorite brands, organizations to see how they use social media. The results have been very interesting. All brands/organizations have large followings across multiple social media sites; they engage their followers in different ways, get their message out and are interesting to interact with.
The band U2 (U2.com) have a website that fans can either use for free with limited access or subscribe to for full access. They use to have a fan club magazine issued every quarter in paper but are now solely online. Subscription and non-subscription access are options provided. The site provides video, audio clips and full songs and albums of their entire catalog Also has its one community that allows you to interact with other fans. It provides users with their own email address to allow for communication. And you can tweet from the site as well.
U2 are on Facebook and has 17m likes. It is like any other Facebook page and has photos and comments and links to other web pages. It is kept up to date and for what I cased it keeps its fan base happy as there are a lot of comments/ feedback on postings on the page. Like its twitter page there is a lot of self-promotion going on but hey it's a rock band and its part of the business. There are exclusive video and audio clips and the comments by the band are quite funny at times. The band has a Twitter account as well which I have been following. Individual band members tweet on it along with their followers. Pictures are posted along with links to video and articles in other sites. Causes the band support are promoted on it as well. A lot of self-promotion by the band as well of new singles (new single "Invisible" promoted as a free download with $1 dollar per download going to the RED charity) or awards won.
SM platform allows the band to update their fans worldwide instantly with news about the band, tours and new albums and singles other information pertaining to the solo interests of the band members, and post new videos. The site allows for instant feedback from their fans regarding all things U2. There is no waiting for the next issue of the fan magazine in the past. In a way the band can hopefully take on board what its fan base is saying to it and adapt / change. The band has an official channel on YouTube as well with all their videos. These usually have advertisements before them to generate revenue and makes for a slightly irritating user experience. Like other videos comments can be left. If you subscribe to U2.com I would use this instead. When you subscribe you will get a book and cd as part of the package. Obviously the written word is not portable or instantly accessible. Also it is static and not updated like social media. The official site is well laid out, gives you everything you ever wanted or need as a U2 fan and in the main is good value for money. The basic subscription is $50 per year.
British Airways (ba.com) is an airline I use when I travel internationally and that I like a lot. It has all the usual social media outlets, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. Its twitter page allows its customers to ask questions about anything from trips to problems and get replies between 9 and 5 every day, seven days a week. It is a good marketing tool for the airline as it endears itself to its customers as it shows it cares about them. It also allows passengers to leave reviews about the airline, find out about sales, weather, flight delays and other things about the airline. There are over 379,000 (which I am one of) followers and over 120,000 tweets made. Its twitter page also advertises holidays and photographs of the airline. The YouTube page is also quite good and provides video on all things to do with the airline from technical videos to mini guides about cities the airline fly’s to tours of airplanes and celebrity interviews. It has a self-promotion aspect to it that you would expect but it isn't overkill. Facebook for British Airways is a bit of a sobering experience. The page consists of mainly advertising for where the airline fly’s to and the classes available on board. Followers can leave comments about posts. It wasn't the most exciting thing to follow and felt very corporate. The airline use to send a magazine for its flying club member’s quarterly but with the advent of electronic forms of media this has “died a death.” It has an electronic version available which you can email, tweet from and share. Very 21st century!
Overall SM is very
positive for British Airways. It engages its customers, answers their
questions, provides information, allows for a worldwide reach and promotes itself. It has recently
adopted “Know me” software. Per socialmediainbusiness.com; “The program is
designed to collect as much information as possible about customers’
experiences with the airline, thus acting along the same principles of a social
media platform. The system gathers all sorts of information related to the
travel experiences of BA customers, from problems a customer may have had with
BA in the past to whether a customer is flying with the airline for the very
first time. By tailoring customer service towards each customer, the airline
can hence show its customers that it is really listening to them and improving
their experiences, and by doing so hopes to achieve a better performance in its
overall customer service.” Quite
interesting and bodes well for the future.
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. Like other commercial organizations it has a social media presence. It can be followed on a Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, its own website, etc.
It's twitter feed which I am a follower of has posts that are linked to its main website regarding human rights around the world. It also has tweets by individuals and responses by its followers. It seems very popular and has over 972k followers and 11.3k tweets made. It is not a commercial enterprise like the other parties I have mentioned in this blog but it knows its audience, gets exactly across what it is about, and the tweets that provide links to its website and other sites are all very interesting. SM allows it to get its message out there quickly, raise awareness of some issue start, get feedback, and start petitions. Its message is maintained all the time and unlike traditional forms of media it allows its followers to keep up to date in an easy way. Its message on all the social media sites it maintains is similar and very clear. Its YouTube channel has video on all kinds (652) of human rights issues along with feedback and it is quite powerful in what it conveys. Its own website, (it also has websites by country), provide articles on campaigns, how to get involved, stories on human right abuses, how to donate to the organization. Donating to Amnesty International is not in your face and there is separate tab for it which you can choose to ignore. It is very well organizes and like all of amnesty's social media sites it conveys a powerful message.
Overall Social Media allows companies, brands, organizations to have a continuous dialogue with its customers / followers all over the world, maintain its message with its customers / followers and hopefully improve its services,where necessary as a result. In today’s world having a social media presence is necessary and vital to a company’s success and meeting the demands of its customers. Without it I feel the customer is missing out on something, the instant feedback is not there, a lack of engagement in the company’s message. In the 21st Century this is very important.
No comments:
Post a Comment