Adobe Students Facebook Page (Jason Vizmanos)

The "Adobe Students" Facebook page is a student-oriented social media page
run by Adobe Systems Incorporated, a software developer best known for
their Creative Suite (including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere). The
target audience are young budding/hobbyist photographers, artists,
cinematographers, and designers -- groups they intend to engage by catering
to specific needs (tutorials, webcasts, etc).

Of the 4-6 types of people that typically associate themselves with a
social media page, this page consists mainly of those seeking status
association, those that have a genuine appreciation for their product,
and/or those that want free stuff. (They've done a great job moderating for
trolls, and it seems that most complaints are diverted to the main Adobe
pages.)

Looking back to the beginning of October, they have authored over fifty
posts to date to ensure a high level of content flow. The quality of
content matters, of course, and they've done a fairly good job mixing it up
with user-generated content (gallery of all the submitted t-shirt designs
from a contest earlier this fall + showcasing the portfolio pieces of
student finalists in their awards ceremony), participation (introducing
Adobe campus ambassadors + linking to and hosting live webcasts with
industry leaders + providing information on "in real life" events), and
premiums (Twitter giveaways + scholarships).

What's interesting to note is that if you were to filter the posts to those
authored by others, you can observe people sharing resources with one
another in addition to your typical customer service "portal." It's not a
very active community, but that it emerged organically and exists at all
bodes well for Adobe. At 119K likes and content that's relevant and
interesting to their audience, the "Adobe Students" page is a fairly
effective example of how to leverage social media for niche markets.

Bluefly (Lian Chen)

Bluefly Company, one of the most popular online fashion stores around the world. I think it does an effective job of marketing social media because their website is really attractive; it is filled with colorful advertisements and beautiful models wearing the most fashionable clothes. They also effectively use premiums to attract the customer. Every time customers open the website or Facebook page, they can see the new coupon or sale information clearly. Although they do not give out free products, Bluefly Company gives 25 percent off for the first order and provides new sales on particular items or brands daily. They will ask customers their opinions via Facebook, such as how do you like this item, and they always receive a lot of feedback. They do not have user-generated content in order to maintain the professional look of their website.

            They have new items online everyday at 6:31 AM Eastern time. They also send new deals everyday to all the customers who purchased from the website before. Later in the day they update new photos or dialogues on Facebook. They respond to customer feedback quickly each day. Overall, because I think they do well in social media marketing, there are more than 170,000 likes and more than 4,000 people talking about this company on Facebook.

Gilt.com (Yalin Zhao)

Gilt.com

Yalin ZHAO

To be frank, I really enjoy browsing the website of Gilt, though I have nothing to buy. It gives me such a great joy when looking at the colorful and attractive pictures. I would like to say that Gilt does have down an effective job in social media marketing.

Products on sale keep being updated every day with brief tittles and proper categories. Seeing the attractive pictures as well as the huge discount, people are likely to consider buying one or two products many times in their minds, I believe. In addition, Gilt provides other premiums to attract customers.

Right on the frontpage, one thing can easily catch our eyes is that we can get 25% off sharing Gilt with our friends. It surely can be a good way to make the website more wild-known.

In order to make the customers know well about what are on sale, it requires customers’ participation. People who search the website are required to sign in with their emails. And after your information has been provided, you will receive the email sent by Gilt everyday about the new sale they offer. While checking their email box, customers are probably willing to take a look at the website incidentally.

Also, they offer an web-event called Gilt Live—a Beta that shows what people are purchasing now—that create an joyful atmosphere for shopping since people seem happy to share the products they are satisfied with.

Apple Inc. (Felix Chen)

                Apple Inc. is currently one of the biggest producers of consumer products. Its products like the iPhone, Macbook, iPad, and iPod are extremely popular worldwide, and deservedly so as their designs are innovative and aesthetically amazing. So when one looks at Apple’s Facebook page, one would expect it to be as equally impressive as its success with their products right? Think again. Apple’s Facebook page has no redeeming qualities about it whatsoever. Through the lack of the features we talked about in class that make up good and attractive social media content, it will become quite apparent how Apple has failed miserably in social media marketing via Facebook.

                Let’s first look at what is exactly on this page. The entire page has only a few things worth mentioning. The profile picture, which is just its logo, is trivial. There is no cover photo, and the description only contains “Computers & Electronics” and the company address. The total number of people who like this page since its creation is shown, as well as the number of likes and visits Apple has received this month. On the right, your friends that like or were physically present at Apple are also depicted. Finally, there is a recommendations section which basically allows users to post any thoughts on Apple’s wall. This is just completely awful. There are no premiums for one. Apple would greatly benefit if it announced that they were giving away free things such as iPod Shuffles. There is no sense of participation with the users. Apple should be hosting more events, surveys, games to involve the users, such as polls asking which iPhone generation was the best. User-generated content could be very useful as well: Apple could have submit their ideas for a new product and let others be able to view them. The customer-service “portal” is basically the recommendations section, but it is actually hurting the company’s image because there is a lot of negative feedback on their products ironically. As for content flow, there is not even a trace of any sort of news concerning the company or the product. Because of how terrible this Facebook page is, I am inclined to think that this is not Apple’s official Facebook page. However, this is the page with the most likes at 7.9 million, and none of the other pages in the search seem to be much better in terms of the features mentioned. This still does not take away from the fact that Apple’s social media marketing is extremely bad as Facebook is one of, if not the, biggest social media platform. Apple should either make an official Facebook page with all of the features we went over in class, or delete the unofficial pages on Facebook right now because they are actually hurting the software giant’s image in that people continually bash their products by posting negative feedback. 

Renren Page for Pizza Hut (Yuhan Wang)

  Nowadays,social network plays a more and more essential role in our daily life,but unfortunately in China facebook  is not available. It is rennin,another social website,which  replaces facebook in mainland.My evaluation is about pizza hut in renren page.

   From the premiums's aspect, Pizza hut  draw a lottery in Halloween.The person who was lucky enough would be given free meal coupon and I noticed that attracted many people to participated in this part.From the participation's aspect, many interesting interaction between Pizza hut and renren users, like a riddle or something else.As to the user-genersted content,Pizza hut creates a special column to present customer's advice and the professional reply.The dialogue between each other enables a effective communication which improve the products.One last part that deserves to be mentioned is content flow, the news of  privilege is always put in the conspicuous part on the website regularly.For example,Pizza hut provides a half-price lunch, which is different everyday.  

   All in all, the renren page for Pizza hut is doing a effective job of social media marketing.

Disney (Zelin Xu)

Disney has successfully utilized social media as a marketing tool. Disney’s Facebook page, despite lacking participatory content, has done a great job in regularly updating their content, advertising for upcoming movies, bringing back nostalgic memories, or just giving away discounts, and has attracted and sustained many users through these social media efforts.

Through the Facebook page, Disney regularly provides premiums and deals to its users; ranging from giving away discount coupons, free movie passes, to promotional codes, Disney sustains returning users

Disney also maintains constant content flow, posting photos and pictures multiple times a day. These photos cover posters for new movies and events, old photos from Disney classics, or just random facts about various Disney characters.

AC Transit Facebook Page (Siyao Chen)

ASSIGNMENT #4 – Social Media Analysis-Siyao Chen

The Facebook page for AC Transit is not doing an effective job. When you first go to the page, you are likely to shut it down immediately, because the design of their page is really blank and boring and they have a bad looking cover photo.

For the contents, the page is just like a place for announcing their unattractive community events, but their official website is indeed serving for this function. The events they posted on Facebook seldom had any likes, so it seems that their Facebook page did not do a good job in promoting their community events.

They did try to use premiums to attract the Facebook users. For example, they had a raffle for those who like their page. I think this premium is the only reason why they have 1,603 likes. However, the post of this raffle—“Tell your friends! TODAY is the last day to like our page, for a chance to win a free 31-Day bus pass! Send them to facebook.com/rideact” just got 4 likes. The raffle could be an opportunity for creating participation, which is extremely important for Facebook marketing. Unfortunately, the AC Transit Company did not do well in attracting people to engage their friends and did not creating any shares in this event. There are two main reasons why this premium event is not successful. First, the prize was not big enough to grasp attention. Second, it did not have any catching slogan or interesting description. If they want to promote this raffle into a big event, they should find interesting ways to make people share the post of this event rather than writing such blank words.

They don’t have any participation or user-generated content on the Facebook page. The contents of the posts are boring and not engaging. They don’t ask fans questions, respond to any comments, or saying things in an exciting way. They do have a frequent content flow, but it doesn’t have any positive impact since the contents are not attractive.

Their page is used by people as a place to complain about their service. 13 out of all 22 comments on the page are negative comments. For the other comments, only 2 people wrote good things about it. The post that earned the most interaction on the page is the most negative comment of their service. The guy said “AC TRANSIT HAVE BAD SERVICE!!!!A BUS DRIVE KIKCK PEOPLE OUT OF THE BUSS JUST FOR BEING LOUD THATS HELLA STUPID...EVERY TIME I TAKE AC TRANSIT PEOPLE WERE HELLA LOUD I DONT SEE THE GET KIKCK OUT OF THE BUS. DONT TAKE AC TRANSIT ANYMORE THEY HAVE ANGER ISSUES DRIVER!!!!AC TRANSIT=BAD SERVICE!!!!!!” Thus, the AC Transit Facebook page is really against itself.

Steampowered.com (Triman Nguyen)

Steampowered.com

Steam is Valve’s website for distributing games which they and others make.
Steam also serves a dual-purpose as a social platform for gamers to
organize and play games with each other. Steam’s popularity has launched
Valve from a small company into mainstream gamer life.


One of the best things about Steam is their use of Premiums. Every day
there is a deal where a random game would be 75% off. In addition, there
are also Midweek, Weekend, and holiday deals and Free to Play weekends.
This encourages people to continually check the website, even if they
aren’t planning on buying or playing on that particular day since no one
wants to miss out on 50-75% off a game. Moreover, since the discounts are
so outrageous, when someone finds a deal oftentimes they will notify their
friends and try to get them to buy it also.


Steam does a phenomenal job at encouraging user participation. The sales
mentioned above helps encourage users to actively recruit more players into
Steam. Steam offers this special deal called a “4-pack” where you get 4
copies of a game for the price of 3 (more or less). Users have an incentive
to try and either gets more friends to play with them, thus getting a
cheaper game overall, or trade copies of the game with one another (Valve
still sells more games either way). In addition, the Free to Play weekends
that Steam has every now and then enable players to try the full game for
free. Undoubtedly, some end up buying a game that they would never have
otherwise. Steam also has tools to help the player play games. There is a
friends list that allows you to invite people to play with you and see what
others are currently playing.


Steam handles User-Created-Materials in an interesting way also. There is
an achievement system which lets you tell others what amazing achievements
you obtained in certain games. For the modders (people who like to edit
games), there is the steam workshop that allows people to submit and/or use
and rate other people’s work. Steam is moving towards enabling people to
charge money for their creations, providing further incentives to
user-created-materials while letting Valve get a cut of the profit).


Lastly, Steam also updates daily what games are released and featured on
their page. New games are constantly added and people can vote on what
games they would want to see added ASAP. In case users need support, there
is a support button at the top which will guide users through the support
process with clear steps and explanations about what users have to do for
each step. Thus, with their amazing ability to enable users to create their
own mods for games, constant updates of new releases and frequent sales of
games, Valve’s steampowered.com website has become the undisputed #1
platform for PC gamers.

Target Style Facebook Page (Ranny Do)

Commercial
Social media page: Target Style Facebook Page

Judging from the numerous consistent posts and incentives
offered by the Target social media page on Facebook, I feel that this
commercial page is doing an effective job of social media marketing. Within the
span of five months, Target has offered free beauty bags twice, which include
cosmetic samples and coupons, with the only requirement of “liking” the Target
page. With such a simple task required, Target is able to appear millions of
Facebook users’ news feed and appeal to them through images of new clothing and
shoes for the current season and links to the new holiday home catalog for
winter indoor décor. As of November 13, Target is also giving away a
twenty-five $25 dollar Target Gift cards daily to fans with the same and easy
requirement of “liking” the Target Facebook page. Designers display their
clothing designs on the page and their photo is featured as well. Customers
have the ability to write a post on the page leaving their thoughts, questions,
and concerns. 

The Target Facebook page is not extremely helpful with
providing a “dialogue” environment to communicate with users because millions
of users posting on the page and it is rare to receive a reply from the actual
Target media employee. Therefore the dialogue is more directed between Facebook
users themselves rather than with the actual Target employee in charge of
social media marketing. Because of the numerous Target locations and the
different availability of products, I feel that it makes sense that Target does
not have a direct dialogue service on the Facebook page. If people had a
question about products they could contact the nearest Target store and speak
to customer service. However, the content flow is engaging as pictures of
clothes and food, videos of celebrities like Emma Stone announcing their
products available exclusively at Target, and links such as Black Friday ads or
catalogs, are posted on a daily basis. Overall, I feel that the Target
commercial social media page on Facebook is doing an effective job of social
media marketing. Based off of the comments, fans are purchasing their products,
 look forward to their sales, and express
their opinion by posting. Fans are also utilizing the coupons offered in the
free beauty bags at an actual Target location to receive one to two dollars off
of the featured product. Based off of the Facebook page, there are currently
20,777,066 likes and 1,257,612 people “talking about” Target on Facebook.

Benefit Cosmetics Facebook Page (Liya Zhang)

Social Media Marketing Analysis:

The Facebook Page for Benefit Cosmetics

Liya Zhang

Granted, I began to love the Facebook page of Benefit Cosmetics at the first sight. It is really an attractive, effective social media page in addition to its website and blog.

Firstly, it is so interactive that everyone can have an access to customer service “portal”. People can make posts on their page. The page administrators may timely respond to posts, especially those refer to unhappy shopping experience or questions on products. For instance, the newest post now is a complaint about website payment. The “Benefit Cosmetics” responded it and the other additional comments in less than 4 hours. Also, the administrator gave advice as feedback. They create a “dialogue” environment to communication.

Secondly, it is participatory. It creates events, survey, games, etc. to invite customers to involve in it at irregular intervals. For instance, I began to be interested in their Facebook Page because I wanted to download the photo taken with my friend in an activity of Benefit Cosmetics. Also, I can see some customers’ participation on Facebook such as a competition named “Beauty Best… Or bust?”, a game called “play a round of they're real ‘TRUTH’ cards”, etc. Also, it creates galleries for user-generated content. An excellent example again is the “Beauty Best… Or bust?” People can submit and upload their own photos to take part in the competition or vote for those materials. It offers a showcase, putting customers in front of audiences.

Thirdly, there is regular new content, in other words, the “content flow”. Shown on the timeline, the renew frequency is about three or four times a week. The contents include photos of product, deals, videos, surveys, etc. Even, the words are vivid and entertaining, full of energy and adoration. Putting aside some meaningless and boring content, to post new contents frequently is an effective way to keep customer’s sustained attention.

Lastly, even though there are few premiums shown on the Facebook page, messages about coupons, deals, lotteries are frequently posted. Those messages are attractive enough for many customers to buy. For example, free shipping and samples of product are given away, encouraging people to buy more products on their website.

As for me, the Facebook page for Benefit Cosmetics is a success. From the start, it meant more than a process of social media. It established a bridge over the gap between products and customers and brought the products alive.  

Juicy Couture Facebook Page (Lauren Morowit)

Juicy Couture

Juicy Couture’s Facebook page effectively maintains a devoted consumer base through niche marketing and successfully attracts new consumers.  The page’s aesthetic presentation is characterized by glamorous photos, vivacious colors, and high fashion.  Currently, over two millions Facebook users “like” this page.  Often times, Juicy Couture posts VIP coupons so that their Facebook fans can receive promotions and stay informed about the latest sale events.  Users can also enter into contests to win shopping sprees and other prizes.  The page is updated daily with products, promotional sale codes, contests, videos, or photos.  As discussed in lecture, many individuals “like” this page because they want to be associated with a kind of status or prestige.  Juicy Couture is a more expensive brand; therefore, it can be inferred that even people who cannot afford the products will “like” the page and spread its popularity because it is (for lack of better words) the cool thing to do… 

At least once per week, photos are uploaded featuring celebrities, models or actresses wearing Juicy Couture clothing and products in their everyday life.  This relates back to the idea of status achieved from liking the page, buying the products, and wearing the fashion because it sends the message that you can feel and look like a celebrity too.  Juicy Couture also utilizes the Facebook page as one element of cross-promotion and multi-platforming.  Posts often redirect users to the official Juicy Couture website, offer links to hot videos, and sometimes feature a hashtag for contest entry via Twitter.  However, the site lacks user-generated content as well as an effective “dialogue” portal on this page; nonetheless, in my opinion, user-generated content would actually destroy both the glamorous and professional elements of the page and would not help to improve the brand’s image.  The dialogue present on the page exists in the form of comments – among hundreds for each post.  In defense of this absence of consumer/brand conversation, many of the comments simply say things like: “Love it!”, “Need it!”,  or my personal favorite is when girls presumably tag their boyfriend’s or husband’s name in the post in order to openly hint that they would enjoy the product as a potential gift.  Juicy Couture’s Facebook page functions to keep fans loyal, happy, and eager to engage in the elusive world of shopping.    

Assignment #3