Initial Research Conclusions

The main conclusions I can draw from my initial research into social media as a research topic are as follows -

A lot of the buzz surrounding social media concerns its use in marketing strategies, albeit whether for business, governmental or non-profit purposes. While there’s to talk about, it’s still an extremely new and developing area that holds a lot of unanswered questions. Companies are trying to feel their way through these unchartered waters without any real established strategies or proven methods to measure their success by. A number of questions were raised through the initial research I conducted into this field, including:

(I’ve broken these up into vague categories)

Social Media Marketing is...

- What is social media marketing? (including history, development and terminology)

- What technologies are involved in social media marketing?

- What different social media channels can be used for marketing purposes, and what are each of their respective merits?

Professional Use...

- What types of organizations employ social media marketing tools?

- How much money is being allocated by companies toward their social media marketing strategies?

- How are small businesses utilizing social media strategies in comparison to large companies and corporations?

- What new professional positions in the workplace does this branch of marketing create?

- What is the skill set and experience a media practitioner is expected to possess to be able to work in this sector?

Success...

- What makes a social media strategy successful?

- What are the greatest challenges involved in social media marketing?

- How do generational differences affect the way people receive social media marketing campaigns?

- What is the most effective method for companies to employ in measuring the value of social media in driving website traffic, engagement and revenue?

What the future holds...

- How does social media marketing affect traditional broadcast methods of advertising?

- What does the future hold for social media marketing?

These are just a few of the many questions surrounding this topic. Perhaps with a bit more research, now with a more specified topic, we can unearth all other relevant questions and decide on relevant case studies to delve into. We still need to frame our project so that we can address the different categories in our Project Brief due Thursday, particularly:

· Background

· Aims

· Scope

· Research Questions

· Research Design

· Outcomes

· Timeline

I think the most pressing of these is probably the Research Design, because once we’ve worked out what our scope and questions are we need to figure out how we’re actually going to ANSWER those questions – who to interview, what sources to analyse etc etc.

I think that Lou Pardi at Social Media Knowledge would be a great source to interview for her in depth knowledge of social media strategies, coupled with her experience in analyzing real life cases in terms of success.

More ideas to be brainstormed in our meeting today....

"-New Industry Report: State of Social Media Marketing From Awareness, Inc." ENP Newswire 17 Jan. 2012. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

This article reviews the findings of research report produced by Awareness Inc., provider of on-demand social marketing management software, titled State of Social Media Marketing: Top Areas for Social Marketing Investment and Biggest Social Marketing Challenges in 2012.

The report covers a lot of statistical data analyzing the trends of experienced social marketers, as well as information regarding the amount of money and number of workers companies usually dedicate toward their social media strategies.

Content areas covered in the repot include:

- Corporate investment in social marketing trends

- Social marketing resources: people and budgets

- Greatest social marketing challenges

- Social media monitoring and management practices

- Measuring social marketing ROI trends

- Top social media platforms used

- Social media platforms use by experienced social marketers

- LinkedIn trends

- Top social marketing news resources

It would obviously be extremely helpful for us to have access to the report itself, but it is not freely available and has to be purchased from the company. Perhaps we can talk to the library about making an investment on our behalf.

Social Media Research Source #5

"Millenials use online media for social change." UWIRE Text 22 Mar. 2012. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

This article is interesting because it concentrates on a different angle of social media, in particular the generational differences that make people of different ages more susceptible to social media marketing.

The Kony video is used as a case study, and analysed for the manner and speed with which different age groups came into contact with it.

Research found that the older age groups were less likely to first come into contact with it through the internet.

"Kony 2012 is a great case study of generational differences," said Morley Winograd, a senior fellow at the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at U. Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. "The Millennial generation is a group-oriented generation. They share things widely and enjoy doing so."

The article goes on to also consider why even after older generations came into contact with it, they were less likely to instantly support it.

"You have Boomers saying, 'No, no leave this to the experts already at work,'" Winograd said. "Then you have Generation X at the forefront of the pushback [against Kony 2012] skeptical of group activities and saying, 'Where is my money going?'"

The Pew poll supports this, as it found two-thirds of the initial Twitter conversation supported the video against Kony. Winograd said the data shows how the Millennial generation, most active on Twitter, was quick to embrace the movement and offered the least skepticism toward it.

This article points towards what we might make a secondary question in our research of social media, specifically asking “how do generational differences affect the way people receive social media marketing campaigns?”

Social Media Research Source #4

"-FALKEN TIRE ANNOUNCES ITS LARGEST SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO DATE, TIED TO PORSCHE 911 CARRERA GIVEAWAY." ENP Newswire 16 Mar. 2012. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

This is an example of an interesting case study of how a company used social media in a marketing strategy.

The strategy involves the tire giant created a media strategy that tied-in with Facebook and the popular CityVille simulation and social network game, through which players compete on a Falken-branded racetrack and have an opportunity to earn a Falken themed racecar. In doing so, the company intelligently tapped into the 48 million-strong CityVille network.

'This is one of the largest promotions online,' stated Andrew Hoit, Falken Vice President of Marketing. 'The growth of this form of social media is just astonishing, and when you add in the inherent value of Facebook and its strong appeal of 'Likes,' this program reaches our loyal fans, as well as new eyeballs from consumers who may try our brand for the first time.

'We want to give our fans and CityVille players an opportunity to go online, 'Like' us and have an opportunity to win an incredible sports car,' Hoit added.

This is a good example of one of the more creative ways a business can create online engagement through the creation of a socially networked game, one which we could refer to if choosing to focus on social media as a marketing tool.

Social Media Research Source #3

"Adobe Says Impact of Social Media Undervalued by Nearly 100 603454." eWeek 21 Mar. 2012. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

This article was actually really really interesting, and extremely recent given that it was only published less than a week ago. It addresses the question of how companies measure the value of social media in driving website traffic, engagement and revenue.

Adobe recently released findings from its second Adobe Digital Index report (conducted to help give marketing, e-commerce and retail executives critical digital marketing insights into the value of social media) and the results indicated that the impact of social media was being greatly undervalued by nearly 100 percent, based on the model of measurement being used.

Adobe's study evaluated how marketers measure the impact of website traffic from major social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Blogger, YouTube and Yelp. Adobe analyzed more than 1.7 billion visits to more than 225 U.S. companies' websites in the retail, travel and media industries, concluding that marketers significantly underestimate the value of social traffic.

The report then goes on to detail and analyse the two main different models used to measure the social media impact, and makes recommendations between using the two.

If we decided to go with a topic concerning social media in a marketing capacity, this could be one of the key secondary questions that we answer. Rather than simply focusing on how to USE social media channels in marketing, it is also key to know how to MEASURE the success of such strategies. This is an area that is also extremely new and companies are still feeling their way through, because even if they know that they DO need to have a social media strategy, and that it IS helping, few of them know how to correctly measure HOW MUCH of their website traffic/engagement/revenue can be correctly attributed to social media.

Social Media Research Source #2

"-Citibank says small businesses increasing use of social media and Internet." Global Banking News [GBN] 23 Mar. 2012. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

This article touches on the trend for small businesses, who have been traditionally slower to adopt online marketing channels, to utilise social media platforms to build online branding for their business.

A survey conducted by the American Bank showed that 41% of the 749 small businesses surveyed in the US used social media channels to promote their business.

“They are seeing that social media platforms can be an efficient and cost effective means to increase awareness of their business, engage with customers and, ultimately, to drive growth.'”

If we chose to go with a topic focusing on how small business utilise social media marketing, this study would be relevant to statistical growth.

Social Media Research Source #1

Steinberg, Brian. "Who doesn't want a piece of Big Game ad action? While lion's share of spend still goes to TV, search, social networks and others cash in." Advertising Age 83.5 (2012): 2. Academic OneFile. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

This source investigates the trend for companies who are moving away from NBC’s traditionally coveted multi-million dollar televised ad spots during Superbowl Sunday, to advertising online targeting the increased traffic on social networking and file sharing websites on the same day. This points toward the increasing trend for people to engage with multiple types of media at the one time, watching the Superbowl with a tablet in hand and a couple of social media sites at the ready.

Examples of this type of advertising on social media sites include:

· Facebook has offered ad packages to all the advertisers sponsoring the Super Bowl broadcast on NBC, with Pepsi, Samsung Mobile, General Motors and Anheuser-Busch InBev supporting the social network's alliance with USA Today's popular Ad Meter. Coca-Cola is using Facebook to display the antics of its animated polar bears, who will weigh in on the gridiron action from a special "page" on the site.

This is a more standard way to use Facebook to market a brand, in that it’s making use of Facebook’s already established advertising columns rather than joining the network itself.

· GetGlue, the entertainment check-in site, has secured a deal with Pepsi in which the beverage maker will award prizes to people who check in during pregame programming and the game itself.

This is an example of how companies are developing marketing strategies integrating the somewhat ‘virtual’ idea of “checking in” to physical spaces on social media websites.

· "If last year was a '10'" in terms of the intensity of new-media outlets calling on advertisers who want to play off the Super Bowl, "this year goes to 11," said Joel Ewanick, global chief marketing officer at General Motors.

This could be interesting to look at as a case study of how different companies are moving away from marketing on a traditionally broadcast televised medium towards the more participatory marketing strategies that online social media sites offer.

Notes from Analysis of Past Works

I trolled through some of the past student works to see if any of them had touched on the social media scene we're trying to investigate, and although no one has really covered our subject before, there are a couple that are vaguely linked and we could look to build off.

PROSUMERISM

http://mi1prosumerism.weebly.com/index.html

This project delves into the new 'prosumer', a hobbyist or professional creative.
Approaches to six examples of prosumer practice are discussed in case studies, looking at production tools, communities and distribution methods in these examples of prosumerism. These examples cover the breadth of media and communications practice: text (citizen journalism & blogging), audio (bedroom music production), video (Youtube videographers, machinima & independent fan film-makers) and interactive media (game modding).

This could relate to our project in the sense that it is talking about user-generated media.

Analysis of Previous Years' Work

So given I'm still getting a feel for this project, I thought it would be a good idea to see what groups had done in previous years. This way I can see what strategis they used, how they framed questions, and what was or wasn't successful. Essentially, I can learn from their mistakes before I even start. So let's go.


CONVERGENCE IS HERE

http://convergenceishere.weebly.com/index.html

Theme: "Understanding convergence culture: transmedia storytelling and crossmedia distribution"

Questions

• Overview of this new media landscape
• History
• How to define these terms?
• The role genres play in storytelling
• How story worlds are vital
• Case Studies
• New production team
• Differences between commercial & non-commercial work
• How transmedia works can be approached through audiences
• How different media forms can be used to distribute works
• Different devices through which they can be viewed
• Technological changes and how they can be used
• the role of the VUP
• Exploration of fan culture
  

Form

• Website form with a toolbar at the top folding down to many well-structured and organised links to topics surrounding the area
  
• Entertaining teaser trailer on the home page leading up to the issue
• Pictures accompanying many of the articles of text
• Use of timelines and graphs created from statistics
• Interviews featuring broken-up videos from interviewed participants. Bite sized pieces that are easier to swallow than a full 1 hour interview.
  
• Many in-text links to other sources and blogs and references
• External Content section houseing videos and links to other organisations in Victoria concerned with Transmedia storytelling. Actually, 3 different videos from this Transmedia Victoria seminar with descriptions next to them.
  
• A "What should I take away from this?" section detailing reccommendations and interpretations
• "In a nutshell" section
• About US & Thank You section
• Bibliography

I really really like the form and structure and organisation of this project. It is very well structured and well written and just clear cut. Entertaining too

Topic Ideas for Social Media

Here are some more topic ideas the girls have come up with under the umbrella of 'social media' for our research project:

• Can't take the heat? Hire a blogger. http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/cant-stand-the-heat-hire-a-blogger-20120302-1u8go.html

This is about how a food blogger was hired by a restaurant after a scathing review to help get the restaurant back on track. The trend of how restaurants are hiring bloggers to get a social media strategy, have a presence online. Because, these bloggers bring with them a love for food AND social media, experience, and an already established online community. Win. Not sure how this would really form a topic, but it is an example of a social media strategy companies are using to market online. It also allows the consumer to actively engage with the brand online.

Caitlyn's ideas:

• Participatory place branding

I think this means...how you can brand a place and get people to start engaging with that brand? Maybe how they wanted to give the restaurant a brand and presence online? Hmmm...

• Online identities for marketing

I'm not sure if she's referring here to the consumer's online identity, or the company's online identity. Both are related and relevant, as the company builds an identity (brand) online and tries to market that to the consumer's online identity. I like this idea, it's very relevant to marketing.

• Online media distribution strategies

Online media distribution would refer to the different channels that can be used to share media...so email, websites, blogs, facebook, twitter, Pinterest, Instragram etc etc...this is very relevant to what I was talking about in my earlier blog post, connecting user-generated participatory media and marketing strategies. As is online identities for marketing.

• Potential curation & convergence of social medias

The different social medias coming together and being organised, perhaps in a social media marketing strategy. Relevant. A successful strategy will be cohesive and have a consistent branding message, image and experience across a number of different media platforms. This could refer to how they would all be connected and come together.

• The way new social media influences the content of "old" media.
  

By this I think she means...how something might break first on the web social media landscape, and then later break on the TV news? OR she could mean how phenomenons ON the social media landscape are now actually making news too? Eg. Kony. I think she means any issue, but how it hits and blows up social media up first..and then a day or 2 later it will hit mainstream heritage media - TV news, radio etc. It's delayed, social media is much more instant.

And other topics we agreed to research over this weekend to pull a topic from on Monday include:

• Corporations' social media personas (branding)

So basically how companies are using social media to build their own personas and interact with consumes (branding). This would include social media strategies.

• Social online experiements or campaigns (integrating with the physical space)

I really REALLY like this one. Social online experiements or campaigns integrating with the physical space. These could be marketing campaigns, or stand alone to express something creative. It's very broad though...it could refer to the Post It phenomenon video that spread. But that's not really social media, that might just be a video...hmmm...

• Social media distribution strategies for independent (static) media
  

I don't really know what they mean by INDEPENDENT media. Maybe smaller media companies, or things like films. How do they use social media as a distribution strategy?

The main themes that keep arising here are:

• Companies wanting to create a social media presence online for branding purposes, and how they do that, what distribution channels they use, how they create an identity, and then interact with the online identities of their consumers...and how sometimes the strategies integrate the physical space.
  

Hmmm. So basically I still don't know exactly what I'm researching. I think I might just start reading, get a feel for the topic with my own interests in mind and go from there. Questions and issues will arise from within this.

Social Media as a Research Project Theme

Okay so given that I already kind of know what our theme for our research project is, I want to touch on that before I start blogging on the lectures and tutes...that way any information I revisit now might take on a different meaning and usefulness in relation to this theme we're trying to investsigate.

Social Media.

I must stress however, that the idea I started with and where it is now is quite different and it's still quite fuzzy...but here's what we've got.

• Social Media. An investigation of all the new organisations that have popped up connected with social media - including Instagram, Pinterest etc. - and unpacking them. Who started them, how, why, where does their profit come from, what makes them successful, what their uses are in marketing...etc etc.

This was my original idea (albeit not very well expressed). Admittedly, it's not a very ACADEMIC concept, and that's something we need to work on. It also lacked a good degree of focus. So these are the ideas we've come up with since:

• USER-GENERATED MEDIA. eg. Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest etc...smaller makers, gate-keepers. Who are the gatekeepers of this new participatory media we have started to inhabit?

This was an idea from one of the guys in class while we were brainstorming topics and ideas. One that I really really liked and went with, even though he didn't.

And then we brainstormed.

Given that the above scribbles aren't quite legible, I'll write them out so that they can be properly considered...

SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS

• "Social Media Knowledge" analysing effectiveness of social media marketing campaigns
• New technology
• Half of these apps require you to log in with Facebook
• Curator/recHcommendations
• Censorship & security
• Blogs???
• Who comes up with the ideas for these programs?
• Media strategies
• 90:9:1 creators
• Distributing what you make is social cultural research
• Smaller organisations having big ideas
• Branding
• Self-broadcasting/online persona. "Selective versions of the self"
• Psychological delusions
• Categories of social media
• Different ideas from different generations

Media Strategies for Social Networking

• Generating online communities
• Internet publicity
• Negative impacts on companies through online social interactions/conversations
• Social media providing info on users for advertising > privacy issues
• How can companies take advantage of social media?
• Resolving issues on Facebook
• 3 case studies in 3 areas...
• Convergence of social media > all in 1 place > curatorship > apps, programs for own company > ultimate strategy
• Negative connotation with "social media" low brow
  

So I think what I am most interested in from the above brainstorming is....I really liked my original idea of looking at the gatekeepers of this new participatory user-generated media and the programs used as channels to encourage their distribution. I'm interested in this because it's a new participatory media that I have seen a large part of my network start using enthusiastically, and that I myself have started to inhabit. And I'm interested to know where it came from.

I am ALSO however interested, in how how this new user-generated social media can be used in company marketing campaigns. How companies can use new participatory user-generated media such as Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook etc. in their own marketing campaigns. Maybe how they CAN, be used, how they HAVE/ARE being used, and how successful they have been.
And why.

Relevant questions and issues that are connected to this topic would be:

• Developments in new technology and how they have aided the creation of this new media
• WHO developed these programs, why, how, at what cost/profit?
• Issues of censorship and user-generated media
• Issues of ownership and user-generated media
• The 90:9:1 theory. There really aren't all that many real 'media creators'
• Social media marketing strategies that have been used in the past and their effectiveness
• NEGATIVE impacts on companies through online social interactions/conversations. The flip side of this...
  
• Perhaps smaller organisations having big ideas. And this type of media allows them to do this.
  
• How this user-generated media ties in with the notion of 'self-broadcasting' and 'online personas'. How maybe organisations are taking advantage of people wanting to self-broadcast, and trying to include their branding in us doing that (eg. The Venetian check-in offering on the spot instagram photos with their branding "I'm in Vegas at the Venetian! Wooooo!") Because really, social media is one of the most effective advertising channels for my demographic
  
• Categories of social media? The different types of user-generated media?
  
• How they generate online communities
• Companies who have created their own apps for their own marketing purposes. Have they been successful? Why? eg. that facebook photo collage app

We had the idea of focussing on 3 case studies in 3 different areas. Maybe we could investigate the general landscape, set the scene, and then hone in on 3 great case studies that showcased the best/worst use in including participatory user-generated social media in marketing campaigns.

More thought is necessary...