Social media its use by companies as marketing tools

EXECUTIVE MBA IN
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

COMPLETION COURSE WORK

Social Media: Its use by companies as
marketing tools

FLÁVIO FERREIRA DA FONTE

Rio de Janeiro, 09 June 2010.

FLÁVIO FERREIRA DA FONTE

Social Media: Its use by companies as marketing tools

Final Paper submitted to the MBA course in

__________________ at Ibmec Business School as part of

requirements for care of Resolution No. 1 of the National

Council of Education, April 3, 2001.

Orient: Prof. _________________

Aproved em ___/___/______

Rio de Janeiro (RJ)
June / 2010

(*) The original version was written in Portuguese.

SUMARY

In the last decade, the development achieved by the technologies of information

transmission over networks that use broadband, 3G, and other media, coupled with the

success of the web, has enabled the development of a series of Internet-based applications,

called Social Media.

The Social Media are media designed to be disseminated through social

interactions, using the Internet and web-based technologies to transform dialogues from

one to many, typical of broadcast messages, in dialogues of many to many. They support

the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content

consumers into content producers. The term "Social Media" was first used after the

creation of Linkedin (1). As examples of social media platforms we have in addition to

LinkedIn, Facebook (2), a Plaxo (3), Orkut (4), Twitter (5), and many others that are

emerging every day.

Due to growth, deep penetration and importance of these kind of media, companies

are creating strategies and specialized groups in order to use them effectively, not only

tracking what is disclosed about the company, but also generating content for their target

audience.

This work is the result of the research done on various websites and books, and

aims to detail the main social media today, his employment by large corporations as a

solution strategy and tools, as well as the risks of such use, describing cases of success and

benefits that can be achieved with the planned utilization.

iii

INDEX

SUMARY ........................................................................................................................................III

PICTURES LIST ............................................................................................................................. 5

1. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA............................................................................... 6

2. MAIN SOCIAL MEDIA AND THEIR USE BY COMPANIES .......................................... 9

3. STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA UTILIZATION AT COMPANIES..................... 20

4. CASES OF SUCCESS S AND BENEFITS .......................................................................... 26

5. RISKS INHERENT TO THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA.................................................. 29

6. CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................... 31

REFERENCES............................................................................................................................... 33

iv

PICTURES LIST

Figure 2.1 – Profile of social media utilization at companies……...............................9

Figure 2.2 – Businesses Functions most optimized by social media utilization …...10

Figure 2.3 – Social Media utilization by Marketing Areas …...................................11

Figure 2.4 – Twitter utilization by companies..............................................................15

Figure 2.5 – “Share of Voice” – Tennis US Market…….............................................22

1. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA

According to Philip Kotler (6), traditional media are the channels of communication

between businesses and their target buyers. Examples of these media have newspapers,

magazines, television, radio, mail, billboards, among others, working with the concept of

"broadcast" messages, which are messages sent from a single point, designed to reach large

audiences. Another characteristic of the broadcast messages is that travel in one direction,

from the company to the customer. By using traditional media, there is usually a need to

hire advertising agencies specialized, producing campaigns, promotional pieces, etc. and

assist in hiring and monitoring of information vehicles that will deliver the messages of

companies.

The term Social Media is used to describe the type of media that is based on

conversations and interactions between companies and people online, that is using existing

resources on the Internet. The Social Media are different in relation to traditional media,

since every company or person may, using technologies and tools available on the Internet,

share ideas, products, content, thoughts and relationships. Thus, companies can reach their

audiences, with a much higher degree of interactivity, since the content posted on a social

media can be seen in a few seconds for thousands of people and generate a return in the

next second and criticisms, positive or not, thus allowing companies to better understand

the needs and behavior of their customers.

The social media are based on conversations between people around something of

mutual interest. When talking among themselves, people increase their knowledge about

products or services, may consider products or services recommended by others and being

influenced in their purchasing decisions. This is a feature different from traditional media,

6

which focus on the very question of knowledge of product or service by customers and

outlets, but can not interact with client groups and their views.

These media must coexist with and complement the efforts and marketing channels

in the companies. May take the form of texts, videos, photos, communities. Examples of

Social Media:

• Social Networks - Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Plaxo and MySpace (7) are

examples of social networks, where people and businesses create their profiles, pages,

communities, become fans, share information and interact.

• Blogs - contents and themes of the most diverse in format text, images and videos,

updated according to information availability and needs of authors who have provided

personal opinions even enterprise content. One of the most popular tools for creating blogs

is Google's Blogger (8).

• Microblogs - publication of information with different model of followers and

publishers, where there is limited number of characters used in each publication or "post".

This model to make a "post" the followers get the message. The most important are Twitter

and Yammer (9).

• Share Videos and Photos - Sites like Youtube (10) Flickr (11) and Vimeo (12)

simplify the process of sharing and commenting on videos and photos.

• Share documents and presentations - Slideshare, scribd

• Wikis - Web sites such as Wikipedia (13), PBWorks (14) and Wetpaint, (15) which can

be created, edited and updated information related to various topics

7

• Social Tagging Sites - Sites like Digg (16) Delicious (17) allow users suggest and

vote on content that is interesting.

To get an idea of the importance of these social media are growing day by day

people, we highlight some results of various surveys conducted in the USA:

• 11% of the total time spent online in 2009 was used in social networks.

• Twitter processed over one billion messages in 2009

• In December 2009, more than 25% of Internet page views were made on social

networks such as Facebook.

• The social network Facebook has reached the milestone of 400,000 users

With the increasing use of social media that occurred in the last two years,

companies began to consider them in their daily lives and increasingly seek opportunities

to use them to their advantage and their customers.

8

2. MAIN SOCIAL MEDIA AND THEIR USE BY COMPANIES

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogs have been the tools of social media

most used by companies around the world. A survey by U.S. consultancy Biz (18), entitled

"Changes in Social Media Applications", published on the site SocialMediaToday (19)

revealed the following profile of use of social media in business.

Figure 2.1 – Profile of social media utilization at companies.

That research found that social media are being used by companies in marketing,

public relations, sales support, and in collaborative work, being more used to strengthen

the brand image, information sharing and public relations.

9

Figure 2.2 – Businesses Functions most optimized by social media utilization

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Brand Image 71,8

Information Share 70,5

Public Relations 65,8

Understand Customers 56,6

Generate Leads 54,9

Colaborative Work 38,4

Internal Communications 32,1

Sales Support 25,8

The areas of Marketing from many companies are learning that by using these new

types of media customers expect a different behavior of the company, with appropriate

messages to the medium, content, size, authenticity in communications and not to use for

sending unwanted advertisements or communications such as occurred with the e-mails.

Specifically in the area of marketing firms, the same survey found that social media has

been more used to promote the brand, monitor trends and provide interactivity with

customers.

10

Figure 2.3 – Social Media utilization by Marketing Areas

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Promote the companies 56

Monitor customers trends 53,1
Promote interactivity with customers
51,5
com os clientes
Research new ideias for products 34,1

Initiate groups for customers 30,1

Advertise at Social Media 26,1

Promote interactive content 19,2

Use online focus groups 18,8

Regarding the use of social media from the perspective of the stages of purchasing a

product or service, pre-order they can help increase the "awareness", which is the

knowledge of the product by potential customers or clients. At the stage of purchase may

point to where it will be done through the purchase and post-purchase as a means of

communication with the client directing the use of products and services and technical

support.

The companies envision that with the use of these media can increase the level of

customer satisfaction by offering services and experiences that create a perception of

greater value to the customer. In this case requires a synergy between the business areas

(marketing, operations, finance, etc.), so that programs initiated in these media are

supported throughout the company. There are classic cases that show that not only have an

excellent marketing area and can not deliver what was promised or what the customer

expects.

11

One of the most impactful social media of today is that Facebook started as a restricted

site for students and was intended primarily to communication between these communities.

When it was opened to the public in September 2006, just two months peaked at 14

million visitors per month. Today there are 100 million people online on Facebook every

day. On this site the user creates an account with your profile and calls to other members

who become his friends ("Friend Request"). Once granted this permission, the user will

now be updated with the actions, texts, videos, links, photos and other content posted by

their friends.

Facebook as a marketing tool can be used to distribute information and ideas to the

network of people who are interested in you, your company, its products or its services,

communication between friends and groups, and applications. It is a very good tool for

engaging people who like the company's brand and want to share their opinions and

participate in campaigns, promotions, contests, thus assisting in the exposure of the brand.

Companies can create their profiles and Facebook pages, and allow people and customers

that are also registered on Facebook is their Fans. Fans then start to receive information on

promotions, events and other information that is relevant.

A Brazilian company that has used this feature "Fan Pages" of Facebook is an

effective manner is Blue Airlines, which uses this feature to offer deals on airline tickets

should be purchased on its Web site. As a way of controlling these pages, Facebook sends

a weekly basis to the owners of these pages with a report of the accesses made.

12

The big rock bands like Coldplay, U2, Keane, The Killers, and others, which also are

managed as businesses use Facebook as a platform to expose their actions, tours, concerts,

programs and other events to your audience and direct traffic and hits to their sites.

Facebook is also possible to create groups that bring people together around a common

goal or interest. In the book "The New Rules of Marketing & PR (20), David Scott, we

have the example of the 1st Annual Conference Tattoos of Singapore, which aimed to

gather initial 5000 people and 120 artists from around the world. This conference was first

launched on Facebook with the creation of a group called "Tattoo Artistry," three months

before the event itself. The conference came to be promoted to this group, which quickly

reached 3,000 members, a fact that was very important to reach 15,000 visitors at the

event, ie three times the initially estimated. The groups are also very good for new product

launches or new versions of existing products.

The difference of using Facebook groups for another type of communication such as e-

mail merge, is that if these groups are not invade or disrupt the way unwanted users and are

only accessed by people who are interested.

Another feature of Facebook is used by the companies paid for clicks on the ads ("cost-

per-click"). In this case, each time a user clicks an ad revenue is generated for the site.

These ads typically appear on the right side of the page and are used by companies to

target a larger number of users to their pages.

Another tool that has revolutionized the social media market, which grew most in 2009

was Twitter. This uses a publishing model of information in messages, with up to 140

characters, which are sent to those who wish to receive them, which are called followers.

13

The "Tweets" or "Feeds" as they are called the publicaçõess should be concise and can

be made from a browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc), a mobile

platform (mobile or smartphone) or a messaging service.

At first many thought that Twitter would be pointless for business, but a few

companies were considering their possible applications and therefore more effectively

using this tool. Each area of marketing and public relations firms should understand

Twitter and how people use this service.

A feature of Twitter is Retwitt, what happens when a user finds an interesting Tweet

another user and forwards it to your network of followers, thus making the Retwitt .. The

Retwitt is an indication that a particular user group is interested in a subject and for this

reason should be studied and measured by the companies.

The Twittter still allows its users and companies have their pages, which are important

points for managing a brand.

Twitter has a number of features smaller than Facebook, but should be considered by

companies in putting together their plan to use social media.

The VodafoneUK (21) is an example of a company that makes advanced use of

Twitter.

Using this tool Vodafone customers can interact with the customer service and

information sent by the company related to the maintenance of its lines, the existing price

plans, special offers, etc..

14

Companies are increasingly specializing in using this tool to share news, show your

face to the customer directly contact the customer, get customer feedback on products,

services, events, marketing activities in general, promote products or services finally a

change in the way of communicating with the public and can react and adjust their actions

and strategies as you getting feedback and measuring the success of their actions.

The chart below shows the profile of using Twitter, published in research conducted by

the company Biz, available SocialMediaToday site.

Figura 2.4 – Twitter utilization by companies

Twitter @ companies

Share news 71,9
Show face to customers 63,7
Contact customers 55,1
Obtain feedback from customers 48,6
Offer products to sell 20
Organize meetings 15,3
Mantain contact between managers 5,8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Another social media tool is also widely used Youtube. The Youtube is a video on

demand service on the Internet, which have been discovered and used increasingly by

companies, musical groups, etc.

The Youtube has become a success from the use of fast communication networks,

which allow an experience of viewing video on an ongoing basis and with greater quality,

no more suffering disruptions due to slow internet connections.

15

The development of technologies for encoding digital video also helped to obtain a

higher level of visual quality and audio, making the user experience more interesting.

For enterprises, they can create a kind of "channel" on YouTube and its videos available

through this channel. A channel on YouTube is an excellent option for humanizing a brand

from depositions of its employees, showing everyone what real people working in the

company. It's also good to share the company's shares more transparent, be they related to

the environment, the communities in which companies operate or the market in general.

An example of a Brazilian company that already uses this feature is Petrobras (22).

Petrobras has its own channel on Youtube (23) in which videos are available on the history

of the company and its employees, the technologies we use and assists in development,

social action and citizenship that develops, finally is a new form of communicate with your

audience, keeping it informed about its activities in the market with greater transparency to

the market.

With the success of Youtube, many companies found that content available on demand

to its employees, and customers can be a way to keep them informed and trained, without

bearing the costs of travel, lodging, etc., related to classroom training . Thus we can expect

over the next few years the emergence of a large number of video projects on demand for

large companies.

The next social media tool that is the highlight LinkedIn. On LinkedIn users open an

account, register your profile as a curriculum, describes the companies they worked,

experience, specialties, interests, awards, etc.. The user invites others to join his

professional network and can create and join groups with specific interests.

16

On LinkedIn companies can publish their job openings they have open, site users can

canditado for these vacancies and so participate in selection processes. Both companies, as

human resource consultants using LinkedIn to search for and hire professionals according

to their needs. With LinkedIn boundaries for recruiting were broken. For example, the

Dubai company can hire professionals from Brazil, USA, Russia, China or wherever the

professional profile with the most appropriate.

The groups of LinkedIn are also places for publishing product information, informative

articles on general discussions and job offers.

Other examples of social media Blogs. Blogs are now tools that allow organizations to

put their ideas and actions for the market. Usually, readers of blogs such as face authentic

sources of information shared by reputable sources. The blogs should have regular

publications of content and attractive, so that readers are interested in returning to the blog.

Blogs are written using specific software that delivers content at the URL of the blog,

in order from most recent to oldest .. Publications, also called "posts" can have categories

and identifiers, thereby making it easier to find content on search engines. In blogs it is

also possible that readers put their comments on the materials, which usually pass before

being vetted by a moderator.

In the context of Marketing and Public Relations blogs can be used in four different

ways:

- Easily track what people are talking about your company's market that sells or serves

on its products

17

- To participate in these talks, putting comments to existing blogs

- Work with other bloggers so they write about your industry, company or products

- Start conversations, creating their own content and writing your own blog

Some companies have well-defined governance rules that specify how your employees

can write about the company or not on their own blogs, if you can comment on blogs of

other people and businesses, what type of content can be posted, and finally a set of rules

to protect them.

Another important point to remember is that organizations are using social media need

to measure efficiency and effectiveness of their communications. To perform these

measurements can be used the following metrics in each social media:

• Twitter - number of retwits that characterize engagement, number of followers

(followers) that indicate the impact and popularity.

• Blogs - number of incoming links that are external links pointing to the company's blog,

which indicate the relevance of the blog, number of comments that indicate a rebound.

• Youtube - number of views that indicate impact, number of comments indicate rebound.

• Facebook - Number of Fans show popularity and relevance; comments on fan pages

indicate rebound.

There are tools like HootSuite (24) and Radian 6 (25) that allow you to monitor and

track all publications that involve your company on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other

social media. Using the tool HootSuite can make several searches on Twitter and get

information that can help since the closure of the business to get a new job. Many

18

companies use the services of specialized agencies to monitor what is being said about

them on these social media.

Another tool that also monitors the use of Twitter is TweetMeter (26), developed by E-

LIFE (27). The TweetMeter allows, for example, find out who the tuiteiros (neologism for

those who publish tweets) more influential, what they say and the impact of their messages

- how many "retuítes" reach. In the case of a tweet that mentions a specific company, the

tool tracks if the comments are positive or negative about the brand and time you are done.

19

3. STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA UTILIZATION AT COMPANIES

A survey by Nielsen BuzzMetrics (29) found that "Over 25 percent of the results of

searches conducted on Google to the top 20 global brands are links to user-generated

content.

This is bad news for brand managers, who still believe they are the center of

everything and control everything about a particular brand. Customers, happy or not, are

currently the biggest generators of content for brands. Another fact found in this research is

that customers are more likely to believe that other customers talk about their websites.

The explosion of social media makes planning your company's use, creating a strategy to

use is the first step to be taken by the company before any initiative to use unplanned. With

the mounting of a strategy, the company can decide which social media should start using

and where it should focus its efforts, thus avoiding the waste of resources.

There are several consulting firms specializing in social media, such as Expansion (30),

iStrategyLabs (31), etc., who already have experience using, good practices and lessons

learned in the field who can bring great value in assembling and tracking of a strategy to

use for the company.

If the company has a marketing plan, before mounting a strategy of social media is

necessary to revisit this marketing plan to understand the enterprise environment, goals,

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, etc., so that the new plan does not get disconnected

from reality and company objectives.

During assembly of the strategy for use of social media may emerge that will guide

important information or update the definitions and actions related to strategic marketing 4

20

Ps, which are the Research, partitioning (segmentation), the positioning and prioritization,

which are normally defined in terms of marketing .

An important question that David Scott puts in his book "The New Rules of

Marketing and PR" (20), is the need to better understand the company's various target

audiences, build a detailed profile of each group found, to understand what products or

services are best suited to these groups and then prioritize actions. This is a technique that

has long since been assisting the areas of marketing companies and can also be used in

planning the use of social media.

Below I list a collection of steps that may help in assembling this strategy by firms,

that i’ve gathered in my research:

1 – Listen to what they talk about their company

It is important for the company to raise what they are talking about it, who is speaking,

whether positive or negative, where the talks are being held, which speak in online

communities, which competitors say the company, which content interests more to your

audience, what are the most influential blogs and communities, what are the opportunities

and threats.

2 – Understand the percentage of entries made to a product, brand, organization or any
company

The concept of "Share of Voice" is defined as the number of entries is made about your

brand, company, organization or product in a niche or a market where it is inserted.

Knowing the current position is important to understand where we want to reach.

The graph below illustrates a comparison of "Share of Voice" between tennis score

performed by the company iStrategyLabs.

21

Figure 2.5 – “Share of Voice” – US Market

3 – Setting Goals

From what is being said and monitored by the company in various social media can set

goals to be achieved with the use of social media.

Some common goals can be: to improve the reputation of the brand, increase brand

awareness, increase market share, increase sales, build leadership, etc..

4 – Identify and monitor blogs and on line e communities

Blogs have been shown great importance in disseminating information and for this

reason should be monitored. Must be found the most influential and relevant to business

and industry. These blogs should then be monitored, as well as the online communities

existing in sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.

5 – Identify potential influencers

The concept of influence in social media is related to confidence and accuracy that

certain persons or transmit to other companies. The company should seek to work with

bloggers who are influential and convey this assurance to your audience. The

22

recommendation of a product by an influencer can change drastically the behavior of

buyers.

The influence can be measured by site traffic, unique visitors, links on your company

or product placed on websites and blogs, reader engagement, time on site,

recommendations, retweets, marking sites, links to social networking sites, posts in blogs,

comments on websites, etc.

6 – Develop a content strategy

The availability of content that interests the public is one factor that causes the greatest

return to a site. Success with social media depends on the quality of content. To achieve

the commitment of people is necessary to have good content.

The language used should be directed to the public, easy to understand, avoiding jargon

that can not be understood. By monitoring sites like Twitter and Facebook issues may arise

or recommendations that can be made for directing content posted on the company

website. Create a content strategy, with updates and issues of interest to the public is

essential to obtain good results.

7 – Choose the right tools

After performing the analysis mentioned above and define the content, the next step is

to choose the tools. Typically companies start with blogs, then video channels on

YouTube, in Twiter information, etc.. But if most of the talks about the company and its

products happens on Twitter, you will need a customized page on this site. These are just

examples, which should be tailored to each company and product.

23

8 – Create a policy for use of social media

Create a code of best practices and establish criteria for use of social media are

important measures to which they are used correctly, preventing the misuse of media

members from distorting the company's image, customer dissatisfaction, or other related

problems.

9 – Create a team of experienced and specialized in social media

A team of motivated people and with practical experience in social media is an

important step to success in using these media.

10 – Create and deliver content

Since it was set up a content strategy, the next step is to produce and deliver. Often

Facebook and Twitter are not enough. In this case it is necessary to create a company blog,

an interactive web site with interesting articles, pictures, videos, etc.. Should normally be

placed good articles related to products and services company. The availability of

interesting articles usually generate links to other sites and blogs that drive to the site of

your company or your blog.

11 – Participate and facilitate conversations with their audiences

The social media are different compared to other channels, since they allow post

content and create conversations with their audiences. The public not only watch the

content as a TV, but also puts their opinions and issues proactively. One example cited in

numerous books and articles is for Microsoft. Not long ago, despite the modernity and

development associated with it, your audience does not see it as a company with which it

was possible to dialogue. Only after hiring Robert Scoble (scobleizer.com) is that

developers and users began to see it as a company engaged with social media. The social

media are also important for people to speak well of their products, making positive

24

reviews, so that others may be positively influenced. Websites and blogs should have

buttons that allow the articles to share via Facebook, Twitter, RSS, send it to friends,

comment, etc, thus facilitating the talks and the transfer of positive information.

12 – Measure results

It is very important that the use of social media is constantly measured, allowing

corrections to be made every time its use is not bringing the desired results. With the recent

crisis of 2009, companies are more responsive to their budgets, controlling your costs

further and returns from, so it is not possible to conduct these types of media without

generating positive results. Measurements should be based on the initial strategy,

correlating with business objectives.

It is noteworthy that this compilation is not definitive and may not apply to all cases

extensively, but we know that well-planned developments are more likely to succeed.

25

4. CASES OF SUCCESS S AND BENEFITS

Use of Social Media in a planned manner, always monitoring what is being said in

social networks, today has become an important way to maintain a positive brand image of

the company before the general public and its customers.

The computer company Dell Computers (32) reduced to half the negative comments

about your brand through actions on social media. Since 2007 the division of England from

Dell (33) organized a group of senior officers to talk to consumers in blogs and forums.

This resulted in a 50% decrease in the number of negative citations.

Another case of successful use of social media, using Twitter, was the U.S. division of

Dell Computers. Dell has generated millions of dollars in revenue when he started to sell

refurbished items at discount prices from messages posted on Twitter at www.twitter.com /

DellOutlet. The posts placed on Twitter directed customers to their site and ended up not

only increasing sales of refurbished, but also increased sales of products from the first row.

Dell, All over the world, receives more than 4000 mentions daily on the internet. The

company encourages those mentions through an active stance on several social media. This

includes personal and corporate accounts on Twitter and a community blog called

Direct2Dell(34).

Dell also runs Ideastorm forum that allows consumers to suggest ideas on how to

improve business and products. The community votes on the ideas of consumers each

month Dell tries to put into practice the 40 best in your business. As a result the company

has implemented until now 400 ideas for consumers.

26

These two success stories that reflect different divisions of a global company can have

their programs specific to their needs and audiences, but can also rely on global programs.

An example of a successful blog is the blog of Petrobras Facts and Figures (35) who

was chosen by the International Association of Business Communicators - IABC to receive

the 2010 Gold Quill Awards, the category "Excellence", the largest awarded in prizes. The

blog Petrobras competed in Division "Communication Management" category "Social

Media" under the title: Blog Facts & Data: shifting the paradigm source-press relationship.

In the United States, President Barack Obama and his press secretary Robert Gibbs

also maintain profiles on the microblog Tweeter. In April 2010, the profile of Obama (l @

barackobama) already accounted for 731 000 and follow 3.6 million followers. Besides

Twitter, the Obama campaign and the government have Facebook profiles and pages of

Fans, who helped enough to elect Obama.

Another case of successful use of social media comes from the Ford Motor Company

(28). She was in Europe an integrated campaign called "Fiesta Movement, built for the

launch of its new global car with the same name. Ford gave the 100 participants in this

social network Fiesta Movement for a vehicle driving for six months. These participants

report their experiences in social media sites. Thus much content being created and Ford

gets so much attention and attraction to your new vehicle, which should result in increased

sales.

Aiming to prove the benefits that the correct use of Facebook can bring to companies,

Nielsen (29) and Facebook held in April 2010, a survey (39) with more than 800,000

Facebook users in response to 125 campaigns for 70 brands this site and found promising

27

results. This research focused on three types of ads and campaigns on Facebook where the

public can:

1. Become a "Fan" of a brand from an ad;

2. Become a "Fan" of a brand from an ad and spontaneously recommend this brand,

just below the ad;

3. People recommend a brand, they become "Fans" and the text of the

recommendation appears on page "News Feeds".

As results, the Nielsen found, compared with control groups, the following standard

types of ads above:

• For the first item in the survey, the memory of an advertisement, brand awareness

and purchase intent were increased by 10%, 4% and 2% respectively.

• For the second item of the survey, the memory of an advertisement, brand awareness

and purchase intent were increased by 16%, 8% and 8% respectively

• For the third item from the survey, the memory of an advertisement, brand awareness

and purchase intent were increased by 30%, 13% and 8% respectively

In conclusion, recommendations from friends or partners are more effective than other

forms of advertisements on the media, according to research that shows the tangible

benefits achieved by companies in using Facebook. Nielsen also raises an important

concept that is "Media Wins" or "Earned Media" in which people speak positively of your

brand, company or product without requiring financial outlays by the company and

influence the decisions of others.

28

5. RISKS INHERENT TO THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

A recent case of a company that has experienced problems in the use of social media is

that of Nestle (36) Facebook. Nestle has a page on Facebook where Fans provides

information about their products, recipes, articles relating to food and cooking in general.

Recently, Nestle has been accused of using suppliers on this page that caused deforestation

and felling of forests in South Asia to plantations that produce palm oil, and this accusation

led to protests from some people on the page and on various sites on the Internet.

In this case Nestle said on Facebook and on their website, but people thought the tone

of the response was rude and authoritarian, while the best would be more polite, apologize

and tell what was right and what was being done to correct possible problems.

Another company that had problems with the use of social media was VodafoneUK

that a poorly worded response to a question in the service of online conversations and

some grammatical errors, was considered offensive by customers and generated a series of

tweets problematic for the company .

In these cases the attack, the qualifications of staff and relationships with customers

who do make a difference in response time of the attack. People using social media,

Twitter, Facebook, or any other, should be prepared for these situations and the actions to

be taken should be discussed with the team responsible. The staff must have experience in

using these media, be trained and follow a policy and processes that facilitate the

management of crisis situations

In the case of Vodafone, the rapid, transparent and accurate the company was crucial

to address quickly what was happening. The important thing in this case was that the reply

was the same media.

29

A case in Brazil messaging ordnance against a brand was the Ovomaltine (37), after

which no longer manufacture the kind Swiss chocolate, received mixed reviews. Was

necessary in this case that the area of marketing to get in touch quickly with customers and

communities to clarify that only one product and not the entire product line was being

discontinued.

Currently social coordinated attacks are a major concern of firms for social media. Fan

the pages of Facebook can be an easy target for groups who want to tarnish the image of

your company. Fan Pages are an option for opponents of the company to put their views.

Another possible danger is the locking feature on the pages of Facebook. We reported a

case series, including a website SocialMediaToday, (38) that had some features of their

pages blocked by the administration of Facebook, without any return to clarify the reason.

Relying exclusively on one of these social networks may not be the best strategy.

Companies can use these third-party tools, but should build and use their own, thus

avoiding a dangerous dependence and the risk of a blackout in the media.

For these reasons have a strategy, develop an action plan, a usage policy, a budget and

a reasoned plan responses to crises are necessary actions for companies that are embracing

social media to succeed and reduce the risks involved.

30

6. CONCLUSIONS

Podemos dizer que as mídias sociais são novas ferramentas de marketing, que vão

conviver e se integrar cada vez mais com as ferramentas e mídias tradicionais utilizadas há

muito pelas empresas. Seu poder está na capacidade de interagir com os diversos públicos,

sem causar interrupções e permitir que o seu público se comunique com a sua empresa.

As empresas que adotarem de forma planejada o uso destas mídias poderão obter cada

vez mais informações importantes sobre comportamento dos clientes, necessidades de

produtos ou serviços e tomar as medidas de forma mais rápida possível para atender estas

necessidades dos seus públicos e buscar maior receita.

As mídias sociais também estão auxiliando a direcionar não somente o tráfego para os

sites web das empresas, como também direcionar audiência para TVs, filmes, e outras

formas de entretenimento.

Entender, utilizar e integrar as mídias sociais em seu dia a dia passa a ser um novo

desafio para as empresas e suas respectivas áreas de marketing.

We can say that social media are new tools of marketing, who will live and integrate

more with traditional media and tools that have been used by businesses. Its power lies in

its ability to interact with various publics, without disruption and allow your audience to

communicate with your company.

Companies that adopt a planned use of these media may obtain more important

information about customer behavior, needs, products or services and take measures as

quickly as possible to meet these needs of their audiences and get more revenue.

31

The social media are also helping to drive not only traffic to the websites of

companies, but also target audience for TV, film and other forms of entertainment.

Understand, utilize and integrate social media into your day to day becomes a new

challenge for companies and their respective marketing areas.

32

REFERENCES

1. Linkedin - www.linkedin.com
2. Facebook - www.facebook.com
3. Plaxo - www.plaxo.com
4. Orkut - www.orkut.com
5. Twitter - www.twitter.com
6. Kottler, P – Marketing Administration
7. Myspace - www.myspsace.com
8. Blogger - www.blogger.com
9. Yammer - www.yammer.com
10. Youtube - www.youtube.com
11. Flickr - www.flickr.com
12. Vimeo - www.vimeo.com
13. Wikipédia - www.wikipedia.com
14. PBWorks - www.pbworks.com
15. Wetpaint - www.wetpaint.com
16. Digg - www.digg.com
17. Dellicious - www.dellicious.com
18. Comming change in Social Media Business Applications (Pesquisa) -

http://socialmediatoday.com/submitform/socialmediabusinesswhitepaper50109/?refere
nce=smt_badge

19. SocialMediaToday - www.socialmediatoday.com
20. Scott, David - The New Rules of Marketing and PR -

http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Marketing-PR-
Releases/dp/0470547812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271520013&sr=1-1

21. VodafoneUK - http://online.vodafone.co.uk
22. Petrobras - www.petrobras.com.br
23. Canal Petrobras no Youtube - www.youtube/canalPetrobras
24. Hootsuite - www.hootsuite.com
25. Radian 6 - www.radian6.com

33

26. Tweetmeter - http://www.slideshare.net/Elife2009/tweetmeter
27. E-LIFE - www.elife.com.br
28. Ford Motors - www.fordmotors.com
29. Nielsen BuzzMetrics –

http://en-us.nielsen.com/tab/product_families/nielsen_buzzmetrics

30. Expansion Plus Consulting - www.expansionplus.com
31. iStrategyLabs - www.iStrategyLabs.com
32. Dell Computers - www.dell.com
33. Dell Computers UK - www.dell.co.uk
34. Blogs Dell Direct2Dell –

http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/b/direct2dell/default.aspx

35. Blog Petrobras Fatos e Dados - www.blogspetrobras.com.br/fatosedados
36. Nestlé - www.nestle.com
37. Ovomaltine - http://www.ovomaltineforever.com.br/
38. Facebook blocks - http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/185245
39. Survey Nielsen e Facebook –

http://en-
us.nielsen.com/etc/medialib/nielsen_dotcom/en_us/documents/pdf/social_media_report
s.Par.1435.File.dat/SocMediaImpressions_US_rpt_4.19.10.pdf

34

Social media its use by companies as marketing tools

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to Social media its use by companies as marketing tools

Social media its use by companies as marketing tools