Starbucks-#Race Together Comms 0012-#3

Recently, in the United States, there was a huge controversy put out by Starbucks as one of their marketing campaigns that backfired. It was called “race together”. They wanted to invoke talk about the racial issues in the United States. Starbucks employees got in on the action by posting in Instagram and Twitter sharing some of their racial stories.
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They had so much negativity for creating this conversation the company’s senior vice president of communications actually deactivated his Twitter account to avoid the public hatred towards him about this campaign.

Starbucks baristas were asked to write #racetogether as a hashtag on each cup of coffee. The servers were encouraged to talk with customers about this tough issue in the US. Some baristas gave permission to share their stories on Starbucks web page. In the past, Starbucks has had “cause marketing” campaigns on issues like AIDS or “Make someone smile”, “Mondays can be good”, Tweet a coffee etc. This latest campaign was the one that caused huge frenzy of negativity for the company.

More the 71,000 people used the #Racetogether hashtag stating their views. This topped in social media trends in the United States when the campaign began last week.

Many news casts and people were saying, “Why does Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz feel the need to force an issue such as the state of race relations on patrons?”. Other patrons were saying, “I get the thought behind this effort, but if I stop in for a cup of coffee, that’s all I want”. Or “Keep your opinion on race to yourself, and I’ll do the same.”
And “People just don’t want to be preached to about race when they’re buying their coffee”.

USA Today joined in the campaign asking four questions online. They were, “What is America’s greatest race challenge? And “Did you have a childhood friend of a different race that you’ve lost touch with? Why?” And, “How have your racial views on race evolved from those of your parents?” And, “When did you first become aware of your race?” .

@CBCthecurrent tweeted:”Wld you like that coffee with a chat about race? Critics pour cold water on Starbucks #RaceTogether campaign”
Starbucks cancelled the #racetogether after one week as they were getting a lot of negative press on this discussion.

Starbucks will have to get very creative on their cause marketing to make a comeback from this campaign. Regardless of this major mistake, people still line up to buy their coffee! I wonder if their sales when down at the same time? Somehow, I don’t think so as there was so much chatter on social media there had to be people lining up as per usual where they found out about the Racetogether# campaign.

Comm0012: Top of the Mountain Vineyard

The Top of the Mountain (TOM) Vineyard is a small agricultural project in Zone 4 growing grape varieties for this area. It will produce fantastic brand value wines with a distinct label to enhance the eastern Ontario wine region making it an ultimate experience for tourism. This will benefit the local economy and work in partnership with another local vineyard. Nestled just south of Ottawa and east of Kemptville it is an area of vast farmland and beautiful countryside.

Social media will be a tool to increase knowledge of the vineyard, neighboring vineyards and the wines produced from Eastern Ontario. A webpage to advertise the wines produced,  a map of the location, advertise events and blog about wine pairing, as well as, providing recipes to consumers will be the first tool to be implemented.

A Facebook page will be set up and provide daily insights about usage of wine in cooking etc., awards given in Ontario to other growers, information on grape varieties etc, event advertising and product information. Engaging local consumers, other Ontario grape growers and tourists to the area, will be the goal in mind for setting up a Facebook page.

Use of  Twitter will send out messages about the TOM Vineyard, as well, to keep consumers engaged of events and to share information about our products, our branding  and our usage of cooking with wine.

TOM Vineyard will further investigate Pinterest and Instagram to develop more presence on the web and engage consumers.

The success o the vineyard not only involves a social media strategy but also the variety of wines, the climate and the risks involved in agriculture.

Comm0012: The Tools for Writing a Social Media Strategy

After reading up on all the required lesson information, I see how setting up a strategy is like driving a car and determining the destination. There are many roads to take, signs to read and bumps that can be encountered along the way.

You can use the “POST model or the “SWOT” model to start the process of using social media to develop and market your business. The POST model stands for people, objectives, strategy and technology.The SWOT model stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and helps the business owner to look at their plan and look for ways to improve.

You first have to chose your networks. Will you chose Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, to name a few as examples. You have to look at your audience and chose which network will have the right demographics for  social media engagement. If you look at PEW Research you can find out valuable information on data for any of the social media platforms. If you are going to use images you can use a tool called “Canva” to help you set up photos etc to the correct sizes.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/02/14/the-demographics-of-social-media-users-2012/

You also need to develop your profile and showcase you or your business, showing your accomplishments.

Choose keywords to use and use simple language. Ask yourself who are your potential followers? And who is in it for me? You need to be personable and revisit your networks regularly.

You need to look at how often to post your information, what will you post, and at what time will your customers be looking for these posts. You need to think of these three things, content, the perfect frequency and the right time.

Statistics show that pictures get more attention on Facebook and Twitter. You can analyze your engagement with your audience and the tool you have chosen. Most networks have a reporting tool for your use.  Or there is one by google for your use https://www.google.com/analytics/features.

Another idea is to set a benchmark so you can review your outreach and engagement. See what has worked and how many people are reading and retweeting or liking and sharing your information. If you need to implement new tactics this is how you will learn what is needed to make a change.

In summary, there are several tools and strategies for being successful at developing your social media strategy. The bottom line is you want to be successful and know your audience that you are speaking to through social media so you can engage and keep their interest.

Being a Grammie

As I finally come to the end of this course,”Introduction to Social Media”, it has been most interesting and fun to blog, I have found it challenging at times to find the time to complete the tasks at hand in life on a daily basis some days. I have become a Grammie to three beautiful babies in the year of 2012. My three daughters had three babies all within 3 months of each other. My life changed forever, I remember everyone telling me you will say,”I wished I had had my grandchildren first as it is so much fun”! And it has been fun. It has been heartbreaking too.

My first grandchild Keira, beautiful and brilliant in her new life on earth was walking and beginning to babble like she was really telling you a story with her hands up in the air. She contracted an evil bacterial “pneumococcal meningitis” at 15 months of age. Our lives were turned upside down. The three babies had been very close at each developmenal stage and my daughters spent all their time together with their new bundles. This was not supposed to happen. Many have asked why? We don’t know why ? It happened! And thank God for CHEO and thank God for the support of prayers, family and community.

Keira was just discharged from the hospital at the end of March 2014, she is a fighter, she has endured an incredible journey. We almost lost her-it wasn’t her time. We saw many other children at CHEO and met so many people on heartbreaking journeys too. She had severe strokes as a result of her meningitis and lost her ability to talk and walk and her hearing in one ear. She needs to have surgery on her eyes to correct them. She had to have a tracheostomy to help her breathe due to the damage of the strokes. This will come out soon and the night nurse will no longer be needed. She is a happy sweet baby that works hard everyday to walk, roll over, hold her head up, and strengthen her muscles so she hopefully walk once again. She gets lots of therapy everyday at CHEO and the state of the art aids to assist her. We believe in time she will walk and talk again. She has two cousins who she will grow up with and she needs to be able to run and play with them. Keira is continuing to amaze us everyday!

As a Mother,(Grammie) you never expect to see your child endure such pain as they watch their child endure what Keira has been through. We are grateful for her progress.

I have two other sweet darlings who I see often and we still all get together to encourage Keira. They are Keegan and Lilyrae, I can’t have enough of them in my life! I am very blessed.

Texting was a big part of our communication while Keira was in hospital for 6 months but it was mostly face to face, just showing up to give love and support. Keira is now 22 months.

I wanted to tell you that tomorrow (April 24th, 2014) is “World Meningitis Awareness Day” and it is to bring awareness to everyone about this terrible bacterial infection and the importance of immunization,knowledge of symptoms etc.

http://www.meningitis.org/book-of-experience

I said this at my daughters’ weddings, (as they were breathtaking days for me), “Life is not measured by the number of breathes we take but rather by the number of moments that take our breathe away”.

Communciation from the Antarctica

I found this article that kind of sums up how integral social media is today. In October of 2013, two adventurous people Ben Saunders and Tarka L’Herpiniere set out on foot on what they call the “Scott Expedition” across Antarctica to the South Pole and back. They wanted to relive, “Captain Scott’s 1912 British Terra Nova Expedition.

This journey was 1800 miles long with temperatures as low as-50 degrees celsius and over a four-month period. “Antarctica challenged me and humbled me so deeply that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to put it into words” – Ben Saunders at TED2014, ‘The hardest 105 days of my life.’”

Tney used the latest technology, that I don’t even understand to get wifi in their tents so they could communicate to home and the outside world. Apparently, the 24 hour sunlight powered their internet tools. They used Hootsuite, Google+, YouTube,Instagram, blogged, sent videos and used Twitter to communicate with 15,600 fans.

I am very imspired reading how they were able to communicate and it was social media that once again, connected them to the world.

http://blog.hootsuite.com/antarctica-the-scott-expedition/?utm_source=content+team&utm_medium=owned+social&utm_campaign=content+team+owned+social

The Rise of Facebook-#4 COM0011

Facebook was founded on Febuary 4th,2004, this year it celebrated 10 years of success. Mark Zuckerburg and his fellow classmates at Harvard. stated this social media site. It is available to anyone who claims to be thirteen years or older. The growth in Facebook has been phenonominal. His social media network site has 1.23 billion users around the world! His company is worth $135 billion! He also became the company that became “mobile first”. Facebbook bout instagram in April of 2012 which is a photo sharing app for 1 billion! It appaears that 57 percent of Instagram users visit the site daily. This is the second highest in social media networking next to Facebook.

Facebook has added a app for phone called ” Facebook Messenger” a socia media network chat service. It has become the 12th most downloaded free app from Apple’s App Store, even ahead of Facebook !

Mark Zuckerburg’s net worth is 24 billion! That is something for a man aged 30. he is the 26th wealtest man in the world and the youngest on the list of 150. Mark’s vsion for the future is to expand internet access to billions of people who have never been to the web. His vision is to connect the world even more!

As a user of Facebook I like it’s ability to inteace with people from around the world as wellas the person next door. I can share pictures, send private messages or post messages, jokes and share information. I am amazed at how people have found family emebers after being given up at birth, missing people are found, there is networking for organ donations, sales, event postings and the list goes on. Facebbok ahs become my daily dose of soical networking.

Thank you Mark Zuckerburg!

COM 0011 Blog #3 Target marketing Social Media and the Superbowl 2014

Whether you are a football fan or no the Superbowl each year is the top viewed game in history. This year 111.3 million tuned into watch the game. And each year target marketing takes place, social media is catching on more and more.-the big corporations are taking advantage to get out their messages. The ones I enjoyed seeing and even pre super bowl were the Oikos yogurt, Budweiser, Unlever Axe and Toyota. This year “Oreo cookie” corporation even took to tweeting, when the power went out saying, “you can even dunk in dark”.  There are several favotites however, am going to talk about a few.

Oikos yogurt had 2 million views within 3 days on YouTube and it was promoted on Facebook and twitter. within three days.As of today, it is almost at 7 million views. They pulled in three stars from “Full House” to highlight their video “Bromance”.

Budweiser started their previewing of commercials well in advance of the big game. The Clydesdale horses and the puppy video called “Puppy Love” was quite spectacular heartwarming video. This had 30 million views. Budweiser also marketed on Facebook and had a contest. The winners were given the opportunity to stay at a hotel that had been made over the the “Bud Light Hotel.

Unilever Axe had 3.5 million viewers on Facebook. Their campaign was towards “Make Love, Not War” and teamed up with Make Peace One Day. They usually target young men, however, this time it included men and women kissing and showing signs of love. To date tis has had over 6 million views.

Oreo won at the social media trending during the black out that occurred for 34 minutes. The image of an Oreo and the caption, “You can still dunk in the dark.” This message caught on like fire and got nearly 15,00 Tweets and more than 20, 00 likes on Facebook. The ad was also posted on Tumblir .

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/02/oreo-twitter-super-bowl/

Toyota used the Muppets and also sitelinks in their ads which took users to their various social media profiles instead of to the company’s website or landing page. Another example of how Toyota is connecting to their customers through social media. This goes to show the importance that Toyota is placing on their social media as a way to connect with their consumer base.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/community/super-bowl-commercials-2014-this-year-s-10-best-1.2520683

 

All and all social media seems to be the catchy way for businesses to link into their consumers using several social media forums, stars, etc. The numbers prove it.

Cyberbullying-COM0011

Social Media has brought some new layers to old-fashioned bullying.Digital imprints that have circulated to bully and degrade individuals have caused an erosion of privacy and new laws have been designed all around the world. There have been suicides linked to this behavior from the sharing of personal digital imprints and negative messages on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and on cell phones through text messaging. These digital imprints remain forever and have gone viral on Social Media.

Cyberbullies can remain anonymous by using bogus names, setting up temporary email accounts. What has been most deplorable is that young people have taken their lives from these devastating actions. I think of the Rehtaeh Parsons case, where she had been raped by four males while passed out and vomiting from drinking too much, pictures were taken, they were shared on many forums of social media-she was targeted.

The cyberbullying started by students in her school both male and female who judged her on her breach of privacy and the violation of her body. In August of 2013, a new law was passed in Nova Scotia allowing the victims to charge their perpetrators for cyberbullying. Her father,Glen Canning blogged about this horrific incident with his daughter, his messages went viral on the internet,Facebook and Twitter.

He writes, “I don’t want her life to defined by a Google search”.So he writes a wonderful blog of memories as well as the explaination of the ” pictures” that some said, “Ruined their lifes while it took his daughter’s life”. The cybergroup Anonymous got on board with this case as well and brought it to the forefront through media and social media sites.

http://glencanning.com/

While this is one case of cyberbullying it shows how social media affected so many lives and how there are still many quetions on the policing of this behavior on social media sites. The article I have linked, references the Parsons case and also highlights, how social media assisted in the sharing pictures of the suspected Boston Bombers and the impact of social media in this world today.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1016396/social-media-2013-year-in-review-vigilante-justice/

There is much to learn and teach on this subject especially to our youth about the rules of social media usage. The website mediasmarts.ca is a wonderful tool for teachers, parents etc. We can only hope the issue of cyberbullying, will become a thing of the past, as we all learn from the seriousness of this behavior.

http://mediasmarts.ca/teacher-resources

COM0011-Blog Post 1-Space to Earth

When I think of Social Media, I compare it to an information highway. A huge city of intersecting roads, four lane highways, merging roads with signs and lights with many directions to travel. One can chose to travel one way or several ways to get to their destination. It is all on the driver’s experience or a wish to find a new path to get their desired result on their travel through the information highway.

The same holds true for social media users, you can chose one medium or several forums to communicate and engage on this communication highway. It is an interesting collaboration of many available mediums especially with new technologies being introduced regularly to assist with the social media platforms.

When I go back in time, to my childhood and think about the first time man walked on the moon, Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong on July 21, 1969, along with Buzz Aldrin and Micheal Collins. It was history in the making, the world tuned into the one channel of approximately five channels, broadcasting this moment in life. “The first landing used slow scan television incompatible with commercial TV, so it was displayed on a special monitor and a conventional TV camera viewed this monitor, significantly reducing the quality of the picture. The signal was received at Gioldstone n the United States but with better fidelity by Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station in Australia. Minutes later the feed was switched to the more sensitive Parkes radio scope in Australia. Despite some technical and weather difficulties, ghostly black and white images of the first lunar EVA were received and broadcast to at least 600 million people on Earth”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11

Skip ahead to 2013, this information highway has been fueled. Chris Hadfield engaged the world with his usage of social media. He brought space to our cellphones, our bus ride, to our computers at home and work, as well as, through u tube, Tumblr and Facebook. He introduced us to a whole new way of life on the moon, and to many generations, through his tweets and through several different mediums of social media. He intrigued us through his engagement with earth from space.

He showed us how to eat in space, what he ate in space, how he brushed his teeth, how gravity affects tears,  how he exercised, he showed us his sleeping quarters and how it floats in space. He played his guitar and sang to us from space. He even recorded music for an album. He was considered the most “social media savvy astronaut ever to leave Earth”. 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkantrowitz/2013/02/18/five-highlights-from-commander-chris-hadfields-reddit-ama-from-space/

Neil Armstrong’s famous words were, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” when he landed on the moon.

Chris Hadfield’s line could be, “I have made a giant step for man, and a mega step for mankind”. Hadfield captivated audiences and made space trendy through social media and his fueled communication space highway.