Assignment #3 - Amanda Hariri

SpoonRocket was launched in Berkeley this last May, and it has only seemed to grow in popularity. A “gourmet” meal delivery service, SpoonRocket claims it is “revolutionizing fast food” by providing the same speedy meal service one would expect with any fast food delivery service but with fresher and healthier ingredients. The company Facebook page does a pretty mediocre job of social media marketing. While it does do an excellent job promoting its daily dishes, it lacks the extra boost of participation and sufficient promotional material that would incentivize people to try SpoonRocket (or, in some cases, give it a second chance).

Since the Facebook page isn’t that old, I was able to scroll through it completely and found only two posts that involved any premiums – namely, the chance to win an iPad mini and the opportunity to get free candy on Halloween. People could only be entered into the raffle to win the iPad if they had purchased a meal on a certain day, however, so it’s not actually free. The company did promote that they would be handing out free candy in Berkeley for Halloween, so this was one example where they used premiums to engage customer participation. Beyond that, the company offers little to no events or games for users, making it difficult for the customer to feel “close” to the company.

I found no user-generated content on the page, which supports the aforementioned lack of opportunity for SpoonRocket followers to feel connected to the company. However, occasional posts open up a customer service oriented “dialogue” by providing feedback surveys and apologies/explanations for certain service-related issues (e.g., one post apologizes for running out of prime rib due to a high demand, another updates followers of where SpoonRocket is expanding, etc.).

In terms of content flow, the company does a fantastic job at updating its audience about the meals of the day – but so does its website (and isn’t that kind of a basic necessity when you’re a food delivery service?). Overall, I feel that SpoonRocket doesn’t utilize the potential of Facebook enough. I think a good way to set this company apart from competing delivery restaurants is to incorporate users opinions and feedback in a more explicit manner, perhaps by offering more surveys and asking people what they’d like to see next on the menu. Right now, the only useful thing about this page is being able to see what is available to order. Therefore, it doesn’t encourage frequent returns, because it doesn’t engage its followers enough.

Soc Assignment #3 Michael Lee

Michael Lee

ASSIGNMENT #3

Samsung Mobile Facebook page

Link: https://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobile

Premiums: There are currently no giveaways and/or 'free stuff.'  But, there are links to free applications for phones [the apps are free apps, it's not necessarily Samsung giving it out]

Participation:

The Facebook page also has a link to 'Companion Stories' where Samsung Mobile features a story about a person who uses a Samsung phone to document their story.  The current story is titled Grandma Mary, a elder lady who uses the Samsung Galaxy phone to record and upload videos of her performing with a guitar.  There is also a link to the Companion Story of Richy Carrasco.  This page is used to show and demonstrate the ability of Samsung Galaxy phones. 

There is also a link titled: Samsung Unpacked 2013.  This link has videos and comments where users can watch the video and communicate with other users about the upcoming Samsung Mobile devices. 

User-Generated Content:

The Samsung Mobile Facebook page lacks user-generated content.  Other than the Facebook comments, there is a lack of designated sections that allows users to showcase their user-submitted materials.  [The 'Companion Story' is created by Samsung, not users.]

Customer Service "Portal":

The Samsung Mobile Facebook page has plenty of space for Customer Service "Portal."  I've read a couple of comments from various Posts, and found some to be supportive of Samsung and some to be antagonistic.  But, the majority of comments are positive.  The comments also result in dialogue within the users.  This allows users to ask questions and/or receive feedback.  There were comments from prospective customers that asked about how certain devices were performing, and current owners of Samsung devices helped answer those questions.

Content Flow:

The Samsung Mobile Facebook page frequently posts new materials.  The posts usually consist of what a Samsung Mobile device is able to do and where it was done. For example, an October 23rd post of a New York Times picture, captured in stopmotion by a Samsung Galaxy Note 3.  Samsung Mobile Facebook also uses Twitter's hashtag to help spawn dialogue.  And then on October 24th, there is another stopmotion video made, but this time it is of a Singapore building that resembles the New York Times building.  The new material is engaging and introduces capabilities of a Samsung Galaxy device. 

Conclusion:

I think the Samsung Mobile Facebook page is doing a fair job of social media marketing because it has frequently updated Content Flow that engages users and uses the Facebook platform to allow Customer Service "Portal" to allow users to communicate.  But, the page lacks user-generated content and premiums.  Although the page has 28,648,725 likes world-wide, there does not seem to be any materials that is generated from customers, other than Facebook comments.  Premiums are also a huge attraction to a commercial page, but Samsung Mobile Facebook page does not currently provide any.  The page is fair because it does have exposure, but it could greatly improve with free giveaways or allowing users to submit their own content.  One such device has a great user-generated content is GoPro Hero. 

Soc Assignment #3 Aria Aminian

Burt’s Bees

Burt’s Bees is a company that I enjoy following on Facebook and also enjoy purchasing their products. Burt’s Bees produces all natural products such as chapstick, skin care and other body lotions. I believe their commercial page is doing an extremely effective job, the page is able to bring current customers closer to the company while catching the interests of new customers. Burt’s Bees page keeps followers updated with new products; give promotions on new products to people who print out their coupons and gives people incentive to get traditional and experimental products.

Burt’s Bees page not only has promotions for customer but they also bring customers closer and creates a community through small games through the Facebook page and create events to bring not only customers closer to the company but to fellow customers. For example, for Halloween, Burts Bees posted a picture of a baby wearing a bee costume and promoted parents to post pictures of their babies in costumes. In return the page got thousands of pictures of customer babies and comments relating to Burts Bees and “how awesome” this fun task was. Burt’s Bees is fully involved with their customers and their satisfaction of the products they purchase. The content flow of the page is nearly flawless, everything is organized and easy to find past promotions and events. I think Burt’s Bees does a great job having a social media page to promote their company in ways to keep their customers engaged and life long customers and successfully get new customers through their entertaining and rewarding page.

Soc Assignment #3 Eric Snyder

For my analyses I decided to take a look at Nike’s Facebook page.  Nike is a huge international cooperation with an already large consumer base.  It is not really focused on profitability from day to day, or even from year to year.  Nike’s primary focus is continuing to build its brand image, and thus, its brand loyalty. Nike’s Facebook page clearly fallows that pattern. While it does a good job of ingraining a simple consistent brand image and message, it lacks in the ability to gain new followers, or “likes.” There is also very little dialogue between the company and consumers; rather, most of the dialogue is between users and other users.   Overall, Nike seems like they are not focused on the individual. It falls short in almost every category that concerns interactivity with the customer, other than marketing.  That being said this is their main company Facebook page.  Nike is a large company; large enough in fact that it has separate media pages for specific products, or branches of the company such as Nike SB, or Nike Free.  Therefore, they are only looking to expand brand image and loyalty on their company page.  This is why I believe that even though the page lacks a lot in terms of connecting with the customer, it is still a very good social media page, because it does exactly what it is tailored to do, which is build brand image, and thus loyalty.

            Nike’s intentions with only building brand image are very clear.  Upon first glance, you see Nike’s trademark swoop and slogan, “just do it,” up front and center, clearly solidifying the brand image.  As you scroll down, the first to wall posts you see are featured athletes, and either a picture or video representing their achievements and tying Nike in with those achievements.  It isn’t until you scroll a littler farther where you see the first product placement.  Nike has a new wristwatch tracker for athletes labeling it as “The smart, simple, and fun way to get more active.”  However, when scrolling through the comments on the picture of the new item, users were simply commenting on either: the looks of the product, how they were mad that it doesn’t sink up with their android platform, or talking about the set backs that the first generation of the product had.  Nike fails to respond to any of these creating a dialogue solely between users.  Similarly, Nike does not offer any premiums, or participation.  There is a picture of women running a marathon that they sponsored, but that dates as far back as April, and is the picture, or mention of any event.

            What Nike does do, is post content of athletes right after a major performance, or right before.  Even though they are not responding to their customers in this format, the pictures they post are inherently designed to get like by fans of the players, and spur comments and dialogue between fans.  The benefit that this has on the page is that it brings it to the top of news feeds without Nike having to continuously repost.  We can credit Nike for being smart and finding a way to support their brand without having to pay people to consistently be responding to one individual. 

            All in all, Nike does a good job with its brand Facebook page.  It does exactly what it set out to do which is brand image.  Nike leaves the customer relations to specific product pages, or third party retail stores that its products are often sol through.  It also utilizes current performances of athletes to spur consumer dialogues with each other thus building the popularity of a specific approach.

Assignment # 2 Invisible => Invincible

Michael Lee

$665,000 stolen from Downingtown School District recovered

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=9063100

            This is a case of almost all of the factors discussed in John Suler's "Online Disinhibition Effect" comes into perspective.  It is basically a robbery.  But, because of the online capabilities, the suspects use all of the factors to empower themselves to do such a crime.  Dissociative anonymity allows the suspects to think that it's okay to rob someone, because in real life, robbing someone usually takes force.  But, online, there is no fight, the suspects are essentially invisibly committing robbery.  The worst part about the robbery is that they are robbing a school district that is funding kids education.  The minimization of status and authority, or in this case lack of authority, allowed the suspects to roam online without supervision and pick the time to rob the school district. Luckily, someone was keeping an eye on the bank account and noticed the transfer of money, but it was far too late. 

            Dissociative Imagination would be the greatest factor in this case, because the suspects were essentially playing a game.  They didn't have to mask themselves, arm themselves, and come up with an escape plan; much like what we see in movies.  They committed the crime, most likely, from the comfort of their homes.  They weren't seen by anyone, they didn't have to react to anyone looking at them suspiciously, they were invisible.  This case shows how the disinhibition effect could negatively empower someone to feel not only invisible in society, but invincible. 

Assignment #2 - Jenny Måkestad

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/nyregion/eight-charged-in-45-million-global

This article is about an abnormal bank heist; the thieves never set foot in the vault. They managed to steal over $45 million from A.T.M´s all over the world in the course of hours. They drained cash machines with help from computers and the Internet. Using advanced hacking techniques and manipulating financial information they easily turned digits into cash.

This crime was most likely a result of dissociative anonymity, because they thieves never had to give away their identity as they were robbing people worldwide. It gave them the ability to hide their identities and separate their actions from the real world. This probably made them feel less vulnerable. By using the Internet, and not showing their true identity, the scheme got less risky and a lot easier than actually robbing a bank.