They actually don’t have that may followers when you think about how many people use google, but for a twitter account of course that’s loads – so its all relative.
In terms of content, they are mix of news, light hearted facts and general google news/gadgets. SO it’s a real mix – so their presence on twitter is relatively strong.

Another thing they do, that makes sense, is that because they have so many different parts to google, they actually have separated into different accounts on twitter. So they have multiple accounts, here are just a few.. but the point is that they recognise that they have so much they need to share that the only way to keep things clear and efficient is to differentiate.

Here is a list of most of their twitter accounts..

Facebook.

In terms of content on facebook, its similar to their main twitter account – they have around 1million more followers on twitter, but its pretty normal for companies, brands etc to have more followers on facebook, I think this is quite simply based on the fact that a lot more people use facebook still over/not with twitter.

As with their twitter, they have multiple facebook accounts, so above you see their general one, but then for their Internet platform google chrome, here is there facebook. As you can seem they have almost 3 million more followers – this I feel is one of those generic, people downloading the software kind of thing – what I mean is that, either there may be the option to follow them initially when you download the new software OR people think ‘well this could be a quick and simply way of asking for help if I have any issue with chrome’ and so they like the page. The page is literally all about the software, so its not a general google news page, meaning the people following this page are here for that reason – hence the catered content.

x

Here we have google + and google buzz. Both ideas already exist essentially, but google have come out with them, as they are successful in many other ventures, I suppose it’s an expansion tactic. Of course as we  know google + was all over the news a little while ago, when it was launching as we were all wondering how it was gonna work and how ON EARTH it was going to rival facebook – personally I don’t think it has quite picked up as well as expected BUT with google time only makes things better, so I expect it to become a hit in a few years, as facebook did and we all forgot about myspace – sad times.

So google have an official blog, which shows updates, tutorials, and world/random news – as you can see from their categories, its pretty vase. Their followers on here are harder to measure as there are SO many different ways you could follow a blog, but nonetheless, you can see its quite a bit.

Following on from this, google has an amazing function I love, which is one their site, just as you can  search for a site, image, video etc you can now do it for  blogs. So anything from blog articles to blog names etc it’s a  great feature to have and when you google, google blogs, you can see that people are constantly  talking about google…

A mixture of tech blogs, general blogs, you name it. On searching google on google blogs there are around

hits, which is pretty incredible considering these are blog features not websites – so you can see another form of social media where they are strong and visible.

The references are endless which I suppose is a good thing, as you can check it all – there are just so many different points on the page, which shows detail, as for some of the specifics, like when it goes into some of the staff salary, I can’t be sure if they’re accurate, but things like when it was started, who by, where they are based etc, can be deemed reasonably true. As on many occasions because there is so much, they have split information into categories, which is helpful for looking for specific items quickly.

x

Well i’m just going to set a few things straight – they are so different, I can’t express more. It shouldn’t be a case or one or the other, its about using the two. Working with them both in synergy to create an amazing online presence.
Of course i have both and I understand the need for both..

Facebook.

This platform, as far as i’m concerned will always be seen as the great place to stay in contact with friends, family and then occasionally like a brands page. I don’t see it as this great platform to start communicating with them. People put the randomist of things up on their facebooks, because they see it as this personal platform where they can share funny things with their nearest and dearest. I’ve never viewed it as the idea platform to start getting friendly with brands, but hey that’s just what I think..

Twitter.

Okay, twitter is probably my favourite platform. It’s networking power is unbelievable. In industries such as fashion, having the editor of Elle in your timeline is invaluable. You can tweet at her and become essentially ‘twitter friends’ this happens quite a bit. I talk to the beauty director of Teen Vogue and then during fashion week I tweeted ‘oh she’s right in front of me, i’m super nervous should I go see her!’ Next think i know she’s replying saying ‘yeah Abi come and say hi, we talk all the time on twitter’ Seriously? What kind of world do we live in where this is possible? A cool one, that’s for sure. I have some of the most important people in the industry at my fingertips – literally. I retweet them, i reply to them and I start this pretty organic conversation that can lead to opportunities one would never have thought were available.
I see internships advertised all the time. I see top fashion editors saying ‘i need an assistant for the week, tweet me if interested’ I smile at how incredible situations like this are. In the past, it was a matter of well, if you know someone in the office ,then you’ll find out about the opportunities but now, you don’t have to, but then you can slowly get to know the person nonetheless..

Not to sound completely biased, but twitter trumps facebook when it comes to all things career and work orientated, but if you ever wanted to catch up and talk to a friend then facebook is the place. I see them as having completely different uses, and I just want companies to really get the difference, so that they can start providing relevant content for each..

One of those questions I just sort of stumbled across whilst reading an article in PR week a few weeks ago. It wasn’t that is was directly asked in the magazine, but it was on something that said that this company didn’t were relying on social media to get the word out quickly and then I thought, what if you had to pay for it..
What if, you had to pay more to get it out quicker, what if it was all down to money the way print media has become. Would the concept of social media still work?

I don’t have the answer, but what i did think was that it would of course change drastically. I feel the way companies have dropped themselves into the world of social media has been quick and on most cases without thinking. Companies see that they need a Facebook or Twitter account so they get one, but then that’s it. They don’t always think about the fact that they’re going to need someone constantly updating it with relevant information and so I think if they were charged for it, we wouldn’t be surrounded by so many unsuccessful accounts. Companies would not only think about joining these new worlds first, as they wouldn’t want to pay for something they don’t know much about, which leads to my next point of, appreciating those who actually know how it all works. Bloggers, social media experts and such would have the opportunity to actually help companies make more of a difference. There wouldn’t be this huge backlash on the effectiveness of bloggers, at least not the established ones. Furthermore companies would be communicating with their customers and making a really difference in the overall image. Don’t get me wrong, there are many companies that get it so right and they didn’t need the idea of paying for it hanging over their heads, they just saw the opportunity and made the most of it.
So that’s just a thought I had, but email me or comment below if you have any ideas or thoughts on this topic too.

Of course with this new surge of courage from consumers, comes arrogance which leads to backlash. Meaning you get consumers becoming rude about certain situations when in fact, they need to really think about what is going on – this can lead to a number of things like, twitter arguments which isn’t the prettiest thing..

Anyway it has made the gap between consumers and companies smaller, there is no longer this element of elitism, or companies secretly thinking they’re better than they’re consumers – they don’t have a choice but to become personable and in some ways nice..

It”s SODASTREAM.

Yes, the beloved and awesome gadget, air filled device that turns your average still water into fun, cool fizzy drinks – hence the “unexpected” part in the title.

Getting straight to it, they are doing pretty well when it comes to all things social, here is a mix of where they are active..

..notice how they try and be active in a variety of places and not just  USA or UK, I thought was pretty cool.

By being active on all these different platforms they are keeping their customers in the know/updated, answering questions, explaining new products – essentially a huge list of things, that is key in not only building more awareness and pleasing customers, but it is now an important part of general brand activity, as the amount of people who are active on social media platforms is literally mind blowing.

With numbers around 40,000 on facebook and growing numbers on twitter I feel sodastrream are on the right track, but they still need a lot of work. They currently do many giveaways, so customers/potential customers can be in the with chance of winning something from the sodastream collection on a weekly basis, which is of course a great incentive for followers.

They stay in the know with current events and even incorporate it into their content, for example the latest Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn- Part 1 was relased on Friady and so they were telling followers on twitter to tweet and hashtag #fizzyvampire, telling them to come up with fizzy names they would give to vampires. Of course it’s completely ridiculous and doesn’t fully make sense but it’s fun, light hearted and works for this sort of company.

So there we have it, Sodastream’s social media footprints are pretty solid, but in order to stay secure they need to not only keep coming up with witty and fun ideas but perhaps get their customers even more involved and increase their content so that their followers can increase.

]]> http://theprmarvel.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2011/11/20/the-unexpected-footprints/feed/ 2 http://theprmarvel.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2011/11/15/how-social-media-affects-pop-culture/ http://theprmarvel.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2011/11/15/how-social-media-affects-pop-culture/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:31:54 +0000 Abisola Anita Olamide Omole http://theprmarvel.myblog.arts.ac.uk/?p=121 wow. Where to start, names like Lady Gaga & Justin Bieber are prime examples of how social media is being taken over my pop/celebrity culture. The way they connect with their millions of fans is insane!
You’ll see secret gigs announced, new songs released and on the go pictures of them uploaded. It is a great tool to give fans what they want. More of the certain celebrity. Sure it gives way to stalkers, mean critics and the like, but the majority of people just want to stay in the know with a certain celebrity.
You get premieres being boradcasted via youtube or facebook. Even when it comes to events like fashion week, that used to be so elite, you can watch most shows live, via their sites, or other platforms such as blogs, fora tv etc. It is pretty amazing how open things are now. Anyone can be apart of these events that are cool, and as i mentioned that used to be so private.

Is this good? Well for the average person, yes! This is perfect, it’s giving everyone the chance to feel a part of something, to not feel left out and not good enough. HOWEVER for all those people who worked hard to get to the position that they are in, especially in the fashion industry, for anyone to just be able to watch all the shows and exclusive interviews etc, it can be almost annoying. It can make them think that they’re position isn’t worth as much as it used to be – which to be fair, they probably aren’t, especially with blogs, where this idea of citizen journalism jumps to a new level and we now have these commentators that are giving news that we want to know, now. We’re not having to wait months to see certain clothes or things, we can see it the day after it occurred. How amazing?

As i said, this is definitely affecting things like print media, but then they’re just stepping up their online activity with their sites being redone, incorporating blogs, twitters, facebooks, the works into their strategies. Which may be foreign to them, but with the mix of getting people in who know what they’re doing and these traditionalists being ready to learn, it all will work out well.

So yes, there is this cool element of everyone being able to tell the news. People don’t have to feel like they have either send tips to major journalists or worry about not being heard. We have platforms like Twitter than enable people to spread news instantly and they can even seek news as they may feel valued by their follows and thus I feel Citizen Journalist can actually turn into full on classic journalism. How? Well, in the fashion industry you can see that many bloggers, have built great followings and thus influence, which has lead them to becoming full blown journalists, be it through starting to freelance for other publications, or PRs understanding their essential power, it seems like Citizen journalism once taken serious can actually turn into what we know today as Classic Journalism.
With all this in mind, what are the strengths and weaknesses for Citizen Journalism?

STRENGTHS
-tends to be honest about situations as there is no need to lie or cover up certain details
-the intentions of the writers tend to be good and honest as its not a their actual job.
- news travels faster

WEAKNESSES
-the facts may not be 100% true/reliable
-they could be biased views
- no control over what is said
- it may not meet ethical standards

I love this argument! I mean you want to believe Citizen Journalists as it’s the voice of the everyman, not biased, they’re not being paid to say anything so it should be this honest source you can rely on, but when it comes down to it all, we are humans. We make mistakes and when you don’t have boundaries the writing you produce can be reckless.
Oh Citizen Journalism.

Part 2 coming up soon..

What media am I exposed to and how does it influence me?

Here’s one of those questions that makes you think ridiculously hard and in the end, the answer or the results you find may be slightly worrying..
We never really realize just how exposed to media we are but perhaps we can control how influenced we are by it.

So, I’ve spent the past few weeks going over just exactly what my media exposure looks like, here’s a little outline (in hours)..

It’s alot, the good thing is that I new it was going to be, so I wasn’t completely shocked with the results, but it is still a little worrying, but I suppose its the life I live, and it works for me. Perhaps the question we need to ask ourselves is does our media exposure suit our lifestyles, is it too much or too little?

Going back to the second part of the question – trying to figure out how influenced I am by it all is pretty hard. As someone who is exposed to SO much media, I definitely make a conscious effort to form my own opinions quite quickly so that I know its what I actually think, but then it’s a two edged sword in the sense that I can’t be exposed to that much media and not be influenced at all.

I have to admit, i tend to be influenced by the funny or silly  things, like when I was in Venice there was an advert for a packet of sweets so when I got to the airport, I saw it and bought it, quite simply because I had seen an advert – now this doesn’t happen often, but the point is, it influenced me to buy it and didn’t even try that hard.

When it comes to big things or what people would deem ‘more important’ like Politics, I have to admit that media has a extremely low influence on me. I’m lucky enough to be able to look at the bigger picture.
Take when Obama was running for presidency, he had a crazy amount of celebrity support, which I found cool, but as far as I was concerned, they were just regular people who were voting, sure they’re cool but it was just their opinion, not necessarily the right or wrong one but it was just theirs. I had american friends wearing Obama tops, that said ‘Change’ on them, when I asked why they wore them, they said, ‘Cause it looks cool and I saw *insert popular celebrity name here* wearing one’, so I said, does this mean you’re voting for him, their response ‘Well obviously..’

So there you have it, media can majorly influence people, or slightly, it’s important to try and be aware of how much you are being affected by it, because in the end, you want to be able to know if it was your idea to do something or not.