Social Community

This week we are covering Chapter 5 Social community and how our identity on social community websites reflect ourselves and our activity on these websites make up our online identity.


We all leave a digital footprint of some sort that represents who we are in real life; it may be an accurate depiction or skewed depiction of the person we want people to see. Ultimately any information shared or communicated leaves a footprint that collectively makes up your digital profile. There are many different social media websites that users can utilize to share information with their friends, the easier it is to share information the more likely a user is to share the content. It is vitally important for any company to increase their social media presence and get users and fans of the brand to actively participate in promotion of the brand, as well as, the brand providing the opportunity for a nurturing relationship with their loyal fans.

This chapter has a lot of terminology for social media activities and techniques that we all use everyday and just aren’t aware of. Gaining the knowledge of these terms is something many people could apply in their own company or employer to set themselves apart from their competitors. With so many older generations still in the workforce it’s hard for them to adapt to the powerhouse that is social media, it’s not your traditional form of promotion, and it takes the right knowledge to create an effective marketing strategy in this relatively new medium.

Some terms that I was not aware I knew were: ambient intimacy, directed communications, social media omnivores, social network fatigue, and return on emotion. Ambient intimacy being the intimacy that social media provides by keeping people connected to people they otherwise wouldn’t have the time to keep up with. Directed communications is one-on-one communication such as instant-messaging and direct messages between two people. Social media omnivores is a person who actively participates in more than one social media website on a regular basis, they are users who aren’t afraid to share content on multiple platforms. Social network fatigue is a term used to describe what users feel from having to keep up with so many social media outlets; they feel tired of keeping up with so much information over multiple social media sites. Finally, return on emotion is what a brand gives back to its social media fans by building their social media relationship through brand value and communication.  

I’m not entirely sure that having social networks own our social data is not an invasion of privacy, I find it kind of odd when I look at a shopping website and then miraculously when I’m on Facebook there are ads displaying something I looked at previously. I understand the appeal of displaying ads that are personally targeted to that individual, especially since our advances in augmented reality have made it possible for users to interact with their surroundings through a digital device or app. Maybe if this new type of data was more heavily regulated than it is now, then it might not feel so much like an invasion of privacy.

I don’t think it’s a good thing to “friend” your professors on Facebook because I feel like that is the private side of myself, not that I don’t mind sharing but I feel that my relationship with my teachers is not the same relationship I have with friends. Now adding them as a friend on a social community website like LinkedIn is something I don’t have a problem with, because it’s a community specifically geared towards professional relationships.

As for whether or not Facebook friends are the same as real friends, I think it’s both, because some friends on Facebook are simply people I went to high school, college, or worked with and would like to keep some small communication with where others are friends that I see all the time or talk to on the phone on a regular basis.

The brand Facebook profile I chose was Grant’s for Her, which is a local higher end contemporary boutique in Biloxi. They have consistent posts about products including pictures of outfits, special deals, and quotes or jokes for Sunday when they aren’t open. They also have a clear information section and review section

Thanks for reading my blog, hope to have you back next week!!

Digital Communities

Hey everyone, this week we are covering Chapter 4, this chapter is about digital communities, which is defined as a group of people who are guided by community policies to come together and communicate online. The chapter focuses on different types of communities, their structure, and the characteristics that make up the community and their interactions. The chapter also covers how certain types of communicators lead or direct conversations or initiate the flow of information within the community that influence other members; and also how these influences can lead to indirect capitol gains for businesses in the form of relationships, connections, and information.

The strengths in the chapter is that it covers a lot of vocabulary that the average social media user is not even aware has an official term, I think having the knowledge alone of these terms helps the user to better understand how to utilize social media to their advantage. The weakness in the chapter is on the evolution of online communities, I would have liked to read more about how our connections to the online world have changed our physical world interactions, and how might businesses communicate in ways that help the members of the community to feel more connected and create positive interactions that can be used in the physical world as well.

Five terminologies that I’ve never heard of:

 Nodes- members that make up a social network that make connections through their relationships with other people in the network.

Small-World Network- a mathematical model that states that most nodes in a network are not directly connected to ‘friends’, but are indirectly connected through other ‘friends.’

Flaming- the use of all caps to express anger in a post.

Homophily- is the degree to which two people are connected base on their level of education, social status, and beliefs.

Anomie- is a condition of modern society that causes members of the society to feel alienated even with modern advances, which potentially could lead to suicide.

The majority of my connections on Facebook are weak-ties; they are people I used to interact with in the physical world on a regular basis, but now because of distance or time apart I no longer have direct contact with. My strong-ties would consist of 6 people; they are my husband, mom, dad, sister, and two of my best friends. I would consider them my strong-ties because they are all people I talk to on the phone on a regular basis or have seen in person on a semi-regular basis (three are in Alaska and one is outside of Baton Rouge). I think Facebook helps me to feel more connected to the people that are far away or that I haven’t actually talked to in awhile, but on the other hand, it does give that false sense of connection because you aren’t talking to each other the same way you might in person or if you were able to go out to lunch/dinner or spend an afternoon with them.

One of my favorite people is Suze Orman the financial guru, so I looked up #suzeorman on Twitter, and the other tags associated with that hashtag were, #studentloandebt #terminsurance #MotivationMonday #FICO #stocks #equities #productivitytips #savings #financialfreedom. I don’t have a Twitter account so I can’t really see much, but this pretty much raps up Suze Orman’s message, she likes to give everyone the knowledge to make informed decisions about their finances in the economic downturn we live in, so that her followers can be prepared for anything financially, which ultimately is a behavioral activity that most people don’t understand.

I do feel that this chapter has helped me to better understand social communities, as I said before simply knowing the terminology that goes along with these communities and communications gives users a better understanding of how this can be applied to merchandising.   

Social Consumers

This week we are discussing what areas we ‘consume’ information from, and how our actions online produce a social footprint of who we are.

My largest footprint would be in social community, I post status updates, pictures, check-in to restaurants and various other businesses that I enjoy going to. Each place and picture has a meaning behind it, which is why I share it on Facebook with friends and family so that they might share my experience even when they aren’t with me. I do have a little footprint in social commerce, I have ‘liked’ every business that I want to keep up with or that I have purchased products from, my purchases would tell you I enjoy shopping for clothes, shoes, accessories, but I also take my time and only choose a few items that I can get a good amount of use out of. I don’t really have footprints in social publishing until I started taking Integrated Merchandising Channels, which caused me to start writing this blog, and I finally join Instagram. I don’t have any footprint in social entertaining because as I said before I’m not that into games in general.

If I were a brand, my digital brand name would be, gourmetsocial. I enjoy going out with my husband and friends to restaurants and bars that provide a gourmet experience, and getting to tap into the social aspect of being influenced by your surroundings. I along with my husband have a passion for good quality food, and I find the history of wine and spirits interesting. Both food and mixology have become very artistic in the last couple of years; people are becoming more interested in quality and presentation, and the art that goes into creating the perfect meal or cocktail.

I would have to say yes and no to being a social media addict, because the first thing I do when I wake up every morning is check Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, followed by email. I can’t imagine my day without checking these sites/apps, or even spending hours on any given site on a regular basis. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming the amount of information that’s being transmitted to you through a feed to the point where you would just rather not be on any site, so there are times when I might be bored or feel like I can’t keep up with all this information so I need a break to refocus.  

The target audience for the Fashion Merchandising Organization (FMO) would be its members, the campus community, alumni, and other organizations. The geographic segmentation of this target audience would be students or faculty that live near USM Hattiesburg, or previously lived in the area to attend school. The demographic segmentation would be male and female, ages 18-45, who have received a college degree or are currently seeking to obtain a degree, and who have a passion for fashion and/or marketing. The psychographic of the target audience would be college students and college graduates who have a passion for fashion, but may just be starting out in the working world, and our faculty who like to see us succeed in activities that compliment our course work. The benefit segmentation would be individuals who want to expand their experience in fashion, gain a group of friends that could help them increase their knowledge of the industry, and create job connections for the future.

The majority of our target audience is a part of several online communities such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn. They participate in ‘liking’, sharing information, commenting, posting status updates, and posting pictures, just as they would tell a friend that they had a good experience at a business and what they have been doing with their family or at work lately. Social technology plays a big role in our target audiences’ life; they use it every single day on many different platforms to connect for a variety of reasons relating to them personally and professionally.

Thanks for reading my blog! Hope to have you back next week. 

Social Media Marketing Planning

This week we are discussing strategic planning with social media, how it compares to typical marketing planning, and what strategies have some of our favorite brands used with social media.

Both marketing planning and social media marketing planning use situation analysis to address internal factors that effect their plan such as what has the company used to set themselves apart from other brands and created added value to their brand, external factors such as who are their competitors, and SWOT analysis which looks at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The difference in these two types of planning happens in how the plan is executed, social media planning addresses how the different zones of social media (community, publishing, entertainment, and commerce) can be used to execute the marketing plan. Traditional marketing planning focuses more on target market, product, pricing, promotion, and supply chain strategies, which concentrates more on the product itself using traditional forms of marketing vehicles and not how each vehicle can be used differently to target a specific type of consumer.

I think my strengths would be found in step 1, conducting situational analysis and identifying key opportunities, and step 2, stating objectives. I enjoy creating the foundation of a plan to help me keep everything organized and focused, so conducting situational and SWOT analysis would be something I would be comfortable performing. The same goes with stating objectives; setting up a focus on what the organization is expecting to accomplish with the plan allows me to draw inspiration from that objective. My weaknesses would be in step 3, gather insight into target audience, and step 5, create an experience strategy encompassing selected zones. I have a hard time imagining who would be the target market outside of the obvious targets, so being able to identify more abstract targets would be challenging for me. I don’t have much experience participating or developing experience activities in social media marketing such as tweeting, submitting pictures for competitions, and sharing promotional information. I plan to strengthen my weaknesses in these areas by becoming more informed about these steps and maybe even perform them for clients we will be working with throughout the semester.

One of my favorite brands is Free People, they use their website to sell clothing, shoes, and accessories, as well as provide links to their blogs and social media websites, which creates a uniformed platform across social community, social publishing, and social commerce. Their focus is on apparel, music, natural living, exercise, travel, and art; so it’s not just an apparel brand it’s also a lifestyle brand. This type of natural, positive, alternative lifestyle resonates with their target market because their customers are young, open minded, creative individuals who support living a green lifestyle that focuses on bettering themselves naturally, making a difference in global environmental issues, and contributing to a more artistic culture.

Another brand I like is Roxy, who partnered with Diane von Furstenberg to create a collection of bathing suits, surfing gear, and accessories. This collaboration combines a high-end fashion designer and a world-wide surfing brand; for those who don’t know a lot about the surfing world, there is a lot of style and fashion that goes into what a surfer wears in and out of the water, how they surf, and what their board looks like. Just like in fashion all these factors are an outward expression of the person inside, so a surfers style is unique to each individual. DVFlovesRoxy was promoted through the Roxy and Nordstrom websites, the Nordstrom catalog/app, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and email. The campaign utilized many different social media tools to allow users to share the promotion, gain access to exclusive prizes, and purchase the merchandise. By allowing users to share the promotion of this collection on so many different social media websites, they broadened the target range making it possible for a limited time promotion to reach more people.

When it comes to a company or brand not being a good social media user I couldn’t pin point any brand or company in particular, but I would say that having inconsistent posts would be the biggest mistake that smaller companies make in marketing their company. In our technologically driven society people have a drive to share and connect with like minded people, so by not giving customers the opportunity to promote a brand or company they believe in, those companies are passing up a great avenue for brand awareness and promotion. 

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope this sparks some inspirational thought, as so many of the brands I follow do for me!