Social Media: A New Phenomenon

Social media has revolutionized the way people can spend their time. While sitting in class, I can scan the room and see that at least fifty percent of people with laptops are on Facebook or Twitter. It seems like nowadays, everyone has Facebook. What started as a “college students only” social networking site has quickly morphed in to a phenomenon that no one can live without. My mom has a Facebook. My roommate’s cat has a Facebook (Sadly, I’m dead serious). Facebook is a “cool” trend that hasn’t lost its appeal yet. Now that basically everyone in North America (and even the world, for that matter) has a Facebook—animals included—companies are beginning to utilize Facebook’s tools and networking to capture their customer’s insights and to provide them with an experience that is new and “cool.”

The other day, I was sitting on my couch watching TV. Unfortunately it was live TV (you can see by my earlier blogs that I’m obsessed with Tivo), so I had to watch the commercials. A Honda commercial came on. This commercial was nothing out of the ordinary until the end. Honda has created a new slogan—“everybody knows somebody who loves a Honda.” At the end of the commercial the logo flashed, but instead of giving their traditional website (www.honda.com, for anyone who is interested), they gave the link to their Facebook page. Now let’s take a second to analyze their new slogan. Everybody knows somebody who loves a Honda. Honda is trying to capitalize on the social networking craze by connecting people through their brand. By marketing their brand as using Facebook, they are hoping to generate a network of people that love and can talk about their Hondas.

After this commercial, I went to the Honda Facebook page. But first, a little Facebook business page background. In the last couple years or so, Facebook created a way for businesses to make a page to attract “fans.” Anyone who has a Facebook can become a “fan” of the product or brand and can write on their wall talking about their experiences, likes, dislikes, etc. Now back to Honda. Honda’s page comes equipped with over 200,000 “fans,” a wall where people can post whatever they want to about Honda, photos, videos, links to the websites, etc. They also have their slogan in the corner stating, “Can we all really be connected through Honda love? Join our global social experiment and let’s find out together.” By tapping in to this networking site, Honda is able to observe customers and see what they truly like or dislike about Honda. They even have a specific tab for polls where Honda can ask questions about their brand. This helps them gain insights about what their customers want. It’s actually very smart in my opinion. Honda is basically creating an enormous family of people that love their brand. They can utilize Facebook to get out new information about their products, find out what people are looking for, and create an experience for the modern consumer.

I have also noticed a growing trend in non-profit organizations using Facebook to gain awareness. Recently, I have become a fan of Pawsitively Texas, an organization dedicated to finding homes for stray dogs through social networking. On their page, they post pictures of dogs that need a home and people comment on them and say whether or not they can adopt them or if they know someone who can. Here is an organization based solely on the networking that Facebook provides. Organizations and companies are increasingly using these social networking sites to gain insights and awareness for their brands.

My favorite actor is Kevin Spacey. Therefore, I chose to look up Kevin Spacey when using the two tools, zeitgeist and blog search. Zeitgeist was interesting because it told me who all is interested in Kevin Spacey. Apparently, Europe loves him—not that I blame them. On the side of the trends page, it also provides a few articles with Kevin Spacey in them. However, I found that a lot of the articles are outdated (some of them from 2004). I also found that Hungarian people search for him the most besides the US. Although this is kind of interesting to know how popular Kevin Spacey is among the world, I feel like this tool doesn’t provide enough actual substance.

After playing with the zeitgeist, I moved on to Google blog search. I found this tool to be much more substantial. Instead of finding out how many people are searching for Kevin Spacey, I can find out what they are saying about him and his new movies. If people used blog search to identify what bloggers are saying about products or brands, they can gain more information than if they just figured out how many people searched for them.

Social networking and blogging is on the rise and doesn’t seem to be suffering. More and more people are flocking to their computers to tell the world what they are doing, what they are interested in, and how they are feeling about certain products, brands, people, trends, etc. Companies must find a way to use social media to create a valuable experience for their customers and to become more accessible and more attractive to their target markets.

Side Note: Kevin Spacey is currently working on a movie about the founding of Facebook.

What Walmart Knows About Customer's Habits

Before I start answering these questions and talking about the article I just read, I need to inform you of something. I hate Walmart with an absolute passion. I hate what it does to small businesses, I hate how dirty and gross most of them seem to be, and I hate that my local Walmart just recently was painted brown. Can you think of an uglier color to paint a store? So I am obviously a tad biased against Walmart. That being said, I will try to approach this as if it were a store that I didn’t dislike.

As I was reading this article, I had very mixed feelings. I think that in some cases Walmart uses its “mountain” of customer data in an extremely successful way. By being able to tell that people tend to buy accelerated amounts of pop tarts and beer (and really, who can blame them?) during natural disasters, Walmart was adequately able to fulfill the needs of people during a crisis. That’s very important to me, and it is also the reason I do not shop at HEB anymore. Every time I went there, they would be out of something I needed. You would think that they would figure out that 90% of UT students shop there and they should keep their shelves properly stocked at all times. But no, they haven’t caught on yet. This is where, in my mind, Walmart illustrates its competitive advantage over other stores. As long as they use their customer data to keep the shelves stocked and their customers happy, they are creating a viable competitive advantage over other stores.

Here is where my negative feelings come in to play. Walmart can figure out my social security number, drivers license number, mortgage payment (well, I don’t exactly have a mortgage payment, but that’s not really the point), and other really creepy personal things that I only want my mother knowing??? That is not okay with me. Lee Scott (CEO of Walmart) could sit down, look me straight in the eye, assure me that my personal information would never be used in a harmful way, and I STILL would not be okay with them knowing that much about me. In the article, Ms. Dillman reassures us that Walmart has never used credit card info to find out personal information about people. But how can we really believe her? It’s not only scary that they will use my personal information, but I think it’s creepy that they even have access to it. They say they don’t use it now, but who knows what will happen in the future? Sarah Stansberry, from AccuData America, comments that companies can find extremely personal information using email addresses. Though she says they have never done work for Walmart, how can we be so sure that they won’t in the future?

So far, to the customer’s naked eye, Walmart is using its technology for good. They are benefitting their customers by understanding what we buy, when we buy it, and what we buy it with. Like I said earlier, I hate understocked shelves and I’m sure others do as well. By utilizing their technology to understand their customer’s needs, Walmart can make their customers very happy while asserting their competitive advantage over places like HEB. During the holiday season, I tend to eat a lot of pumpkin based products. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin coffee cream, pumpkin gelato…basically, if it has pumpkin in the name, I’ll eat it. HEB was out of pumpkin pie mix the other day. If they could understand what their customers buy and when they buy it like Walmart can, maybe they could retain more business.

I believe that Walmart is doing a good job with their technology. However, I have a few suggestions. In this economy, more and more people are turning to Walmart for everyday products that they would normally buy at a more expensive place. People are doing anything they can to save some money. Because of this, I believe Walmart should use its technology to create an experience that appeals more to a higher income crowd. In Plano, Walmart opened a “luxury” store. This store has everything that other Walmart stores have, but it also has hardwood floors, a very nice meat counter, an extensive wine selection, and not so harsh lighting. If Walmart opened more of these stores, I guarantee I would stop loathing them as much (I would still hate them, just not as passionately), and I might even occasionally shop there. Here is where Walmart can use people’s personal information for good. If they recognize that people in a certain store are spending more on higher end products, such as expensive electronics, organic vegetables, or imported beer and wine, Walmart could consider opening a “luxury” store in that market. If Walmart could use their data to better understand customer’s wants, and not just their needs, I believe they would be able to create a major competitive advantage over other stores.