Social Media Marketing Gone Wrong

Source: Reachout.com

Social media marketing is one of the most common ways of reaching out to your target audience. It is one of the buzz words in digital marketing, today. Despite the success it may bring to a business, there are also many limitations of social media marketing. So, how exactly will social media marketing negatively affect a business? I will be discussing on a few limitations of social media marketing below!

3 Limitations of Social Media Marketing

Source: Imgur

• Time Consuming

Social media marketing takes a long time before results can be seen. It is a time-consuming process, and it requires a lot of effort. One has to constantly be interacting with their target audience online, which takes up a lot of time.

• Negative Comments

Receiving negative comments is one of the most common limitation that marketers face. By exposing your business to the world of social media, anyone can leave negative comments about your brand or product. This could cause your brand reputation to drop.

• Hackers

Hacking is a very serious limitation in social media marketing. Hackers would be able to hack into your accounts, steal your date or information and give or even sell them to anyone. There is also a possibility of your data being deleted and lost, and your website being taken down.

Social Media Marketing Gone Wrong – Snapchat

Source: NY Times

Snapchat released an advertisement for a mobile game – “Would You Rather”. One of the questions asked users if they would rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown. This was incredibly tone-deaf from Snapchat, as Rihanna was a victim of physical abuse from her boyfriend in 2009, Chris Brown.

Source: MsPackyetti & ChelseaClinton on Twitter

The advertisement received a lot of backlash on Twitter, and Snapchat released an apology. Rihanna responded to it via Instagram (as shown in the screenshot above), and was clearly offended and upset at how Snapchat made a joke out of domestic violence victims. As a result of this, shares in the company dropped by 5% in a night.

Social media marketing may be the most preferred form of marketing right now, with more than half of the world’s population using social media. However, like every other marketing platform, there are limitations that marketers should take precautions of. Thank you for reading my blog post!

Dove – An Iconic Integrated Marketing Campaign

Source: Rosy Strategies

Integrated Marketing refers to a strategic approach to integrating communications and experiences that targets their audience, which brings the different aspects of marketing together. This gives out a consistent and seamless experience to all consumers, throughout the different stages of the customer lifecycle.

So, what did Dove do?

Source: Time

In 2004, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was launched. This campaign aims to inspire girls on a wider definition of beauty, and make girls feel more confident about themselves. In the beginning stage of the campaign, they launched a series of billboard advertisements showcasing pictures of regular women, instead of the typical professional models. The ad then invited people to vote on the adjective that describes the particular model, like the example below.

Source: Referral Candy

This campaign touched the hearts of many women, and deeply connected with their audience, as it touched on the topic of self-confidence and appearance. Personally, I felt touched and empowered by these advertisements too! Majority of their target audience was able to resonate with the advertisements. Through their advertisements, Dove is able to inspire their audience to feel good about themselves, which in turn motivates them to share.

Source: Devpost

In the same year, Dove has also launched the Dove Self-Esteem Project. They have worked with experts in the area of body image, and have reached over 20 million young people to educate them about self esteem. Through this project, Dove was able to increase their reach and create a possible change to the lives of the young people.

Source: Metro

Dove also released the Dove Real Beauty Sketches film, which had huge success as well, and has been viewed more than 114 million times. The film explores how women views their own beauty, compared to what others see. It struck women in the heart, who realise that they were their own worst beauty critic. The film has inspired women to reassess how they view themselves, and to improve their self-esteem and confidence.

Why was this campaign so successful?

The beauty industry is known to encourage women to fix their flaws, instead of embracing them. Dove took a different step and went ahead with addressing the body image issues in this industry, despite it being a touchy subject. (even for us now!) Not every woman would want to achieve the typical beauty standard, and Dove made used of that to come up with a campaign that all women can relate to.

By empowering women through their marketing strategies and helping women to improve their self-esteem, Dove was able to achieve an immense amount of success through their campaign. The empathy they showed as a brand has become part of their brand identity. This allows Dove to stand out from their competitors.

So, what is your take on Dove’s integrated marketing campaign? Do you think it deserves the success they have? Let me know what you think in the comment section! Thank you for reading.

Wendy’s and their Success at Viral Marketing

Source: medium.com

Wendy’s social media team is on another level, and you would know by now, especially if you’re active on Twitter. Their unique, yet quirky way of creating interactions on social media has been creating buzz for the past few years, and has become one of their most effective marketing strategies. In this blog post, I will be taking you on a ride with just a few of the many times Wendy’s went viral.

Hilarious Twitter Roasts

Wendy’s is known for being utterly hilarious on Twitter, with their countless of “roasts” and memes. Its impossible to share them all, but here’s a couple of iconic ones:

Source: @Wendys on Twitter

Their funny persona on social media definitely created a huge buzz, which is obvious from their huge following count of 3.8 million on Twitter, which is even higher than McDonald’s. Their content is so unique and interesting, that people would actually check into their account just to watch them respond to users and roast their competitors. Don’t you agree that their tweets are just crazy entertaining to read?

Source: @Wendys, @carterjwm on Twitter

Another iconic example was when Twitter user, Carter Wilkerson, asked for free spicy nuggets from Wendy’s for a certain number of retweets, to which they responded, 18 million retweets. The tweet blew up and got millions of interactions. As of today, the tweet has a whopping 3.3 million retweets!

Taking Over the Gaming Community

Source: @Wendys on Twitter

Wendy’s is well known for being very against frozen beef. However, they noticed that Fortnite’s new food fight mode that put Team Burger against Team Pizza had one thing that ticked them off – freezers for their patties.

Source: creativemoment.co

So, Wendy’s went on a rampage on the game, to eliminate all freezers. They went live on their Twitch account, and their stream was watched live more than a quarter of a million times. Mentions of Wendy’s on social media increased by 119%. Their crazy but entertaining project won the Grand Prix at The Drum Social Buzz Awards 2019.

Source: @Wendys on Twitter

Wendy’s made use of games that are in trend, in other to boost interactions with their consumers. Back in March 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was one of the most popular games, and it sold approximately 26 million copies. By making use of Animal Crossing’s insane popularity, Wendy’s managed to garner tons of live viewers by streaming it on Twitch.

Source: @Wendys on Twitch

Personally, I was one of the viewers, since I was an avid Animal Crossing fan. A super one-of-a-kind and fun marketing strategy, don’t you think?

Source: Pinterest

All in all, Wendy’s marketing strategy might be all fun and laughter, but on a serious note, you can’t deny that it actually works. It is perfect for the audience they are targeting – young people. Their eccentric and humorous personality definitely relates to many young people, especially the millennials or Generation Z.

Their jokes might not be for everyone, as after all, social media is never a ‘one size fits all’. But their online persona fits their brand image perfectly, as a popular fast-food chain. What do you think of their viral marketing strategies? Do you find it entertaining too? Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!

Mobile Marketing is Here to Stay, Here’s Why.

Source: currentneed.com

What is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing refers to the act of any marketing strategies that are directed specifically to mobile users. When mobile marketing is optimized correctly, consumers that are based on mobile devices will be able to view information about the brand effectively, on their mobile devices.

So, Why Mobile Marketing?

Connecting with your audience.

Source: speakupforsuccess.com

Mobile devices are one of the core ways that consumers use to access the internet. 62% of users actually access the internet via their mobile phones and 40% of online transactions are done with a mobile device, which is a huge amount of users!

A wide range of different demographics have access to mobile devices, and with the help of targeted marketing, you will be able to reach out to your target audience effectively. Nowadays, even the older folks would own a smartphone or tablet! (I can vouch for this, as my grandmother herself owns her own tablet.)

Major platforms such as Facebook and Google collect your data (you can opt out of it) to serve you ads you will be interested in. You chatted about rice cookers the other day and suddenly you are seeing rice cooker ads on your feed? Not a coincidence 90% of the time.

Increased Engagement.

Source: informaticsinc.com

Compared to emails, text messages have a way higher engagement rate. 82% of users actually open a text message within 5 minutes of receiving it. The convenience of using a mobile device definitely impacts how much engagement business can get from it.

Think about how much time we spend on our phones, be it just scrolling through Instagram on the bus, or even watching Tiktok videos before bed! A typical smartphone user actually spends an average of 3 hours on their phone each day, which is a big part of our day!

Source: giphy.com

These are just a few reasons how effective mobile marketing can be for your business. Mobile marketing is here to stay, and it will not be fading away like their counterparts anytime soon. How much time do you spend on your mobile devices? Do you think mobile marketing plays a huge role in your life? Tell me about it in the comments below! Thank you for reading my blog post and I’ll see you next week!

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a method to improve your website’s results on search engines. It is the process of identifying the keywords and phrases that are common searched by your target audience.

So, why exactly does your business need SEO?

#1: It could help increase the visibility of your website.

Source: searchengineland.com

The main goal of using SEO is to improve your website’s rankings on search engines, which would increase the traffic on your website. SEO plays a huge part as people make 5.5 billion of searches in Google every day, which is a very huge amount!

#2: It boosts the credibility of your business.

The internet has became one of the first places consumers turn to before making any purchase decisions. I am sure all of us can relate! Most of us would search about our options online, and check reviews, before making any purchase decisions! By combining a great content marketing strategy and SEO, you could boost your brand’s credibility when the consumer is still in the ‘research’ phase.

#3: Help to build your business’ branding.

Source: moz.com

By keeping your branding strategy in mind, when developing the SEO strategy for your brand, you could make use of keywords or phrases that are linked to your brand image that you want your business to have. This could greatly improve your online presence, and you could establish it with your target audience!

#4: With SEO, you don’t need to pay for ad space!

When using traditional advertisements, you would have to pay the company for ad space, for a certain period of time.

The first two on the screenshots are labelled with “Ad” are are pay-per-click, meaning the advertiser pays for each time someone clicks into the advertisement. However, the ones below the advertisements are organic rankings, and are high in the search rankings because of how Google thinks it provides value to their users. Thus, you can earn traffic without paying for an ad! And furthermore, most users actually prefer to click on organic results!

#5: Be ahead of your competitors.

By attaining a higher search engine result than your competitors, consumers are more likely to click into your website. Based on the 2020 Google click-through rates, 43.32% clicks on the website on the first position, which is a huge majority!

So, here are 5 reasons why you should implement SEO into your brand’s marketing strategy! Are you convinced yet? Feel free to leave any feedback and questions in the comments section, and I’ll reply as soon as possible. Thank you for reading!

Web 2.0 and Social Media Marketing

Over the past decade, the internet has been constantly evolving, becoming one of the main mediums of communications we use, in everyday life. How has the shift to Web 2.0 impacted business? Let’s dive right in.

Web 2.o

To put it simply, Web 2.0 is essentially just the better and more sophisticated version of Web 1.0. The Internet has evolved into a sophisticated tool for users to share information, communicate with one another and create content, creating a boost of interactivity amongst users, allowing anyone to spark conversations without geographical boundaries.

Web 2.0 is the Internet we are used to at this age and has easily became part of our daily lives. So, how exactly does Web 2.0 impact social media marketing?

The Rise of Social Media Marketing

Social media is actually part of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, as it is through social media, that users are able to create and share content. This allows businesses to collect data from their target audiences and be able to learn more about their market. This is why whenever you would search for something on Google, you will likely see an advertisement about it a few minutes later. Its kind of creepy, but cool, don’t you think?

Businesses are also using social media as a platform to reach out to their target market.

Brands & Social Media Marketing

Source: @younghungryfree on Instagram

Personally, I actually got to know of one of my all-time favorite brands through social media. They are a local clothing brand, called “Young Hungry Free”. They are a great example of a brand that is constantly interacting with their customers. Through weekly Instagram lives, where they showcase their weekly collections, and answer any questions. The girls featured in the Instagram lives are also of different body types, which is really helpful for their customers!

Source: younghungryfree.com

They are a brand that is able to connect with their consumers on a more personal level. The content they post are also very aesthetically pleasing, both on their Instagram and website, which is a huge plus point. Do you have a brand that you fell in love with after finding them through social media?

Despite how easy it is to connect with their audience on social media, being able to capture attention is no easy feat. Is there a specific type of content that would grab your attention? For me, I enjoy watching funny videos that would crack me up!

To sum up, social media marketing is used by businesses everywhere now. Businesses are using all sorts of social media platforms, from Instagram pictures to Tiktok videos, to reach out to a wider audience.

Please do not hesitate to drop a comment below if you have any feedback or thoughts on this blog post! Thank you so much for reading!