Derek Jeter’s Social Media Presence

Courtesy of bleacherreport.com

Professional athletes have joined the social media arena in droves to connect with their fans and even get better endorsement deals (Kerpen, 2011, p. 105). As this class has shown, “social networking is an increasingly important way for people to connect and communicate” (Scott, 2013, p. 266). For example, Nick Swisher, a Major League Baseball player, has 1.3 million Twitter followers. If you take a look at Swisher’s Twitter (https://twitter.com/NickSwisher), he has now amassed 1.74 million followers and “not only shares photos and videos but also insights and thoughts directly from the dugout” (Kerpen, 2011, p. 105). It is clear that social media is an important outlet for athletes to let their personalities out.

An enigma to the social networking trend is Derek Jeter, who was the shortstop for the New York Yankees. Jeter is not an avid social media user. While he has a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/derekjeter), he does not advertise his personal, private information. Instead, he makes relevant information available, with his updates revolving around his foundation, Turn 2 (http://derekjeter.mlb.com/players/jeter_derek/index.jsp), and his website, The Player’s Tribune (http://www.theplayerstribune.com/) (Scott, 2013, p. 250). When asked by a fan about staying private throughout his career, he mentions that he started a Twitter account, but really pointed fans to a prank video (Extra Mustard, 2015, para 5).

Meanwhile, throughout his career and even now in retirement, Jeter still has a strong fan following and had many endorsement deals; “Jeter has built a fan base that’s interested in anything that he does—he can also bring people in through the strength of his brand” (Rogers, 2014, para 10). Does this show that some people do not need to create a personal brand on social media?

Ironically, after retirement, he started a social media site, The Player’s Tribune, where athletes could write directly to fans about whatever they want, however they want, rather than letting the media serve as a middleman. This site could be a transformative, new way for athletes to speak to their fans. Do you think a site like this will do well? Will media companies try to stop a site like this from being successful?

Extra Mustard (2015 Aug 27). Derek Jeter says he is on Twitter, rickrolls fans. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved from http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/08/27/derek-jeter-twitter-rickroll
Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable social media: How to delight your customers, create an irresistible brand, and be generally amazing on Facebook (& other social networks). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Rogers, J. (2014 Oct 4). Has Derek Jeter hit a social media home run? Fox News. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/10/04/has-derek-jeter-hit-social-media-home-run/
Scott, D.M. (2013). The new rules of marketing & PR. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Week 4: Using Social Media to Find the "Right" Targets

Courtesy of: http://automotiveseo.org/?attachment_id=192

In this week’s readings, there is a lot of information about targeting advertisements to the “right” people. According to key marketing executives, “Fifty percent of my advertising works. I just don’t know which 50 percent” (Kerpen, 2011, p. 34). With the advent of social media, this percentage should be declining because there are more ways to reach customers. As such, “successful online marketing and PR efforts…start by identifying one or more buyer personas to target” (Scott, 2013, p. 164). A buyer persona is a description of key points that is typically representative of a specific buyer of the company’s product or service.

Although not the typical product or service, Obama used a progressive approach to win the 2008 election, truly using social media as a platform to gain voters. The campaign team identified voter personas based upon what state they were from, so that they could better focus their messaging (Scott, 2013, p. 189). You can read more about how Obama changed politics here: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-campaign-changed-politics/?_r=0. In addition, you can see Obama’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom and how free advertising was disseminated and watched by supporters whenever they had the time. By developing these biographies for buyer types, it makes it easier to create a strategic marketing plan that targets these people. As we start to think about the 2016 elections, it will be fascinating to see how other candidates will use social media in their campaigns.

In my professional experience, when we are recruiting healthcare professionals to come to our meetings, we have a specific list of people that we want to attend. For example, when we were holding an event at the American Heart Association’s annual conference, we had a target list that was composed of cardiologists and primary care physicians. Because the conference attracts a wide variety of attendees, we filtered out many people, such as international physicians, so that we could advertise to the people we wanted and make sure they were coming to our program. We target these groups because physicians tend to prescribe the particular product and our clients are only influencing prescriptions in the US. We typically use traditional marketing techniques, such as direct mail and door drops, but after reading some of this week’s readings, I wonder what kind of uptake we would get if we used hypertargeting to really focus in on our core audience (Kerpen, 2011, p. 35).

Do you have any personal experience using buyer personas to develop marketing campaigns at your job? If so, use the readings to support how you use these personas to increase hits on your targeted advertisements. If not, what are some of the ways discussed in this week’s materials that can help you better target your ads to customers?

Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable social media: How to delight your customers, create an irresistible brand, and be generally amazing on Facebook (& other social networks). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Scott, D.M. (2013). The new rules of marketing & PR. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Week 3: Social Media Pros and Cons

Courtesy of: findsomewinmore.com

Social media has made it easier and more complicated for companies to market their products and services to consumers.

If a company does not have a strong media presence, it takes time and money to set one up the right way. Depending on the size of the organization, different levels of approval and support may be needed even to get things moving. Developing social media sites require work, such as creating the social personality and voice of the company, brand, and products (Kerpen, 2011, 86). Once the sites are up, it takes considerable effort to monitor social networking sites. Kerpen recommends having employees available to respond to people’s negative complaints within 24 hours or less (p. 79).

In terms of the positives, social media allows companies to interact with their customers more than ever. In addition, these organizations can get real-time market research information without even having to pay for it. Cal Henderson of Flickr says the company releases new features up to every 30 minutes (O’Reilly, 2005). If people use them, the rest of the site gets the functionality; otherwise, it is removed. Marketers can learn about what customers are looking for, find new products or features, and even discover the best way to communicate (Kerpen, 2011, p. 15). Moreover, IBM’s Listening for Leads program is a prime example of how a company can find new business opportunities by keeping an eye on social media outlets (p. 22). You can read more about the program here.

One of the downsides to social media is how easily individual complaints can become public (Kerpen, 2011, p. 14). Although negative comments are inevitable, how a company responds is crucial (p. 77). If an organization does not take the time to respond, “you risk having one horrible customer experience totally erode your reputation, and eventually your bottom line, regardless of the size of your company” (p. 69). For instance, singer Dave Carroll was on a United Airlines flight and his guitar had been broken. Carroll told airline representatives, but no action was taken. As a result, Carroll posted this video, which was viewed more than 100,000 times in its first day. United certainly felt the negative ramifications from this one incident. Although it is not always easy to have the appropriate staff on hand, responding to criticism quickly in public and then privately messaging the individual shows that the company takes these issues seriously (p. 79).

On the other hand, customers can be a company’s biggest fans, posting on their Facebook walls or Twitter pages. Because “word-of-mouth endorsements and conversation from satisfied customers remains the most potentially powerful marketing tool,” it is just as important for companies to respond to good comments (Kerpen, 2011, p. 85). As customers become loyal, they will not only be a source of information for new customers, but even defend the brands and products that they have come to love (p. 68).

References 

Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable social media: How to delight your customers, create an irresistible brand, and be generally amazing on Facebook (& other social networks). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

O’Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved from http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a//web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

Welcome!

Image Courtesy of: www.perfaware.com

Welcome to my blog! If you have come across this page, I have started this site as a result of a graduate course on social media strategies in today’s personal and professional world.

It is my first stab at both a blog and a class in the integrated marketing communications department at Marist College, as I am a MBA student who wanted to strengthen her social media skills.  Previously, I graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Biology and minors in education, science and technology studies, and law and society.

In addition to my graduate studies, I also work full-time at a pharmaceutical marketing company, creating programs that help educate physicians about specific drugs and supplement the information they are getting from field representatives.

I look forward to hearing from you!

-Allison