Monday, December 8, 2014

Social Media Final: Working In Social Media Marketing

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Thursday, November 6, 2014

Be A Chef: Blue Apron Social Media Monitoring Part 2

In my previous post, I introduced you to the Blue Apron company and the platforms they use for their social media markerting. We looked at how they use platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as looked at basic analytics of their social media presence over the course of four weeks.

This week, I will present to you the next and final installment of my Social Media Monitoring project. Here, we will discuss Blue Apron's most recent social media campaign, the demographics of Blue Apron members, how their competition stacks up and finally my recommendations for    how Blue Apron can improve their social media presence.



So, let's get cooking!


Be A Top Chef

When I began this social media monitoring project, Blue Apron was one of the first companies I thought of to use as a focus of my project. I struggled with the direction I would take but then, thankfully, Blue Apron launched their Be a Top Chef campaign.  I guess you could call it a gift from the cooking gods and this sealed the deal.  It only seems logical to begin part two of my project by examining this campaign.

This co-marketing campaign began with a Facebook announcement on October 10th on Blue Apron's Facebook page.  The partnership between Blue Apron and Bravo TV's show Top Chef was simple, the winning chef on the season premier of Top Chef would have their winning recipe featured two weeks later in Blue Apron's delivery.

Blue Apron constantly posted about the BA Top Chef campaign on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter beginning  with the announcement on October 10th through November 2nd with their #BATopChef photo contest. As we can see from the website social bakers , Blue Apron's twitter followers steadily increased during the this campaign, a definite win for Blue Apron.




Overall, people were really excited about this campaign and they shared their excitement on social media:


But once the recipe came in the mail and people began cooking, the tone changed a bit.



The partnership with Top Chef was a fabulous idea, it got the word out about Blue Apron to people new to the brand by offering the recipe for free. It also got current member's excited which created extra buzz in the groundswell. Unfortunately from the feedback on the recipe Blue Apron fell flat.


Demographics

The concept of food delivery subscription is a somewhat new idea, so knowing who to market this type of service to and how to reach your key demographic is very important. Blue Apron seemed to come to a logical conclusion that people who watch TV shows about cooking food would probably be interested in learning how to cook the dishes themselves.  There was almost definitely going to be an overlap between Blue Apron members and Top Chef fans, but demographics need to go further than that.

Using Alexa, a free online analytics tool that gathers global online traffic data, I looked at the current audience visiting the Blue Apron website. The graphs below show that in terms of the traffic to Blue Apron's site compared to the general internet population:


1. Females over represented, Males under represented


2. There are a lot of college educated below viewing the website


3. Slightly more people view the website from work than from home

While analyzing this data set is important, I feel that the bigger question is for what purpose are these people viewing the Blue Apron site? Are they members accessing their accounts or are they potential customers looking for information about the company? For Blue Apron to continue being successful I feel that they need to tap into those demographics a little further.

From my own observations on Twitter and Facebook, I noticed that females do overwhelming provide feedback and reply to over their male counterparts. For example, on a Facebook post from November 3rd 13 members commented  on that post. Of those 13 comments only one was from a male.

Blue Apron vs. Plated

As a Blue Apron member, I'm a huge fan but it wouldn't be fair to Blue Apron if I didn't look at their competition. Blue Apron and Plated are most commonly compared to one another, as you can see here, here and here.

A quick summary of Plated: similar to Blue Apron, Plated offers all the ingredients you need to cook meals at home delivered directly to your doorstep. Unlike Blue Apron, Plated is marketed as gourmet meals. The cost per meal is more expensive and you also have to pay for shipping and handling. However, Plated does offer more flexibility with the number of meals and the choices per week as well as more variety for dietary restrictions.

Plated has social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube, however head to head, Blue Apron wins more total followers on each platform. But, Plated has a secret weapon when it comes to user engagement. A food truck! Granted, currently the food truck is only in NYC but it's cheap marketing that can easily spread word of mouth.
Head to head, Blue Apron and Plated are moving in a similar direction, as the Google Trends graph shows us below.





Blue Apron does seem that they have a leg up on their competition, but if I was Blue Apron I wouldn't rest easy. I think in order remain on top, Blue Apron needs to continue to not only monitor their own social media but also Plated's presence as well.

Recommendations

1. Increase word of mouth with a member referral program and brand ambassadors

If there was one thing I learned from this project it was that Blue Apron members are passionate about the brand and the love sharing their experiences. Several members have suggested Blue Apron start a referral program. 

Currently, Blue Apron gives members free meals to share with their friends, however they don't have a referral program set up. I think that is really something Blue Apron needs to look into to continue to growing their brand.

Another trend I noticed on their Facebook page was the many there is a core group of member who post feedback every week and even respond other member's comments and questions. To continue growing there word of mouth business Blue Apron should invest in those enthusiast as they have the potental to generate a lot of buzz in the groundswell.

2. Implement member suggestions (listening to the groundswell)

As I said above in my first recommendation Blue Apron fans are passionate. And with that passion comes ideas on how to improve the brand, lots and lots of ideas.



Blue Apron does do a great job at thanking their members for the suggestions, but I would like to see them start implentmenting them. As you can see from the suggestions above, packaging and the ability to reuse and recycle packaging is a hot topic. I hope Blue Apron realizes that environmental responsibility is important to their members and that they continue to evaluate their carbon footprint.

3. Charity and Non-brand Partnerships

Every few weeks my husband and I sit down and look at the Blue Apron menu to decide if we'll get a box that week or not. Like many people we'll be traveling for Thanksgiving, so we decided to skip it. I almost missed the little box letting me know I could donate my box that week to family in need.


I was estacic to see this option and rushed to Twitter and Facebook to see what buzz this great idea was creating. Imagine my surprise to find nothing. Zero. Zilch. You can only imagine how quickly this was written down, highlighted and underlined on my list of Blue Apron recommendations. This is a great cause for Blue Apron to highlight and humanize their brand! My only hope is that as we get closer to the holiday Blue Apron will begin to promote it more.

Overall, I view the partnership between Blue Apron and Top Chef as semi-succesful.  I would like to see Blue Apron continue these types of partnerships, because I think it creates tremendous amount of word of mouth exposure and will continue to drive their brand awareness and ultimately lead to new business.

Blue Apron got its name from the french tradition of blue aprons being worn by chefs in training.  Upon completion of their culinary training, a chef will graduate to a white apron.  I think that if Blue Apron continues to engage with their followers,  take suggestions from their loyal customers, and grow their overall social media presence - they too will graduate to a white apron.

Bon Appétit!
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Sunday, October 26, 2014

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for.... Transforming with the Groundswell?

I just discovered my new favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor and my addiction is serious. And then to make matters worse, I made a critical discovery in the effort to support my addiction. Did you know you can go to the Ben & Jerry's website and search where to buy your favorite flavor? It's true. And it's dangerous. While on the website searching for my new addiction flavor, I did a little exploring and it wasn't long before I was sucked into the Ben & Jerry's community and a part of the groundswell myself.


Maybe you love ice cream like me or maybe you don't because your are lactose intolerant (so sorry if that's the case). Either way, Ben & Jerry's offers up something for ice cream enthusiasts and those that are just socially conscious.  This is especially true if you are passionate about fair trade, marriage equality or climate justice. Just looking over Ben & Jerry's outputs on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, it's not hard to see that Ben & Jerry's has transformed themselves from an ice cream company to a company deeply committed to their community. As a whole, Ben & Jerry's is an organization that lives and breathes the groundswell and has been transformed by the groundswell.

How the Groundswell Transforms Your Organization


In the book Groundswell:Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, part three focuses on how the groundswell transforms your company- inside and out. It sounds easy, yet many companies forget, that the customer really should be the focus of the organization. Li and Bernoff say:

" One of the benefits we've seen of engaging with the groundswell is that your organization goes through a mental shift- you become so engaged with your customers that you walk in step with their needs and wants. The key to this transformation us taking an idea that typically starts with a few employees who understand the groundswell and making it into an organization-wide movement. In essence, you want to create your own mini-groundswell within the company to embrace the groundswell of customers outside it."

Ben & Jerry's began this transformation even before there was a groundswell to embrace. It started simply when Ben & Jerry's committed themselves to not using growth hormones in their dairy products recognizing that their community wanted and deserved better. Since the mid-1980's Ben & Jerry's has embraced their customers-putting their health and well being first, even sometimes before their ice cream. For company's like Ben & Jerry's it's easy to continue embracing the groundswell - but what to do it you are just starting to allowing your organization to be transformed by the groundswell? Li and Bernoff give us a step by step guide:


  • Take it step by step. Remember, Rome wasn't build in a day. Making a mental shift takes time and practice
  • Each step you take leads naturally and organically to the next step. Make sure you have a plan and a vision about where you want to go.
  • Executive support is a must or the transformation will not work. Ben and Jerry's is a great example of this as their founders, Ben & Jerry, fully embrace the social missions the company  focuses on.
Li and Bernoff also caution that there will be bumps in the road. To overcome those bumps "you must have a clear vision of what the company needs to do, getting the company to embrace the groundswell is going to take a lot of small steps and a lot of time... It's a minefield. But you can succeed- if you take the right steps in the right order".

Ben & Jerry's has been successful communicating with the groundswell because they've always embraced it. They allowed themselves to be transformed by the groundswell by becoming passionate  about what the groundswell is passionate about. Let's take a look at how Ben & Jerry's success translates to social media.


Ben & Jerry's on Social Media

The Ben & Jerry's Facebook page serves up two purposes. The first is to, of course, creatively promote their ice cream:


The second is to engage on with the values and issues both they and their groundswells care about:



Ben and Jerry's effectively promotes these purposes with their simple mission on Facebook: "Ben & Jerry's believes business has a responsibility to give back to the community. We make the best possible ice cream in the nicest way possible". With over 7.8 million followers on Facebook, Ben & Jerry's reach is far. And not only do  they listen to the groundswell, they generate conversation like their post below in support of Oregon's "Right to Know: Measure 92"


And while they reach a large community, they also monitor and respond - quickly I might add- to the community's positive and negative feedback. While mostly the feedback is positive, there are some negative posts which Ben & Jerry's promptly responds to:


Overall, Ben & Jerry's community is very passionate about the company. Many, if not all, the company's posts have hundreds, if not thousands, of likes.  Throw in shares in the high twenties and thirties with multiple comments and replies- it really shows an outsider like me that the Ben & Jerry's community is engaged.

Oh and my new favorite flavor? It's Coffee, Coffee, BuzzBuzzBuzz. How fitting for the buzz the groundswell creates about Ben & Jerry's!



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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Be A Chef: Blue Apron Social Media Monitoring Part 1

I love to cook, but have always been a little apprehensive about trying new recipes. I've never quite got the hang of what spices compliment certain flavors and have been hesitant to try unfamiliar ingredients. Now that I'm a newlywed and have received all sorts of fancy new cooking gadgets it's time to step up my cooking game. I mean really, how many times can I subject my husband to boring pasta or frozen pizza? And less we forget about the planning and effort it takes to put together 7 meals a week.  It's super time consuming, slightly stressful and it tends to get expensive. 

 I was hesitant when my husband suggested we try Blue Apron, it seemed like another subscription box service that in the long run would be more hassle and more expensive than it was worth. People always say that the key to a successful marriage is admitting when you are wrong, and I'm happy to admit I was wrong about Blue Apron.

About Blue Apron

 Blue Apron is a New York based start up that began in 2012. The concept is simple, people are strapped for time but want to make healthy and affordable home cooked meals. Step into the spotlight, Blue Apron. Blue Apron's mission is to make cooking fun and easy with it's a once-a-week food subscription service. Blue Apron delivers step-by-step recipes and all the fresh ingredients you need to create three delicious meals a week. Currently, Blue Apron estimates that it sends out enough ingredients to create 800,000 meals per month.

 For the past four weeks, I have been collecting quantitative and qualitative date on the social media presence of Blue Apron meals. In addition to reviewing their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, I used IceRocket, Social Mention, Addict-o-matic and Google Trends for more analytical data.

Blue Apron and Social Media

Blue Apron Website
If you aren't a subscriber of Blue Apron, you still have access to plenty of content.  There is a blog focusing on three main topics of cooking: Eat, Learn and Live, as well as video demonstrations including how to control the heat of your jalapenos or how to supreme an orange. Blue Apron enthusiasts can also subscribe to their YouTube channel or cook along with Blue Apron on Wednesday nights by following them on Facebook with #BAlive cook.


For members of Blue Apron, you can manage the type of plan you are on through your online account. Blue Apron offers a vegetarian or pescetarian option, as well as plans for people who love both meat and fish. Blue Apron can also accommodate some dietary restrictions such as no shellfish, no red meat, no pork or no fish.

 Through your online account you can also follow your meal delivery with this handy calendar.  The calendar charts out your delivers for the coming weeks and outlines the recipes that you can look forward to. If you see a recipe that you are not interested in, or if you are going to be out-of-town - you can opt out of a week of deliveries, by simply marking the calendar with a "skip this week".  

 In an effort to spread the Blue Apron distribution, longtime members can earn "free weeks" to be shared with friends and families that are considering becoming Blue Apron members.    





Facebook


Blue Apron has a very healthy following on Facebook with over 540k likes. They are also very consistent with posting updates.  Their Facebook page will share a post at least once per day but most days have multiple posts. Typically, these posts are about what's on the menu that week for members, but they also engage members asking for feedback on the recipes and also share tips and best practices for how to prepare certain ingredients. Blue Apron encourages member feedback and many times members comment to other members about their thoughts on a particular meal. Blue Apron is also consistent and quick when it come to responding to user comments, however the responses are generally very short and don't engage the user any further

Twitter


The @blueapron twitter handle is also heavily followed with over 20,000 followers, a less popular following then Facebook, but just as active. With multiple posts per day, the content is more focused on cooking tips and promotional information, like their partnership last week with Bravo's Top Chef:
Similar to their presence on Facebook, Blue Apron also uses their twitter handle to reply to member feedback and issues like this tweet below:

For what I observed, Blue Apron did respond to both negative and positive feedback in a timely manner showing that they have a dedicated force monitoring their brand on social media.

Instagram
Another large following with over 115,000 followers and 553 posts. The most popular use of Blue Apron on Instagram is actually driven by IG users with the Blue Apron signature hashtag #BAChef . Blue Apron encourages members to share pictures of their blue apron boxes, ingredient and meals they've prepared by uploading the photo to Instagram and adding the hashtag #BAChef. Here's a shameless plug for one of my pictures with my "sous-chef":

As we all know, there is nothing more popular on Instagram then sharing pictures of your food and Blue Apron has tapped into this trend. Blue Apron not only encourages member participation with sharing these photos on Instagram, but also uses this tool as a way to get their brand out there with people taking about it. #BAChef is not only a great way to brag about the amazing food you've prepared but it's also encourages word of month and conversation between your group of followers.



Analytical Data Observations

Addict-o-matic

Addict-o-matic is a search tool that "instantly creates a custom page with the latest buzz on any topic".  I found that I was able to produce more relative results when I searched "Blue Apron Meals" rather then just "Blue Apron".

It's important to note that Addict-o-matic does not take into account content from Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, so it's difficult to see what Blue Apron's true social media presence is by only looking at Addict-o-matic. However, from the Blue Apron buzz that is provided, it's clear that Blue Apron is talked about in a positive manner.

Social Mention

According to their website, "Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information".

 Social Mention measures four metrics:
  • Strength: the likelihood that a brand is being discussed in social media
  • Sentiment: the ratio of mentions that are generally positive to those that are negative
  • Passion: the likelihood that individuals talking about your brand will do so repeatedly
  • Reach: the measure of the range of influence

Week to week the numbers seem to remain consistent, except for the weeks of October 13th and October 20th where Blue Aprin saw a spike in strength. These weeks coincide with Blue Apron's announcement about their partnership with Top Chef, so I believe this may explain the increase. Overall the sentiment seems to remain level with the positive and neutral mentions highly outweighing the negative.

Ice Rocket

Ice Rocket allows users to monitor their brand on social media by specializing in real-time searches. Their "Big Buzz" feature allows users to search blogs, Twitter and Facebook all from one page.

This graph from Ice Rocket shows the Daily Blogs Citation Tread of the term "Blue Apron" from the week of September 21 through the week of October 19th. It's tough to determine where the different spikes and declines originated from, my best guess is that Blue Apron spikes on days their boxes are delivered (Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday) and declines on non-delievery days. 
The term Blue Apron averages just over 8 posts per day. For comparative purposes, I looked up how many posts Blue Apron's main competitor Plated averaged per day and they came in at an average of 6.70 posts per day- just slightly behind Blue Apron.

Google Trends

Google Trends shows the user how often a particular search-term is entered based off the total search volume. Google Trends offers an excellent way for the user to step back and see how their brand trends over a given time period. For the graph below I selected the dates of January 2012 ( a rough estimate of when Blue Apron was getting it's feet off the ground) through today - October 2014.


As we can see Blue Apron has had steady growth throughout the past almost 3 years, with some small dips here and there- yet they always seem to recover.

Is Blue Apron ready to graduate from a social media sous-chef?


 Overall, it appears that Blue Apron has a fairly strong and positive presence on social media. They have clearly committed time and effort to monitoring their brand, which shows that they care about what people are saying- and eating.  Now let's get cooking and be a chef!











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Sunday, October 19, 2014

The Force Responds to Burger King's Copy-Cat Marketing Campaign

For a dollar, who do you like better: Rihanna or Rashida Jones? Sounds random, but this might be one of the questions Billy Eichner runs up to you and asks on the streets of the New York City. Who's Billy Eichner? Shame, shame, shame for not knowing the comedic genius of Billy on the Street. Starting on Funny or Die, Billy on Street, now a half an hour show on Fuse, is creator Billy Eichner's take on the American comedy game show. The premise is simple, Billy hits the streets of NYC asking questions about pop culture with games like "Quizzed in the Face" and "For a Dollar". Ok, maybe it's too polite to say that her asks the questions, really he yells, screams and shouts them. If you aren't familiar with Billy on the Street, check out this hilarious segment below.


While Billy may not be mainstream quite yet, his star is certainly rising. Along with Seth Meyers, Billy filmed a version of his popular "For a Dollar" segment for The Emmy's:

 

Plus he's recently been featured on David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and has an arc on NBC's hit show Parks and Recreation. Not to mention, he's good for a laugh with a follow on Twitter or Facebook. So with his name becoming more common, it's no surprise that companies would want to hitch themselves to Billy's coattails.

The first company to do so is Burger King, sort of. In their quest to take down McDonalds as the top fast food chain, Burger King has already gone after McDonalds Big Mac with it's "Big Mac look alike" the Big King. Now turning their focus to chicken nuggets, Burger King released with the campaign below highlighting the low cost of their chicken nuggets:


Did something seem off to you? Yes, it probably did. And why? It's because Burger King stole modeled the commercial off of Billy on the Street, minus Billy Eichner. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Not to Billy Eichner or his fans. Burger King's campaign has caused an uproar on Twitter with even a few tweets from Billy himself. This is his first response to the campaign, some of his latter tweets get a little more vulgar (but hilarious):


Unfortunately for Burger King, Billy also has some high profile fans who have also weighed in their misstep:

And then probably the absolute worst thing that could have happened to Burger King happened;  McDonalds got involved:

 So far Burger King has not responded to the controversy or the call to kill the copy-cat campaign. Hopefully there are two lesson learned for Burger King here, the first being that if you want to tap into someone's star power, use that person, not an imitation. The second, if you copy someones' work people are going to notice, you won't get away with it. Especially in the today's age of social media Burger King should know that Twitter is... well I'm going to let Billy say it - because he says is best:



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Monday, October 13, 2014

For Netflix Listening is the New Black

In my opinion Netflix was made for lazy nights and rainy days- and last night was one of those epic Netflix binges you only dream off. I blame it on the recommendations feature - "because you watched (fill in the blank), you should now watch this (fill in the blank)". Damn you, Netflix! How do you know me so well!

So many options, so little time
Netflix began it's subscription based service in 1999  and began offering online streaming in 2008. Today, Netflix has over 50 million subscribers worldwide. And if they aren't already successful enough,  Netflix also has one of the strongest presences on social media out there. But it wasn't always that way for Netflix...

When you read Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff if you learn one thing and one thing only it should be that your brand isn't what you say it is, it's what your customers say it is. Customer communicate with one another in the groundswell and that is where they decide what your brand stands for.

 In 2011, Netflix announced (first by email, then on the company blog) that not only would they be raising prices but also that they would be splitting it's DVD by mail service and online streaming into two separate companies- online streaming would remain as Netflix and the DVD by mail service would be called Qwikster. Netflix customers revolted.

Netflix made a fatal mistake. They didn't listen to the groundswell. Nor did they pay much attention to the fact that the twitter handle @qwikster was already taken, but thats a story for another day. Li and Bernoff say that "listening to the groundswell will relentlessly reveal your stupidity". Well in Netflix's case, not listening revealed their stupidity as well. After losing approximately 800,000 customers and watching their stock plummet, Netflix decided to start listening.


Since the short lived Qwikster debacle, Netflix has tapped into the groundswell.  Li and Bernoff believe that "listening is perhaps the most essential neglected skill in the business...in the era of the groundswell, listening is easy. Not listening, on the other hand, is criminal".

So how should you start listening to the groundswell when you haven't before? Our fearless leaders, Li and Bernoff say you should start with a listening plan:

Check the Social Technographics Profile of Your Customers 
After the Qwikster debacle, Netflix realized that is really didn't know what it's customers wanted. They needed to stop, reassess and listen to the customers already in the groundswell. Today, Netflix US on twitter @netflix has just under one million followers and over nine million likes on Facebook. Netflix tapped directly into the groundswell to find out what is customer's where saying and what they could do to improve.

Start small, think big
Netflix started simple by monitoring social media and letting customers know what new content was available to stream. Since then Netflix has made it's digital platforms their communication method of choice, even choosing to use platforms like Facebook to announce quarterly earnings and achievements

                                 

Make sure your listening vendor has dedicated an experience team to your effort
With a company as technical as Netflix, there are bound to be glitches that pop up every now and then. Take christmas-eve outage of 2012. But where Netflix exceeds is in it's communication with it's customers. Netflix is known for it's outstanding online customer service because they listen to their customers.


Netflix empowers it's employees to act quickly to solve their customer's problems. Knowing that there audience is largely online, Twitter is a popular platform for customers to post issues and get responses quickly.

Choose a senior person to interpret the information and integrate it with other sources
Understanding that in the era of the groundswells recommendations are most likely to come from online sources, Netflix made the jump to online integration with Facebook. The Facebook integration allows users to share their viewing habits and get social recommendations from their Facebook friends.


I think it's safe to say, Netflix learned from their Qwikster mistake and learned to leverage social media to connect with their users.  Netflix learned that there is nothing more powerful than the groundswell, but in order to harness the true power of the groundswell they needed to stop and listen. And now as a participant in the groundswell, I ask, Netflix can you please make this a reality?!?

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Saturday, October 4, 2014

The Brand of Breast Cancer Awareness on Social Media

We're only 4 days into October and I can't resist the urge to wear pink, only pink and nothing but pink! Why you ask? Well, why not?! Everywhere you turn it's pink, pink, pink! The Orange Room on the Today Show went pink, the top of the Empire State building was pink the night of October 1st and inevitably this weekend the NFL will be doused with pink cleats, ribbons and jerseys. Ok, so there is a reason everything is pink and you probably already know why: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM). So, buckle up kids, because if it hasn't already the color pink is about to take over your lives month.
I know what you are probably thinking, what the heck does BCAM have to do with a social media and marketing class? Let me clue you in, BCAM is it's own brand! It has it’s own month to promote it's cause, not to mention it's own logo and universal symbol, specialty color, social media campaigns, sponsored events and even celebrity spokes people. But probably the most important part of the BCAM brand is the emotional bond it has created with it's audience. The likelihood that you, the reader of this blog, has been effected, either directly or indirectly, by breast cancer is extremely high. As the video below shows, 1 in 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer at some point in their lives.
That is some serious and scary stuff and makes me wonder, does it really belong on social media? The answer is YES! Social media is a HUGE platform to discuss breast cancer awareness, education and prevention.

Social Media Campaigns to Help Fight Breast Cancer


 Estee Lauder "We're Stronger Together"
The Estee Lauder company began it's breast cancer awareness campaign in 1992 with the launch of the pink ribbon, the symbol for breast cancer health. Since then Estee Lauder has raised more then $53 million dollars to support breast cancer health, awareness and research.  With the 2014 Campaign, Estee Lauder is giving people the opportunity share their own stories with #BCAstrength. The idea behind the campaign is to engage it's audience with stories of families and survivors while remembering that we're all in this together. Hear their stories, share your own and donate.
#BCSM  The Intersection of Breast Cancer and Social Media
#BCSM (Breast Cancer Social Media) is an online community and social network that is dedicated to both men and women affected by breast cancer. Their website connects their audience to online resources such as blogs and twitter chats to everything breast cancer related from support and survivorship to research and treatment. Every Monday night, year -round, at 9pm #BCSM hosts a Twitter chat which focuses on a specific topic related to breast cancer @#BCSMChat



 Keep A Breast #CHECKYOURSELFIE
The Keep A Breast foundation's mission is to "eradicate breast cancer for future generations" by focusing on young people affected by cancer globally. Their goal is to "educate people about prevention, early detection, and cancer-causing toxins in our everyday environment". Since 2000, Keep A Breast has produced their signature "i love boobies" bracelets which were so popular among teens , many schools tried to ban students from wearing them to school. This year they are taking their BCAM campaign to social media with #CHECKYOURSELFIE to encourage education and prevention of breast cancer. 
Keep A Breast says "The #CHECKYOURSELFIE  campaign...asks people to pledge their commitment to a monthly self-check by downloading a mobile app and posting a #CHECKYOURSELFIE image to social media encouraging more young people to become “self-aware” when it comes to knowing your body and your breasts".

 What Should You Do to Support Breast Cancer Awareness?
So this October if you want to do more then just wear the color pink to support breast cancer awareness here are some things to consider:
  •  Think before you pink. Do your research before you buy a product that claims to support breast cancer program. Find out how much of the proceeds actually goes to breast cancer research and prevention.
  • Donate! Find a organization that's breast cancer goals you feel strongly about. Use the Charity Navigator to find out which organizations are best rated and use their donations to prevent and cure breast cancer.
  • Educate. Educate yourself on the facts of prevention. Create an early deduction plan with help from the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. 
And finally don't be afraid to explore social media for more information about BCAM.  Twitter is constantly trending with breast cancer awareness hashtags , explore survivors stories with #pinkpower and share on your own social media platforms to promote awareness. 
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Sunday, September 28, 2014

Hashtag You're It: Why Hashtags Rule the World of Social Media

Recently, I had dinner with a good friend from college. Both being young(ish) millennials, we both use various social media platforms; from  Facebook and Instagram to Twitter and Snapchat. So, I had to laugh when our conversation turned to "hashtags". Well really "pounds" as my friend calls them.  She said "I just don't get it, it's a pound sign. So when someone tags a photo with 'this concert is #epic' what I see is 'this concert is "pound sign" epic'. It makes no sense!" 

Most of us have accepted that the hashtags and the pound signs are now interchangeable but I realized that my friend does have a point. This made me think, where did the "tag" come from and why is it so important #epic? 

 In chapter 2 of Groundswell:Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, tags are described as a flexible classification system. How things are tagged "depends on the opinions of the folks out there"(Li and Bernoff). Tagging offers the user flexibility to classify content any way they see fit. 

Now that you know what tagging is, can't you see why tagging is vital to harness the power of the groundswell?! Social media platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, Instragram and YouTube all use forms of tagging. Probably the most well known and used form of tagging is the hashtag. Hashtags, first used on Twitter in 2007, quickly took off and have found a place in almost every form of social media content out there. Using the "#" marks a the word as a keyword or topic. This allows users searching for information the ability to get relevant content just by searching on that marked keyword or trending topic. Take a look at this infographic about the history of the hashtag.



So why should you tag? Tagging defines who you are on social media. Tagging allows you to show other users what you are passionate about, what you find interesting and what's important to you. Li and Bernoff say that "tagging becomes a form of shared self-expression and a chronicle of what you've paid attention to". Tagging also creates a community of people who share a common goal or interests.  For example, #SFBatkid went viral in November 2013 when the Make-A-Wish Foundation decided to help grant 5 year old cancer patient Miles Scott's wish to become Batkid for a day. Armed with #SFBatkid, Make-A-Wish hoped to get a few hundred volunteers in the San Francisco area to make Miles' wish come true. What they got was over 10,000 volunteers, a trending topic on Twitter and Instgram and one of the most heart warming stories of 2013.

So now that we know how awesome and powerful tagging can be, I couldn't leave you without sharing this cautionary tale about tagging gone wrong. You may have seen the mistake DiGiorno Pizza made last week when they absentmindedly used a trending hashtag in a tweet that nothing to do with pizza.

Something you should remember is that you have no control when it comes to tagging content. If you are managing social media for a business according to Li and Bernoff "you have no control over how people classify you or your products". The most important thing you can do is listen. Listen to how your customers tag your products and learn from what they have to say.

And finally,  let's not forgot that tagging belongs on social media platforms and not in face to face conversations. Watch as Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake demonstrate how ridiculous we sound when we talk in hashtags. #enjoy

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