company of interest that engages in corporate social networking

Identify a company of interest that engages in corporate social networking. Students are encouraged to select companies with social networking sites that they have personally used in the past. The company may be public or private, for-profit or non-profit, and provide goods or services. Once a company has been identified, answer each of the following questions:

What social media website(s) does the company utilize?
Who is the company’s target market? Does the company do a good job of targeting these individuals through its social networking site? Why or why not?
Compare the company’s social networking site with its official website. How does the content and language differ between the two sites?
Social media objectives are listed at bottom of page. Identify the company’s primary social media objectives based on actual communications on its social networking site. Be sure to provide examples.
Describe the promotional methods that the company uses to market products or services on its social networking site.
What do you recommend that the company do to stay on top of current social media trends?
Here are some practical ideas that marketing managers should consider when setting social media objectives:

LISTEN AND LEARN: Monitor what is being said about the brand and competitors, and glean insights about audiences. Use online tools and do research to implement the best social media practices. If you have established a listening strategy, this objective should already be accomplished.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS AND AWARENESS: Open dialogues with stakeholders by giving them compelling content across a variety of media. Engage in conversations, and answer customers’ questions candidly. This will both increase Web traffic and boost your search engine ranking. This is where crowdsourcing can be useful for product development and communication campaign feedback.

PROMOTE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: The clearest path to increasing the bottom line using social media is to get customers talking about products and services, which ultimately translates into sales.

MANAGE YOUR REPUTATION: Develop and improve the brand’s reputation by responding to comments and criticism that appear on blogs and forums. Additionally, organizations can position themselves as helpful and benevolent by participating in other forums and discussions. Social media make it much easier to establish and communicate expertise.

IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE: Customer comments about products and services will not always be positive. Use social media to search out displeased customers and engage them directly in order to solve their service issues.