Pros & Cons of Social Media Marketing by Coca Cola

After I done the case study of Coca Cola, I would like to talk about the Pros & Cons of Social Media Marketing.

Pros.

1. The operation cost is relatively low when compare with the traditional media, it is almost free. Even like Coca Cola Facebook website, it is managing by their Fans.

2. Two way communication, a good place to do market research and collect customers' comment.


3. Faster Feedback. It could use for testing the message.

Cons.

1. Heavy work load. You have to always update your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

2. Less control. You cannot expect all comment from the user is positive. It is a difficult issue when managing the comment.



3. It may not in result to increase your sales. According a report from Consumer information company,show that 83% of the Internet population (ages 13 – 54) participates in “social media”, less than 5% turn to social sites for advice pertaining to a purchase decision.

I hope that this few articles can help you have a better idea what social media marketing is. And wish all of you have a great success when using it.

Source:
http://www.helium.com/items/1631045-website-marketing-seo-is-social-media-marketing-right-for-your-company

http://www.digital-clarity.com/blog/general/social-media-marketing-is-it-really-worth-the-effort

Supplementary about Coca Cola Social Media Marketing

Although Coca Cola have a specific office handling the social media(and having the second most fans in social media area(see the above pic), they did admit social media failing by the Vice President, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence at the Coca-Cola Company, Jonathan Mildenhall.

As this is just a supplementary article, I wouldn't talk too much about it, if you are interested, please read this.

It also come along with a interesting story about the Coca Cola Facebook page. The current Facebook Fans page is not created by Coca Cola, it is created by 2 person(not official staff)who like Coca Cola and has group up rapidly. Here is the story detail..

These story shows that the control is very important in social media marketing and social media is customer-oriented.

At the end, I would like to share a video by Adam Brown, Coke’s Director of Digital Communications, outlined how they use social media to promote their brand.

Coca-Cola: Sharing What Matters, Adam Brown; presented by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council from GasPedal on Vimeo.

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Source:
http://www.wsi-ebizsolutions.biz/blog/cocacola-social-media-story/2009/12/
http://www.famecount.com/all-platforms/Worldwide/all/Brand
http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20881:coca-cola-admits-social-media-failings&Itemid=7966
http://wearesocial.net/blog/2009/07/coca-cola-social-media-case-study/

Social Media Marketing Case Study (Continue): Coca Cola

Besides the method mentioned in previous article, Coca Cola also open the function of discussion board. Sometimes Coca Cola join the discussion or answering the question.


Coca Cola also post some exclusive photos on Facebook. Some of the user will post comment on it.



Both of these method increase the interaction and involvement between the Coca Cola and the user.

Besides Facebook, Coca Cola also have Flickr page. The target is slight different from the Facebook page. It is more targeted to the advocator (die-hard fans, collector). Fans can post the photo of Coca Cola collection to share with other. It will increase the loyalty when comparing with other collector.

At least, Coca Cola have a Twitter page as well. It is even more interactive that it will tweet to individual user. The user will think Coca Cola really listen to them in order to increase the loyalty.




At the end of the case study, I would like to post a video by Adam Brown, Head Of Social Media at Coca-Cola, in a quick 3 minute interview on his new Social Media Policy for Coke. Please enjoy!



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Source:
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/
https://twitter.com/CocaCola
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/coca-cola-launches-new-social-media-policy/
www.flickr.com/groups/colastuff/

Social Media Marketing Case Study: Coca Cola

Coca Cola is one of the biggest company in the world and it is using massive social media marketing, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr , Myspace and Youtube.

They have integrated those social media to increase the effectiveness. The Coca Cola Facebook Page have more than 6 million Fans. Once they have record a video and upload to the Youtube Coca Cola Channel, they will post it on Facebook. The fans could make comment on it and spread(share) it in their Facebook.



Coca Cola also create a Facebook application.
(http://www.facebook.com/coca-cola?v=app_161193133389&ref=ts)

Though this application, you can find more applications developed by Coca Cola. Moreover, the Fans Highlight, The detail of Pages creator and the link that direct to the Coca Cola main website. It increases the involvement from the Fans and the traffic of the Coca Cola main website.

I will post another article about the Coca Cola social media marketing strategy in coming days. Don't miss it!



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Source:
http://www.facebook.com/cocacola
www.youtube.com/user/cocacola

The Definition of Social Media Marketing

Nowadays, social media is the most popular on the Internet(Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc), everyone are sharing their life and experience, interacting with others. It created a word-of-mouth effect on Internet.

The marketers know that it is a perfect place to promote their products and services. thus they developed a series of strategies and apply it to those social media.

Social Media Marketing is relatively low cost compare with traditional media. It helps you to spread the message in a conversational way.

It is interactive and 2 way communication. It is internet or mobile based. It provides a way that the marketer could communicate with potential customers as well as current customers directly. Through this, it make the company "real" to the customer.

In coming week, I will further explain Social Media Marketing by case study of Coca Cola.

Source 1: http://marketing.about.com/od/strategytutorials/a/socialmediamktg.htm

Source 2: http://marketing.about.com/od/internetmarketingstrategy/a/socialmediamrkt.htm