Social Media For Marketing

For this blog assignment examine how the “company of my choosing” is actively using social media. I will choose Procter & Gamble (P&G). for this assignment. My analysis will be provided in the form of responses to the following questions:

How are they using social media to change their marketing?

P&G utilizes a variety of social media outlets to interact with their customers. In addition to forums, P&G uses Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These types of social media are used to inform consumers about the P&G’s promotions, charity efforts, and product innovations. P&G is also using social media to a significant part of their target audience, Mothers. On each of their various web pages, P&G is aggressively promoting the message of “Thanking Mom.” Take for example P&G’s YouTube page, http://www.youtube.com/user/ProcterGamble/custom. On this page, P&G provide a forum for customers to share their stories about their moms with a post, picture, or video upload. In addition to allowing their customers to have a voice, P&G are showing how much they care about their customers…especially mothers.

How well are they following the rules of PR?

Based on the social media websites utilized by P&G I would say that they are following the rules fairly well. When visiting these sites, it is obvious that P&G is relinquishing control to their customers and letting them drive the interaction. Even though information about the company and products, P&G makes the focal point about what the consumers want to talk about. By making their web pages customer centric, P&G positioning themselves to reach their target audience and be talked about, whether it is positive or negative.

What recommendations would you make for them to improve their efforts?

Although I feel P&G do a reasonably good job of connecting with consumers, they could do more to make their web pages standout and be more engaging. P&G could also do a better job of highlighting some products on their web pages. There are links for products on their web pages, but it would be helpful if consumers have a general idea of the types of product you produce. Additionally, during my research I came across a Facebook page that was almost identical to the actual P&G page. The only difference in the URLs was the insertion of “n” between “procter” and “gamble,” for the impostor web page (http://www.facebook.com/proctergamble vs. http://www.facebook.com/procterngamble). Even though there is not much to the “fake” page, P&G would be better served to make sure their consumers are not getting lost and are accessing the correct page. Chances are, customers would figure out if they are at the wrong sight, but it would be best to eliminate any confusion.

Reference: http://www.facebook.com/proctergamble; http://www.facebook.com/procterngamble; http://twitter.com/ProcterGamble/; http://www.youtube.com/user/ProcterGamble/custom.