5.2   Recent Casualties of Social Media


I have to say that I have been  interested in the two situations that have occurred over the last few weeks.  First of all, let's discuss the Starbucks issue.  Two men of color are waiting in a Starbucks for a friend to join them and they are asked to leave.  Not only are they asked to leave, they are physically removed by the police in handcuffs. The entire event is captured on the cell phones of other Starbucks patrons.  On Tuesday, 5/29, 8000 Starbucks are closed for the afternoon for bias training.  The President of Starbucks decides to tweet that the company is using this situation as a "teaching" moment.   Had it not been for social media would this have been such a momentous event?  Who can say?

Then there is the Roseann Barr situation.  In my opinion, she should have been dumped when she disgraced the National Anthem at a football game several years ago.  Her tweet regarding the former Presidential advisor, Valerie Jarrett, was absolutely disgusting.  How dumb could she be?  there is a saying that if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.  Perhaps that should be changed to, "those who live by Twitter will die by Twitter".  One would certainly expect Roseann to have known better.  An apology in this situation is unacceptable.  In my opinion, the President of NBC did the right thing to chop her show.  I'm sorry for the 350 other employees who have also lost their jobs.  I'm sure they will find some other way to make a living.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5.2 Extra Credit - Maura Buechner - Skender Construction

Image
Skender construction is one of my firm's biggest competitors when it comes to hiring talented people.  There is a definite shortage of engineers coming up in the construction ranks and Skender is working hard to recruit them all.  They recently began a social media marketing campaign for recruitment that centered around the video below: They have blasted this video on all of their social media accounts as well as updated the "Careers" section of their website.  I think this video makes potential employees much more likely to look into working at Skender.  I think the video is incredibly effective due to the young talent they are featuring, the diversity in the talent, the visually stunning video of projects they are doing as well as the interviews from current employees and lastly the music and overall production of the video envokes a feeling of emotion and confidence in their company. Their target market is definitely millennial engineers looking to s...
Read more

4.3 Lincoln Park Zoo

The Lincoln Park Zoo is a not for profit organization that is celebrating their 150 th anniversary.   The zoo is free to the public and is in the heart of Chicago. In addition, to providing care for a variety of animals, they also have educational programs for all ages as well as a host of public/private events throughout the year.   Although the zoo receives funding from the Chicago Park District more than two-thirds is generated from sales at the zoo through their restaurants, gift shops, parking and private events.   The zoo utilizes this money to update/renovate many of the animal’s habitats and to provide educational resources to the community in order to raise awareness of the importance in caring for animal wildlife.   The Lincoln Park Zoo uses many forms of social media for marketing including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat.   The Lincoln Park Zoo’s campaigns have included many activities that are...
Read more

5.2 Extra Credit - Bradley Newell

One company where I saw a huge social media marketing campaign was Dove. Being a very popular campaign that went viral on many platforms, Dove set out to empower women across the country with inspirational advertisements and videos by reminding them of their self-worth and importance. Featuring women of all different ages, races, and shapes, Dove was there to remind every woman that they're worth it. I feel this campaign would influence many women to purchase their products because of the sense of importance they would feel after seeing their advertisements. They pulled at the heart with many emotional scenes and interviews with this campaign and that is most likely what influenced a lot of women to purchase their products for not only themselves, but their younger daughters as well. This is definitely an effective marketing strategy that is aimed at women of all ages. I feel what Dove did with this campaign was as effective as they could be. They were interviewing real people and ...
Read more