Widgets, Clicks, and Tweets- Spring 2018

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 reg...

One of my favorite wild card reasons of attending DePaul University is the possibility of getting free Red Bull cans on a weekly basis! I’m a huge fan of this energy drink and even a bigger fan when I don’t have to pay for it. Their continuous efforts to post photos, especially the ones related to extreme sports, pack so much energy into the frame that it gets everyone excited about what’s going to happen next. I feel this marketing style is so effective because Red Bull is known for having a successful line of energy drinks, emphasis on the energy part. This connects well with the fact that all their Instagram posts showcase so much intensity and extremeness with shots of individuals biking, surfing, sky-diving and even rally-car racing. Red bull has a wide range of product to attract an array of consumers. Their main Red Bull energy drink is focused on males and females aged 16 to 30. More specifically on students, professionals, and individuals who are ambitious and go-getters....

Its summer and baseball season is here! In Chicago, as a baseball fan, you follow one of two teams, The Cubs or the White Sox. I have seen special events being hosted by the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. For example, recently I saw a billboard offering $1.00 hotdogs for attending a game on a specific night. On the White Sox Facebook Page, certain events are marketed as well. There is not a heavy social media presence for their special event game nights. I was on Facebook and Instagram and had to scroll for a long time to find any promotional events from the past. This means that their social media focuses on the game, players, and results. I think their target market is the fans and also any perspective out-of-towners looking to have a night out at the ballpark. Their social media could offer more marketing for the White Sox special events at night, especially since the game attendance rate has gone down in recent years.

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...

 For this assignment, I am going to review how Friends of Animal Care and Control (FACC) use social media for marketing.  For those of you who don’t know, FACC is a non-profit that works with the City of Chicago animal control to find homes for the thousands of animals in the city’s very overcrowded facility as well as getting donations to help with supplies.  The FACC utilizes Facebook and Instagram most by posting photos of animals available for adoption and to get the word out about upcoming adoption events.  They also sometimes include stories about the animals and where they came from which always helps to make the posts more involved and gets people to invest more in the cause. I think this campaign does make me more likely to go to them when I am looking to adopt a pet.  Showing animals that are available keep them top of mind all the time and also shows me animals that I think would work well with my family which makes me believe they have what I a...

The company I am profiling for this assignment is Orangetheory.  The reason I wanted to use Orangetheory is because I have worked out at their West Loop location a lot and really got a lot out of the workout.  Additionally, the use social media on a local and national level and I thought that would make for an interesting profile. Orangetheory utilizes all of the social media available.  This includes Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.  They have their national brand that utilizes all of these outlets as well as local Orangetheory gyms that also have their own accounts.  Is essence, this gives Orangetheory double the coverage in many cases.  I follow both the national account as well as my local West Loop Orangetheory social media accounts and I see postings every single day from both.  One of the most innovative ways the utilized their social media is by having all of their locations across the US play an Orangethe...

The way that Wendy's uses social media has been exciting. Wendy's does not cross my mind when I crave fast food generally when I'm out driving around. But, whoever took over its marketing is genuinely nailing it literally. On social media, the blatant disses that it makes towards other competitors makes for great entertainment which is why we are on social media in the first place. Wendy's has used social media to make them relevant again. Consumers say Wendy's when they mention: did you see that funny joke they tweeted earlier or their crazy post on billboards? I know that Wendy's has more of an older clientele but social media helps them marketable to a younger crowd now. They also market there 4 for four which is a big hit. I am very likely to purchase from Wendy's because their prices are low and the pure humor they provide. I think their efforts are effective because controversy makes money these days and they won't lose much since all consumers ha...