The use of influencers on Instagram: Is it always a success for both the company and the influencer?

Please note that these views are my own and do not represent the views of any companies discussed.

In my most recent blog post (https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/melboscher/2017/04/10/how-to-measure-the-success-of-social-media-platforms-such-as-instagram/), I discussed how companies can measure the success of social media platforms, such as Instagram, therefore I do not discuss measures in this blog. Instead, this blog focuses on influencers and how companies are using them to promote their products on Instagram.

What is an influencer?  

According to Smith (2016), there are 3.2 billion active social media users today,  therefore as the use of social media continues to rise, so does the power of influencers. A social media influencer is a third party endorser who can shape an audience’s attitude through blogs, tweets and other forms of social media, hence they have become increasingly popular over recent years (Freberg et al, 2011). A 2016 study found that nearly 40% of Twitter users have made a purchase as a direct result of an influencer (Karp, 2016). Therefore, companies across all industries have looked into different ways of collaborating with influencers, as influencers can reach consumers via their blogs and social networks which brands may not be able to (Group High, 2017). When deciding which influencer to collaborate with, companies should consider the three R’s: Reach (audience size), Resonance (engagement power and audience) and Relevance (contextual fit) (Chaffey, 2015). In theory, each R should carry the same amount of weight, however it is easy for companies to immediately be attracted to influencers with the largest Reach and not consider the other two R’s, as explained below.

Follow this link to read more interesting facts and statistics about social media: https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/96-amazing-social-media-statistics-and-facts-for-2016/.

The use of influencers on Instagram: The Fitness Industry  

Since its launch, Instagram has evolved from a simple photo sharing app to an efficient, profitable business platform for both individuals and businesses. Instagram represents a real mixture of people: personal trainers share their workouts, fashion bloggers share their style and travel photographers share their adventures (Shopify Blogs, 2016).

Source: Instagram (2017b)

Joe Wicks, aka The Body Coach, is an online nutrition coach who has successfully influenced the lives of many people through the use of both Instagram and regular blog posts. Joe uses his Instagram page to post various workouts, recipes and progress photos of people who have had success using his 90-day diet and exercise programme, as shown in the image above (The Body Coach, 2017). The progress photos are perhaps his most efficient way of marketing, as once his followers see the success that other people have had, they will want similar results, therefore they will invest in his programme. However, Joe also publishes many of his recipes and workouts on his Instagram page, therefore those clever enough will simply follow those recipes and workouts for free, rather than investing in his programme.

The use of influencers on Instagram: The Fashion Industry  

Sarah Ashcroft is a self-confessed “UK Social Influencer” and she uses her Instagram page to promote fashion items for various clothing and accessory brands. The main difference between Joe and Sarah is that Joe uses his Instagram account to promote his own brand, The Body Coach, whereas Sarah uses Instagram to promote different brands.

Source: Instagram (2017a)

As you can see from the image below, Sarah informs her followers where she has purchased certain items from, and encourages them to visit the website and buy the same items. This is a common way in which many fashion brands now promote their items as both parties benefit; the influencer receives the items for free from the brand in return for promoting the item on their personal blog or other social media platforms, and the companies successfully sell the items which are being promoted. However, the relationship between an influencer and a company does not always end well.

Source: Instagram (2017b)

For tips on how you too can become “Instagram famous”, give this tutorial a read: https://iphonephotographyschool.com/instagram-famous/. 

When being an influencer goes wrong…

Influencers post both positive and negative opinions on brands, therefore they hold a certain degree of power over brands. However, being an influencer is not without risks. In December 2016, it was announced that a brand new festival was due to take place in the Bahamas over two weekends in April and May 2017: Fyre Festival. A massive marketing campaign employed the use of many influencers, including model Kendall Jenner. The below image was taken from the leaked Fyre Festival Pitch, which was published on the Vanity Fair website (Bolton, 2017). Interestingly, by listing the number of followers that each influencer has below their image, it signifies how the Fyre Festival organisers were primarily focused on Reach, rather than considering the other two R’s: Resonance and Relevance.

Source: Bolton (2017)

The use of influencers was initially a success for the festival, and the Fyre Starters had reached 300 million social media impressions within 48 hours (Bolton, 2017). In other words, 300 million people had been reached, signifying the power and influence that social media influencers have. As a result of the effective marketing scheme, the festival was shaped up to be a great success, however as guests started to arrive it became obvious that the event had not been properly organised, therefore the festival was cancelled. This lead to negative media attention across the world, both for the festival organisers and the influencers (Vincent, 2017).  Below is an example of one of the risks of being an influencer, as although they were not in charge of organising the event, many social media users have vented their anger at the Fyre Starters for promoting such a shambolic event, therefore damaging both the festival organisers and influencers reputations.

Source: Todd (2017)

Summary

The above examples highlight the advantages and disadvantages of both using an influencer, and being one. Additionally, they prove that the 3R’s do need to be given an equal amount of weighting when choosing an influencer. Although Fyre Festival being unsuccessful was not due to the influencers, the leaked pitch shows that they were more concerned with how to attract festival goers, rather than enlisting people who would help make the festival successful. However, perhaps the negative press this year will encourage the organisers to get their act together and create an even better event next year. One thing is for sure: the use of influencers attracts a large audience, therefore if used correctly an influencer can seriously benefit a company.

If you wish to learn more about influencer marketing on Instagram, read the following blog: https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/115935109-the-beginners-guide-to-influencer-marketing-on-instagram.

 

References

Bolton, N. (2017) Exclusive: The Leaked Fyre Festival Pitch Deck is Beyond Parody. Vanity Fair. [Online] <http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/fyre-festival-pitch-deck> [Last accessed 4 May 2017] 

Chaffey, D. (2015) The 10 types of online influencers [Infographic]. [Online] <http://www.smartinsights.com/online-pr/online-pr-outreach/types-of-influencers/> [Last accessed 3 May 2017]

Freberg, K., Freberg, L., Graham, K. & McGaughey, K. (2011) Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review. Vol. 37, Issue. 1, pp. 90-92.

Group High (2017) How to Build a Strategy Around Social Media Influencers [Online] <http://www.grouphigh.com/social-media-influencers/> [Last accessed 5 April 2017]

Instagram (2017a) Sarah Ashcroft. [Online] <https://www.instagram.com/sarahhashcroft/?hl=en> [Last accessed 4 May 2017]

Instagram (2017b) The Body Coach. [Online] <https://www.instagram.com/thebodycoach/?hl=en> [Last accessed 5 April 2017]

Karp, K. (2016) New Research: The value of influencers on Twitter [Online] <https://blog.twitter.com/2016/new-research-the-value-of-influencers-on-twitter> [Last accessed 5 April 2017]

Kaufman, G. (2017) Fyre Festival Timeline: Chronology of the Disastrous Fest. Billboard. [Online] <http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/music-festivals/7777047/fyre-festival-timeline-fiasco> [Last accessed 4 May 2017]

Shopify Blogs (2016) The Beginner’s Guide to Influencer Marketing on Instagram. [Online] <https://www.instagram.com/about/faq/> [Last accessed 4 May 2017]

Smith, K. (2016) Marketing: 96 Amazing Social Media Statistics and Facts. Brandwatch. [Online] < https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/96-amazing-social-media-statistics-and-facts-for-2016/> [Last accessed 3 May 2017]

The Body Coach (2017) About Joe. [Online] <https://www.thebodycoach.com/about.asp>[Last accessed 4 May 2017]

Todd, C. (2017) Kendall Jenner Is At The Centre Of Another Marketing Disaster. Refinery 29. [Online] <http://www.refinery29.com/2017/04/152199/fyre-music-festival-disaster-kendall-jenner-pepsi-tweets> [Last accessed 3 May 2017]

Vincent, A. (2017) Fyre Festival: How the disaster unfolded and why the Bahamas officials have the site on lockdown. The Telegraph. 1st May 2017. [Online] <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/fyre-festival-disaster-unfolded-bahamas-officials-have-site/> [Last accessed 3 May 2017]

How to measure the success of Social Media Platforms, such as Instagram.

Please note that these views are my own and do not represent the views of any companies discussed.

In my most recent blog post (https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/melboscher/2017/02/23/the-use-of-twitter-as-a-social-media-marketing-channel-an-efficient-forum-for-customers-but-a-risky-approach-for-firms/), I discussed the use of Twitter as a social media marketing channel, and how it is risky for firms but beneficial for consumers. This blog will look at a similar social media marketing channel, Instagram, and how you can measure the success of an Instagram page.

Followers

There are many ways in which a firm can promote a new product or service, however social media marketing is on the rise, as 90% of young adults today use social media, and one third of millennials say that social media is one of their preferred communication channels with businesses (Pick, 2016). Therefore, firms across the world should consider investing in social media, especially if they target young adults.  One social media channel which is continuing to rise in popularity across the world is Instagram, which had 600 million active users by the end of January 2017 (Chaffey, 2017).  As Instagram continues to rise in popularity, firms across many industries are seeking the benefits of using Instagram to attract their target market.

   Source: Instagram (2017a)

As you can see from the above image, National Geographic, the official magazine of the National Magazine Society, have evolved exponentially due to effective marketing campaigns and they have now become the second largest brand on Instagram, with 74.2 million followers (National Geographic, 2017; Instagram, 2017a).  National Geographic closely follow Nike, who currently have 70.5 million followers (Instagram, 2017b). This is an interesting result, because it shows how two completely different companies have managed to excel on the same social media platform. As you can see from the images below, both firms use Instagram to promote their products; the main difference being that Nike sells tangible products, such as footwear, whereas National Geographic try and promote their photographs and photographers.

Source: (Instagram, 2017a)

Source: (Instagram, 2017b)

See the following link for tips from another blogger on how to successfully use Instagram to promote your products: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/drive-sales-with-instagram/.

Engagement Metrics

According to Zarrella (2010), effective measurement is key to show business value and the return on investment for social media marketing campaigns. Hence, it is important to track how successful your social media channels are. As shown above, measuring the number of followers a social media page has is effective, however there are other important measures to consider. The two easiest engagement metrics to measure are time on-site and page views per visit, because the longer a visitor spends on your site the deeper the relationship you build with them. This supports Bart et al (2005), who stated that building consumer trust is key to creating a long-term customer relationship. For example, Nike.com has an average of 5.72 page views per visitor, and each visitor spends 4 minutes 56 on their website (Alexa, 2017a). In comparison, Nationalgeographic.com only has 1.9 daily page views per visitors, and each visitor only spends 2 minutes 44 seconds on the website (Alexa, 2017b). This signifies the importance of measuring engagement metrics because it allows firms to see what position they are in in comparison to the industry leaders, and more importantly rival firms. Nike and National Geographic are not direct rivals of each other, and they currently operate in completely different industries, however they are the most followed brands on Instagram (Statista, 2017). Yet, Nike have more engagement on their website then National Geographic do, therefore perhaps National Geographic should use their strong Instagram presence to try and encourage more people to their website. For example, they could start to include direct links to their websites in the captions of their photos.

As a reader, if you are interested in knowing how many hits your blog posts or websites get, simply set up an account with Google analytics and get tracking: https://www.google.com/analytics/#.

Mentions

Another way to measure of the success of a social media platform, such as an Instagram page, is to look at mentions. A mention includes other users in their content, allowing them to quickly join the conversation and be recognised by viewers, e.g. @Nike (Pancer and Poole, 2016). Large brands, such as Nike, use sponsorship deals with celebrities to endorse their products, which includes mention Nike’s name when the celebrity posts a photo on Instagram. For example, Rory Mcllroy is currently in a sponsorship deal with Nike, therefore he mentions them in some of his Instagram posts (Nike, 2017):

Source: (Instagram, 2017c)

This is an effective use of a social media platform as a marketing channel because Mcllroy will have followers who don’t directly follow any of the Nike pages on Instagram, however they will be encouraged to follow the link and look at the Nike products that Mcllroy is promoting. Hence, encouraging them to purchase and wear Nike products, just like Mcllroy does. This is an example of when mentions are beneficial to a firm, however they can also be used to cast a negative light on the firm too. For example, if an Instagram user with a large following disliked a Nike product and mentioned the company in the caption, then some consumers may be discouraged to purchase products from Nike. A 2014 global survey conducted by Deloitte found that 87% of executive rated reputation risk are more important than other strategic risks (Deloitte, 2014). Therefore, it is important for all firms to closer monitor all social media activity, including mentions, to ensure that they are managing any negative press they receive.

For further details on how Nike became so successful on Instagram, click on the following link: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nike-conquered-instagram-2015-12.

Additional measures

Followers, engagement metrics and mentions aren’t the only ways to measure how well an Instagram page is doing. To gain an understanding of the other ways to measure social media marketing success, such as using the click through rate, take a look at the following article: http://www.svmsolutions.com/resources/articles/how-measure-social-media-marketing-success.

Note: For the purpose of this blog, I was unable to find out the daily engagement statistics for the Nike and National Geographic Instagram pages, therefore their websites were used instead.

References:

Alexa (2017a) Nike.com Traffic Statistics [Online] <http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/nike.com> [Last accessed 4 April 2017]

Alexa (2017b) Nationalgeographic.com Traffic Statistics [Online] <http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/nationalgeographic.com> [Last accessed 4 April 2017]

Bart, Y., Shankar, V., Sultan, F. and Urban, G.L. (2005) ‘Are the drivers and role of online trust the same for all web sites and consumers? A large-scale exploratory empirical study’, Journal of Marketing, 69(4), pp. 133–152.

Chaffey, D. (2017) Global social media research summary 2017. Smart Insights. [Online] <http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/> [Last accessed 4 April 2017]

Deloitte (2014) 2014 Global Survey on Reputation Risk.

Instagram (2017a) Natgeo [Online] <https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/?hl=en> [Last accessed 4 April 2017]

Instagram (2017b) Nike [Online] <https://www.instagram.com/nike/?hl=en> [Last accessed 4 April 2017]

Instagram (2017c) Rory Mcllroy [Online] <https://www.instagram.com/p/BR6a4ltDV6k/?taken-by=rorymcilroy&hl=en> [Last accessed 4 April 2017]

National Geographic (2017) About us [Online] <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/about/> [Last accessed 4 April 2017]

Nike (2017) Rory Mcllroy [Online] <http://news.nike.com/pages/rory-mcilroy> [Last accessed 4 April 2017]

Statista (2017) Leading brands ranked by number of Instagram followers as of February 2017 (in millions) [Online] <https://www.statista.com/statistics/253710/leading-brands-ranked-by-number-of-instagram-followers/> [Last accessed 5 April 2017]

Pancer, E. & Poole, M. (2016) The popularity and virality of political social media: hashtags, mentions, and links predict likes and retweets of 2016 U.S. presidential nominees’ tweets. Social Influence. Vol. 11, Issue. 4, pp.259-270.

Pick, T. (2016) 47 superb social media marketing stats and facts. Business 2 Community [Online] <http://www.business2community.com/social-media/47-superb-social-media-marketing-stats-facts-01431126#1V5PMafCzcj8mRse.97> [Last accessed 23 February 2017]

Zarrella, D. (2010) The Social Media Marketing Book. 1st ed. Sebastopol, Ca: O’Reilly Media.

The use of Twitter as a social media marketing channel; an efficient forum for customers but a risky approach for firms  

In this blog, I will be discussing the effectiveness of social media marketing for firms, with a specific focus on the use of Twitter. Please note, that these views are my own and do not represent the views of any companies discussed.

Social media marketing greatly enhances the ability for consumers to engage and interact with brands, hence why it is increasingly being used across firms globally (Solomon & Tuten, 2014). According to Pick (2016), 90% of young adults today use social media, and one third of millennials say that social media is one of their preferred channels for communicating with businesses. Social media is a great way for businesses to respond to the needs of their customers almost instantly, rather than using the more typical methods, such as communicating via a phone call or an email. One social media platform which is widely used by companies to promote products and communicate with both existing and potential customers is Twitter.

The use of a Twitter for a customer

One way in which Twitter is commonly used by consumers is to get a quick response from a company regarding an issue they are currently having, for example a clothes order which has arrived late:

As you can see above, New Look responded within 24 hours to help resolve the issue, by asking the customer to ‘DM’ (private message) their New Look Help account, where someone would work on tracking the order. This response would most likely be met positively by the customer, because not only did they receive a quick response, but the personalisation at the end of the tweet “NLEmma” makes the customer feel like New Look are taking the issue seriously. However, New Look are also using the response to the issue as an effective marketing tactic. By encouraging the customer to follow “New Look Help” various tweets, such as the one below, will begin to appear in the customers newsfeed:

Interestingly, New Look use their ‘help’ page, to inform their followers of positive experiences that customers have had with them. Hopefully, this will effectively re-assure the disgruntled customer that although they are currently having an issue, the issue can be resolved and they can have a positive shopping experience with New Look in the future. In turn, this restores New Look’s strong brand image, and ensures that they are not losing customers due to negative press. Additionally, they are building customer trust, which according to Bart et al (2005), creates long-term customer relationships.

See the link provided for nine other reasons, alongside connecting with customers, as to why businesses should use twitter: http://askaaronlee.com/10-reasons-why-your-business-should-use-twitter/

The power of the hashtag for companies 

Another interesting element of Twitter is the use of the hashtag, as tweets which contain hashtags get twice the engagement as those without (Cooper, 2013). One of the most effective hashtag campaigns used across social media was the #ShareACoke campaign, which launched in 2013. The idea of the campaign was to find a Coca-Cola bottle with your name on it, and then share a photo of the bottle on a social media platform, such as Twitter or Instagram. This was an excellent social media marketing strategy, as not only did it encourage consumers to purchase a Coca-Cola product, but it also encouraged them to share a photo of the product online, prompting their friends and followers to go purchase the products for themselves.  The campaign was so successful that in total there were 235,000 tweets from 111,000 twitter using the #ShareACoke hashtag (Hepburn, 2017).

See the link for provided for an article which gives further detail on the power of the hashtag for an entrepreneur: http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/08/17/how-to-harness-the-power-hashtag-as-an-entrepreneur/#1b33c6a145fa

However, the use of social media can also have a negative effect on a company. In 2014, the Di Gornio pizza company tried to use the #WhyIStayed hashtag to promote their pizza. However, they failed to realise that the hashtag was being used to respond to a newly surfaced video of an NFL player assaulting his wife (Broderick, 2014).

Unfortunately for Di Gornio, the misjudgment had a negative impact on Di Gornio’s brand image. Mei at al (2012) found that a hashtag has a dual role: it is unique indicator of both the topic of the content and the membership of a community. In this instance, Di Gornio simply misunderstood the topic of the content, however there was a large uproar from Twitter users as it could be perceived that Di Gornio were trying to promote their product to a vulnerable community. Di Gornio were quick to react to the mistake they had made, and promptly deleted the tweet and released several tweets apologizing to anyone they had offended. Although Di Gornio were a hot topic on Twitter when the event occurred, the top trends and hashtags on Twitter are constantly changing, as news and world events are published online as soon as they occur. Therefore, although Di Gornio may have lost some customers due to the tweet, most Twitter users would have been reading about the next news story or scandal just minutes later.

References

Bart, Y., Shankar, V., Sultan, F. and Urban, G.L. (2005) ‘Are the drivers and role of online trust the same for all web sites and consumers? A large-scale exploratory empirical study’, Journal of Marketing, 69(4), pp. 133–152.

Broderick, R. (2014) DiGiorno Accidentally Tried To Advertise Their Pizza In A Hashtag About Domestic Violence. Buzz Feed News [Online] <https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/digiorno-whyistayed-you-had-pizza?utm_term=.qvMbBKWnvX#.ixY3086dW7> [Last accessed 22 February 2017]

Cooper, B. (2013) 10 Surprising New Twitter Stats to Help You Reach More Followers. The Huffington Post [Online] <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/belle-beth-cooper/10-surprising-new-twitter_b_4387476.html> [Last accessed 23 February 2017]

Hepburn, M. (2017) The Share a Coke Story. Coca-Cola Journey [Online] < http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/share-a-coke> [Last accessed 22 February 2017]

Mei, Q., Sun, T., Yang, L. & Zhang, M. (2012) We Know What @You #Tag: Does the Dual Role Affect Hashtag Adoption? School of Information, the University of Michigan.

Solomon, M.R. and Tuten, T.L. (2014) Social Media Marketing. SAGE: 2nd edition

Pick, T. (2016) 47 superb social media marketing stats and facts. Business 2 Community [Online] <http://www.business2community.com/social-media/47-superb-social-media-marketing-stats-facts-01431126#1V5PMafCzcj8mRse.97> [Last accessed 23 February 2017]

Email Marketing Case Study – ASOS, was the apology necessary?

According to research undertaken by Ellis-Chadwick and Doherty (2012), email marketing campaigns produce twice the return on investment than any other online marketing campaigns and are increasingly being used by businesses of all sizes. During 2011, US firms alone spent $1.51 billion on email marketing campaigns (Mohammadi et all, 2013) as small and medium sized firms began to realise the benefits of email marketing, which include low set up and distribution costs.

However, there are some disadvantages to email marketing campaigns. Firstly, there is the intimidation threat of the practice; if a customer wishes to be contacted via email, they need to ‘opt in’ and say that they have agreed to receive marketing emails, otherwise it is considered to be illegal. Secondly, there is the risk that customers chose to not open the email and either delete it or move it to a spam folder. Therefore, it is important that companies ensure that their marketing emails are sent with a purpose, and that they get the customers attention straight away with an effective subject line.

In this blog, I will be critically analysing an email that I received from ASOS, an online clothes retailer who I subscribe to.

The Subject Line

“Sorry – can we make it up to you?”

This subject line immediately caught my attention for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to open the email to find out what it was exactly that ASOS were apologising for. Secondly, I was intrigued to know how they would be making it up to me, for example, would they be offering me a discount on my next purchase? This subject line was very effective, as it was straight to the point and it left the reader wondering what benefit they would receive if they opened the email.

Personalisation

Although I have received personalised emails from ASOS in the past, this email was addressed solely to me because it was being sent to apologise for technical issues that the website had been having.1

In this case, the email didn’t necessarily need to be personalised, as all customers were affected by the technical issues. However, adding personalisation to the email may have encouraged more customers to use the discount that they were offered, such as in the email below, which was sent to me by Save the Student.

2

Although the ASOS email was not personalised in that it was not addressed to me, it did clearly state at the top of the landing page how many points I had to spend, therefore encouraging me to visit the website to use my points (see image below).

3

Design and Call To Action (CTA)

Overall, I think that the design of the email is very effective. As you can see from the below image, the use of colours makes the email striking, and the little wording that there is gets the message across straight away.

4

This is an example of a house-list campaign email, where ASOS were offering a discount on all purchases if customers shopped within 24 hours. These emails are typically personalised for the consumer, including hyperlinks and images in order to keep the customer’s attention. As you can see from the image above, the email included two main hyperlinks, where the customer could choose to view clothing either from the sale section of the website “SHOP SALE”, or the normal section of the website “SHOP NEW”. This is also known as the Call to Action (CTA), as the intention of the email was to get customers to visit the website and use the discount.

Although the email was effective in encouraging customers to visit the website using the links provided, it may have led to some customers choosing to unsubscribe from ASOS’ emails. When I opened the email, I had not been on the ASOS website for a while, and therefore I was unaware that the website had been experiencing any technical issues. Therefore, I was being informed of a problem that I was not even aware off. Although this would not deter me personally from shopping with ASOS again, some customers may have been irritated that they received an email regarding a problem they did not know existed. Additionally, the discount was being offered on all clothing, which may deter some customers, who would rather be able to follow a hyperlink straight to clothes which they like or usually purchase. For example, in the personalised Save the Student email mentioned above, there were 20 hyperlinks which took you to specific deals (see image below). This may encourage customers to follow the hyperlinks because they are being informed of specific deals, rather than being offered a discount across the whole website.

5

ASOS, was the apology necessary?

Overall, the subject line and the bold, colourful body of the email were the reasons that this email marketing campaign was effective. The use of an open-ended question for the subject line ensured that customers opened the email to see what ASOS were apologising for, and once the email had been opened, it was clear that an attractive discount was being offered.

 References

Ellis-Chadwick, F., & Doherty, N. F. (2012) Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), 843-848

Mohammadi, M., Malekian, K., Nosrati, M., & Karimi, R. (2013) Email Marketing as a Popular Type of Small Business Advertisement: A Short Review. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 7(4), 786-790

How the use of social media has helped IKEA to improve their customer service

This blog post summaries a case study on IKEA, and how they have used big data to improve areas of their business.

Recently, IKEA, a large multi-national group of companies commenced a project with The Socializers, a company who are focused on people and technology. Although IKEA are extremely successful, and operate globally across 45 countries, they wanted to ensure that their different business units across the world could come together and make social media valuable to the firm. Over a three month trial period, social media was monitored by the Digital Development team at Brandwatch, a social media listening and analytics technology platform. There were 19 different areas investigated by Brandwatch for potential improvement, including an investigation into complaints across the US and the UK. Using analytics, IKEA were able to identify that 36.5% of US customers complained on Facebook, whereas only 5% of UK customers complained on Facebook, with the majority of UK complaints being posted on forums. Using this information, IKEA could take action and target these areas, using various business units and encouraging them to work together.

One thing that was interesting to see from this case study is that although large firms, such as IKEA, are constantly monitoring social media, they were previously unaware of how social media websites, such as Facebook, are used differently from country to country. Additionally, it was interesting to see how big data can be used by a company to gain an understanding of their customers and how companies such as Brandwatch use analytics to gather their results.

The use of big data across all businesses is increasing rapidly, as companies begin to see the advantages of using it. Every second of every day, people across the world are leaving a digital footprint, which companies are able to use to excel themselves competitively. Overall, the experiment proved to be such a success for IKEA because their employees across all departments were able to see how effectively using social media can improve customer satisfaction, which in turn will ensure that IKEA maintain their competitive edge.

References:

IKEA & The Socializers

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