Week 5 Original: The Influence of Social Media

Recently, I found it strange that "eating fried chicken and drinking beer in snow days" suddenly became a hot topic in Asia. McDonalds and KFC, as well as beer retailers in Asia area, are enjoying the sales increasement of fried chicken and beer. More surprisingly, not only fried chicken and beer, but also certain brands of cosmetics and clothes have their sales enhanced within last two months. So what brought to this phenomenon?  The answer is, a famous Korean drama, "My love from another star," draws the attention of Asian people. 

MV of My love from another star

"My love from another star" is so clever to make good use of the powerful influence of social media to help advertise the drama and embrace the groundswell. After the drama came out, it took no more than a week to become a hot issue in various social media. After a couple of weeks , almost everyone is talking about the scenes and lines in the drama, no matter whether he/she is a fan of it. This is the influence of word of mouth. Just as Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff explain in the Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, "[word of mouth] is self-reinforcing. Hear it from one person, and it's intriguing. Hear it from five or ten, even if you didn't know them before, and it has to be true." Now, no one can stop the drama from going viral.

The drama mainly talks about an alien landed on earth from another star 400 years ago in the Joseon Dynasty and had fallen in love with a Korean top star in the modern society. In one of the episodes, the actress mentioned that it was the most enjoyable thing that having chicken and bear when it snows in winter. Right after this episode came out, having chicken and bear in snow days became  the No. 1 topic in Weibo, having over 3,500,000 posts related to chicken and beer. People were talking about this "fashion" crazily. Under this circumstance, more and more people became aware of My love from another star, even though some people were not interested in Korean drama at all!

the official poster of My love from another star 

As a Korea drama fan, I am also addicted to this drama since it first launched. Let's see what My love from another star has done in social media to increase its fame. Firstly, it applies a variety of social media tools in order to gain the popularity. The drama creates topics that attracts people's attention on Facebook, Twitter, Line, Youtube, Weibo, Instagram and Wikipedia. Impressively, the director was so smart to use scenes to emphasize the importance of using social media. The actors and actress in the drama always use different social media to contact each other. This definitely helps catch audiences' attention. 

"My love from another star" official page on Facebook

Secondly, The staffs of the drama established an official page on Facebook, and updated the news of the drama everyday. We can see there are nearly ten thousand fans following that page. Compared to many other dramas, this number is not impressive though, you have to notice that the major target audiences are not able to log in to Facebook. Besides that, the staffs also applies "Line" to increase the fame of the drama. Line invested the drama without knowing the rapid increasement of the drama's popularity. Now, Line is one of the most famous and frequently used social media in Asia.

                                     The leading actress is using "Line"

Twitter is another social media that all the fans discuss about this drama. Among these fans, they do not only come from Asia, but also from other areas in the world. It is Twitter that connects these fans with each other, providing the platform for them to exchange their thoughts on this Korean drama.

Fans' discussion of the drama on Twitter

In this case, we can find how important it is to utilize social media tools in publication. I will keep on following this drama and see what social media applications can bring to increase the reputation of "My love from another star".

Week 4 Reading Response: Tapping the Groundswell

 Neiman Marcus Official Website

Last Friday was Valentine's Day, many kinds of skincare products were on sale on Neiman Marcus. Me and my roommates were attracted by a Kiehl's set, so we decided to buy 4 sets together. Everything seemed to go smoothly. We placed our order successfully, and the order was confirmed. We were delighted and looking forward to receiving the package. However, three days later, I got an email saying that our order was cancelled, for no reason. I immediately contacted Neiman Marcus's customer service online, he told me that the company had the right to limit quantities a customer might buy. I told him I totally understood if the company had this rule, but I preferred to know this

rule before I placed the order, and Neiman Marcus should have shown this rule to customers on the website, instead of canceling orders later on. Then, I got nothing useful to solve my problem but apologies. I was so disappointed.

Well, Neiman Marcus, to some degree, "listened" to me, and "talked" to me. However, I didn't think our chat could be deemed as an effective conversation because they did not understand what I was thinking; even after I told them my thought, they still didn't get me. 

What's worse, it was just reported days ago that "over 1 million credit cards' data were stolen" in Neiman Marcus. Some friends of mine got in trouble in this Hackers attack, and they had warned me not to buy things in Neiman Marcus. Now, having this dissatisfied shopping experience on Neiman Marcus, do you think I will "spread the word" of this shopping mall to my other friends in a positive way? No. Definitely not. 

From my point of view, the purpose to start a conversation between groundswell and company is to understand "what people are thinking" (p. 80) and build a friendly, trustworthy relationship with each other, then the groundswell will help "advertise" the company in certain way. According to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's "Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA)" theory in Part Two of Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, "word of mouth 'is the honest form of marketing, building upon people's natural desire to share their experiences with family, friends, and colleagues.'" (p. 131) Li and Bernoff believe the importance of energizing the groundswell. So do I. 

Lancôme is one of the companies that do a great job in energizing the groundswell. The video below is posted on Lancôme's official website; it tries to tell customers some beauty tips. 

Powder Makeup How-To By Michelle Phan

You don't have to finish the video, because what I want to talk about is not the video, but the girl in it. Who is she? Well, I would like to tell you, she, Michelle Phan, is originally just one of Lancôme's customers. But her videos are now on

the official websites of Lancôme's products, and she becomes very famous in social media. As many other Lancôme's ordinary customers, Michelle Phan loved Lancôme's products, so she wrote her reviews on various social media, and put videos on YouTube to share her personal experience with others. In her makeup videos, she introduced many Lancôme's products, and more and more people followed her on Facebook and YouTube. 

Just like Jim Noble, who is an example in Groundswell as a fan of eBags, Michelle Phan is an enthusiast customer of Lancôme. 
Lancôme understands the importance of word-of-mouth and the power of energizing the groundswell, so the company put her videos on its websites and attract people to believe that Lancôme's products are as good as advertised. As stated in Groundswell, "it's energizing -- finding enthusiast customers and turning them into word-of-mouth machines." (p. 130) 

Now, Michelle Phan is hired by Lancôme, being a professional makeup girl, sharing her feelings and experiences of using Lancôme's products. If you type "Lancôme" on YouTube, there are about 330,000 results shown on the screen, and MOST OF THEM are reviews from ordinary customers. 

Estée Lauder Official Website

Compared to its strongest competitor, Estée Lauder, Lancôme is almost three times search results greater than Estée Lauder. To Lancôme, Groundswell is energized, and customers are encouraged to give feedbacks. As Li and Bernoff say in the book, "Energizing the base is a powerful way to use the groundswell to boost your business." (p. 130) I believe Lancôme will benefit a lot from the groundswell in the future. 





    

Week 3 Original: Dealmoon -- Help You Make Everyday Become Your "Black Friday"

Last week, it cost me about three days to think about where to spend my upcoming Spring break on March. Since this will be my last vocation during my school years, I want to make my trip a little bit special and relax. After asking suggestions from my friends, I finally decided my destination: Puerto Rico! Sunshine and beach, isn't it the best place to get away from the coldness and snow here in big Boston area? Then what I should do was to book hotels, air tickets and cars, and prepare my trip. If you were me, which website would you go to? Tripadvisor? Groupon? Priceline? No No No, I went to Dealmoon to look for deals! Why? Because I can find deals not only on air tickets, hotels, cars, but also sunblock, sunglasses, and many things that may be useful during my trip! More importantly, I can read passages from other people who have experience in traveling to Puerto Rico, or read comments about the product I am going to buy. In sum, This website almost tells me everything! You may never hear about this website. It doesn't matter. I will introduce it to you. 

1. What is Dealmoon?

    Dealmoon.com is a website that offers online shoppers FREE PROMOTION NEWS and LINKS. It provides deals and discounts NEWS for many things such as apparel, cosmetics, travel, household items and more. Deals from Amazon, Macys, Priceline, Groupon and many other popular stores are covered by Dealmoon. Deals news are updated 24/7.

2. What is the difference from Groupon?

     Groupon is a platform that offers online shoppers direct discounts and coupons to selected shops and services. People can buy coupons on Groupon's official website and then show what they've bought to shops. In a word, people finish transaction on Groupon, instead of in the shops. Dealmoon isn't such a website. Just as I mention in point 1, Dealmoon offers PROMOTION NEWS and LINKS from various websites, including Groupon, which means, people do not buy things on Dealmoon's website, but on the original shops' websites. For example, I wanted to buy cheap air tickets from Boston to Puerto Rico, so I went to Dealmoon.com, and I clicked "Travel" to see which airline was on promotion. Then I found American Airlines was offering a roundtrip discount at $92, so if I was interested in it, I could click that link, and then Dealmoon would lead me to American Airlines' official website to get more information. 

 Travel Deals News on Dealmoon

Another important thing that differentiates Dealmoon from Groupon is, you can comment on every deal, or you can "like" it, just like what you do on Facebook. What does this mean? It means Dealmoon.com is not only a simple website that offers you information, but also a platform that you can interact with other online shoppers, make friends with whom you think you share common interests with, as well as communicating with Dealmoon.com. You can tell Dealmoon.com that how you think of the deal, what kinds of deals you want to have, and so forth. Dealmoon.com will give you reply!

3. How does Dealmoon social?
On top of Dealmoon.com's website, it shows some social medias that it uses: Weibo, Facebook, WeChat, Google+, Tweeter, Youtube. It also has a forum that integrates many aspects such as shopping, traveling, selling, chat, entertaining, renting houses, and so on. Tens of thousands of people social on these platforms everyday. Moreover, if you have a smartphone, you can download its app, which makes you more convenient to look for deals anytime. To sum, Dealmoon is very helpful in our daily life.

  

         

 


However, after I went through all of Dealmoon's social medias, I found that Dealmoon has a serious shortage, which limits it become popular in United States: its English version is not as engaging as its Chinese Version, but all deals it offers can be only used in U.S. If Dealmoon can put more efforts on socializing with local Americans, I think it will definitely have a much more optimistic future. Nevertheless, don't worry if you can't read Chinese comments, you can still use Dealmoon.com because deals are posted in English. Have fun in buying things cheaper than they are supposed to be, and feel free to make your day becomes "Black Friday!" 




Reference:
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/dealmoon-com#ixzz2t8iesTGS 

Week 2 Reading Response: The Power of The Groundswell

October 20th, 2013, Starbucks China involved in a media storm in China for its higher prices compared to other markets in the world. CCTV (China Central Television), the most powerful China's state mass media, was the one who set off storm inside network. 

BBC News - Starbucks' China pricing: Storm in a coffee cup

Price Comparison

The original idea that CCTV trigger storm was to win people's support by accusing Starbucks China of unfair price strategy that overcharging local customers for coffee. Unexpectedly, the storm went opposite of what CCTV wanted. People got angry about CCTV, which acted as the speaker of China's government, that the governors did not care about the incredible high prices of houses, medical care, and other costs that related to people's daily life, but paid attention to the price of A CUP OF COFFEE!

Two days after the news aired, millions of Chinese people connected each other, voluntarily blogged, posted on Weibo ("Chinese Twitter") and other social media, to fight back CCTV's report and to support Starbucks. Without making too much effort, Starbucks China won in this storm. According to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, the authors of Groundswell, winning in a world transformed by social technologies, this storm could be seen as a "mini groundswell," which is: 

"A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations."

The world has changed a lot since social media appeared. The groundswell is a movement that "can't be tamed." CCTV wasn't aware of what was happening in this movement, that the power controller has been shifted from traditional media to people that always connected. The reason that CCTV trapped itself in the storm was that CCTV failed to clearly understand its relationship with people. However, relationship is "the principle for mastering the groundswell." As Li and Bernoff says, 

"In the groundswell, relationships are everything. The way people connect with each other -- the community that is created -- determines how the power shifts." 

However, CCTV didn't take "relationships" seriously. Although tens of thousands of people left comments on its official Weibo, CCTV gave NO FEEDBACK AT ALL. In this storm, CCTV disconnected itself from its audiences, ignored people's opinions, and refused to talk to the groundswell. Hence, the failure in the storm was not surprisingly. 

Li and Bernoff strongly believes the importance of listening and talking to the groundswell. The authors mention the powerful force of word of mouth in Chapter Five, saying that "your brand is what your customers say it is." Let's take a look at the storm I discuss above, why do Chinese people help Starbucks China, a foreign brand, fought against CCTV? The answer is: the reputation of Starbucks China is good among its customers. 

Starbucks China has strong social media marketing strategy in China: it creates its own community, it has its official site, it puts touching ads online, and what's more, it communicate with people via social media. The photo below is the official Weibo of Starbucks China. Being the most powerful social media in China, Weibo offers an important platform for people to communicate. Starbucks China does well in Weibo. It has almost a million followers, and it "listens and talks to" people here. 

Starbucks China's Official Weibo

In a conversation, there must be one side that is talking, and the other side that is listening; both of them are equally important to an organization. Starbucks China makes good use of Li and Bernoff's theory and it successfully engages with the groundswell. If CCTV understands the power of groundswell and respects groundswell's principles, I think it will not lose in the storm in the future.