Social Media – The Yellow Brick Road

Politics 2.0

The ways that politicians campaign and govern have been changing in recent years. Meaning, the tools that they use and the ways that they use them in order to connect with the American people. When it was Franklin D. Roosevelt, his main tool was the radio. When it was John F. Kennedy, his main tool was the television. When it was Barack Obama, his main tool was social media.

Sources:

https://ssoltanhistory.weebly.com/fireside-chats.html

https://www.military.com/off-duty/television/2013/10/21/in-life-and-especially-in-death-jfk-changed-tv.html

https://www.weareaccess.co.uk/blog/2012/11/obama-wins-was-social-media-real-winner

Round one of social media in politics and the first digital strategy played was in Obama’s 2008 campaign. He recognized that most people are truly not interested in politics, but they are interested in topics that affect their lives that can be connected to politics. In order to get their attention Obama needed to directly speak on things that people cared about. Obama knew that the future of politics needed to be addressed to individuals, maybe groups but not everyone in society and he used social media in order to do this. The outlet that worked well in his campaign was Facebook because he had the platform’s co-founder, Chris Hughes, on his team, who was 24 years old at the time. On Facebook, Obama was able to connect to Generation Y, or people who were born from about 1980 and 1995. This was because Generation Y tended to not trust television and conventional political speeches. Obama understood that an important part of a political speech is not developed on political forums. This is why he became a member of many other platforms as another user, to speak with people and listen to them about what they wanted. Additionally, he created MyBarackObama.com for users to create groups in order to discuss and debate their points of view and opinions. On this site, people could also communicate directly with Obama’s team about things they did not like and he was able to change his approach. Today, that site is called BarackObama.com. Overall, the point of this is not to say that Obama won in 2008 solely because of social media. The truth is that he combined Politics 1.0 and 2.0 in order to attain his goal. Some of the tools that he used were his slogan “Hope,” going door to door, merchandising, MyBarackObama.com, responding to his followers on Twitter, his 6 million Facebook friends, free advertising on YouTube, and his blog that was posted on 10 times a day at least. Obama then carried his social media use into his term after he was elected.

Round two of social media in politics was when Obama ran in 2012. Obama upgraded his social media platforms to match with the times. He used Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Spotify, and his two twitter accounts that were @BarackObama and @Obama2012. His opponent, Mitt Romney only used Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Google+, and Twitter. To compare their reach on Twitter, Obama has 21 million followers and Romney only had 1.5 million.

We interrupt Trump ranting for a statement from the candidate who actually got the most votes in 2016. https://t.co/ZsJtgnALdn
— Janice Hough (@leftcoastbabe) April 3, 2020

Round three of social media in politics was the extremely controversial campaign of Donald Trump in 2016. Answering the question of whether or not Facebook was the reason for Trump’s win is more complicated than a yes or no answer. Most news outlets supported Hilary Clinton or avoided supporting Trump but this was obviously not relevant. Social media, especially Facebook, polarized the points of view of the voters due to the algorithm’s use of filter bubbles in order to give people content that they agree with. This is where fake news surged because there was no clarification. At the time more than 160 million Americans used Facebook. During the presidential race, mainstream news had an engagement of over 7 million, but fake news had an engagement of over 9 million. I have seen this first hand with my grandmother and her friend’s use of Facebook. More often than not, my grandma is posting some crazy and extremely political rant on her Facebook page. She argues with her friends that have opposing points of view. They also send each other articles back and forth. Many times, when I take a couple of seconds to evaluate these articles, they are “fake news.” Some of which are true to its definition in that they are completely false and fabricated. But, others are so incredibly biased opinions that lack any kind of fact. Yet, Facebook spoon-feeds them these articles because that is the area in which they have the most engagement. Going back to the initial question, the answer is still hazy. Was Facebook responsible? How about fake news? The polls predicted Hillary to win, yet Google said Trump was winning. This was because Trump was noisier in terms of organic search, yet not all of the noise was good. In terms of earned media, Hilary spent $28 million and earned $746 million for free, but Trump spent $10 million and earned $1.8 billion for free. Trump spent nearly a third of the amount that Hilary did, yet he earned so much more. His approach on social media was similar to the Republicans before him because he used much less than his opponent. Trump’s social media tools were Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Hilary used Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Medium. The difference in their approaches was that Trump focused his message on the big social media platforms while Hilary spread her message across many platforms in which it got lost.

Business/ Marketing/ Advertising 2.0

In Marketing, the two main goals are to have a good product and happy customers in order to create positive attention for your company. The Digital Revolution did not make this or change this. It has always been this way. yet, the Digital Era has enhanced the ways that technology can intertwine with business in a beneficial way. Nowadays, the internet has many tools that allow us to work for a good user experience. For example, when I search for a nail salon it is going to generate locations near me in the Bay Area. If when I searched for a nail salon and it came up with results in Los Angeles, I would be less likely to attend that salon due to it not being within a close proximity. This not only helps me, the searcher, but it also helps local nail salons near me gain my business without me having to have seen it in real life or know it even existed prior.

Additionally, the internet has impacted Advertising in positive ways. Before the internet existed, traditional media considered an advertisement to be effective if it reached 2% of its market. These ads were extremely pricey and still are to this day. Today, companies and organizations spend so much less and are able to send their message to the people who are really interested. One of the ways that this is possible is through “programmatic ads” which use people’s data in order to project what ads they want to see and would benefit from seeing. Also, applications like Yelp and Trip Advisor have proved as working well for Advertising due to consumers having the ability to read and write reviews and ratings.

What marketing tools do you use for your small business? Do you invest enough into your business marketing? via: https://t.co/fQhT3k6Bxy pic.twitter.com/IWHr8QpJKW
— FabLocal (@fablocal) March 30, 2020

A new type of Marketing that has developed is called Viral Marketing and there are six main types. The first is called send it which is an easy way to reach a large amount of people through SMS. For example, Urban Outfitters asked me for my phone number when I made my first purchase and now they send me text messages about sales and other news. The second is called viral incentivized which is when people get a reward or benefit from sending the message to someone else. The third is called masked marketing which is when mysterious information is sent out that makes people interested enough to figure it out and it does not seem to be an ad campaign. The fourth is called rumor marketing which is when people read some amazing things published about Taylor Swift two days before her new album release. This tactic is often used by the film, television, and music industries. The fifth is called social database which is an online-service that offers a database so that clients can add contacts. Lastly, the sixth is called invitation. This is when the prospective customer is provided with a personal invitation to try the new product or service.

The current market that has been flooded by Social Media Marketing in recent years has become an environment for the evangelist customer to flourish in. An evangelist customer is defined as a customer who fell in love with a product or enterprise and tires to share that with others. Prior to this, people were able to tell their family, friends, and co-workers in their close circle about things that they liked. Now people can turn to social media to defend and promote some brands over others.

Every company is now a media company
Tom Foremski

Marketing in the 21st century has become less about stressing that your product is the best and more about values. For example, one ad that has always stuck out to me is an Extra Gum commercial. It intertwines a young couple’s love story with a gum wrapper. This commercial makes you forget that it is even an ad. This connects to what Foremski has said about business because nowadays companies are becoming storytellers in promoting their products. Although the Digital Era has not changed the core goals of Business and Marketing, it is clear that there has been a huge impact on the ways that companies have built a bridge between themselves and their customers.

PR vs. Marketing vs. Advertising

Public Relations is defined as a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics by the Public Relations Society of America. As it is more commonly referred to as PR, this focuses on becoming newsworthy through storytelling.

“We govern what people think about.”
Edward Bernays

Edward Bernays is known for being the “Father of PR.” In 1928 Bernays published his work titled Propaganda which argued that PR is a necessity. According to Bernays, PR controlled what people thought and how they thought. An example of this is shown through analyzing why women smoke in the United States. Many years ago, it was looked down on when women smoked and the primary consumers of cigarettes were men. When the owner of Lucky Strike realized that he was missing out on half of the market due to women refusing to purchase cigarettes, he turned to Bernays for help. Bernays suggested that they speak to a psycho analyst and they suggested to promote cigarettes as “torches of freedom” for women. This was because many progressive women were beginning to revolt against men telling them what they could and could not do. Then, Bernays went to a women’s march and began spreading the word to women about lighting their cigarettes as torches for freedom. Within six weeks, women smoking cigarettes started becoming socially acceptable. This example highlights how Bernays showed how PR can not only impact sales for a company but it can also change the ways that people think in society.

Today, PR people not only work with journalists but also influencers in order to do the same. For example, I have been watching my favorite “beauty gurus” in their PR box unboxing videos. This is where my understanding of PR began. At first I was confused as to why influencers were sent an obscene amount of products for free, but in my studies of business and PR I began to understand. It is clear that companies choose to send people like Laure Lee for example, who has over 4 million subscribers on Youtube. Ultimately, they are hoping for her to promote their product to her millions of followers so they go and purchase it. It is more simple when it is broken down that way, yet this is where many people begin to get PR, Marketing, and Advertising confused.

Some misconceptions about PR are that they buy advertisements, they order journalists to write stories about their clients, they produce cute radio jingles, and they hand out free samples at the mall. In reality, PR is about promoting their clients, their products, and themselves. This is where many of the confusions between PR and Advertising come into play. Unlike advertisers, PR people persuade their external or internal audiences through unpaid or earned methods. They communicate with their audiences through trusted sources. Ultimately, their goal is it try and persuade journalists why their story is newsworthy.

When distinguishing the difference between PR and Advertising for example, it is easy to make clear distinctions. In Advertising, it is a paid way to build exposure in which they have complete creative control. The message that comes across in ads is, “This is important!!!!” But for PR on the other hand, it is an earned way to build trust and the media controls the final version of what it put out for consumers to see. The message that comes across is “This is important.” This is because the company has earned the right for it to be believed so due to the media promoting it free of charge. This is how the credibility is built when the New York Times or a Youtube influencer is talking about the product.

In asking the question, why is PR good for business? The answer can be drawn from these conclusions. PR creates credibility, increases awareness, it positions a company as an expert in its field, it humanizes companies through spokespersons. Bernays never could have imagined the world in which we live in now, but what he did know was that PR would be a pivotal piece of not only business but also societies to come. The Digital Era of Web 2.0 has taken this and shown its advancement in many more ways than just business in general. Social Media and the Internet has shown its importance and impact on society that keeps grown and changing no matter the time.

Valentí Sanjuan: The Modern Day Journalist

Valentí Sanjuan is a 38-year-old journalist. He has quite a large following in the social media world: 362k followers on Instagram, 253k followers on Facebook, 197k subscribers on Youtube, and 118k followers on Twitter. All of this totaling at nearly one million followers across these platforms, it is clear that influencer is a large piece of Sanjuan’s job description. With his successes in being today’s modern journalist, this has come with the perks of being an influencer, like his sponsorship from Adidas and other companies.

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Mira que haber elegido tener tres brazos, pudiendo haber elegido tener tres piernas 😂🔥🤘🐗 • Familia de jabalís! Os dejo en destacados el entreno en directo que hemos hecho esta tarde @adrian_zabal y yo para @thrombactiv: un circuito de ejercicios HIIT con el que en 15 minutos os vais a poner más fuertes que el vinagre! 👊🔥🤘 • PD: qué, os gustaría que cada semana os retransmitiéramos uno de mis entrenos en directo por aquí? 🐗😁💀 • #entrenamiento #fit #fitness #thrombactiv #ad

A post shared by valentí sanjuan 🤘 (@valentisanjuan) on Dec 4, 2019 at 11:52am PST

Despite his success today, you could definitely say that Sanjuan started from the bottom. About ten years ago Sanjuan was fired from his job at a radio station. In less than a year he was bankrupt, his mother passed away from cancer, and his girlfriend left him. Sanjuan talked about that time in which he hit rock bottom causing him to have anxiety like he never had before. Because of this, he turned to running at night to cope. Through this, Sanjuan found happiness in athletics that he had been lacking in his life during that time. He decided to participate in an Ironman, which is a long-distance triathlon. The way that the Ironman works is that the contestants swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles, in that order.

“After that you decide if you rest, or if you rest in peace.”
Valentí Sanjuan, talking about finishing an Ironman Triathlon

Around this time was when social media like we know it today began to take off. Sanjuan decided to film the process of completing his first Iron Man. He trained for two months and then competed in the Ironman Lanzarote in 2013 with a total of 1800 contestants. By combining storytelling, content, and social media, Sanjuan navigated his way through becoming a social media star without any role models in this new territory of media.

Through using his journalism skills, Sanjaun created something that was very new to the internet at that time. By recording his story in the first person with a GoPro, he highlighted the pain and suffering of the journey. Today this video has over 500k views on Youtube. The thing that sparked interest and ultimately led to his following wasn’t purely the story itself, but instead his personality. Throughout the video story, it shows the way that Sanjuan kept positive and light-hearted energy throughout the extreme athletic strain he went through by cracking jokes. At the end of the video, the happiness and accomplishment of completing his first Ironman set an extremely motivational tone. As his social media following began to take off, so did his athletic passions. Today, some Sanjuan’s accomplishments have been completing 10 Ironmans in 10 days, multiple Ultraman’s, and this past year he did a Toroman.

Este va a ser el AVIÓN que vamos a llevar a los 2 Ironmans y 5 Ultramans de este año! Del 1 al 10, cuán enamorados estáis? 🤘💀⚡️ pic.twitter.com/7pdSnHtQKC
— Valentí Sanjuan (@valentisanjuan) February 13, 2020

Over the years, Sanjuan has been the perfect example of how social media has changed so many things about the spread of information. As time has gone by, he just keeps coming back for more. Every year his athletic abilities have developed and the same can be said for the journalism side. Through documenting his experiences he has developed an inspired audience, which is the core of his influencer status. Through watching his story of the struggles that he endures in the intense races, Sanjuan’s fans feel connected to him. People that follow him feel an emotional connection to his journey.

After sharing his own story began to feel repetitive, Sanjuan decided to start focusing his content on the people that he met along the way. He said that one of the best parts of participating in these extreme athletic competitions was the inspiring stories of others. One of these was about Bebe Vio who is a paralympic fencer. She shared her story about losing her limbs and fighting her way to the Paralympics to do what she loved most. This is where Sanjuan has struck gold with his content. The unique stories of the people that came into his life through sports stepped up the motivational tone in all of his work. This sparked his followers to ask themselves: “What am I doing? What’s my excuse?” Whether that be accomplishing an Ironman, conquering a fear, achieving a goal, or stepping outside of a comfort zone, this element in his work allows for viewers to relate to the human emotions that the videos feature. Sanjuan said this element has been the key to his success and following. Today, Sanjuan has expanded his content to documentaries. In the Cape Epic 2019 documentary, he highlights the sports side and the human side of the race. Through this Sanjuan says he goes, enjoys, suffers, competes, races, and meets people with inspiring stories.

The avenue that Sanjuan has chosen to embark on in his journalism career is much different than the traditional media. Before the dawn of the Digital Era, journalists stuck to television, print, and radio. Today, journalists have the power to take their content and their stories on the go, anywhere and everywhere. The avenue that Sanjuan’s stories come in is at peak for the types of stories that he is putting out there. Today’s influencers have found that it is important to be fluent in all social media platforms that have a lot of traffic in order to grow and reach more people. In Sanjuan’s case, most of his core content relies on his Youtube channel and the other platforms are used to promote his work and brand deals.

According to Business Insider in 2018, Youtube had 1.8 billion users monthly. Today, many people’s favorite social media app to use is Youtube and this creates a great ecosystem for Sanjuan’s stories to exist. Over the years, his videography, editing, and content has evolved into a very professional level. Because of this, his following has continued to grow.

In terms of travel, the same type of content can be seen. Christian LeBlanc is an influencer with over 1.4 million followers on Youtube. LeBlanc’s channel is called Lost LeBlanc and his content highlights his travels all around the world. Through his videography and editing skills, LeBlanc has established a following that is different and similar to SanJuan’s all at the same time. Although the channels focus is not journalism based, LeBlanc uses his experiences to guide and inspire people in all terms of travel.

People do not buy goods and services, they buy relations, stories, and magic.
Seth Godin, Gates Foundation

Social Network Analysis: Trip Advisor

Trip Advisor is an app that is designed to assist people with their travel plans. This site features reviews, comments, images, and ratings of all elements of travel. From hotels to restaurants, to experiences, Trip Advisor allows travelers to plan your next vacation all in one place. In 2018 Trip Advisor took their platform to a new level, they allowed users to follow friends, companies, or influencers that they trust in getting all their travel advice and reviews. Through Trip Advisor you can create your own account in order to access these functions in planning your travels.

According to the Trip Advisor website, as of 2017, their average for monthly visitors was just shy of 400 million. With this, they had accumulated 435 million reviews and opinions of close to 7 million different hotels, restaurants, experiences, cruises, and more. They claim that nearly 300 new reviews are posted every minute, making this platform one of the top in travel planning. With the rapid growth that they were experiencing at that time and the addition to a social media aspect to their platform, I’d imagine that they have seen continual growth in the use of the site.

I have never considered myself an expert in travel planning. Prior to studying abroad, I had heard of Trip Advisor, yet I did not have an account or the app downloaded on my phone. In my first few days exploring Barcelona, I realized that Yelp, the app that I so frequently use while researching restaurants or just deciding what I want for dinner, is close to obsolete here. At first, this confused me, but I quickly found that Trip Advisor is where most of the reviews are here.

After creating my account I quickly realized why this platform holds its popularity. It was extremely simple to create an account all I had to do was sign in with my google email. From there, Trip Advisor asked where I’m from, where I’m going, the dates of my trip, who I’m going with, and what types of things I’m looking to do. At the push of a button, Trip Advisor laid out every aspect of my trip from hotels, to flights, to activities, and so much more. Along with this Trip Advisor provided me with an abundance of information about the city that I was (hypothetically) traveling to. When researching a trip to Barcelona for example, Trip Advisor provided me with hotels, top things to see, and videos of travelers on the platform about the city.

In my opinion, I feel as though I have wasted my time prior to today because I have no used Trip Advisor in my trip planning habits. As I now have the app on my iPhone I am excited to explore with it and use it to my advantage in the future. This weekend I am traveling to Munich and Prague and will definitely be using Trip Advisor as a guide in these new cities while I explore.

Update: This past weekend I tried I gave Trip Advisor a go in real-time. This trip was the first time that I really struggled with the language barrier, especially when it came to restaurants. I often found myself getting frustrated and just settling for the closest option. On our first day in Munich, I found that this method led to me getting sucked into a “tourist trap” restaurant. The following day, I thought of Trip Advisor and used it as a tool to find a restaurant of my liking and at a good price. I found that sometimes all you need to do is walk around the corner to get a better quality restaurant at a much better price. Throughout the rest of the weekend, I constantly found myself pulling up the app to find things to do and other places to eat. Overall, Trip Advisor will definitely be an essential part of my travels going forward.