Course Recap

It has been quite a long road. I am excited to be ending my under grad and looking forward to the future. This course has instilled some great lessons when moving into developing a social media marketing strategy. It has also been a great reminder of processes that I am certainly out of practice with. Looking at the class and social media, it is almost incomprehensible on how quickly social media metrics and algorithms change from what seems like month to month. All of these help a marketer develop a better strategy to targeting their demographic.

What I took from this class is how important it is to come up with measurable goals that can determine the return on investment. It just isn’t enough to start a campaign and have no idea what you are looking for from the results. It is important to know what you want to accomplish whether it is brand recognition, developing a following, or developing knowledge for a product, it all has to be measurable. The other thing I learned is the need for a solid plan and understanding objectives. Instead of going in blind, always have a plan.

The weekly blogs were a great tool to use for the class. It helps us to develop writing skills and envelope these skills into being able to develop a style that will be industry related for the career path. A company will not allow someone without any skills in writing for industry knowledge to develop blog posts, but this gives someone who might be interested in this content the ability to build a portfolio. It also helps that there was input from fellow students.

I enjoyed the class very much and I am glad this is the last class I took to go out on a high note. The one thing I disliked and might have disliked throughout the entire process, is that the final papers do not parallel how you will pitch an idea in the real world. I know if I were to hand in a 13 page paper to my marketing director, they wouldn’t look at it. Ideas have to be short, concise and to the point utilizing tools such as SWOTS and sales analytics. This has been something i have seen throughout a lot of my classes. Instead of setting them up like a formal paper they would be best to set up as a true business pitch.

Final Thoughts

These last two weeks of this class will mark the end of my path to my undergraduate degree. It felt fitting to end it with the Social Media Capstone Class. I would say I am probably not the typical college student. I have worked in the high tech industry and have changed professions 3 times in my life. I have completed my goal of getting my bachelor's degree before I turn 40. 15 days before I do, but I did it. In my career, I have had the opportunity to help build and develop a social media marketing campaign and have contributed to a few industry-related blogs for different companies. When I think of developing a campaign, I think of it as a creative and scientific process. The science is finding and building the audience in your target demographic. It is understanding where your company stands in the product ecosystem and how the brand is perceived. The largest part of the development of a campaign is the preparation of a SWOT and then building off of this. The creative part is utilizing the science to develop interactive promotional content that will draw in your audience. In the past, I have developed content on my journey to learning 3D Design Software, the use of navigational charts, installation guides for chart plotters, and now I write a bit for the lumber industry. All of it mixed with imagery and some screenshots of the process. I am not so much nervous about the campaign I am building now. I am more nervous about the time after graduation and where I should take my next career moves.

This class has opened my eyes to some new techniques and put the technical terms such as WOM, and metrics to the things I have already been practicing. This course has been a great refresher and a wonderful development of skills for future use. I am looking forward to utilizing Google Analytics moving forward in my own side business and in my professional career. I will also be looking to better understand the use of the metrics platforms give you to better target different demographics. I think the most important thing I took from this class is to make sure you have clear measurable goals and that these will determine the success of a social media campaign.

I look forward to completing my final project and moving on to the world outside of school again in my life.

Internal use of Social Media Platforms

When I was a younger man and filled with a bit more spitfire, I went to work for a start-up company. I was just out of high school and had spent an unsuccessful year at college when I was offered a job for SolidWorks. At the time the company was 300 people with 3 offices globally. The company was positioning itself to grab a large portion of the market share in the 3D Design and CAD industry. The founders had built a low cost, highly functional solution that allowed any draftsmen or engineer the ability to design on a personal computer. This is something that hadn’t existed in the market place at the time that was affordable to the small and medium-sized businesses.

In order to make this happen, the founders built a core team of executives and managers that were given specific instructions on the people they were to onboard. They wanted to build what the CEO at the time called “emotional equity” in the brand and the mission. The company expected longer than average hours with specific goals in mind to reach certain goals. They continually built a team that bought in on the idea that the company they worked for is going to change the world. They gave everyone a bit of skin in the game through developing a profit share program quarterly and then offering shares of stock annually. Health care was free, and they supplied other things such as lunches daily, and other fringe benefits. Soon these teams became like family, and the entire organization became a well-oiled machine steaming towards conquering the market. Soon enough, Dassault Systemes decided on purchasing the company which allotted them the capital to do so. The people who bought in and stayed on through the years were compensated, but the work was not complete. To me, this is what emotional capital is. When leadership is driven and they can lead the way with the same grit and determination as to their employees and can sell people on changing the world, there is no better way to get a company to move forward. When the payoff comes, that equity is turned in. As the author of the article put it, they utilized monetary means, positive messaging, and fringe benefits to building emotional capital.

In my experience with internal social media use, working at a tech company a lot of our daily interaction with processes was done through a social media site that was built off of their business software, Peoplesoft. Dassault had heavily invested in the Peoplesoft implementation and decided to tweak a few features to develop a customizable platform that allowed its users to interact with personal interests, creating clubs, developing internal relationships, and post company news on it. It was set up as a mixture of Facebook and Twitter. Executives were active on it utilizing a platform like Twitter, and employees would discuss topics and share ideas across multiple departments. It quickly became an environment for collaboration and the messaging systems inside of Peoplesoft nearly replaced email. The collaboration in the platform led to meetings in the game rooms and then plan developments to build better products or business processes.

The platform is used as a company calendar for family and employee events also. Like Facebook, it sends you an invitation to an event where you have the option to decline or accept. At the time they would announce new software updates, advancements in the business, and also would be a stop for quarterly monetary updates.

The greatest upside to this platform is you are connected to colleagues around the world and have the ability to plan travel from office to office. The platform allowed you to book travel and hotels if required. It was a one-stop-shop for all aspects of the business. This brought the company closer and kept the ideas rolling out. The platform acted as a wiki for internal information. and also can be accessed by customers to engage with people internally and utilize knowledgebase libraries built into the platform.

I have been pushing to develop an internal social media site for the company I work for now where teams can collaborate. This is achievable with not much capital.

Course Mid Way

Social Media Marketing. How important is it? How can you measure your ROI in the field? Is it worth it? These are some of the questions many have asked. At the dawn of social media, a floodgate was opened up with a massive amount of data being shared from platform to platform, and that data then being used to mine information for marketing purposes. This pool has now become one of the largest data farms ever created and it allows a company to hone in on their target demographics with pinpoint accuracy. The foundation was shaky at the beginning, but as these platforms grew the data became richer and richer. And now as the mobile phone industry expands, a device picks up on conversations and then targets advertising on platforms based on these conversations. Part of this is genius, and part of this is scary. The idea that we have allowed social media platforms this amount of entry into our private lives proves the point that privacy is dead, and nothing is free. If it is free, you are the product, not the consumer. This being said, social media has now positioned themselves as the most important purveyor of information on the planet, and have the access to what any marketer wants personal data.

I am not a believer in Social Media Marketing as a way to increase sales. I am not a person who feels that any ROI on social media is a good return. It is important to go into a campaign with specific goals and acknowledging if you reached these goals. I am an advocate of developing a Social Media campaign that builds brand awareness and helps to bring the brand to different markets. I am an advocate for developing lasting customer relationships and building a sales channel of repeat customers. Social Media should be about storytelling. What I believe that social media is for when a company decides to enter this as a marketing tool, is to just simply be present. Social Media is a great way to develop relationships simply by being present in a digital environment.

Social Media Marketing isn’t just about marketing. It’s about customer service. Your content is placed out there to be seen by the world, and for the first time, the consumer can immediately respond to the content and to your business. You have to field negative and positive responses and deliver on promises. The consumer has the ability to interact instantly, and your team has to be there to manage the responses and point the consumer to the correct knowledge base or answer the questions directly. A marketing team must second as a customer service or reposition internal assets to provide customer service needs to the Social Media channels.

Just because you don’t have a campaign on a platform doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on it. To me, Twitter is the cesspool of the universe and there is a lot of negative there. There is also a considerable amount of positive. I would not put a campaign on Twitter, but I would utilize resources to monitor the platform by researching hashtags and working with actual issues from people @ the brand. This is why I believe being present on social media is the most important. Be there, and be the content. Once the content is there, make sure your brand pays attention to how consumers are engaging with the posts.

Pepsi Refresh: Big Risks; Little Rewards

Pepsi wanted to change the world. The world was changing. Obama just entered the White House and the world was looking to capitalize on the word “Change”. Pepsi might not have been looking to capitalize, but it saw an opportunity to build brand awareness by doing some good. The pressure was coming down on the soft drink industry. Sugary drinks were becoming less favorable and the brand was pushing away from fizzy sugary drinks and created a good better best business model categorizing each drink they created based upon nutritional value. This was not helping sales. (Avery, 2013)

What’s a brand to do when their product has been pigeonholed by both the health and medical experts, and the consumer? Pepsico decided it was time to rebuild brand awareness through a social media marketing strategy and utilizing the means to give back to the community. The company organized a marketing campaign that would drive consumers to a landing page where they would pitch ideas that would refresh the community. Pepsi allocated a portion of their marketing budget, including the money for their Super Bowl ads, and portioned out grants to projects that were submitted to their landing page. The consumer would vote on the projects they wanted, and grant money would be issued based on voting. The goal was to target Millennials. Data showed that a Millennial would more likely switch brands to one that is giving back to the community. (Avery, 2013) They utilized this theory and data that claimed Millennials believed it was their duty to change the world for the better. This would be the Pepsi Refresh Project. The campaign was not to sell more products but to increase brand awareness. The company steered clear of any type of content that forced a purchase to have a better ability to receive a grant. The campaign provided the engagement they wanted. The website received millions of unique visitors daily and was receiving thousands of followers daily. Pepsico also pursued traditional media marketing but punted on the Super Bowl. They contributed the budget towards grants. The campaign worked but there were issues.

Millennials don’t drink soda. They may engage on the website and through social media, but they are not soft drink consumers. Because of this, the company was losing market share. While the company built a large social media presence, the company focused on developing meaningful relationships and providing for the community but failed to sell the products they developed. Essentially the campaign was a negative net. You cannot critique the fact that Pepsico was trying to something that they considered right in hopes that this would push people to consume their product. They forgot to sell the product though. There is no rule that says the brand couldn’t do both of these things. Why couldn’t Pepsico develop relationships through social media and continue to sell their product. Maybe the initiative could have been scaled down a bit in order to leave a budget for developing a campaign that sold Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. a frightening statistic from the campaign also is that while they were targeting the generation who wants to change the world, more than half of the votes came down to Boomers and Gen-X. Millennials held no interest in the brand and the community initiative. This damning statistic proves that the company left its wheelhouse and wandered into uncharted territories. Maybe, all they had to do was focus on their product, and develop a campaign that provided change Millenials wanted to see in a large brand, a pivot in product nutrition.

Avery, J. (2013). The Pepsi Refresh Project: A Thirst for Change. Harvard Business School, 9(512), 018th ser., 1-25. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from https://services.hbsp.harvard.edu/lti/links/content-launch.

Waltzing The Social Media/Viral Dance

Why does certain marketing campaigns go viral? What is the logic behind this that puts content on numerous platforms and shared by so many? Kaplan, and Haenlin explain viral market as if it were a virus. You need a host. This host will share the content with a large contingency of followers on a social media network, or publish the content in the media if it is deemed newsworthy. This is called a market maven. The market maven manages a large amount of followers that cross lines between different cultures in society. (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2011) This maven, shares out content either found on accident or delivered to them through sponsorship and a paid advertisement on their social media platform. Once it is shared, this becomes a super spreading moment, and the followers of the maven will start to disperse the content on their social media platforms. This isn’t a sure shot formula, but it’s one with the best formula to create a marketing pandemic. You still need some luck, and of course good content. If the content isn't there the message can be lost. Let’s look at the ad campaign put forth by South Dakota when they teamed up with Broadhead Media.

In 2019 the State of South Dakota teamed up with Broadhead to build a multi dimensional cross platform ad campaign that spoke to the drug issues, specifically, Meth. The ad campaign built content for social media, television spots, print, and mobile advertising. The catch line; “Meth, We’re on It”. This phrase was viewed in a negative connotation across the media, but Broadway states that this campaign which was supposed to be regional, opened up the talk about drugs throughout the entire nation. (Meth, 2020) The SD Sheriffs department even stated that this opened up dialogue faster than anything they have ever attempted. (Meth, 2020) So how did this happen? South Dakota completed the content which consisted of average citizens, and senior citizens doing normal things such as spending time with family, or playing football, or working. The tag line in the corner is Meth, I’m On It. They shared videos out on their social media platforms and almost immediately the content was being shared globally. The waltz describes this as a homemade issue, where the intentions were good, but the messaging and the content backfired creating a lot of controversy. (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2011) While the messaging was being delivered, the people of South Dakota were embarrassed and ashamed that that’s what their state will be known for. IN this instance, the media maven was South Dakota social media hubs and then went viral as people shared. Kaplan and Haenlin discuss this and state that provocative messaging is tricky and could go both ways. In this case, while the information was dispersed and talked about, a lot of the content was looked at as humor and not as serious which put the state in a negative light.


Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2011). Two hearts in three-quarter time: How to waltz the social media/viral marketing dance. Business Horizons, 54(3), 253-263. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.00

Meth. We're On It. (2020, February 26). Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://broadheadco.com/work/meth-were-on-it/

Social Media

I have a love-hate relationship with Social Media. I go back to the Myspace days when Tom was a solid friend just sitting in front of a whiteboard smiling at you. I remember the days you could get a little HTML lesson if you wanted to customize your page. It was an interesting time. If I had a free moment at work, I would decorate my page with some bling and have the latest horrid pop song playing when you entered my page. Alas, Myspace stepped aside and made way for Facebook. As Facebook started to open its doors to the outside world, the Myspace ship listed and everyone jumped over to Facebook. I used to love Facebook. How else could you get your voice heard by so many people? I left Facebook for quite some time only to return because I felt it to be a good marketing tool. Now I use Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. I hate them all. Sadly, they are a necessary evil.

My Facebook usage consists of staying connected with a few friends and family. I use a lot of security features and share it with certain people. I also use the snooze feed button a lot and unfollow people that utilize the platform to stand on some sort of milk carton. All of this being said, it is the easiest way for me to get content out to a large group of people. I use it a lot for the messenger app also. Facebook Marketplace is the platform’s last saving grace. I now use Facebook as a yard sale and a second hand purchasing place. Outside of this, I am not a fan. My issues with Facebook comes down to lack of policing of information, and the access people have to false information. I also feel that Facebook creates echo-chambers and builds groupthink. Instead of challenging opinions, Facebook utilizes algorithms to create confirmation bias. This whole system has created an incredibly polarized population. Facebook is designed to keep you scrolling and pays attention to your engagement with certain things. This builds their algorithm and pushes that content to your feed. I had a business page on FB for some time, but I couldn’t reach people organically, I then switched over to Instagram.

Instagram is my favorite Social Media platform. As I am a visual artist, this platform helps me to get content out to the public and get organic followers by utilizing hashtags. It also allows me to follow other visual artists and interact with them easily. Instagram has provided me with sales of prints, collaboration on projects, and I even made some great connections and eventually friends. This does not mean it escapes my anger towards social media. You would think that as much as I enjoy the platform, I would have nothing but nice things to say, Well, buckle in folks. Put your seat in its upright position and tray up. As a visual artist, I always thought IG would be an amazing platform for other visual artists. And it is in ways, but Instagram and its algorithms do not help those that live in this environment. Instead, it leans towards building and developing influencers outside of the art realm and into the celebrity and products to create social media influencers. They also push products on you every third post in your feed or every third story. As a visual artist also, I enjoy sharing my work on the platform, but their TOA is pretty sketchy when it comes to intellectual property, so I tread lightly sometimes on what I post. What I don’t like about Instagram is how people whitewash their lives to provide only the best of the best times. This has created some sort of hate machine in comments. I won’t call it as big of a cesspool as Twitter, but it could be close. Instagram dictates false ways of life that spur mental health issues. I enjoy what I follow, but I avoid staged posts that are supposed to make me feel guilty.

I use Pinterest mostly for architectural ideas but have recently started to use Houzz. Pinterest is great, but almost everything I see is an ad or sponsored content. Clicking on content can be a game of roulette also as who knows where the link will lead.

So as you can see, my relationship with social media is hot and cold. As a visual person I enjoy Instagram, but I avoid a lot of content and keep my viewed content in my wheelhouse.