Blog 10: Marines Social Media Scandal

In case you haven't heard, the Marines are under serious scrutiny right now after a huge social media scandal was revealed in recent weeks. Basically, a Facebook group called Marines United had over 30,000 members that were posting and exchanging nude photos and inappropriate commentary of fellow service members. There were numerous nude photos of Marines posted without their consent.
The following photo is the cover photo for the Facebook group called Marines United 2.0, leading me to believe that this is another version of the original group that had been deleted.

This photo is seriously inappropriate, showing the Hulk wearing make up and a hot pink bra. 

As a result of this scandal, the Marines have updated their social media policy to remind all service members that their behavior even off-duty or online may violate the Navy and Marine Corps orders and regulations. These actions could even be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and it is possible that the Marines involved in this Facebook group could face criminal prosecution.

The response to this scandal has been mixed, with some Marines coming forward to help with the investigation in any way they can and others slamming Marine leaders for how they have handled the situation. 

This scandal led other armed forces divisions to examine and reinforce their social media policies to their service members. This is not what the Marines need to be worried about, considering all the other duties they have to this country. The Marines involved with this Facebook group need to grow up and focus on their job instead of inappropriate pictures of their fellow service members. 

Blog 9: United Social Media Nightmare

I'm sure by now most, if not all, of us have seen the horrible viral video of a doctor being forcibly dragged off of a United Airlines flight this week. United Airlines had overbooked a flight and when no one offered to give up their seat, people were randomly selected to be removed from the flight. One of these randomly selected passengers was a doctor who had patients to see the next morning, so he refused to give up his seat. Fast forward to security yanking him out of his seat and dragging his body up the aisle of the plane. Unfortunately for United, this entire interaction was filmed by a passenger and this video now has over 1 million views on YouTube. This horrid video comes just a few weeks after United was in the news for not allowing two passengers to board a flight because they were wearing leggings.

The worst part of these events is United's reaction. The following tweets show how United responded to the leggings incident:

Then, just this week, United responded to the forced removal of their passenger by tweeting:

People are very upset by this response because United doesn't even address the video. United doesn't take responsibility or apologize for either event, and instead just blames their policies for what had occurred. The airline should have used social media to its advantage and issued a quick and appropriate reaction, but instead they have received even further backlash due to the lack of response. 

Blog 8: Who Runs The World? Girls.

Just a few weeks ago, the world celebrated International Women's Day. This is a day designated to bringing to light the challenges women face daily. These challenges include equal pay, violence against women, and general unequal treatment among women.

Women from all over the world chose to celebrate #GirlPower by taking the day off from work to protest. It worked because their male coworkers took to social media to discuss what a day in the office without women is like. Below are a number of tweets posted on that day.



In addition to a number of women taking the day off, a number of businesses chose to close their doors for the day to stand alongside their female employees. This powerful protest definitely caused the world to take notice through the use of social media to reach wide audiences. Social media allowed people all over the world to learn more about International Women's Day and to see first hand the impact of this protest. Hopefully, this will bring about changes to ensure protests like this are no longer necessary in our world.

Blog 7: Greatest Day of the Year

Not Superbowl Sunday, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or even Christmas. I'm talking about The Bachelor season finale. The moment we've all been waiting for. Bachelor Nick found his "one true love" during his FOURTH time on the series. Fourth time is the charm right?! Wrong. Everyone is extremely skeptical about the winning relationship, so of course people went straight to social media. #TheBachelorFinale was even the number 1 trending topic on Twitter, surprise surprise. The following are posts by both former show contestants and just us regular folk expressing their hilarious concern for the newly engaged couple.



These pictures show true love if you ask me! I can only imagine what memes will be created in the next few days, but I for one will be keeping a close eye out for them.
#TeamRaven forever!!!!!!
I must now go shame myself for caring this much about The Bachelor. I'm better than this.

Blog 6: NBA Bans Mean Tweets

Kill 'em with kindness - the new motto for Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks social media.
NBA teams are no longer allowed to mock or ridicule other teams on Twitter. Seriously? This is what the world has come to. The new rules were created in response to some pretty savage tweets.
So naturally a number of NBA teams have had some fun with this new rule by being obnoxiously nice to other teams on Twitter. The following exchange between the Sacramento Kings and the Atlanta Hawks show just how seriously these teams are taking this new rule.






These tweets went on for the entire game, keeping fans quite entertained.
The NHL has also joined in on the fun, taking to Twitter to make fun of this new rule:


Personally, I think these tweets are hilarious, but I'm sure the NBA is giving some hard side eye right now. They can't complain though because the rules are being strictly followed. These particular tweets got hundreds more likes than their tweets usually receive.

Blog 5: Unexpected Brands Killing It On Social Media

We all know the brands that have a great social media presence - Starbucks, Dove, Oreo, etc. However, there are several brands that have been flying under the radar.

To start, Royal Dutch Airlines understands the importance of social media to customer satisfaction. Airlines are known for receiving tons of customer engagement on social media, especially negative responses to flight problems. The header of Royal Dutch Airlines' twitter page has an estimated response time that is updated every 5 minutes - very impressive. This is a company that understands the immediate response that customers now demand from businesses.


Next, we have Always, who is standing up for a cause they care about. They've started the #LikeAGirl campaign, advocating for gender equality. Always risked losing some of their clientele with this campaign, but that didn't stop them from pushing for a cause that is important to them. To me, this campaign shows Always' dedication to their customers and empowering them to be their true selves no matter what. #LikeAGirl sends an incredibly important message to girls all over the world and Always definitely got it right with this one.
 

Last but not least, there's Denny's. I would never expect Denny's to have a great social media presence, but they've proven me wrong. Denny's is now using social media to attract a younger demographic by posting untraditional, different content. They are embracing the weird and posting funny/silly videos, pictures, etc. that don't necessarily relate to or mention the Denny's brand. This lack of Denny's branding is what is attracting younger people because they aren't just pushing their brand on consumers like many other businesses are. They posted a video to their Twitter that literally just shows a teenage boy wearing "pancake shoes", but the younger age demographic relates to these posts and finds them funny. So, way to go Denny's!

Blog 4: Epic Fail by Cards Against Humanity

This year, a Superbowl ad cost more than $5 million for a 30 second segment. The price is constantly rising, just like the audience expectations. It seems like everyone was pretty disappointed in this year's ads, myself included. But, there's one ad in particular that has generated quite a lot of buzz because of how incredibly strange it was. Yes, I'm referring to Cards Against Humanity's super weird ad featuring a potato with the word "ADVERTISEMENT" written on it.



The entire 30 second ad featured the picture above. There was no music, no other picture, no movement, just simply the potato sitting on the screen for a very long 30 seconds. This very strange ad left many people guessing at what brand/product/company the advertisement was even featuring. Cards Against Humanity is known for being out-of-the-box, but this idea was too far-fetched and they are now going out of business due to bankruptcy. The company has admitted that this advertisement was a huge failure and they had many regrets.

However, I think the ad was surprisingly successful. People are talking about this ad much more than many others, which is a main goal of advertising. There's no doubt that dialogue was created by this ad, mostly because people were trying to figure out the background of this ad and the brand behind it.

Blog 3: Snapchat Ads Getting Creepy

We've all fallen victim to some creepy targeted advertising while browsing the Internet. I'm constantly noticing that my Facebook page is littered with ads for a pair of shoes that I had just been eyeing on another website. Snapchat is going to be joining Facebook, Twitter, and Google in ad targeting since it has hired Oracle Data Cloud, an offline data provider.

What does this mean?
Basically, Snapchat will now stalk your offline activity to deliver targeted ads in your app. Oracle has a database of over 110 million households, $2 trillion in consumer spending, and over 1,500 brands. So, it is pretty likely that you are somewhere in their database. However, there is some good news - you can opt out of these targeted ads. To disable them, tap the ghost icon at the top of the screen in camera mode, enter Settings by tapping the gear icon in the top right corner, select "Manage Preferences", then "Advert Preferences", and finally there you can turn off the "Snap Audience Match".

Unfortunately, this won't exempt you from all Snapchat ads. Snapchat will still present ads based on your online, in-app activity. So, Snapchat will still be able to lightly stalk you, but not nearly as intense as with the Oracle data.

The reason for Snapchat's elevated stalk-level is likely due to their future IPO. Apparently investors just really love to see high ad sales. Who would've guessed?

Blog 2: Trump as the Social Media President

FDR was known as the "radio" president, JFK the "television" president, Obama the "internet" president, and now we may deem Trump the "social media" president. Trump may be America's first Commander-In-Tweet.

It's no secret the President Trump is very active on Twitter. Throughout his campaign, Trump consistently took to Twitter to comment on any and every topic that came up. Below are some of my favorites:



He definitely keeps the world entertained with his outrageous and unexpected tweets. Although most people believe his tweets are inappropriate, they could have contributed largely to his victory. He is more connected to the people than any president before. People are attracted to the way he says what he wants without concern for the consequences of doing so. Trump had about 4 million more followers than Clinton leading up to the election. This was a huge obstacle for Clinton, who took a far more traditional approach.

In even bigger news, Trump is now on Snapchat. His first snaps were taken at the Inauguration and are shown below.
 
There is a lot of uncertainty and speculation about the role that social media will play during the Trump presidency. We have already seen how he uses Twitter as a place to vent his impulsive thoughts. I wonder if he will be advised against doing this during his presidency and if his Twitter will remain under his personal control.

Blog 1: Customer Service on Social Media

Nearly all of us have had a negative experience with a product that led us to contact their customer service department. Traditionally, this contact could be through returning the product or calling a customer service department. However, now consumers post about their experience via social media, which can lead to either a positive or negative snowball effect for the company. Consumers post about the good, the bad, and the ugly on social media, so it is essential that a company has a solid social media strategy to respond to these posts.

Whole Foods, with 4.8 million followers, uses Twitter as a means to positively respond to customers as seen below:
 
On the other hand, not all companies handle social media properly. After appearing on Gordon Ramsey's TV show "Kitchen Nightmares", Amy's Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro responded with:
 

Although this Facebook post is quite funny, BuzzFeed called it "The Most Epic Brand Meltdown on Facebook Ever". These Facebook posts went viral and memes were even created about the meltdown:


Let's be real, you know it's bad when you've been turned into a meme. Amy's Baking Company should have turned their experience on "Kitchen Nightmares" into a positive. The show would have opened Amy's to a huge new customer base, which Amy's should have used to their advantage. Instead, Amy's rant turned into a "Facebook Nightmare" and this business publicly suffered as a result.

No matter what a business is selling, it is critical that businesses take social media customer service seriously because it will make a huge difference to their customer satisfaction and retention rates.