Red Bull: A brand built on social media

Red Bull is truly a brand that has built itself up using social media. The company has become extremely well known for its audacious pr stunts and it's imposing social media presence. Red Bull maintains a presence across a broad range of social media which powers it's marketing, PR and media endeavours. One of its main social media outlets is its Facebook page

The page which has amassed over 46 million likes does not list Red Bull as being a food/beverage manufacturer like most companies that produce a drink do, rather it lists itself as a news/media outlet. This further proves that by using social media Red Bull has shifted it's business model and even its identity in a dramatic way. It now appears that the drink itself is now a small by product of the over all brand with its media endeavours taken over. This is very evident wen you view It's Facebook page you are hard pressed to actually find a post of a Red Bull can rather the page posts about extreme sports and music Red Bull sponsors

    By doing this Red Bull is seen to be trying to market itself as not just a energy drink manufacturer, but as a lifestyle choice. These posts generate a lot of likes and comments but they dont seem to take the time to respond to them or even moderate them, This could be viewed as being a missed opportunity to gain some very useful customer feedback on there brand.

Red Bull also have a heavy Twitter presence with many different accounts for its different enterprises for example, There are separate accounts for its Music academy and its F1 page with many others too including Red Bull cliff diving.

Its main account has over 2.14 million followers and follows a similar trend to its Facebook page. You are hard pressed to actually find a post containing a photo of a can. The feed generally tweets once or twice a day and these range from links to sponsored athletes to music artists signed to the Red Bull label to promotional videos for some of its many other interests. 

Its clear to see that Red Bull has definitely re invented itself into a huge mass media company and seems to have almost forgotten  that its primarily a drinks manufacturer. I think even though they have boosted themselves to a worldwide brand through social media they have lost there identity along the way. If you didnt already know that Red Bull was an energy drink you would assume it's a sports magazine or a internet media sight from viewing its social media outlets. For some reason I cant shake the feeling that Red Bull is almost ashamed of the fact that at its  core its just a energy drink and there social media presence seems to downright ignore it. Red Bull needs to work harder to bring back its core product into the limelight , as it stands it seems that despite all its clever social media efforts, Rec Bull is a company that has lost it's identity.    

References:

https://econsultancy.com/blog/62178-how-red-bull-uses-facebook-twitter-pinterest-and-google/

https://twitter.com/redbull?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/redbull/?fref=ts

http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing

Go Pro and Social media

Go Pro is an American camera manuacturer and has become a very well known brand since its inception in 2002. Its known for its small but powerful cameras that have a wide range of applications particulalry in the world of extreme sports. Its also known for its great use of social media. Go Pro has accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo, Youtube, Twitter and more. Go Pro seeks powerful user content to advertise its cameras essentially turning its social media accounts into very clever digital billboards to showcase itself

Not only does this make for great content accross its platforms that engage a huge amount of people , It also is a great medium for showcasing the quality of the images that a Go Pro can produce. Go Pro's use of its instagram and youtube accounts are arguably the best of any company out there they produce fantastic content that showcases the capabilities of its product better the words ever could

They do this by posting content that was taken by Go Pro users and sharing it across there social media sites. This helps advertise the capabilities of there product in a way words never could. They have in turn become a digital media powerhouse on the back of there versatile use of social media. They have a huge level of engagement on Instagram in particular the below graph shows how engaging the year 2014 was for the company it shows that there social media presence is proving to be extremely effective and due to this the companies sales continue to grow.

   

References: http://trackmaven.com/blog/2015/01/why-you-should-envy-and-emulate-gopros-instagram-strategy/

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/gopro-and-3-other-brands-understand-importance-social-media-integration

How Alcohol brands use social media to influence drinking

Like most industries the alcohol industry has been reaping the benefits of the evolving world of social media. Unlike most industries however, The alcohol indsutry has come under fire for using it. The legal age to drink througout the world ranges from 16-21 in most countries and on social media its argued that people who are underage are being exposed to advertisng from some alcohol brands. A recent study carried out by Michigan state university  has found that the advertising of alcohol online can influence young people to engage in underage drinking and can also significantly influence adults to drink. The study found that the advertising of alcohol online had a greater power to entice drinking then a similiar advertiement for water. The Drinks business knows how influencial messages online can be and be it right or wrong they act on it and this is causing concern among parents and guardians that there children are being bombarded with alcohol themed messages online and there have been calls for the advertisment of alcohol to be banned online. There are certain guidelines and rules the drink industry has to abide by to advertise online, They have to make it clear throughout there social media platforms that whoever is accessing there content is of age

if they do this they can legally advertise and promote themselves online this however does not stop minors from accessing the content which is what is causing a high degrees of concern among people. The industry also uses very enticing imagery for there online campaigns to make the product look as enticing as possible

This causes temptation to the viewer and encourages them to go out and buy the product. Some brands also use events promoted online to sell there product, Heineken, in particular uses this method on a regualr basis

By creating events brands can spread there pages to a wider audience and not just anyone who has liked or followed there page. This inturn however can be viewed ny those who are underage and that is the area that causes most controversy. Social media has given these brands an outlet to advertise and promote themsleves in a way that gives them a huge amount of exposure, they however have to be careful online as young, underage people can be exposed to there messages and the companies need to do more to better control themsleves online.

    References 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160526115649.htm

http://alcoholireland.ie/world_news/alcohol-giants-pour-into-social-medias-digital-drinking-spaces/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2016/05/29/alcohol-ads-on-social-media-encourage-drinking-but-whats-an-alcohol-ad-on-social-media/#53e82978449a

Coca Cola and Social Media

Coca-Cola is one of the worlds most instaantly recognisable brands and as you expect it has a large online presence. Coca-Cola uses everything from Facebook to Twitter, Pinterest to Google + and they use them well. The companies facebook page has ammased over 66 million views and 3.2 million followers on Twitter as of November 2016. So, what does Coca-Cola use social media for? . It uses it for Advertising, Marketing, and conncecting with it's audience. On Facebook Coca-Cola can go over a week without posting anything but despite this, the celebrity aspect to the brand means page engagement remains very high. When Coca Cola does post to facebook however they dont post stories per say, There social strategy when it comes to Facebook is much more focuesed and brand awareness and raising awareness of its ad campaigns

For example over Halloween the page was focusing on promoting its Halloween advertising similiarly over christmas we will see much more christmas orientated advertising on the page. They also run polls quite regulalry which helps the page grow its audience and provides important market resarch at the same time. Coca Cola also has a large presence on Twitter and it actually uses a few different Twitter pages for different variations of the drink but we are going to focus on the main page for now. Coca-Cola's main twitter page has over 3.2 million followers and has tweeted over 210,000 times making it an extremely active page. It dosent however use Twitter extensively as a market tool the companie uses it to respond to the publics praise, questions and critisims and @ mentions a huge amount of people everyday

In essence Coca-Cola is using Twitter as a Broadcast facility to connect with its public and hold conversations with customers while promoting the brand. Coca Cola also uses Pinterest,

The photo sharing site is similiar to Instagram and uses posts known as pins to deliver a message. Cokes account is quite intersting as its quite random and does not follow any specific theme in an advertising or marketing sense rather they use it mainly to post pins about old coca-cola merchandise or insperational messages using the coca cola theme.They also seam to like linking up there instagram and pinterst accounts by sometimes reposting content from one platform to another, the social media team seem to like using these two sites to increase there audience and create a shared platform between the too

So coca-cola has definitly used social media in a good way and are one of the leading companies in the world when it comes to social network use. They have embraced this new way of communicating and have managed to reach a larger audience then ever before due to there presence across social media.


                                                                     References
Cashen, C. (2016) Coca-cola Ireland | coca-cola IE. Available at: https://www.coca-cola.ie/ (Accessed: 2 November 2016).

 cola, coca (no date) Pinterest. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/search/?q=coca+cola (Accessed: 2 November 2016).

 Dainow, B. and Director (2013) How coca-cola uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/62548-how-coca-cola-uses-facebook-twitter-pinterest-and-google/ (Accessed: 2 November 2016).

How Nasa Communicates With The Public

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) uses a variety of different methods to communicate with its publics. They release press release's on a regualr basis in relation to the missions they are undertaking and list the personnel available for media to contact on there site. The website is full of useful links and methods available to get in touch with the organisation which shows a company that is truly interested in communication and communicating its ideas to the general public.

They have however been accused of withholding some information from the  public. Some commentators have gone as far to say that they only share what they want you to know. Despite this they do seem to enjoy engaging with there audiences over a number of different mediums such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These are updated regularly and have a large audience which helps NASA communicate with its public in an efficient manner. Some NASA Astronauts have also become very famous online for posting photos from their missions, Astronauts like Jeff Williams and Scott Kelly have a large amount of fans online and post daily updates to their Facebook and Twitter feeds. All this helps NASA show what the day to day life of there Astronauts is like and gives what they do an almost personal feel which can be hard to do for such a big organisation. There is no doubt that NASA have done there level best to communicate,Inform and educate its public , This makes the organisation much more accessible to the general public and helps us learn more about this pioneering company      

References 

NASA (2007) NASA on Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/NASA?lang=en (Accessed: 26 October 2016).

In-text citations: 

• (NASA, 2007)
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•                                    
  i Perceptions (2011) National Aeronautics and space administration. Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/ (Accessed: 26 October 2016).
  In-text citations: 

  • (i Perceptions, 2011)
   
•                                                                                     

NASA (@nasa) • Instagram photos and videos (no date) Available at: https://www.instagram.com/nasa/?hl=en (Accessed: 26 October 2016).

In-text citations: 

• (NASA (@nasa) • Instagram photos and videos, no date)
 

The Use of social media in the aviation industry

Social media has become a major channel of communication across the business world in particular the air travel business. Airlines are increasingly turning to social media tom communicate with passengers. Most pages associated with airlines you will find are vibrantly coloured and engaging to look at this helps indere the customer to the airline and maybe even help alleviate any fears the customer may have over flying. 

Most factual information regarding flight information or general updates regarding the company will appear on a platform like Twitter or occasionaly Facebook. Airlines are also interested in presenting fun facts and sharing interesting events which are centered around the company and for this many of them turn to Snapchat . Aer Lingus are a good example of a company that have began placing a strong emphasis on snapchat. They have built up a strong following on the photo sharing app , sharing snaps regarding awards they have one and often documenting the day to day life of their employes. These platforms have made it easier the ever to connect with customers and helps give the perception of oppeness to the customer too. 

References: Photo 1
airline, E. (2012) Emirates airline on Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/emirates?lang=en (Accessed: 20 October 2016).
                    Photo 2
Lingus, A. (2011) Aer Lingus on Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/AerLingus?lang=en (Accessed: 20 October 2016).

Photo 3 
Condor (2009) Condor on Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/Condor?lang=en (Accessed: 20 October 2016).

Photo 4 
Detective, T.F. (2016) Airlines on Snapchat. Available at: http://travelupdate.boardingarea.com/airlines-on-snapchat/ (Accessed: 20 October 2016).

Photo 5 
Lingus, A. (2014) ‘We’ve posted a behind-the-scenes look at our A320 flight simulator on @Snapchat [Username: Aerlingus] #snapchat’, Twitter, 19 August. Available at: https://twitter.com/aerlingus/status/501692028544356352 (Accessed: 20 October 2016).

Public Relations and Film: How it's done

Public Relations is one of the key tools used  by studios to promote a film. On the run up to a release the studio will release press releases, Issue photocalls and release trailers, all in an attempt to further the films reach and reach as wide an audience as possible. The classic approach to doing this is the use of posters. Films will have elaborate and dramatic posters that will attempt to draw the viewer in and create anticipation or hype around the movie. Here are some famous examples:

 These posters use colour and very specific styles to try and visualise the text of the movie. It tells the audience a large amount of the story just by them looking at it. This is a tatctic that the designers would have used intentionaly and does a great job at communicating the message of the film to the audience. These posters may also be the first indicators to the companys publics that the movie is in production and is a crucial step in promoting the film. Most movies will also be driven by a PR or marketing campaign to promote the movie. These usually consist of the stars of the movie going out on the campaign trail talking about the movie on TV talk shows, radio shows and interviews which appear in magazines or online. A newer phenominum is the rise of podcats that promote the movie to a large online community.
These are just some of the tools used by PR practitioners to promote and communicate with the public in the film industry.