Real Techniques new Bold Metals collection: Social Media Monitoring 1

INTRODUCTION

The majority of present companies and brands start with their business or production first and then join social media. But now it is possible to do visa versa. This was a road map for Real Techniques. Real Techniques is a company which main product is brushes. As the company claims their brushes combine high-tech materials with innovative design. Its creators started with social network and only then came up with the idea of creating their own product. Above all things sisters wanted to help those women who are not quite sure where to start to easily choose right tools for doing their makeup.

HISTORY

Two persons who stand behind Real Techniques brand are sisters Samantha and Nicola Chapman. They grew up surrounded by makeup as their aunt was a top makeup artist in London, working with clients like David Bowie and Princess Diana. Their mum was makeup-involved too and promoted girls love for makeup. Sam and Nic chose makeup artistry was as their career path.The older sister Sam attended school for professional makeup artistry and worked on counters in London and started her career as a freelance artist. She worked with brands like MAC, Estee Lauder, and Chanel. Nic was following a similar path. Over time they both had built a reputation in the industry as respected makeup artists.By chance a YouTube channel Pixiwoo was created and latter in 2010 when it had reached around 30,000 subscribers, the idea behind Real Techniques began to formulate. The Real Techniques brush collection was launched in 2011. Brush quality was paired with professional, interesting and fun education from Sam and Nic. The launch was a success.Today the brand is presented in the US, UK and around the world. 

MARKETING CAMPAIGN 

This January about 8 weeks ago Real Techniques launched a new product - Bold Metals collection which is a new permanent Spring 2015 Collection of brushes featuring fiber bristles and a new gorgeous precious metal colors. The new line of luxury metal brushes was at first available on the company's website and exclusively at Ulta.

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW

Website

The company's website was launched in 2011 is very easy to use.There is a link to the blog page right next to the new product campaign page and videos collection. It almost calls customers to take part in discussions and leave their feedback, and also provides easy excess to the new product which is being actively mentioned in social media now.

The website is mainly devoted to products and, first of all, it is an on-line shop. 

There are almost no comments on the blog page of the site. I think because that the same posts are on their Facebook page and it is more convenient to use for commenting.

Videos collection has a very convenient feature - all videos have direct links to products used in them.

YouTube

Pixiwoo channel:

Subscribers: 1,784,146
Views: 222,442,991

Realtechniques channel:

Subscribers: 165,853 
Views: 7,477,496
In 2008 Sam started a YouTube channel called Pixiwoo. At the time she was pregnant and had moved to her hometown of Norwich to raise her daughters. When a friend asked how to get a smoky eye, the first Pixiwoo video was created. The channel had been becoming popular and people began request specific medias. Sam and Nic began to collaborate. They were pioneers of a new platform of makeup artistry.

In 2011 they started a channel specially for their product line, unlike Pixiwoo this channel features only videos with Real Techniques products.

Both channels have very positive feedback from the viewers.

YouTube is also the place where people tend to leave their complaints and Real Techniques answers them:

Facebook

Likes: 280,763
The page was started in 2011 with the launching of the product and is still one of the most popular places among many social media users. Facebook page is actively using groundswell engagement inviting people to discussions and asking for their opinion.

Twitter

Tweets: 16.8K
Following: 549
Followers: 58.3K
Favorites: 3,178
Real Techniques Twitter page is not very popular comparing to Instagram. Because clearly there is more to show then to tell about something like makeup brushes. The company use to announce about upcoming events, engage people in conversations asking them basic questions and tell them when a new video is uploaded on their YouTube channel. 

Instagram

Posts: 343
Followers: 208K
Following: 252
Instagram is one of the most popular company's social media page along with Facebook. It is very visual and gives a good perception on the products and campaigns.I like the fact that it contains both professional and day-to-day photosю But it is still very professional creating a main focus on their products.

Pinterest

Boards: 20
Pins: 443
Followers: 3,975
Following: 83
Real Techniques pinterest page has boards devoted to different topics, such as: our brushes, storage solutions, how to: contouring, runway to real etc.

Google+

Followers: 1,534
Views: 580,085
Probably the least popular company's social media page. It has mainly reposts from YouTube and links to their website. You can notice that some of the pictures look like they've been taken from the magazine (the ones with products and numbers next to them), that is probably because right now sisters are working on their digital magazine.

CURRENT METRICS

GoogleTrends

IceRocket

SocialMention

The new campaign also influenced the company's website popularity and increased the number visitors.

Compete

CONCLUSION

As you can see from above charts Bold Metals collection is quite popular. It is being very actively discussed on social media websites. This of no surprise, this is the second brush line by Real Techniques. People wanted something new and exciting since the first brush entered the market in 2011. The main and most important product feature - quality is still the same and even better, and of course company still uses high-tech materials. The new design is more slick and luxurious and very different from the old one.

Can't stop checking your social media accounts? Fill anxious about missing out? - You have FoMO.

Do you ever find yourself worried that everybody else is doing something fun without you? 

You may have FoMO.

 FoMO stands for Fear of Missing Out, it is a psychological phenomenon that may have devastating effect on your life. Andrew Przybylski defines FoMO as "a pervasive apprehension that others might behaving rewarding experiences from which one is absent, FoMO is characterized by the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing".
 However Andrew Przybylski was not the first one who define FoMO, Dan Herman was. He observed this phenomenon back in 90's and was the first to come up with the term. He's been listening to consumers who "...expressed a clearly fearful attitude towards the possibility of failing to exhaust their opportunities". It appeared to be a new phenomenon  in customer psychology. Later on he began researching FoMO more as a socio-cultural phenomenon and as a personality factor. And it is no wonder that Dan Herman inspired other scientists to study this new phenomenon.

 Surely enough social media and social networks in particular are a good thing as "they connect people who've moved apart even as they enable people who live close together to keep up with one another...help to create new relationships" (23 Groundswell). But sometimes there is a dark side. And it is FoMO. It has been out there for probably forever, but now with all these social media websites at our fingertips we may suffer from it more then ever before. If you are an active social media user there are chances you may experience FoMO. And when you miss out on some important peace of information your level of stress and anxiety jumps up.

 It may sound naive or even impossible, but people should probably learn how to use social networks and on-line technologies moderately. It is important to know the limit as an overuse of social media is an addiction which is just like any other kind of addiction. It also a good thing to identify your priorities. What is more important to you, what party your BFF crashed without you or the fact that your project deadline is tomorrow.

 If you are curious what your FoMO rate is, you can take an online questionnaire that was used by Andrew Przybylski and other scientists in their study featured in the article "Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out".

 And you may end up with this result, just like I did:

According to latest studies around 70% of all adults in developed countries suffer from FoMO.

 Stop FOMO! Fight it! Figuring out your own priorities will help you stop feeling overwhelmed by what other people do without you. To fight FoMO Andrew Przybylski recommends “knowing not just what your plans are for Saturday night, but what are your reasons for wanting to do that thing on Saturday night [...] why the heck you’re going out in the first place.” Ones you understand what you want you will be less bothered by what other people do.

Coca-Cola Company and Social Media Engagement

The topic for this post is going to be something that almost everybody have tried in their life and many of us loved it. It's one and only 

First of all lets observe all of Coca-Cola Company brands, because there are quite a few!

Just look at that! You wouldn't probably think that Coca-Cola owns that many, would you?

It must be really hard to keep an eye on all of them in terms of developing right marketing strategies and campaigns.

All companies struggle answering the question - what does the customer want? And sometimes they chose to do something that would satisfy every customer out there. That's what Coca-Cola Company did.

I hope everybody has tried or at least seen this marvel of science and technology! 

Meet Coca-Cola Freestyle!

Never seen it before? Don't you worry! I will tell what it is. It's a Coca-Cola fountain where you basically can add any kind of flavour to any of Coca-cola drinks. Sounds like fun, right? You can get more than 100 drink combinations of some regular and low-calorie brands, this includes varieties of waters, sports drinks, lemonades and sparkling waters.

But even having this miracle of miracles Coca-Cola uses crowdsourcing and maintains a visible appearance on Facebook and other social networking sites. With millions of fans Coca-Cola uses the power of social networking to spread its word and to here what its customers are willing to say. Using social networking helps it to stay young and fresh. The brand always wants Coca-Cola products to be associated  with positive feelings. 

Coca-Cola likes its social media engagement to be transparent and even shows its Social Media Principles on company's website.

The majority of companies use social networking sites to get feedback, and most of the feedback is usually positive. Knowing that you’re doing right surely can be helpful, but positive feedback isn't enough to drive progress. Instead of spending an enormous amount of time and money on market research companies can successfully maintain their relationships with customers in social media. Companies should simply ask customers in their posts and tweets. "[...] customers don't take long to tell you what they want. They use your product and interact with your company; they know what's wrong and how things can be fixed." (183) However companies shouldn't expect that customers would tell them what to do - "they just make suggestions [...] companies are listening to and acting on many of these suggestions." (194)

Coca-Cola Company is one of the biggest companies in the global marketplace. It constantly launching new campaigns. Here are some of the huge and recent ones: 

- Coke Zero campaign on eyeka.com - a contest for the best Video/Animation which captures a tagline ”It’s possible!”;

- Coca-cola Design+ Award campaign in Germany - a contest for developing concept ideas for the bottle crate of future.

And there are many more others that were done and yet more to come!

Whether it's a big or a small campaign it encourages company's customers to use social media and help promote the brand.

The good news about social media is that it’s very good for trying out something new and talking to customers and all at once.

Let me know whether you like the idea of Coca-Cola Freestyle or not? And if you tried it, tell me know what your favourite flavour is!

Cats and the Groundswell

Let's face it, everybody loves to watch good cat videos every once in a while! I do! And YouTube is one of the best places to do it. There are quite a few famous internet cats such as Snoopy Cat, Maru, Grumpy Cat, Nala Cat, Lil BUB, Hamilton, Oskar&Klaus and even a cartoon Simon's Cat! Each of them is unique in a certain way and has a vivid personality.

I'm sure you recognize at least some of them unless you've been living under a rock!

Besides entertaining videos these lovely creatures participate in commercials and cooperate with famous brands. Right before Christmas 2013 Friskies aired a music video called "Hard To Be a Cat at Christmas" on its YouTube channel starring some internet-famous cats - Oskar the blind cat, Nala Cat, Colonel Meow, Hamilton the hipster cat and Grumpy Cat. The commercial claimed that Friskies will donate a can of wet food to cats in need for every video view starting after 500,000 views.  The video has over 3 million views. BTW Grumpy Cat is featured in at least 13 videos on this channel and has a separate playlist Grumpy Cat & Friskies®! And this isn't a coincidence - Grumpy Cat got Lifetime Achievment Award at The Friskies in 2013 for the best cat video. Since then Friskies and Grumpy Cat started their partnership. She was also named 2012's most influential cat by MSNBC.

Hands down Grumpy Cat is probably the most popular and richest cats in the world. Grumpy cat - a.k.a Tardar Sauce - known for her grumpy facial expression, has a fortune worth $120 million which is more than some Hollywood's biggest celebrity humans have. Tardar Sauce became Grumpy cat over two years ago when her picture was posted to the social news website Reddit on September 22, 2012. Since that time her popularity hasn't stop growing. Internet is full of memes with her pictures and funny sayings. She is everywhere!

Of course there is an owner behind each of these cats whom we not necessarily know by sight, but who started all of THESE and boosted the popularity of their beloved pets. They started their involvement in the groundswell and it looks like there is no way back.

These felines prove that the groundswell is not only for humans.

With this kind of involvement in the groundswell with millions of views and thousands of followers there is a whole market waiting for the buyers. You can find any kind of things featuring famous internet cats from wall calendars and look-a-like plush toys on out to books and films.

Maybe someday these cats will have stars on Hollywood Boulevard or monuments to perpetuate their names.

We can draw a conclusion that owners can use their cats to help other animals via the groundswell. Cats are a good tool to attract and engage people.

Even a cat can swim like a fish in the groundswell so why can't anybody?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumpy_Cat

https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/new-idea/real-life/a/25713506/grumpy-cat-worth-a-whopping-120-million/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2864212/Not-grumpy-Cat-internet-star-owner-64million.html

Online clothing shops and the groundswell

So the reason why I chose this topic is simple...recently I ran out of new videos in my YouTube subscriptions feed so I dared to find new channels to watch and subscribe to. The first thing that came to my thirsty for shopping mind was my favorite online clothing shop - ASOS. I was very much surprised by a small number of subscribers (comparing to some entertainment YouTube channels that I watch) so I decided to check out a few other popular online retailers' channels such as Topshop, Macy's, Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters. And I found that non of them were any close to pitiful 100,000 subscribers! How come? Do these companies even participate in the groundswell?!

Let's first take a dive into the theory! Shall we?

In Groundswell, the authors mention the marketing funnel that shows the way people become buyers (101 Groundswell).

Where do online clothing shops meet the groundswell? Well, everywhere! But I would like to turn your attention to the part where communication happens.

The Social Technographics ladder

The authors of the book point out that marketers have little control over what happens in the middle of the funnel as it is heavily influenced by the groundswell, which means that customers here are engaged in conversations on different social networks (101 Groundswell). The conversation includes customers of all Social Technographics Profile groups, however the dialogue itself is made by Creators and Critics (posts, blogs, comments, etc.) and never goes unseen by Spectators(43, 102 Groundswell).

In the modern economy companies should not only keep their eye on this activities - they should participate in the communication! And the better they participate the more buyers they will get.

Nowadays this kind of company-buyer communication happens on social networks. What are the most popular social networks that are used by the modern companies? Some of them may vary, but the most common and widespread are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube.

Now we are turning back to the first page. Let's compare social network involvement of those popular online retailers mentioned in the beginning of this blog:

as of 2 February 2015

	Facebook	Twitter	Google +	Pinterest	Instagram	YouTube
ASOS	3,596,057	798K	2,260,567	402,111	2.6M	38,962
Topshop	4,130,773	1.06M	2,255,927	97,805	3.7M	50,128
Macy's	14,718,980	734K	-	104,258	254K	16,643
Nordstrom	3,096,476	548K	-	4,418,975	744K	20,650
Urban Outfitters	2,127,314	967K	-	155,125	2.4M	20,282

As you can see it's just YouTube that isn't quite popular, there are more participants on other social networks. And you can see that ASOS and others are doing quite alright after all!

But we all know that having a big number of followers or subscribers doesn't necessarily mean that the company is keeping up in the groundswell, but it still gives the general idea. I doubt that unsatisfied costumers would not unsubscribe from those social networks, and by "unsatisfied costumer" I also mean those whose issues and concerns got no answer from the company.

Have you ever had a good/bad experience communicating with a company via social networking website? What would you like it to improve?