Social Media Runs on Reaching the "Niches"

Dunkin' Donuts (DD) trend #WaffleWeDD had me "waffling" -- or thinking -- once again about how companies can utilize Twitter to reach niches in market. A large, franchised company, like DD, can use advertisements to reach the general masses while simultaneously building an online presence to reach the segmented groups within the masses.

When I walk into DD, its clientele differs somewhat from Starbucks. When I go to DD and order my medium, iced coffee, skim milk and sugar (please?), I generally see construction people, police officers, mothers, and younger people who are on the go. Starbucks generally attracts the artsy folk, who free ride on internet wifi.

That's why DD's #WaffleWeDD was an interesting hashtag because it completely contradicts the slogan, "America Runs on Dunkin'." Yet, it still was a great attempt to build more than a strong online presence, but an online community. Online communities are developed when companies create the foundation for open communication.

Social media networks can connect users through a market of free thoughts type of communication. Yet, even though a company cannot control users conversation content, it still can build online communities while upholding branding efforts.

How does this happen?

1. Probably the most obvious, create strategic hashtags. These hashtags are probably most effective if they create content that the average person can use in a sentence. For example, my friend's tweet said, "@DunkinDonuts I'm waffling about what to pack for the beach! Just because I'm ready for summer doesn't mean Maine is! #WaffleWeDD.
2. Encourage user interactivity by asking for feedback. Not only do users engage in thoughful conversation, but they can share their life with the company. The result? Increased customer loyalty through a more personal experience.
3. Retweet users who have used hashtag in witty way. This encourages more conversation, interactivity between different users.
4. Tweet at users who are opinion leaders! This relates to my last post and is especially important to increase social media outreach.

DD's waffling was successful because it did all of numbers one through four and made it a contest! The only opportunity cost to win a $50 gift card was taking maybe two minutes out of your life and tweet.

So lets sum this up. Social media is an effective platform for community building for niches, not mass media. Online communities can be built through message outreach. Yet, a company's brand does not have to be sacrificed; instead, users and companies through content creation create a brand through a collaborative team effort.

#ThankYou but watch out or #illpunchyouintheface

The two twitter trends that caught my eye this week ranged from nice to not-so-nice.

1. #ThankYou grabbed my attention because it was a promoted trending topic. At first, #ThankYou seemed like a random trend, and I wondered what company promoted this. Coca Cola was the force behind this trending topic. Its tweet stated: A great show from all our performers today, and a great show of support from our fans the last 125 years. #ThankYou 

I like to think of twitter as a market place of consumer ideas. In this context, promoted hashtags are important because it makes Twitter a viable option for companies to influence conversation in a non-invasive way. What's interesting is many of the hashtags for #ThankYou were not even about Coca Cola; users were thanking people in their lives from moms to Justin Bieber. Yet, any user viewing the #ThankYou conversation saw Coca Cola as the first tweet.

The simplicity of #ThankYou made me wonder if companies could or would want to claim rights to certain hashtags? I'll let that idea marinate.



2. After feeling good about my mother, Justin Bieber and Coca Cola, #illpunchyouintheface caught my attention because it was so harsh! Lord_Voldemort7's tweet was the instigator to this negative energy in twitter world. His tweet stated: #illpunchyouintheface if I want to and I bet you'll think it was awesome.

Unlike, #ThankYou, #illpunchyouintheface was not promoted. Lord_Voldemort7 is one of the most highly followed users with more than 1 million followers. His market reach is significant; promoted trends are not the only way for companies to reach consumers. Companies can target specific consumers using key opinion leaders -- or tweeters! -- to reach even the narrowest of niches.

What does this say about the collective conscious of twitterland? Businesses can use promoted tweets to reach the masses, but use non promoted tweets to reach smaller, narrower groups of consumers. Finally, these trends make me wonder if negative or positive tweets are more likely to trend? More on that later.

Social Media is Worth Noticing

As I was stumbling upon a group discussion board in LinkedIn, I came across this video about social media statistics . The video highlights facts from Erik Qualman's book, Socialnomics. I saw the original video during one of my classes as an undergraduate and it inspired me to start this blog. Enjoy!