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Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. As of November 2016, it operates 23,768 locations worldwide. Starbucks uses social media platforms to advertise its drinks and a way to connect with its customers. It has 37.32 million Facebook likes, 11.9 million Twitter followers, 15.8 million Instagram followers and 146K YouTube subscribers. The Starbucks team uses Twitter as a service to reach out to customers talking about their in-store or product experiences. All Tweets are directed at specific Twitter users who've "spoken" to Starbucks in their own timeline, sometimes with a complaint or negative feedback. The Starbucks team checks in several times a day and encourages dissatisfied customers to get in touch with the company for follow-up using a Twitter-specific email address. It's an unorthodox but smart approach to deal with customer complaints before they have a chance to get out of hand. Despite Starbucks being a huge company, they still give customers individual attention which no doubt goes a long way toward keeping them coming back for more. It also uses Facebook posts to strike a good balance between fun contests, helpful tips for the java-loving crowd, and subtle sales messages to its customers and Instagram as an assortment of cool images related to the coffee community and culture.

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Taco Bell, the Tex-Mex fast food chain has become prominent on every social media platform, creating a unique social media presence that’s unparalleled to its competition. This is done so by embracing a brand’s social media personality. The fast food company have defined their youth-based demographic and have found a way to appeal to them through a witty and unapologetically sardonic sense of humor. Many of Taco Bell’s social media exchanges have managed to go viral, which has resulted in multiple media outlets doing stories on the company’s social media moves and in turn, end up doing a portion of the marketing for them.

They also engage with customers through influencer marketing in real time. Taco Bell found a way to connect with their audience by engaging with them in real time. It’s a simple yet time consuming strategy, but one that has proven to grow Taco Bell’s social media following. Part of Taco Bell’s content strategy involves influencer marketing where they connect with influencers or other brands that aren’t necessarily associated with the brand but have amassed sizable fan bases on their own merit.

Another way Taco Bell has managed to get their brand out there is by infiltrating trends in an organic way. The company has managed to have multiple tweets go viral by jumping on existing hashtags and trends that are prominent in the moment which further instills a personality behind the brand.

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Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in April 1976 to develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Apple used YouTube to promote the sale of Apple Products. They have over 5.5 million subscribers on their official YouTube channel and 2.5 Million followers on Instagram. Apple uses mainly YouTube to promote their product such as iPhone X and iPhone 8. If you use YouTube often, you will see that Apple have unskippable advertisement.
However, it isn't Apple advertising. If you think you have seen Apple advertising their iPhone products you are mistaken. What you have actually seen is some other company advertising Apple’s products for them. Apple are so clever that they have actually managed to get other companies (mainly mobile phone operators) to pay for, and execute advertising for them. Apple iPhone ads are in fact paid for by a network operators who want to advertise that they sell the iPhone.
Apple is also expanding its social media outreach. The company has just launched a new YouTube channel to teach people how to use their Apple devices, like the iPhone and iPad, via video tutorials.

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Red Bull is an energy drink produced by Austrian company Red Bull GmBH. Red Bull used instagram to promote the sale of their new tropical flavoured summer energy drink in the australian market. Before the summer began, they incorporated yellow filters across a range of images and videos potraying a typical summer day. The filters coincided with the same look of the new cans. Because, the brand was also assosiated with the #thissummer. It raised awareness of their new drink, since many people use instagram. Red Bull also uses Facebook to promote its image as a lifestlye brand, rather than a drink company. Their facebook wall is filled with images or videos of extreme sports and atheletes, many of which red bull sponsors. People begin to think of red bull as more than just an energy drink after seeing their facebook page. Red bull changes the preception of its customers about its own brand.

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Swatch is a watch company. Nicolas George Hayek, a Swiss-Lebanese entrepreneur, co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Swatch Group, with principal headquarters in Biel/Bienne. Swatch uses Facebook and Instagram to promote their new watches. The Instagram account of swatch promote all the special swatch for special event or activity such as Christmas and black Friday customer can take picture of their new swatch watch then post on their moments and hashtag my swatch for a chance to be featured. Swatch company also uses Facebook as their marketing platform. The facebook pages will also show the latest product of swatch company.  The Facebook page will show the local event that held by swatch company and all the event details such as where the event at, what time the event starts and end.

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Zalora is an online retailer store, founded by Rocket Internet. It first started operations in 2012, and now operates in 8 different countries in Southeast Asia. They have different websites for each different country, allowing it to cater to the needs of the different customer bases.
Zalora uses Instagram to market its brand. It has created several different country-specific Instagram pages. Users of Instagram stand a chance to be featured on Zalora's site if they use the hashtag #ZALORAStyleEdit. Furthermore, Zalora has ads placed on Instagram, which appears at times when users are scrolling through their story. Zalora also uses Instagram Story to advertise its brand, in hope to increase brand awareness and attracting more consumers to use Zalora.

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Craftholic is a series of huggable and stylish plush cushions designed by the Japanese designer, Ikuko Yamamoto. Craftholic products feature 4 key characters: Korat Cat, Loris Monkey, Rab Bunny and Sloth Bear.
Craftholic Japan uses twitter more often even though they have their own website. They post limited edition plush only available at certain store on twitter but not in their official website.
Craftholic Singapore also uses social media such as Instagram, @craftholicsingapore. They post their newest arrivals flown in from japan as well as on going promotions. They have a official website too however, they are more active in instagram to reach out to more customers.

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Airbnb is founded in August 2008. It is an online marketplace and hospitality service, which allows people to lease or rent short-term lodging. The company does not own any of the lodging listed, it is a broker that receives a percentage of service fees from guests and hosts. Airbnb has 2.5million followers on Instagram and 631K followers on Twitter. They are very active on these social platforms too. If you visit their Instagram or twitter, they partner with professional photographers and posts attractive photos on their social media, which I believe attracts people to go visit these places and use Airbnb as their accommodation. Apart from Instagram and Twitter, they have a YouTube channel with 93K subscribers. They post a new video every week. Among all the videos, there is this one video that has 13 Million views, and that is “Don’t go there, #livethere”. This video emphasizes how one should not visit countries and just be a tourist there, e.g. living in hotels, queuing for attractions, taking photos etc. Instead, use Airbnb and live like a local there. With creative campaign video and a YouTube channel, it has definitely attracted and reached out to a lot of people. In conclusion, with the use of different social media platforms, Airbnb has definitely made good use of them to promote their services.

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Dove is a personal care brand owned by Unilever originating in the United Kingdom. The products are sold in more than 80 countries and are offered for both women and men.
Dove mainly uses Twitter and YouTube for their Real Beauty Campaign. One of Dove's Real Beauty campaign, "Dove Real Beauty Sketches", is a short film produced in 2013  to show women that they are more beautiful than they think they are by comparing self-descriptions to those of strangers. The film that was posted on YouTube created a sensation upon its online release in April 2013, quickly going viral. More than 15 million people viewed the video within a week of its release. This video not only received many awards but also drove $24 million in incremental sales, a 550% return on investment and media exposure worth $52 million. While Dove's campaign has successfully increase their sales, it also has increased women's confidence according to a research from a Harvard psychologist, Nancy Etcoff.

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Nike, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services. The company was founded on January 25, 1964, as Blue Ribbon Sports, by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1971.  Nike use Facebook to promotion, customer engagement, discussion and even for customer service.  The photos that posted in Facebook are related to Nike products and marketing campaigns and several of them relate to the events sponsored around the world by Nike. As these photos and videos are full of impact because of the creativity and imagination. In twitter, Nike promotes its brands and products as well as events through the several accounts and regularly tweets to its fans and followers. On Google plus, Nike regularly posts photo and video updates on Google Plus to keep its fans and followers engaged. Followers plus one the posts they like and leave their comments. Thus, it uses the platform for promotion and discussion both. In Youtube,  Nike’s promotional videos are made to inspire energy and enthusiasm. Nike itself is a brand devoted to sports.  The focus of these videos is the unending energy that is in every devoted athlete. These videos are made to inspire athlete to push the line farther and to engage the fans.

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The "Oreo Biscuit" was first developed and produced by the National Biscuit Company (today known as Nabisco) in 1912 in Chelsea. Oreo social media marketing team is well-known for being innovative and agile. The team takes advantage of real-time events to get creative and make viral tweets. After 10 minutes a blackout happened in 2013 Super bowl, Oreo tweeted "Power out? No problem." along with an image of an Oreo cookie in dark with the words "You can still dunk in the dark." The tweet generated over 16 thousand retweets. Another example is when Sony launched their PlayStation 4. Oreo tweeted "Can we play?" with an image of a PS4 controller with Oreo as its analog sticks. This prompted a reply from the XBox twitter account, creating an online banter.
Instead of a normal advertisement which customers cannot relate to immediately, real time engagement allows Oreo to promote content that they know consumers want to see because of the right timing.

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GoPro, Inc. is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nicholas D. “Nick” Woodman. It manufactures eponymous action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video-editing software. It also sells mountable and wearable cameras, and accessories in the United States and internationally.

GoPro, Inc uses Instagram to promote their products. However, instead of them promoting their own products, most of their posts are photos and videos taken by users of GoPro. By doing this, they let their customers speak and promot on their behalf as it shows the experience the users had using GoPro.

The photos and videos taken by users on their Instagram page mostly comes from the project of GoPro Awards. It is done to encourage GoPro users to share more video footages and photos. How it works is that firstly, people across the world will submit their photos, raw clips and/or edited footages to the GoPro Awards website, https://gopro.com/awards. Thereafter, the company will choose their favourites amongst all that was submitted to them. Lastly, they will award the owner of the selected post through either social stoke, GoPro gear and cash rewards. The company selects one photo/video to feature on its Instagram page daily.

Therefore, by having most of its posts taken from users of GoPro, potential customers will know how good the quality of GoPro cameras are outside as there are countless of examples being shown on the Instagram page where he/she can scroll through to see, which might result to the person buying GoPro, Inc. products.

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Ofo is a bicycle sharing company founded in 2014 by Dai Wei in Beijing.Over the last 3 years it expanded its operations overseas and became a multinational company and was launched in Singapore in February 2017. Ofo uses various social media platforms such as facebook,twitter and instagram to promote on its latest giveaways by such as liking and sharing their facebook page and would give promotions such as the latest "ride more win big" where users stand to win attractive prizes such as the PS4 when they complete as many rides as possible that is at least 200m from 17 November till 1 December. Ofo would also provide free rides for a certain period for its users with no deposit required to use their bikes.This encourages more users to ride more of their bikes as they stand out from their competitors as they use the 3 social media platforms to promote their giveaways and free rides that are available which are very frequent as compared to mobike and Obike.

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McDonald's is a fast food restaurant that has millions of ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ on Facebook. The McDonald's media feeds are being constantly updated on Facebook. The company often use current and seasonal events to their advantage. For example, at a time when students up and down the country would have been moving into their new accommodation, McDonald’s suggested sharing a box of chicken nuggets to make friends.
McDonald’s posts not regularly update and they not regularly make respond to the thousands of user comments it receives. Most of its posts are just product range promotions and upcoming changes to the menu. Even so, it maintains with each post attracting several thousand ‘likes’ and comments which mean a lot of people are concern about their business, as well as their new product.

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Daniel Wellington is a watch company founded by Filip Tysander.The strap of the watch is interchangeable thus we can change it anytime we want. There are 3 different types of straps-NATO, leather and mesh.Daniel Wellington uses Facebook and Instagram to promote its watches.The Instagram account of Daniel Wellington feature great shots of photos taken by customers while wearing their watches. Influencers will also promote on their Instagram account for DW and followers can quote their names to get additional discount. For example, on Black Friday, if we quote "peishi15" we can get an additional 15% discount.Daniel Wellington also uses Facebook as their marketing platform.The Facebook page will show the latest sales that is available on their websites as well as photos of their new products.There is also a Facebook chat when we have any questions and they will reply our queries within hours.

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Netflix is a streaming service that allows customers to watch a wide variety of award-winning TV shows, movies, documentaries on thousands of Internet-connected devices. It is a company that uses Facebook, a social media tool, for marketing purposes. Facebook, being Netflix’s main social media network, gained seven million new global Facebook followers in a short span of a year. Netflix uses geo-targeting for their Facebook Pages. Splitting the content into the regions helps them offering only the most relevant information to the target audience. Netflix’s Facebook also uses humour to connect with its audience. This gives them an opportunity to be very ‘likeable’ and ‘follow-able’. It also proves how well they know their audience. Apart from that, Netflix even answers to their Facebook Fans (the U. S Page) comments on a regular basis. The specialty of Netflix and its social media strategy is that not only they talk but also makes an effort to listen to their audience. Netflix has a very coherent strategy aimed to entertain their fans and this helps them to send a very clear and targeted message all over the social media universe. Informed by social listening they do a great job in delighting their audience with the perfectly tailored offerings, the language and the sense of humour that gets them truly phenomenal results.

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Uber is a company that drives brand identification through an interdisciplinary team. They  use social media to their advantage to connect and maintain engagement in their customers through deals and promotions such as "$5 Rides and $5 (or Less) Happy Hour Deals" due to the simple fact that they have strong connection between customer service, public relations and marketing which are all part of the Uber online community. They use social media tools such as Facebook to post their promotions at @UberIND with a hashtag for the region it applies to. When someone posts on Uber's social media, within minutes there will be a comment saying that the problem will be taken care of.  This builds trust and reliability between the company and the Uber community.
Furthermore, they use social media to release new products or services, while capturing the social talk surroundings, which enables the interdisciplinary teams to capture the consumer sentiment, so they can tweak their product in with a rapid turnover. Allowing Uber to get word out about their new services swiftly.

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Best Fiends is a game made by a Finnish mobile entertainment company and it uses YouTube to promote. It uses YouTube as a marketing tool by sponsoring YouTubers. YouTubers will then create a video and include a short time frame of about 1 minute to talk about the game and advertise it. They would also show their viewers how to play the game and how far they’ve progressed into the game. Normally, this encourages the viewers to participate as well since many YouTubers have played the game and it is considered as a “trend”. The game company has also stated that it is spending 90% of its marketing budget on influencer campaigns and that in 2016 has already sponsored over 700 YouTube videos and counting. Many popular and famous YouTubers have been sponsored by Best Fiends, namely PewDiePie, Shane Dawson and NikkieTutorials. With over 8 million subscribers and easily over 1 million views on their each of their videos, it is easy to imagine how much popularity Best fiends is accumulating. The results also speak for themselves, In the past year, Best Fiends has accrued over 150,000,000 million total video views, and daily active user growth increased from 9% to 21% over the same time period, according to Seriously. At the same time, daily installs have increased by six-fold and daily revenue in the U.S. has increased by four-fold. To date, Best Fiends counts 40,000,000 downloads and 2,000,000 daily active users. In the meantime, the company has racked up its own sizable social following, comprising 5,000,000 fans across all platforms, it says.

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Ezbuy is a third party forwarding service company that helps shoppers to ship their items from Taobao’s shops to their country of residence. Ezbuy uses Instagram to promote their services. They created several Instagram accounts based on regions that they would want to focus on. There is a ezbuy.sg Instagram account which caters to the Singapore market, and offers many discounts and organized many giveaways to its followers. Many social influencers also promote Ezbuy services on their Instagram account and give their followers discounts. There are many social influencers in SP that help sponsor Ezbuy. For example, @supdion and @viviansashimi. They promote events like 11.11 sales, and provide many incentives to people who don’t use ezbuy. When followers use the link that they provide, followers would get a $10 voucher off their first purchase. They also advertise their services through advertisement in Instagram stories and also in users' feed.

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Individual Online Task

•Research on the following question and post your answers individually on Padlet. Your module tutor will create and send you the padlet link for your class.

•Please submit your answers by next Friday (1 Dec 2017)

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Social Media is a good platform for businesses to do their marketing. Businesses can use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs, YouTube and Snapchat to promote their products and services.
Give a real-life example of a company using any 1 of the above social media tools for marketing purpose. Explain in detail how the tool is being used by the company.