Optimizing Social Influencers

   
     There are many different ways companies can use social media in their product campaigns  and we have seen many different examples over the last couple years. We have seen companies making viral videos like GoDaddy.com, blasting messages on all social media channels like, or companies that use social media without giving valuable content. These are all possible ways to utilize social media, but they are not successful. They do nothing to suit the needs of the customer. As social media becomes more and more integrated in the average marketing campaign, we will see how different companies use this new channel.

Ford Fiesta

     Ford has recently started a social media campaign for the 2014 Fiesta. In this campaign, Ford is recruiting 100 "social influencers" from an application process to help create advertisements and content as a marketing campaign for the car. These influencers will be given a Ford Fiesta for 6 months to film videos and ads which will then be posted online in various social media platforms as well as in mainstream television ads. This is a new way for Ford to try and gain traction in the social sphere.

     It will be very interesting to see how this campaign is received by the public. Some people may see it as invasive recruiting people to post advertisements that they are being compensated for. Other people may see it as a smart introduction to social media similar to endorsements that have been very common in the past years. I believe this is a very natural progression of marketing in social media. It has huge benefits for both the company and consumers, because great content will be created based on what customers want. The company also gets positive feedback from their ads focusing on consumers pain points. The downside to having people hired to post in social media is that they may not show all the facts. Ford may only permit certain content to be published which may make the ads seem less transparent to consumers. As the campaign gets started up, it will be interesting to see how consumers and the industry react.