Social Media in the Medical Community - Final Project

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The Chevy Volt - Brand Monitoring Report # 2

Chevy Volt

Brand Review
As previously discussed, I decided to monitor the Chevy Volt.  The Chevy Volt is GMs first electric car that was delivered to the public in November of 2010.  Despite the company’s attempt to position the car as a groundbreaking new product that would generate lots of sales, interest has been lower then expected.  Since its inception, GM has only sold 928 cars.

Report Monitoring Comparison
In comparing the data compiled from Social Mention in my first report, to that from the second report, I found that there was a fairly significant drop in terms of strength.  Report 1 had strength at a high of 26% while report 2 only had a high of 14%.  Sentiment, passion, and reach were all comparable for the two time periods without much disparity.

Source:  www.socialmention.com

Secondly, I compared the two reports on the number of blogs from IceRocket and found that all 4 competing brands blogging increased by at least double except the Ford Focus.  I think this is in part due to the recent tsunami and earthquake in Japan.  The events in Japan have affected the Volt because several parts for the vehicle are produced in Japan.  This caused a lot of the blogging to be politically fueled.  Here is a snapshot of a side-by-side comparison of the two reports:



Source:  www.IceRocket.com 


The last data I compared was the number of YouTube videos.  Interestingly, the Volt was the only product that did not have any change in the number of videos.  All others increased significantly. 

Source:  www.YouTube.com

Marketing
I believe the target market for the Chevy Volt should be the men and women of Generation X (around 31 - 51) with successful careers.  They should also focus on technology savvy people and those that are interested in environmental issues.  Since the price tag for the Volt is around $40,000, it may be out of reach for those in their twenties and too technologically advanced for those in their sixties.

So What are Some of the Volt's Problems?

• GM's bad company image
• High price tag
• Unproven technology
• Lack of education to the public
• Limited production of the vehicle

Recommendations for GM
Image:  addressing one's company image is a tough business, however, it is crucial.  I think the companies that have been successful in changing the public's opinion are those that have repeatedly reached out through commercials and social media projecting transparency.  Companies like Toyota and BP have used both radical and controlled transparency and I believe it has worked for them.  GM needs to better address the public and be more transparent about how the company is doing and how they are spending the public's money.  They can accomplish this through main stream media as well as social media sites.
High Price Tag:  The Volt starts at around $40,000 and is much higher then the Toyota Prius (starting around $29,080) and the Nissan Leaf (starting around $34,570).  Why is this?  If the Volt is a better quality car or more advanced technologically then its competitors, educate the public on that fact.  Communicate, communicate, communicate.  Again, social media and marketing campaigns should focus on features which may drive up the cost of the car.
Unproven Technology:  This may take some time.  With only 928 cars sold to date, there really isn't enough evidence to support the longevity of the product, but continuing to communicate with the public on technology fixes and updates is critical.  Social media makes this very easy for companies to do.    
Lack of Education:  I believe that a lot of people are still confused about how electric cars work.  GM has done a poor job at educating the public on how the car operates.  They dedicated a social media site to the Volt (http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/), but it is uninspiring and fails to teach people about the product in a way everyone can understand.
Limited Production of the Vehicle:  The Volt is only available in 7 regions (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., California, Texas, and Michigan).  This can sometimes be a good thing because it can create excitement, but somehow I don't see people lining up at the dealer to purchase this $40,000 car when it becomes available.  What do you think?

The Chevy Volt - Brand Monitoring Report #1

The Beginning

Chevy Volt

In November of 2010, GM unveiled its first electric car, the Chevy Volt.  In an attempt to improve the struggling automaker’s image, GM introduced the Volt as their technology flagship.  They wanted to be able to develop a car that could not only compete with the likes of the Toyota Prius, but one that would also improve their image and grab attention in the marketplace. 

The Marketing Plan 

GM planned on marketing the Volt to the average consumer by positioning its product as more car then electric.  They wanted to calm fears about range anxiety for electric cars and educate people on the new technology as well as the features the car has to offer.  In order to do this, the company built a groundswell of support across multiple demographics by having a nationwide tour of the vehicle and creating marketing campaigns on Facebook, YouTube and everything else in between.  They developed a social media site for the Volt (http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/) which contains blogs, photos, videos, tweets, and community chats.  You may have seen their commercial which aired during the Super Bowl?  If not, check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJGeNK4d9T0

One interesting approach they took prior to the release of the car was to invite technology blog writers Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki, and Leo Laporte to drive the car.  Because the car is tech and gadget heavy, equipped with a smart phone app that enables you to lock, unlock, heat, cool and check the charge status, inviting these tech bloggers, who have large audiences, was a way to create more dialogue around the Volt through social media sites.  These individuals would naturally write about their experience, even if it was just to send a tweet about it.  So, how interested were people in the Volt and what were they saying about it?  I turned to various social media sites to try to find out. 

Social Media Monitoring
Over the past couple of months, I periodically used socialmention.com to monitor consumer engagement around the Volt.  I found that there were increases in strength, sentiment, and passion but not reach.  Reach had decreased slightly.  Here is a snapshot of the findings:



Source:  http://www.socialmention.com/



I also used IceRocket to monitor the number of blogs for the Chevy Volt and a few of its competitors.  I limited my search to the past month and found that the Volt did not have a lot of blogs while the Nissan Leaf had the most with results at 300 and 602 respectively.  I think that one reason there may have been more blogging about the Nissan Leaf was because there were many comments about Nissan having to halt production of the vehicle because of the recent tsunami and earthquake in Japan.  It will be interesting to see the results in future reports.






Source:  http://www.icerocket.com/



The last social media site I reviewed was YouTube.  I wanted to gage how many videos were available for the Chevy Volt compared to the same competitors.  I found that while the Volt did not have the most videos available for viewing, it was second only to the Prius.  The Ford Focus was again at the bottom with only 610 videos available.

Source:  http://www.youtube.com/

So, what are consumers actually saying about the Volt?  Here is a small sampling of some positive and negative reviews:

• why does it have to be so small and cramp. Can the mfg make an electric full size car or truck so the driver can sit comfortably instead of feeling crouched in a box?
• i'm honestly torn, both the Volt & the Leaf are amazing cars. But the look of the Volt (inside and out) is so much sexier. 
• i saw one today on the road, have to say, like it way more than the damn prius, looks cool, i might replace my big suv with it
• As invigorating as a golf cart.

The timing of the release of the Chevy Volt could not have been better for GM, or you would think anyways.  With gas prices at an all time high, and the constant campaigning around the negative effects that fuel has on the environment, it seemed certain they would have success.  The Chevy Volt was even named the 2011 Motor Trend Car of the Year, but sales for GM have not been great.  The company has sold only 928 cars to date. 

Although GM said they wanted to educate the public on how their electric car works, they seemed to have failed.  People are confused and leery about purchasing this vehicle.  The Volt's social media site lacks the excitement needed to engage people in the product.   Still, with only 3 months of sales to track, I think it is too soon to tell if the Volt will be a success for GM or not. 

Sources:  http://www.gm-volt.com/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevy_volt; http://www.cleanfleetreport.com/

The Voice of the Employee = The Voice of the Customer (R3)

It’s time companies’ start listening to their employees.  After all, it’s the employees that are most closely involved in the day-to-day operations and interactions with the customers – not management.  There was a time when it was frowned upon to speak out against company policies or processes, but social media and the groundswell has changed all that.

In chapter 11 of “Groundswell”, authors Li and Bernoff discuss Best Buys approach to tapping in to their employees’ knowledge and expertise.  They know the employees have their hand on the pulse of the customers’ needs and concerns.  As the Best Buy executives stated, “We wanted to get insight into what’s really happening at the store, not just when the store is spic and span for corporate visits.”  This was a brilliant move by Best Buy to close the gap between their employees and management, and at the same time, bringing them closer to the voice of the customer.

By giving their employees a platform to speak, management in turn could listen, and it fostered an environment for employees to feel that they had more of a stake in the company.  Providing this forum gave employees a sense accomplishment.  Employees want to feel as though what they do matters.  If you want to read more about Blue Shirt Nation, check out this article written in 2008 from TwinCities Business:  2009 Blue Shirt Nation Article.

When I read this story about Best Buy, I realized that it was very similar to a project recently introduced at my own company, Fidelity Investments.  The operations department has decided to open up a forum called CDPS (Communications Data & DC Plan Services) which is a place for employees to collaborate on ideas and concerns.  I have worked at Fidelity for 10 years, and I have never seen anything like it. 

CDPS Site at Fidelity

The announcement about the site read as follows:  “This site is designed to provide you with an opportunity to actively contribute to one of our key 2011 business plan objectives:  BUILD EFFICIENCIES and FOSTER EXPERIMENTATION.  As Chris Hock mentioned in his blog post, Spaces is a social media in a business setting that enables you to easily offer your ideas and generate conversation with your peers on how we can improve our operation and service delivery to our customers.”

Up until this point, I had never seen a blog post at Fidelity.  The company always sent out letters through email or they would post a letter on an intranet site – it was a one-way form of communication.  Posting this blog from our leader, Chris Hock, allowed employees to comment on his post and respond.  Below is a snap shot of his blog.

CDPS Management Blog

The CDPS site is extremely easy-to-use.  Management plans to utilize the site as an opportunity to share thoughts on how to best meet customer/client expectations...Like Best Buy’s employee site, it also allows employees to learn from each other instead of working in silos not knowing what other groups are doing..  Management will be able to identify common themes and prioritize concerns.  With the operations community collaborating, it will hopefully drive efficiencies overall for the company while giving employees a sense of pride and ownership.  I am glad to see Fidelity finally joining the groundswell! 

Source:  TwinCities Business.com; Fidelity Investments, Groundswell

How much is too much? Original #3

TMI:  We tweet it and text it, but do we really mean it?  Is there really such a thing as too much information?  I sometimes think so.  As we have been discussing all semester, social media has taken our society by storm, but I began to think about how does all of this information affect our personal and national safety, and how might it be used? 

On the personal level the question is; how much should we be sharing on sites like Facebook?  What steps should we take, if any, to assure our personal privacy?  Some experts say, “In order to keep your personal information private and safe from online predators, limit how much personal information you post.”  Security experts suggest including only basic information.  If long lost friends want to know what you do and where you live, you can share that information with them.

Another important part of protecting yourself online on sites like Facebook, is limiting friend requests.  I think some users place more importance on acquiring the maximum number of friends, versus protecting their personal privacy.  Some people accept every friend request they get, even if they don’t know the person.

On the national level, several agencies like the National Security Agency, US Army, US Navy, US Coast Guard, and The White House have embraced the social media movement, but some of the same rules as personal security apply; only basic information should be shared.

In 2010, the Department of Defense (DOD) developed the “Responsible and Effective Use of Internet-based Capabilities Policy” (see policy here: http://michaelvallez.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DoDSocialMediaPolicy.pdf) to addresses the military’s use of sites such as:  Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and Twitter.  It was obvious to the DOD the important role that social media sites played in keeping soldiers connected to their families, however, they could not ignore the risk of TMI being made public.  In fact, one branch of the military, the Marines, decided there was too many risks associated with social media and banned the use of all sites from all US Marine network computers.

Although the military embraced the social media revolution and a policy for use was put into place, could they really have stopped the use of social media?  How could they even police it?  Trying to monitor the soldiers’ use of these sites would be very difficult, and would most likely take time away from more important things like protecting this country.

The point of all this is to use caution when blogging, posting, tweeting, texting, or video taping things.  Use common sense.  Remember, what you post on the internet, even if retracted, may come back to haunt you.  Think before you share TMI!

Source: http://michaelvallez.com/tag/social-media-and-national-security/

It's All About the Community - Reflection 2

Advertising has changed tremendously throughout my lifetime.  It seems as though companies continue to push the envelope and no topic is off limits; embarrassing or not.  Recently, I was watching TV with my 9 year-old stepson when a commercial for Viagra came on, and he turned to me and asked, “What’s Viagra?”  Needless to say, I was at a loss for words and embarrassed at the question.  I simply explained that it was a grownup thing, but I’m sure he later Googled it to find out what it was!

Because of the lack of discretion by most advertisers, it was interesting to me to read in Groundswell that Proctor & Gamble didn’t want to market their feminine products to young teens through the use of mainstream mediums.  Just because you send the advertising message to the consumer, it doesn’t mean it is always received, especially if it’s embarrassing to talk about.  Groundswell discusses Proctor & Gamble’s awareness of the resistance to discussing feminine products, and the different approach they decided to take as a result.  They chose to focus on girls’ problems, versus marketing to them, by developing the website beinggirl.com. 

www.beinggirl.com

The site provided a place for young girls to talk to each other and get answers to embarrassing questions that they may not want to ask their parents, and do so anonymously.  You can decide to join or simply observe.  Authors Li and Bernoff state that, “Nearly half of girls ages twelve to fifteen are community-loving Joiners.”



The Social Technographics Profile of young girls, ages 12 - 18



P&G knew that they needed to create a site that would be a community.  It had to not focus solely on feminine products, but many other topics that girls were interested in like boys, relationships, music, shaving, etc.  The point was to create a safe, online community for teenage girls and to get them talking.  Through their website, they provided the opportunity for discussions around their products that people would most likely not have face-to-face.  By doing this, P&G could subtly advertise, reach their audience, and participate in conversations with customers where they would not have been able to otherwise.

Proctor & Gamble’s approach to creating an online community is just one of many examples of the marketing uses through social media.  This approach may not be for everyone, but it certainly worked for P&G.  They brought the teens to them; they provided the forum, and let them do the talking.  They also allowed for anonymity.  We have been discussing in class the fact that our online identities give us the liberty to be someone else or in this case, maybe ask an embarrassing question.

Feeling a part of a community is important to most people.  When we are with others like us, we feel accepted and not alone.  Companies can use this to their advantage by creating an online community related to what they are trying to sell.  There is always the risk of negative talk, but the advantages seem to outweigh the risk.  I could have used some of these online communities growing up, what about you?

Where did all that grammar go? - W5O

Remember the days of Schoolhouse Rock? It was a series of animated musical short films that aired on Saturday mornings aimed at educating kids.  They covered topics such as grammar, science, economics and history.  There were films like “Conjunction Junction, What’s Your Function”, “Interjections!”, and “Grammar Pronouns”.  But, what happened to all those English lessons we had?  Do they apply in the world of social media?

As we recently discussed in class, the way we communicate has continued to change over time, and with it so has the English language.  Through our use of social media and technology, as well as our need for immediacy, we have shortened our sentences and created many new words.  Some recent additions to the Oxford Dictionary are tweetups, hashtag, tag cloud, and unfriend. 

While the English language has always evolved, the speed at which things are changing is incredible.  In the article, “The Impact of Social Media on the English Language”, the author states, “New variations on words and acronyms are posted via Twitter and other microblogs, on popular blogs, through text messaging and more. Prior to these social technologies, when print, television and radio was the only mass communication medium, such evolution of words and how they are used took a long time. Not anymore.”  As Giles stated, it is not only words that are changing; we now have acronyms like brb, lol, ttyl, that are replacing entire sentences.  We can also communicate how we are feeling through symbols inserted into messages.  Most phones also come equipped with common quick insert texts like, on my way, thanks, and goodnight so that we don't even have to type the sentence.

So have all these changes ruined the English language?  Some academics believe that social media is the death of the English language, but I believe it is just another form of communicating.  I think the problem exists when online English is used to replace offline English.  You must know when it is appropriate to use which form otherwise, you will create confusion, and a possible breakdown in communication may occur.  Also, you must know your audience!  Not everyone is up-to-date on the latest acronyms or uses of this "new" language.

The other problem associated with "online English" is the increased risk of misunderstanding.  When you can not see or hear the person, you may misinterpret their meaning.  We communicate through facial expressions and body language which is lost in the tech talk.

With all the changes that have occurred, and with more technology to come, I wonder what the English language will look like in 15 years?  Will teachers use these new words or acronyms in their curriculum?  It will be interesting to see the long-term affects of social media on the English language. 

Sources:  http://www.google.com/; http://www.mediabadger.com/