MBA Distance YI - Assignment I

This document provides a case study and questions for an MBA course assignment on using social media for business purposes. The case study describes how several companies including Levi's, Best Buy, and Wrigleyville Sports have utilized Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms to engage customers, advertise, conduct market research and provide customer service. While social media can offer advantages like brand building and feedback, it also presents challenges in managing customer interactions and unpredictable outcomes. Companies must carefully consider if and how social media aligns with their business goals and capabilities.

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MBA Distance YI - Assignment I

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Agat

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Addis Ababa University

College of Business and Economics

MBA Program – Distance

Marked Assignment I (20%)

11 May 2019

MODULE: Information Systems for Management – MGMT 641

Brief Assignment Guideline

1. Read and analyze the following case and answer the questions below. (You can find the
case in the Module on Pages 188-191.)

2. Use 4-5 pages (with 12pts font and 1.5 line spacing) for your answers to the case
questions.

3. This assignment will be marked out of 20 points.

Case Study
To most people, Facebook and Twitter are ways to keep in touch with friends and to let them
know what they are doing. For companies of all shapes and sizes, however, Facebook and
Twitter have become powerful tools for engaging customers. Location based businesses like
gourmet food trucks can tweet their current location to loyal followers and fans. Appointment-
based businesses can easily tweet or post cancellations and unexpected openings. Larger
companies run sweepstakes and promotions. And companies of all sizes have an opportunity to
shape the perception of their brands and to solidify relationships with their customers.

Companies are rolling out ads that capitalize on the social media features of Facebook to achieve
greater visibility. For example, many Facebook ads feature the ability to 'Like' a brand, send a
virtual gift, answer a poll question, or instantly stream information to your news feed. Twitter
has developed many new offerings to interested advertisers, like 'Promoted Tweets' and

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'Promoted Tends'. These features give advertisers the ability to have their tweets displayed more
prominently when Twitter users search for certain keywords.

Levi's was one of the first national brands to use Facebook and Twitter to allow consumers to
socialize and share their purchases with friends. The Levi's Facebook page has posted 500,000
Like messages posted by friends sharing their favorite jeans. Within the first week of its share
campaign, Levis received 4,000 Likes. The company began using Twitter in 2010 by creating a
"Levi's Guy," 23-year-old USC graduate Gareth, to interest customers. He has over 6,000
followers and is responsible for responding to queries and engaging in conversations about the
Levi's brand on Twitter. In 2011, the company created a personalized Friends Store where
shoppers can see what their fiends Liked and bought.

The all-purpose electronics retailer Best Buy has 4.6 million fans on Facebook and 200,000
followers on Twitter. Best Buy uses a dedicated team of 'Twitter responders, called the "Twelp
Force," to answer user questions and respond to complaints. Because Best Buy has so many
social media followers who are generating feedback on social networks and related sites, the
company uses text mining to gather these data and convert them to useful information. Best Buy
has a central analytical platform that can analyze any kind of unstructured data it supplies. The
company uses that information to gauge the success of promotions, which products are hot and
which are duds, and the impact of advertising campaigns.

Wrigleyville Sports is a small business with three retail stores and e-commerce sites selling
sports related clothing and novelties like a panini maker that puts the Chicago Cubs logo on your
sandwich. The company has been building a Facebook following for over three years. Facebook
page posts use much of the same content as its e-mail campaigns, but the company's Twitter
campaigns have to be condensed to 140 characters. Some Wrigleyville promotions use all of
these channels while others are more social-specific. For example, in 2011, the company ran a
Mother's Day contest on its Facebook page exhorting visitors to post a picture of Mom
demonstrating why she's the biggest Chicago Cubs fan. Wrigleyville tracks purchases related to
its promotions with its NetSuite customer relationship management system and is able to tell
which promotions yield the most profitable new customers. Wrigleyville knows which customers

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responded, how much they spent, and what they purchased, so it can measure conversion rates,
the value of keyword buys, and the ultimate return on campaigns.

Many companies are running online ads that focus less on pitching their products than on
promoting their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. The ads feature menu tabs and allow
users to click within the ad to see a brand's Twitter messages or Facebook Wall posts in real
time, or to watch a brand's video content from YouTube-all within the Web page where the ad
appears. Incorporating live content from Facebook and Twitter makes online ads appear less
"static" and more current than other content.

For example, a recent online ad for the Mrs. Meyers cleaning brand stating "Clean should smell
better" instructed users to "hover to expand." When a cursor was placed over the ad, it exposed
an area that displayed Facebook Wall posts, Twitter postings about Mrs. Meyers, or a company
video, all without leaving the Webpage being visited. Consumers spent an average of 30 seconds
interacting with the ad, compared to 11seconds for other types of online ads, according to
Google. Consumers were also more likely to click on a “Learn More” button to go to Mrs.
Meyers’ own web site, with 35 of every 1,000 users clicking through, compared with an average
of just one in 1,000 for traditional online ads.

Even if the Facebook or Twitter postings in ads show brands apologizing about missteps or
customer complaints, advertisers may still benefit. Today, the more honest and human
companies appear, the more likely consumers are to like them and stick with them. For example,
JCD Repair, a six-year-old iPhone, iPad, and Android repair business based in Chicago, found
that encouraging customers to post reviews of its service on Facebook, Yelp, and Google+ Local
helped generate more business. Although the vast majority of the reviews are overwhelmingly
positive, Matt McCormick, JCD's owner, believes that even the bad reviews can be useful. Abad
review here and there not only helps you look more credible, it can also give you very valuable
feedback on what you're doing wrong, McCormick believes. It also gives you a chance to set the
situation right with the customer. If you deal with problems swiftly and set things right, people
are impressed.

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Still, the results can be unpredictable, and not always beneficial, as Starbucks learned. Starbucks
runs contests on Twitter regularly and uses the service to spread free product samples. In 2009,
Starbucks launched a social media contest that was essentially a scavenger hunt for advertising
posters. Users who found the posters and posted photos of them on Twitter would win a prize.
The campaign backfired. At the urging of anti-Starbucks protesters, users flooded Starbucks'
Twitter feed with pictures of employees and protesters holding signs criticizing Starbucks' labor
practices.

Case Questions
1. Assess the management, organization, and technology issues for using social media to
engage with customers.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising, brand
building, market research, and customer service?

3. Give some examples of management decisions that were facilitated by using social media
to interact with customers.

4. Should all companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising?
Why or why not? What kinds of companies are best suited to use these platforms?