Social Media Marketing

Nowadays, people come in contact with dozens of forms of advertisement. People’s minds work in a way that only a few very striking and interesting advertisements get their attention. In general, people can remind the brand or the advertisement itself from only one or two of these striking advertising expressions. So why would a company spend tons of money to advertisements which, in the worst case, wouldn’t be recalled by anybody. This is a different way of evaluating advertisements, but in the busy society where people live in these days it is a lot more profitable to reach the target group by using social media. Since the social media revolution is emerging these days it is easier and probably cheaper to get the attention of the people by using social media marketing (SMM).

In this blog I’m going to discuss social media marketing.
The main idea of SMM is the entering into a dialogue or a relation with the target group instead of overwhelming them with lots of advertisements. This can be done by using online communities, forums, blogs or other types of social network to get in touch with “your” people.

The first advantage is that participating or registering in social networks is free. Compared to spending money on advertisements which are only recalled by some people, participating in social networks is advantageous. As mentioned in the beginning of this blog, there is a so called “social media revolution” going on at the internet. Subsequently, the amount of visitors on sites as Facebook, LinkdIn and Twitter is rising in unprecedented quantities. This means that companies can generate brand awareness to (potential) customers all over the internet, only by a “little” time investment. This doesn’t mean that SMM is “just something extra” on companies’ to-do-list. Before starting with the actual SMM-campaign it is essential to create a clear strategy. Identify what the organization needs to achieve with SMM. An example of a strategy is mentioned before in this blog, such as generating more brand awareness or creating better relationships with your customers. These are just some examples of strategies, but there are lots of more to imagine. In order to achieve the goals it is important to do research about the target group. Important questions can be: “Which social network is commonly used by the target group?” and “Which style is the best to approach the target group?”. After doing research companies can actually start with their SMM campaign.

Key point in approaching the target group is to treat them as individual customers. Obviously, important customers are more important than smaller customers. Get to know your customers better in the beginning and try to interact with each other. Significant detail is that the customers want to be understood and they want to get the feeling that the organization is helpful. Customers will respect this and probably/hopefully this results in loyalty. And never forget this thumb rule: “It is better and cheaper to keep your current customers satisfied and loyal, than attracting/finding new customers”.

RFID technology

This blog will give an introduction to the RFID technology which is probably going to be big business in the near future. This blog will discuss what RFID actually is and how it can be used. I will also give some predictions of how RFID will be applied in the future.

What is RFID?
RFID is an abbreviation of Radio Frequency Identification. RFID is a technology which uses radio signals to identify goods and vehicles and perhaps in the future also to identify people and animals. This technology is developed to work more efficient, to guarantee the security and to increase the usability for some products.

How does it work?
A product with a RFID chip can catch radio signals from special devices, so called readers. The chip uses the energy from the radio signal to send information or a message back to this reader. This message contains information about that specific product and is connected to a database where the information can be processed. Every chip in each product contains their own specific product information. Some chips have a bigger reach than others, because they differ in frequency. Obviously, a higher frequency results in a bigger reach.

RFID and people’s privacy
As shown in the short video below, it is for companies in the United States already legal to build RFID chips in for example your shoes, so that it can work as a tracking device. Obviously, the question raises why companies would “follow” us and what the practical benefit is. Using RFID chips in the clothing of people can be very advantageous for crime investigation for example, but the key point is to find the right balance between the privacy of people and the benefits of using RFID for the “ordinary citizens”. It is imaginable that the RFID technology could be very advantageous for our society, but it is obvious that there are some questionable points which need to be investigated.



RFID in the future
As mentioned above, there has to be a lot more investigation about the RFID technology before all objects and living beings have their own chip, but I think it is pretty imaginable that this technology will take the place of a lot of working people with serious consequences. I definitely can see the benefits of RFID, but I doubt the fact that RFID is “the solution”. For example, the RFID technology is going to substitute cashiers by the time that all products in the grocery store have their own chips. It is plausible that in the future every person has their own chip. So when one is going to the grocery store to go shopping, one can fill his basket or cart with the products he needs and while walking out of the store, a device scans what someone just bought. So this device can also “see” what the shop has in store at a certain time and what the supplier needs to bring. At the moment of passing the device which measures your products, money from your chip (which everybody is wearing in their hand or arm) is going to be paid to the grocery store and one is ready to go. This is an example of how RFID is going to substitute cashiers, but I think a lot of people will loose their jobs in the future by the implementing of this technology.

What do you think? Please leave a comment!