First, I must confess that I am no social media lizard. I
use and follow social media every day, but I am active only in a few medias. The
first social media that I started to actively use was Facebook. When I joined
there, it was very popular and most of my friends shared updates and pictures
there often. Nowadays it is not so popular among my friends and I also share
very rarely information there. I am a member in many Facebook groups and that
is the main reason why I still use Facebook. The most important social media
tool for me is Instagram. I like to share pictures and stories there and also
follow many other people. I like pictures and it is also interesting to see real-time
videos. Instagram is owned by Facebook. Instagram has more than one billion
monthly actives and over 500 million daily stories actives. Users can upload pictures
and videos there and edit them with different filters and add hashtags and
other information. Users can like photos and comment them. There is also a
possibility to send messages to other users. (Source Instagram)
When I searched information about social media, I noticed
that there are many social media tools and services that I am not familiar
with. I use YouTube lot, but I haven´t heard about Teacher Tube. Teacher Tube
is based on Youtube and the main idea is the same; video sharing. The
difference is that it is designed for education industry, especially for
teachers. They can share their videos, audios, documents, photos and blogs. Also,
students can share and watch the videos. (Source: Teacher Tube) I got
acquainted with that service and in my opinion, it was quite interesting. Nowadays
learning through social media in also appreciated in Finland, so I could
imagine this could be one way. I don´t know if this channel in used in Finland,
but I believe that probably not so much. I didn´t find any Finnish videos.
Instagram is very popular marketing channel and it is very
important for companies to be part of that. Companies can for example show their
products and services there and arrange competitions. A very good idea is also
share stories. Instagram arranges different kind of trainings which can be useful
for companies. Instagram also offers other services (against fee). Those are
for example stories ads and collection ads. It is also possible to promote
pictures you have shared in Instagram. With the help of Instagram people can
also reach their target customers. I have also noticed that many companies use
bloggers and other social media influencers. Many consumers rely on others
opinion and especially if that is a famous blogger or influencer. I have heard
many stories that products they have told about have ran out almost immediately.
I get acquainted with
different Instagram success stories and there were many of them. It seems that
many companies can market only via Social media services and tools. One example
was from Natasha St Michael who got over 13 000 new followers in just for
months. She is an entrepreneur who has created Instagram account @theclearskinnessentials.
She went to an Instagram course that helped her a lot, she for example learned
lot about target marketing. She got a lot of new followers and that also
affected positively her website traffic and email subscribers. She also got
some very valuable professional connections with the help of Instagram. (Source:
Alex Tooby) Another example comes from fitness company Orange Theory which is
currently one of the top growing franchises in the world. In their Instagram
they asked their members to share their success workout stories and pictures in
their personal Instagram under certain hashtag. That way they used their
existing customers to promote their products and services. That is very efficient
way to market. (Source: eCliencher). One interesting and great success story is
from Watch Anish. He has spent no money on traditional advertising and nowadays
he has over 1,7 million followers in Instagram. He has been very active on Instagram,
comment and liked many pictures. He has also paid lot attention in building a
good Instagram feed with stunning pictures. (Source: Forbes). All these success
stories have similarities and they all benefit the one that created that
Instagram account but also many other companies they do business with. These
examples also show that there are many ways to be successful in Instagram and many
ways to market.
I also found information about social media using on the field
of my work. Currently, I am working in a company that makes packaging material.
In that field I got acquainted to Snellman´s Instagram account. That company is
established in Pietarsaari, Finland. Their Instagram account is very “cozy” and
they share real pictures and don´t use filters. You can still realise that they
are not aiming to international markets only, because their Instagram account
is only in Finnish and Swedish. Stora Enso is in Instagram with the account @Stora
Enso World. The account is managed by different worker in every week That way
the follower gets acquainted with different work tasks and positions. (Source: Instagram).
That is quite nice idea and adds personality. The account is kept in English,
which is a good thing. I searched on purpose Finnish companies accounts,
because sometimes it feels that some Finnish companies are behind in social media
using. These both companies have nice accounts, but pull factor is still
missing. Nowadays you drown easily to crowd in social media if you don´t find
the way how to stand out. Sadly, only the good product it is not enough, there
need to be much more.
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